Growing Strawberries

Apart from one cup of strawberries supplying more than the RDA of vitamin C for an adult for a day, they’re easy to grow, they don’t need replacing each year, they reproduce and they’re so versatile in what you can do with them. Growing strawberries is a bit of a no brainer really. The question should be why would you not want to grow strawberries?

There are some guidelines to help you get the most out of your crop, and when you’re growing strawberries just try to remember these:-

Guidelines For Growing Strawberries

When growing strawberries, remember that they like the sun. If they’re in the shade, the ground tends to be too wet and the damp air makes it very easy for mildew and disease to become a problem. Strawberry plants growing in the shade will produce lots of greenery, but not a lot of fruit. (That’s NO GOOD!)

Equally, they do need sufficient water. The make up of each strawberry is mostly water based content; too little water means not a lot, and poor quality fruit. It may be useful to set up some kind of irrigation system for regular watering, perhaps on a timer?

When growing strawberries, they like to have the soil with a ph of 6-6.5. It’s easy to test this. Little test kits are available at gardening and diy stores very cheaply.

Try to avoid planting your strawberries in low lying pockets of ground. Late frosts tend to settle in these low lying patches and your strawberries may well pay the price.

My strawberry patch is in a raised bed. It helps with the weeding, watering, and making sure the soil is kept at the right consistency. Naturally, our area is a fairly heavy clay. In the raised bed, we’ve been able to change the consistency by adding gritty sand and lots of fibre from the compost heap.

Don’t grow your strawberries where any kind of berries, tomatoes, potatoes or peppers have just come out of. This is to help avoid your strawberries picking up any disease left behind.

Growing Strawberries-Choosing varieties

When it comes to growing strawberries, it makes sense to choose different varieties. The reasons for this are simple.

If, for example you have a disease problem with one variety, another variety growing alongside, may have better resistance to the pest and it may be that you don’t lose the whole crop.

By choosing different varieties, if done properly, you can spread your strawberry season over as long a period as possible. It is possible for you to have your strawberries fruiting from early may until the autumn.

Make sure you choose strawberries that you will like. Some people like very sweet berries, other like something a bit sharper.

Strawberries will grow in different climates, but certain varieties are designed to cope better with different climates. It’s important when growing strawberries that you choose varieties that can cope with the climate in which you live.

Before you start planting your strawberries, make sure that, irrelevant of the types and varieties that you choose, you only plant healthy, virus free plants. If you order your plants online or in advance, make sure that you know when they will be delivered so you can have the site ready for planting as soon as they arrive.

Growing Strawberries in beds

The site for growing strawberries, as you would expect, needs to be nicely worked and weed free. The beds needs to be narrow enough for easy reaching from both sides for picking and weeding, and no more than 3 feet wide.

Several weeks before the strawberry plants go in, you can dig in some compost or well rotted horse manure to help provide a boost in nutrients which really will pay rewards.

Two to three weeks before planting the strawberries, mix in any necessary fertilizer and lime to correct the ph of the soil. Allow rainfall, or sprinklers to settle the bed before planting.

Then you’re ready to go.

There will be a follow up article to cover the details of growing and harvesting, so please check back. Meanwhile, get planning as to where you're going to plant those little red gems!