Garden and Landscaping Berry Basics

Garden and Landscaping Berry Basics

A little duckling explores the strawberry blossoms.

By Richard Zondag

( SPONSORED CONTENT)— Who can resist the taste of sweet, juicy strawberries plucked fresh from the plant on a warm, sunny day?

There is no doubt that strawberries are a summertime favorite. With some planning and care, you can establish and maintain a strawberry patch that provides years of enjoyment.

Strawberry Varieties

Your first task is to select what strawberry varieties to grow. Buy your plants in bundles of dormant roots from a trusted company to guarantee they are vigorous and free from disease.

There are three types of strawberries:

• June-bearing varieties are the most popular, producing one large crop in late spring or early summer. Flower buds are initiated during the fall when the day length is shorter and remain dormant until the following spring. Popular varieties include Cabot, Earliglow, Honeoye and Jewel.

• Everbearing varieties produce a light crop in fall and a second crop in late spring or early summer. All the plants’ flower buds are initiated in the fall, some of which will produce fruit during that season, and the rest stay dormant in the crown and will produce a second crop the following spring. Popular varieties include Albion, Fort Laramie and Ozark Beauty.

• Day-neutral varieties typically produce fruit from summer into fall and are often grown in containers. They are not sensitive to day length, so they flower and fruit continuously from July to October or until the first killing frost. Popular varieties include Evie-2 and Seascape.

Location Preparation

Next, choose and prepare your planting site. Before planting your strawberry bed, remove all perennial weeds and grasses from the area. Failure to do so will make weed control after planting much more difficult.

Planting Your Strawberries

The traditional planting method is to plant the dormant roots directly into the soil in spring when the soil is warm enough to work. However, I prefer to plant them in pots and allow them to grow indoors for three to four weeks before planting them out after the danger of frost has

passed. This gets the leaves and the roots actively growing before they are planted in the garden. With both methods, apply a high-phosphorus, water-soluble fertilizer like Jung Jump-Start Strawberry Food at planting time.

Blossom Removal

Regardless of whether you plant your strawberries directly into the soil or start them indoors, you’ ll notice the plants will begin to flower within a few weeks. Although it’ s tempting to let them flower and produce fruit, the blossoms should be removed. If you allow them to go to fruit, they will use the energy that the plants need to establish the roots and leaves. Begin harvesting June-bearing varieties the following spring. Spring-planted everbearing varieties will produce their first harvestable crop in the fall of the same year.

Day-neutral strawberries are the exception. You should remove blossoms from plants started indoors until they are planted in the garden. At that point, the plants should be left to flower and fruit until the end of the growing season.

Fall Fertilization

After flowering, strawberry plants produce runners that will root and develop new plants. This is an excellent time to apply a 10-10-10 fertilizer to encourage new growth. Continue fertilizing the plants every three to four weeks until mid-August.

Winter Protection

In northern states, winter protection is necessary to preserve next year’ s crop. Cover the plants with straw or mulch around Thanksgiving when the soil is cold.

Now is the perfect time to order your strawberry plants for spring planting. In no time, you’ ll be harvesting berries for fresh eating, baking, freezing and making jams and jellies.

About the Author:

Richard Zondag is a horticulturist, master gardener and the owner of Jung Seed Co.

12 AcreageLife March 2025 AcreageLife. com

AcreageLife. com March 2025 AcreageLife 13