A ripe strawberry, warm from the sun and plucked right from the plant, is an entirely different experience from the hard, half-ripe fruits found at the grocery store. Garden-grown strawberries are relatively simple to grow and harvest, delicious, and easily processed and stored if you happen to have trouble eating them all fresh. 

Choosing Spring-bearing vs Everbearing Strawberries

When shopping for strawberries, you will see two descriptors: spring-bearing, also called June-bearing, and everbearing. The terms refer to when the fruits are produced, and also identify something about the growth habit of each type of strawberry plant.

Yields are typically heavier with June-bearing varieties, but everbearing varieties will fruit for a longer period of time.

June-bearing or spring-bearing

As it sounds, these strawberries produce one major crop in late spring or early summer. June-bearing strawberries set their flower buds in the fall, as the weather cools and the nights get longer. In spring, they flower from these buds and produce fruit. Depending on where you live, the fruit may be ripe anywhere from late April until late June. 

After fruiting, the plants concentrate on vegetative growth, sending out many runners during the summer before creating next year’s flower buds in fall.

Currently, we offer four spring-bearing strawberry varieties: Chandler, Cardinal, Sweet Charlie, and Earliglow. 

Everbearing strawberries

Everbearing strawberries don’t continuously produce fruit like an indeterminate tomato, but they do produce more than one crop. Usually, these plants produce a late spring or early summer crop like the spring-bearing varieties, and then another crop in late summer. 

Everbearing varieties typically produce fewer runners than spring-bearing types. Our everbearing strawberry offerings include Ozark Beauty and Eversweet. 

Site preparation for strawberries

You’ll need a sunny spot with at least 6 hours of sunlight per day, though 8-10 is better. No matter if they are in the ground or in a hanging basket, good drainage and even moisture are key. 

Strawberries thrive in loose, fertile soil with plenty of organic matter (compost) and a slightly acidic pH. If your soil grows vegetables well, it is probably fine for strawberries.

When choosing a site, avoid planting strawberries in the same spot where you have grown peppers, potatoes, or tomatoes in recent years to reduce the risk of disease. 

In-ground strawberry beds

Pay close attention to drainage when selecting a spot for a strawberry patch in the garden or yard. Avoid areas that typically hold water after a rain. Low spots in your yard can also be frost pockets.

Work some compost into the top six inches of soil when preparing a strawberry bed, and plan how the irrigation lines will run.

Raised beds for strawberries

Raised beds are great for areas with heavy soil and drainage issues, and they can help keep strawberry runners under control. Use high-quality soil and amend it with compost to improve structure, drainage, and nutrient-holding capacity. 

Growing strawberries in containers or towers

Strawberries grow well in containers, including hanging baskets and window boxes. The strawberry tower is a compact way to grow more strawberry plants in less horizontal space, stacking the containers up vertically to provide several levels of strawberry goodness. 

Choose containers with good drainage, and fill them with a high-quality potting mix, not with garden soil. Make sure the containers will receive full sunshine, and that you’ll be able to access them for watering and picking. Everbearing strawberries are a common choice for container planting because they produce fewer runners and can be allowed to fruit their first year.

How to plant live strawberry plants

Unpack live strawberry plants as soon as they arrive, even if you aren’t ready to plant them immediately. Keep the roots damp, and if you must wait a few days, keep them cool. A refrigerator can work well. Don’t worry if they don’t look very perky yet. They’re shipped dormant and will wake up quickly once planted.

On planting day, soak the roots in water for about an hour prior to planting. Don’t let them dry out as you work; keep them moist in a small bucket with an inch or two of water in the bottom.

Crown depth

Live strawberry plants have a crown, and when planting, it’s important to get the crown at the right depth. The crown is the thicker part with roots coming out of the bottom and new shoots growing out of the top. Think of it as a junction box between the roots and the stems. The center or middle of the crown should be at the soil line, with all the roots buried but the growing points above ground. 

Water newly planted strawberries well, giving them about an inch of water. Strawberries have shallow root systems, and the top layers of soil can dry out much more quickly than those deeper down. 

If using drip irrigation, lay out the lines after planting, then apply a thick layer of mulch. As their name implies, straw works well. Shredded leaves and pine straw are also good choices.

Spacing for strawberries

Spacing varies depending on the variety and location. Spring-bearing varieties will runner and fill in a space much more effectively than everbearing varieties. 

Planting in the ground or in raised beds, plant spring-bearing varieties 12-24 inches between individual plants. In a typical raised bed, two long rows work well. For traditional in-ground plantings, a double row of plants spaced 3-4 feet between row centers, or a single row of plants spaced 3 feet between rows, works well. 

Everbearing varieties can be planted closer together, usually 12-18 inches apart. 

Caring for strawberry plants during the growing season

Strawberries are easy to grow at home, but for the best yields and healthy plants, they do require a bit of minor care, mainly weeding, watering during dry periods, and a couple of  fertilizer applications.

Fertilizing strawberries

Strawberries do best with supplemental fertilizing, even in fertile soils. A general-purpose balanced fertilizer like a 10-10-10 works well for home gardeners. Follow the application rate on the label. For spring-bearing varieties, one application in spring as the new growth begins and another during post-harvest renovation (see below) works well. In very sandy soils, or for everbearing strawberries, try a lighter application monthly instead.

Watering

Strawberry plants have shallow root systems and often need supplemental watering. About an inch of water per week, whether from rainfall or from irrigation, is sufficient in most soils. Sandy sites may need 1.5-2 inches per week. Check the soil moisture with your finger by sticking it in and feeling the moisture half a finger deep. If it feels dry, it’s time to water.

First-year care for strawberry plants

We all want instant strawberry harvests, but for the health of the patch, it’s important to wait. Spring-bearing strawberry plants should have all their flowers nipped off in their first year after planting to avoid the stress of fruiting on the plant. Removing the flowers lets the plant concentrate on building a good foundation for heavy yields in the future. 

For everbearing plants, remove the flowers from the first spring flush of blooms. Once midsummer arrives, new flower buds can be allowed to remain and fruit.

Harvesting Strawberries 

If you haven’t harvested home-grown strawberries before, you might wonder when they’re ready. The answer is simple: they’ll turn brilliant red all the way from their tips to the top, even under the leaves. Strawberries won’t continue to ripen after they’re picked, so wait to pick each berry until it is fully red. 

Pick berries in the morning after the dew has dried. Keep the caps (the stem and the little tuft of leaves on the top of the berry) intact. Removing it will greatly decrease the shelf life of the strawberry. Don’t wash them until you’re ready to use them.

Not all berries on a plant will be ripe at once, even on June-bearing varieties. Once harvest starts, you’ll need to check daily or at least every other day, picking strawberries as they ripen. If you aren’t eating them fresh immediately, it’s important to get them into the cooler or refrigerate them soon after picking. 

Post-Harvest Strawberry Plant Care

Making large strawberries is hard work, and the plants will need proper care afterward to be ready for next year. If you wish to keep your strawberry plants as perennials, you’ll need to renovate and mulch them properly to keep their vigor top-notch. While skipping the renovation doesn’t mean the end of your patch, I can attest that when I forget to do this, my yields the next year are lower, and my patch is an unruly mess.

Renovation for spring-bearing strawberry patches

Renovation is really a term for thinning out some of the runners and plants, keeping the rows from becoming too congested and causing problems. June-bearing strawberries are particularly problematic in that they send out so many runners they can easily crowd themselves, spread to unwanted places, and close in the rows so you can’t walk between them anymore.

Start right after your harvest has finished. Using a shovel or cultivator, narrow the rows back to about 12 inches wide, removing runners and daughter plants in the aisles. Thin within the row by cutting out plants until there is only about one plant per 4 inches, or three plants per foot. Always choose to keep the strongest plants.

Here’s the hard part to do. Mow the leaves off. I know, it sounds wrong. Clip or mow the leaves about 2-3 inches high or an inch above the crown, taking care not to damage the crowns. The old leaves are often less photosynthetically efficient and may be harboring leaf diseases like leaf spot, scorch, or mites. Mowing these off breaks the disease cycle.  The plants will quickly put out new, healthy, green foliage. Immediately after mowing, apply the post-harvest fertilizer treatment discussed above. 

Overwintering Strawberry Plants

They’re not called strawberries for nothing. For best results, even hardy varieties need some overwinter mulch to protect their shallow roots from cold and frost heaving. 

Weed-free straw (oat, wheat, salt hay) or pine straw works well. Apply a layer 3-4 inches deep over the plants after the first few autumn frosts. Take care to apply the mulch evenly and avoid clumps and thin spots. In early spring, remove the mulch, raking it into the aisles to serve as a weed barrier and keep the berries clean later on. Your berries will be ready for another year.