Growing Strawberries is easy. Just follow these simple steps and you will be on your way to delicious eating.
Strawberries are the perfect summer fruit, and there are varieties to suit all tastes. They make excellent pot plants, so you can grow them on a patio, as well as in a vegetable plot. Strawberries are a popular fruit that is quick to grow and crop. You can be picking your first fruit within a year of planting, however, they are not without their problems. They are prone to a number of soil pests and diseases. These tend to build up over the years, and eventually the plants get affected by viruses. To get around this, strawberries are often grown in a bed for three or four years, which is then cleared and a new bed started somewhere else. Such a regime fits in very well with a three to four year crop rotation in a vegetable garden.
An alternative to this, would be growing strawberries in containers. Although yields are not high, they make good container plants, and the fruit is often top quality since it is held off the ground. Strawberry planters with planting holes in the sides are available, but if you find these time-consuming to plant up and water, try some ordinary pots instead.
Strawberries like a sunny site in a moist bit well-drained soil. Most soils are suitable, as long as you dig in plenty of well-rotted organic matter a month or so before planting. It is also important to plant in soil that has been thoroughly weeded. Strawberry plants are low-growing, so weeding after planting is difficult. Strawberries are one of the few soft fruits that can cope with windy site, but avoid ground where frost is slow to clear.
Type of Strawberries
It is well worth buying pot-grown plants from garden centers or plants that are grown in modules from mail-order seed companies or fruit specialists, rather than relying on propagating runners year after year. Viruses can also build up in the young plants. When it comes to varieties, there is plenty of choice, with new types being promoted each year. They are usually one of several standard types. Summer-fruiting strawberries are the largest group and include early and later varieties. For the first fruits under glass, choose a very early variety. This group includes heavy croppers used for making jam.
Perpetuals are so called because they crop over a long period, usually midsummer to fall. However, the yields at any one time are not large, and these plants will often produce their best crops in the first year. Alpines are strains of the small wild strawberry and are not available in stores because they do not travel well. However, they are pretty plants, and the fruits have plenty of flavor and perfume. They produce masses of small fruits and small white flowers. They make an attractive edging to a fruit or wild garden and tolerate shade. Alpines are usually grown from seed.
