Planting Strawberries

Yummy!

Last week we were in a fairly severe drought with high risk of fires from hot, dry and windy conditions.  This week, it is wet and soggy everywhere and many parts of the state are experiencing flooding from the heavy rains of the last few days.  I have a hard time ever complaining about rain, though.  I'm not sure there is such a thing as too much rain in North Dakota - the old saying "Even on its wettest day, North Dakota is only two hot, windy days away from a drought" rings too true.

Unfortunately, I didn't get all my seeds planted before the rain came, but I can live with that because we needed the rain that badly.  Last week, I tilled an area to plant some new strawberry and raspberry starts.  By the time I was done tilling, I think I'd inhaled enough dust to start a garden in my lungs.  Now, my new berries should get a good start with warmer weather and refreshing rain.

Strawberry plantlet formed along stolons

I've grown strawberries for several years but it was time for some new plants.  Strawberry beds need to be reujuvenated every three years or so.  The plants may still look healthy after that time, but they stop producing the quantity and the quality of fruits that they should.  You don't necessarily need to invest in new plants every two years, though.   The new plantlets that form along the stolons or runners can be gently snipped from the parent plant and transplanted to a fresh location. 

When rejuvenating your strawberry beds with the plantlets, you simply take the freed plantlet and set it gently into a soft part of the soil.  There may already be tiny roots forming at the base of the plantlet that can be gently covered with soil, watered in, and left to grow.  If you do not need to move your strawberry bed to a new location, you can simply tap the bottom of the plantlet down into the soil and let them grow.

If you are planting in a new location, starting with the proper conditions will lead to much greater success.  Strawberries need full sun - six to eight hours of bright, direct sunlight each day.  They also require well drained soil.  You should stay away from locations where you've recently grown strawberries, tomatoes, peppers or eggplants, as these all harbor the same diseases that can decimate your strawberry bed.

Choosing a strawberry that does well in your location is also important.  The local University extension services usually have good information as to which varieties have done well in trials for a variety of conditions. 

There are three types of strawberries which bear different quantities and sizes of berries at different times.  Day-neutral varieites are those that don't care about the length of the day and produce fruit and plantlets the entire time that temperatures stay between 35 and 85 degrees.  While they produce for a long period of time, the berries are smaller and fewer than other types of berries.  They will begin producing their first year of planting, which is a real plus for an impatient gardener like me.

Everbearing strawberries aren't really "ever" bearing.  They usually produce a harvest in the spring and then again in the late summer to fall.  The buds they produce in early summer produce fruits in the later summer and fall.  Buds produced in late summer and fall will produce the next season's earliest fruits, so while all strawberries benefit from winter mulching in cold climates, it is a must with these to protect your early crop of the following year.  Even though the plant is hardy to zone 3 in most varieties, that bud that will produce the next season's crops is vulnerable to freeze damage that will keep it from producing the next year.  You may get a small late summer / fall crop from these the first year they are planted, but their most prolific year will be the year after planting.

June-bearing strawberries set their buds in the fall, then produce flowers and fruits for a short time the following spring, usually in the month of June.  They stop producing after that flush of berries and put their energy into producing stolons and plantlets for the rest of the summer.  It is necessary to mulch these in cold climates, also.  June-bearing strawberries generally produce larger berries prolifically for their short production time.  They will usually not produce berries their first year of planting.

Once you've decided on the type of strawberry plants, you'll need to decide which veriety to plant.  Day neutral and everbearing are sometimes used interchangeably.  They are different varieties but are probably close enough in growth and production characteristics that for most gardeners, either term works.  For day-neutral / everbearing strawberries, I've found Mara De Bois,  Evie 2, Tristar, Seascape, Quinalt, Ogalla and Fort Laramie are good strong varieties in my garden.  Of these, Mara De Bois is perhaps my favorite.  The berries are small but the flavor is like an explosion in your mouth - they are sweet, intensely strawberry flavored and scented.  Earliglow, Annapolis, and Honeoye are my best producing june-bearers.

Your new plants will either come potted or bareroot.  They should be planted as early in the spring as possible, in a planting hole wide and deep enough so that the roots can be contained in it without being cramped or bent.  Sometimes bareroot strawberries come with humongous lengths of root - these should be trimmed back to about eight inches or so long.  The roots should be fully covered but the crown of the strawberry plant should be right at the soil surface. 

Strawberries love to crawl along the soil surface, so they need plenty of room to do that.  Plants should be placed about 12 to 15 inches apart in rows that are spaced three to four feet apart.  The strawberry bed will look pretty sparse at first, but given room to sprawl, that is exactly what strawberries will do.

Once they are planted, they need to be watered in well and kept evenly moist.  We'll talk more about caring for your strawberry bed in the next blog installment.