Strawberries in the Home Garden
By Mary Strayer
Master Gardener  Erie County, Ohio

Nothing is more pleasing to strawberry lovers than having them in their own gardens and eating them fresh! This year consider planting your favorite variety. The berries themselves look beautiful when they are ripe, and dark bright red lying between their saw-toothed edged leaves. Many cultivars are well suited for freezing and processing into jellies, or pies. Many people enjoy fresh strawberries chopped up over ice cream or angel food cake. In addition, strawberries contain a natural substance called ellagic acid, which is really an anti-carcinogenic compound.

Strawberries come in two types, June-bearers and Day-neutral types. June-bearing plants produce a full crop the season after planting. In our Zone 5, the ripening season of June-bearing strawberry cultivars ranges from late May to the end of June. Day-neutral type strawberries differ in that they produce a full crop the season they are planted. June-bearing types are most popular, and are worth the wait. You cannot tell which type of berry you are purchasing by looking at the plants, so you must ask, or specify the type you wish to purchase.

Cultivar selection is also very important. You must first decide what you want to use the berries for, freezing or eating fresh, before you make your selection.

Strawberry plants require full sun, for maximum yield and best quality. They will grow and produce in several different types of soil. They do like loose, fertile soil, containing large quantities of organic matter. Have your soil tested, and be sure the planting spot for the strawberries is slightly acidic, having a pH of 5.8-6.5. You should contact the OSU Extension office for information about testing in this area.

Straw berry plants are sensitive to excessive soil moisture, and it helps to plant them in raised beds, so you can control the moisture. Also, avoid planting them where potatoes and tomatoes have grown recently, as insect and disease damage can result in serious plant damage in such areas.

Early spring is the best time to plant strawberry plants as long as the soil is not too wet. When planting make sure to cover the roots and only half of the crown with soil. Make a trench deep enough to set roots vertically; do not bend roots horizontally. Place the plants 12-24 inches apart. If your space is limited, remove runners you don’t want. Runners are the baby plants the mother plant sends out on a stem from the crown of the plant. These babies land on soil and root, making a new plant.

It is helpful to put the rows 48" apart so you can spread mulch between the rows, thus giving you room to weed and work within the strawberry bed. Many people use wood chips or straw to mulch between the rows.

Test your soil every 2 years, to keep yields high. It is recommended that you remove blossoms from the day-neutral strawberries for the first 6 weeks after planting. For the June bearing strawberries, it is recommended that you remove the blossoms for the first year after planting, to give the ‘mother’ plants time to set roots and mature. This is hard to do but worth it in the long run.

Most strawberries will give fruit for 3 seasons, but after that they loose vigor, and need to be replaced. Many times we have simply removed the ‘mother’ or first plants, and left the new ‘baby’ plants for the next year. But if the entire bed is deteriorated, simply remove all plants, and start over with a soil test.

If you are just getting ready for winter, protect your bed by mulching the entire bed. Apply straw that is free of weeds two or three inches deep over the plants. This is usually done between November 15, and no later than De c. 15. This helps protect from freezing and thawing which causes heaving of the plants, exposing the roots to damage.

Don’t forget to get the mulch off the beds in early spring, before there is a chance of leaf yellowing, and can make a difference between a great crop and no crop at all. Happy Gardening!