Strawberries

Strawberries

Growing strawberries at home is easier than you might think, and with the right care, you’ll be rewarded with sweet, fresh berries right from your garden. Follow these simple steps to prepare your soil, plant, and care for your strawberries so they’ll thrive and keep producing year after year.

  • Step 1: Prepare the soil. Spread T&C Soil Enhancer 1 to 3 inches deep on soil. Sprinkle 1 to 3 lbs. of soil sulfur per 100 sq. ft. Spade or rototill into soil.
  • Step 2: Plant in a sunny area. Strawberries do best with at least 6 hours of sun. Plant 12 to 18 inches apart, just deep enough to cover all the roots, but no deeper.
  • Step 3: Water. Water in with Fertilome Root Stimulator solution (according to directions on bottle). Thereafter water with plain water when soil surface is dry.
  • Step 4: Feed monthly. Feed your plants monthly with Save-A-Tree or T&C Fruit & Flower Food. It is a good idea to apply Soil Sulfur to the bed each year to keep the leaves from yellowing.
  • Step 5: Enjoy your harvest. Strawberries produce fruit their first year! Everbearers produce all summer, but heaviest in early summer and early fall. June-bearers produce only in June, which makes them good for making jam.

  • Aftercare: If birds become a problem cover with bird netting (available at Town & Country) and anchor the edges with boards, rocks, or stakes. Also, Strawberries produce best on one-and two-year-old plants, so always allow some runners to root into new plants and remove the oldest plants each year.

Strawberry Varieties

Day Neutral:
Everbearing type that produces all summer long.

Albion (Zone 4) Large symmetrical berries have intense red color inside and out. Beautiful appearance. Exceptionally sweet taste. Excellent disease resistance. Everbearing. Very heavy yields. UC Davis 2006.

Eversweet (Zone 5) This everbearing plant produces sweet long cone-shaped strawberries. It will continue producing even when temperatures exceed 90ºF. Excellent for patio pots too.

Seascape (Zone 4) Everbearing variety with high yields and very large fruit. Peak production in late summer. Attractive berries have an excellent flavor. Highly tolerant of many virus and diseases. UC Davis 1991.

Everbearing:
Produce mainly in early summer and early fall

Ft. Laramie (Zone 3) This super-hardy strawberry withstands the coldest high elevation climates without protection. Prolific runners make it good in hanging baskets too. Large crops of medium size berries. Wyoming 1973.

Ozark Beauty (Zone 4) Popular variety for over 60 years. Large delicious berries with sugar-sweet taste and juicy texture. Large crops of irresistible fresh fruit! Developed in Arkansas in 1955.

Quinalt (Zone 4) Large soft deliciously sweet fruit ideal for preserves or fresh eating. Produces strawberries on unrooted runners making it a good choice for hanging baskets. Developed at Washington State University.

June Bearing:
Produce heavily for two weeks only during June. Great for making preserves

All Star (Zone 4) These large, firm, glossy red berries with exceptional sweetness. These vigorous, disease-resistant plants are ideal for fresh consumption, preserving, and freezing. Developed by the University of Maryland in 1981, Allstar strawberries are well-suited for home gardeners and commercial growers alike.

Jewel (Zone 5) Developed by Cornell AgriTech in 1985, are a midseason variety that ripen in June. They produce large, firm, wedge-shaped fruit with excellent flavor and aroma, making them ideal for fresh eating, pies, jams, and jellies. Jewel strawberries are also known for their cold hardiness and disease resistance.

Note: For June bearing varieties a winter mulch is needed to ensure a large crop, as the flower bud start forming in the fall and can succumb to winter injury.

Note on pollinating: All strawberries are self-pollinating, meaning you only need one plant to produce fruit. Each plant will produce 1 to 2 pints per season.