How to Grow Strawberries: Expert Guide to Growing Strawberries

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If you want to know how to grow strawberries, you’ve come to the right place! We love those ridiculously tasty berries and grow hundreds of plants each year. Our strawberry growing guide helps you choose the right type and variety of strawberry plant, know when to plant strawberries (Hint: early spring), and help your plants mature and produce fruit by the punnet-full!

This strawberry growing hub walks you through the best way to plant strawberries, protect them from pests naturally, inhibit the growth of weed seeds, effectively companion planting them, and how to harvest and store the ripe fruit.

Why would you bother to grow strawberries? It’s pretty simple: Strawberries are one of the notorious Dirty Dozen, containing an alarming amount of chemical residue from all the crap that’s sprayed on them while they grow. When you grow them yourself, there’s no nasty chemicals involved. Not a toxic pesticide or herbicide in sight. This means that you’re not eating traces of these toxins, and you’re not poisoning the environment and killing off bees and other essential pollinators.

Aside from the ethical and health implications, growing strawberries saves you a lot of money. Store-bought strawberries cost a huge amount compared to home-grown ones. Remember, strawberries are perennials, so they’ll bear fruit year after year if you look after them.

And then there’s flavor. No store-bought strawberry will ever taste anything like a freshly picked one from your garden. When you pick the ripe fruit from the plant, the flavor is sweet and intense, compared with the washed out taste of store-bought ones.

When to Grow Strawberries

Strawberries are perennial plants meaning that they will come back year after year. Plus, as they are hardy in zones 3 through 10, they can be grown in most temperate regions with little problem. This means that many varieties can be harvested from spring right until the first frost.

The ideal time to plant strawberries is after the threat of frost in early spring, which is usually in March or April. If you’re in a colder region, you can plant a little later, but for most, planting in the summer becomes problematic as the heat creates stress for plants.

If you have a green house, you can grow year-round, but you’ll still have best results planting young plants in early spring.

Where to Grow Strawberries

Strawberries grow best out of the wind, with full sun in a well-drained, sandy loam soil with a slightly acidic pH of between 5.8 and 6.2. The majority of strawberries aren’t tolerant of extremes in pH – lower than 5.5 or higher than 7.0 – so you should test your soil well in advance of planting to give you time to make necessary adjustments. 

Your chosen site should be free of perennial weeds – like dandelion or couch grass – as they are hard to get rid of once your strawberries are planted. 

A previously cultivated site is preferred to a new one unless it has been used previously to plant tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, potatoes, or strawberries, as they can leave diseases in the soil that may infect your strawberries.

You can also plant strawberries in containers (this is a good option to use), as long as there is sufficient drainage and a high concentration of organic matter in the growing medium. More on that later.

Best Strawberry Varieties to Plant

Unless you’re a strawberry expert, you’re probably not aware that there are many different types of strawberries, each with its own benefits and properties. There are three main types of strawberries: June-bearing, everbearing, and day-neutral. Here is a little more information about each type:

June-Bearing Strawberries

June-bearing strawberries are the most commonly grown type. They tend to have the largest fruit, but you’ll only get the one crop over a few weeks, in you guessed it, June. 

June-bearing plants are day-length sensitive, producing buds in the autumn, flowers, and fruits in the following June, and runners – the above-ground stems that take root and grow new plants – during the long days at the height of summer. 

If you want a big quantity of large strawberries and don’t mind freezing some fruits to avoid waste, the June-bearing plants are the variety for you.

Everbearing Strawberries

Although they usually produce smaller fruit than June-bearers, everbearing strawberry plants produce several crops, with a large harvest early in the year and a smaller crop late in the season, with a few berries in between.

Everbearing strawberry plants form buds in summer, which fruit in the autumn, plus autumn buds that form fruit the following spring. To get the best possible harvest, runners should be pinched off, but this prevention of regeneration could lead to a drop in fruit production after a couple of seasons, so allow your everbearing strawberry plants to produce runners to replace old plants every two or three years.

Day-neutral Strawberries

Daybearers, or day neutral strawberries, also produce smaller and less fruit than June-bearing varieties, but you will get strawberries throughout the year, right up until the first frost. Therefore, day neutral strawberries produce buds, fruits, and runners throughout the growing season.

Insensitive to day length, day-neutral varieties are instead sensitive to temperate. They will thrive as long as the temperature remains between 35° and 85°F. If you live in an area with warmer summers, you’re likely to have a harvest period similar to everbearing varieties.

If you want a regular supply of strawberries over the growing months and don’t mind smaller fruits, a day-neutral variety is a good choice for you. 

Easy Strawberry Varieties to Grow at Home

Now you know the three main types of strawberries, you’re ready to start choosing your variety. Here is a selection of our favorite strawberries for the home grower, with all the information you need to pick the right variety for your outside space.

Fragaria Vesca

Native to the Northern Hemisphere, this everbearing variety is also known as the European strawberry, alpine strawberry, and the woodland strawberry.

They produce more fruit when allowed ample space, making them the perfect variety for growing in large pots. They grow best in full sun, producing fruits that while small, are large on taste and yield.

Earliglow Strawberries

A great variety for beginners, the Earliglow is easy to grow and is resistant to several strawberry pests including Verticillium wilt and red stele.

This is a June-bearing variety that tends to fruit earlier in the season with a bountiful yield of top-quality fruits. They grow best in full sun, producing glossy, firm, and very sweet berries.

Jewel Strawberries

This June-bearing variety has moderate winter hardiness, but it can be susceptible to several strawberry pests, including leaf spot, Verticillium wilt, red stele, and black root rot. 

That being said, the Jewel strawberry consistently produces good yields of large fruits, which are easy to pick and look beautiful. They taste great when eaten fresh, they freeze well and resist rotting in storage.

Tristar Strawberries

This day-neutral variety is very well-suited for hanging baskets, making it a great choice if you have limited outside space.

The cold-hardy plant will produce firm, medium-sized, and sweet fruits throughout the growing season, with the largest harvest in the autumn.

Strawberry Variety Comparison Table

Take a look at our comparison table, which should help you make a better decision about which variety of strawberry is best for you. They have been rated from 1 (poor) to 3 (excellent).

Variety	Yield	Berry Size	Freezing Quality	Red Stele Resistance	V. wit Resistance	Cold Hardiness
F. vesca	2	1	3	2	2	3
Earliglow	2	2	3	3	2	2
Jewel	2	3	3	1	1	3
Tristar	3	1	2	3	3	2

Should I Grow Strawberry Plants or Seeds?

So you’ve chosen your variety of strawberries, now you need to decide how you are going to grow them. There are two main ways – growing from plants or seeds. Planting strawberries from starts, or bare root plants, is easier than trying to plant strawberries from seed, so most people go this route. Planting from seed is more challenging and takes longer, but can get you more plants for less cost, and ensures you know exactly what’s in the growing medium.

Growing Strawberries from Plants

Most home-growers choose to grow strawberries from bare root plants. If you choose to go this route, it’s so important to make sure you buy disease-free plants of a variety recommended for your area, from a reputable nursery.

Potted plants and plugs usually have a head start on the dormant bare root plants, but they are also significantly more expensive. Bare root is a gardening technique where plants are removed from the soil while still dormant, meaning they can adapt quickly to new soil conditions. While they will take a year to become established, they can be purchased for as little as $1 each and are easy to plant.

Growing Strawberries from Seeds

One of the main benefits of growing strawberries from seeds is that you can grow a less common variety. Plus you know that your plants have never been exposed to pesticides, herbicides, or chemical fertilizers.

You’ll need to sow your seeds either directly in the ground or container in early spring after the last frost. This is always a gamble and you won’t know if your seeds are still viable for a month, when the first signs of germination will show.

Strawberry plants grown from seeds won’t produce fruits until the following year. You’ll sacrifice the first year harvest for the health of your plants and to ensure they will be more productive in the years to come. However, for the best harvest, growers usually remove the flowers the first year anyway.

Another Option

Here at Real Self-Sufficiency, we are passionate about reducing waste wherever possible, so we have created a guide to growing strawberries from scraps. That’s right, you can grow beautiful and viable strawberry plants from what you would usually discard from your freshly cut strawberries.

While it is not as simple as throwing a strawberry into the ground, if you have some leftovers from locally grown fruits – perhaps from a strawberry picking trip or friend’s crop – with a little preparation and patience, you can reduce waste and grow something delicious. 

What Are the Best Growing Conditions for Strawberries?

Strawberries are not particularly difficult to grow, but they can’t just be grown anywhere if you want them to produce fruit in large quantities. The conditions have to be right to get the best yields and that means choosing the right site for planting your strawberries. Several factors should be taken into account when choosing a place for your strawberry plants.

How Much Sun?

Strawberries love sunlight, so to get the largest yields, plant strawberries in a spot that gets full sun. While you will get berries with exposure to as little as six hours of direct sun a day, if possible, select a site clear of large trees, plants, and any other projects that will cast a shadow on your strawberries for large periods of the day. Aim for a minimum of 8 hours of full sun per day.

What About Soil?

Thankfully strawberries can grow in most soil conditions. However, for optimal growth, choose a deep sandy loam with a high content of organic matter. Create the best growing environment by adding extra peat moss, compost, and some sand to your existing soil.

If you’re growing in pots or containers, most potting soils have the right compositions, but you can help your strawberries along by adding an inch of fresh compost on top.

Keep your strawberries away from large trees to prevent competition for moisture for your growing strawberry plants. 

Plus, if the area of soil has previously been home to Verticillium-infected or susceptible plants – such as tomatoes, eggplant, mint, and roses – in the last few years, it’s probably best to choose a different site for your strawberries. This will help reduce the chance of your strawberries getting infected with the soil-borne fungus that causes dieback and leaves to wilt.

Let’s Talk Drainage

Growing delicious strawberries requires you to keep the soil moist but not wet. While strawberries do need a constant supply of moisture to survive, if they are left in standing water thanks to poor drainage, your plants will rot. If your soil is heavy and/or has poor drainage, planting your strawberries in a raised strawberry bed will improve growing conditions. Just be sure that your bed is elevated a minimum of six inches and there are sufficient drainage holes in the bottom.

Too little water is also a problem for strawberries, so ensure you plant in an area that can be watered easily if there is insufficient rainfall.

What’s the Best Planting System for Growing Strawberries?

The best planting system for strawberries depends on the type: June-bearing, everbearing, or day-neutrals. Common methods of growing strawberries include the matted row system, mound system, and ribbon system. Read on to learn more about each one or check out our comparison table for the pros and cons of each method at a glance.

Growing System	Strawberry Type	Pros	Cons
Matted row	June-bearing	Low maintenance Low initial cost	Smaller fruit Lower yields
Ribbons	June-bearing	Large fruits High yields	Labor intensive High starting costs
Mounds	Everbearing Day-neutral	Large fruit size Low starting costs	Lower yields Labor intensive

The Matted Row System

Most commonly used for June-bearing varieties, the matted row system works well for strawberry varieties that send out a lot of runners. Once you have prepared the soil, set your plants about 24 inches apart in rows roughly 4 feet apart.  As the runners grow, they’ll weave together in a crisscross pattern, forming a matted row.

Using the matted row system gives you the biggest yield of strawberries, and while they will be delicious, they may not have the same high quality and large size as those grown with the mound system, because each strawberry plant has less space to grow and produce fruit.

The Ribbon System

Also used for June-bearing strawberries, the ribbon system is set up much like the matted row system with the same spacing for plants, however, all runners are clipped. It is a little more labor-intensive but very productive, resulting in larger berries. 

The major advantage of the ribbon system is that it produces edible fruits in the first year. Continue cutting the runners and harvesting the fruits for three years or until production declines, at which point you will need to replant. Or to keep strawberry production consistent, you could replace older mother plants with young plants, also known as maidens, every year after your second season.

The Mound System

Also known as the hill system, the mound method is most commonly used for everbearing and day-neutral varieties. As the name suggests, you start by building a mound of soil about 24 inches wide, 8 inches high, and as long as you want. Place your plants 12 inches apart in two rows per mound. If you want to grow strawberries on multiple mounds, set them 4 feet apart.

Runners should be removed as soon as they appear, as this will preserve energy for the mother plant, resulting in a higher quantity and quality of berries. You may get less total fruit than with the matted row system, but they’re likely to be of superior quality.

There are two modifications of the mound system: the single hedgerow and the double hedgerow. They differ in that some runners are allowed:

• Singe hedgerow – Each strawberry plant is permitted to root two additional runner plants.
• Double hedgerow – Each strawberry plant is allowed several runners to root, but all runners should be spaced 4 inches apart.

If You Can’t Grow Out, Grow Up

If you are short on outside space, you can still grow strawberries (as well as so much more) if you try vertical gardening i.e. growing up, using wall space, or hanging space to grow your bounty.

Vertical gardening is ideal for smaller strawberry varieties, such as the Tristar, as the fruits hang over the edge of their container, preventing them from rotting in wet conditions. Check out our guide on vertical gardening, which features great tips on how to build and maintain your very own.

Planting Strawberries in Containers

Planting strawberries in containers is a great idea if you don’t have a lot of space in your own garden, and it’s easy, too. When you plant strawberries in containers, you need to provide nutrient-rich compost, keep the soil moist, and, for maximum plant growth and delicious berries, give the the right kind of organic fertilizer throughout the growing season.

How to Grow Strawberries in Hanging Baskets

You can grow strawberries in almost any hanging basket (these ones come highly recommended), even one that you have made yourself from an old basket or bucket.

While you’ll only have room to grow a few berry plants per container, but you should still harvest enough berries for a few feeds. Plus, hanging baskets have great drainage – if you make your own don’t forget drainage holes – so your strawberries won’t be sitting in water, avoiding the dreaded root rot.

An additional benefit to growing your strawberries in hanging baskets is keeping them out of reach of ground-dwelling pests. Although birds can still be a problem.

How to Grow Strawberries in Pots

It’s very easy to grow strawberries in pots, especially since there are specialized strawberry pots (we use these ones as they’re very strong), which have multiple holes for individual plants, allowing for a much larger harvest than if you used a standard pot.

If you do use a strawberry pot, place a watering tube down the center of the pot. This ensures that each plant is watered evenly. Create your own slow watering tube, by piercing a few holes in a PVC tube and filling it with sand, which slows the water release to prevent over-watering.

What About Hydroponics?

Hydroponics is a method of growing that doesn’t use any soil. Instead, inert media is used to anchor the roots of your strawberry plants in place. The root system grows through the medium and is exposed to a water and nutrient solution.

This may seem quite complicated, but it’s easier than you’d imagine and is ideal for growing a large number of strawberries in a small space. Plus, you don’t have to worry about soil-borne pests and there’s minimal water waste. Additionally, if you set up your hydroponics system indoors, you can keep the conditions consistent for a longer growing season.

While the set-up cost is more expensive than other container-growing methods, hydroponic systems, such as this one, often pay for themselves over time in terms of long-term yields and efficiency.

How to Grow Strawberries From Seed

Do strawberries come true to seed? The good news is yes, strawberry seedlings will be very similar to the parent plant as the flowers are generally self-pollinating. So just pick the variety of strawberries you like and you’re ready to plant your seeds.

Cold Treating Strawberry Seeds 

It may sound counter-intuitive, but cold treating your seeds by placing them in a sealed package and popping them in the freezer for 1-2 weeks before sowing will help them germinate. This is because most strawberry seeds won’t break dormancy until they’ve experienced winter-like conditions.

After two weeks take the sealed container out of the freezer but don’t open it yet. While still sealed, allow your strawberry seeds to reach room temperature, which will prevent condensation from collecting on the cold seeds. After a day out of the freezer, they will be ready for planting.

How to Plant Strawberry Seeds

You should start your strawberry seeds indoors around 10-12 weeks before the last frost, so they are to reach planting size by early spring.

1. Fill your seedling trays with a pre-moistened seed starting mix and place 3 to 4 seeds in each compartment, directly on top of the soil. 
2. Gently tamp the seeds down, without covering them with soil.
3. Mist the top of the soil with water.

How to Care for Strawberry Seedlings

Once your seeds are planted keep the seedling trays inside, in a warm and sunny spot that maintains a temperature of 60 – 70°F.  Keep the soil moist, but not soggy, until the seeds germinate. Be patient, germination can take anywhere between 1 to 4 weeks.

How to Grow Strawberries: Thin Out and Pot On

Feed your young seedlings with a half-strength fertilizer every two weeks. Once your seedlings have a few sets of leaves, transplant them 3 inches apart into a deeper tray or individual pots. This gives your strawberry plants more room for root systems to grow and develop.

Plant Out in Final Position

Once your plants have reached between 2 and 3 inches tall, you’re ready to start thinking about planting your young strawberry plants outdoors. Just be sure you wait until the last spring frost has passed.

At this point, your strawberry seedlings are acclimated to consistent temperatures and sunlight, so they need to become acclimatized to outdoor conditions. Your delicate strawberry seedlings need to be hardened off by gradually exposing them to the outdoors before planting. Follow the exact same procedure for hardening off pepper plants.

Once they are hardened off, you’re ready to transplant them into your prepared garden bed or container, which should contain rich soil and be in a spot with full sun (partial shade for very hot climates). Space individual plants about 8 to 12 inches apart, or 6 to 8 inches apart for alpine varieties.

How to Grow Strawberries From Starts/Runners

Usually, you would plant strawberries in early spring when the soil is dry and ready to be worked. Plus, your plants need to be well established before the temperatures increase during the summer months. But if you’re growing runners or starts and want to harvest in your first season, planting in the autumn may be a better option.

Preparing the Soil

Before planting you should prepare your soil, by ensuring that the site is free of weeds, grubs, and to the best of your ability, soil-borne diseases. Work a compost with a high content of organic material through the top layer of soil.

Strawberries prefer slightly acidic soil. You’ll achieve maximum growth and fruit production in soil with a PH of between 5.5 and 6.5. There are numerous soil testing kits available (this one is good value) that can tell you your soil’s PH so you can amend it accordingly with lime and/or manure before planting.

Planting Strawberry Plants

1. Start with healthy, disease-free plants with large crowns and robust, light-colored roots. 
2. If you can’t plant immediately, wrap the plants in a wet paper towel, place them in a bag, and pop them in the fridge.
3. On a cloudy afternoon, loosen and cultivate the soil down to about 8 inches and keep the texture loose.
4. Dig out a hole large enough for the strawberry roots to stretch out.
5. In the center of the hole build a mound that’s flush with the top of the hole. 
6. Place the strawberry plant on top of the mound with the crown at soil level and the roots spread around the mound.
7. Fill the hole, press the soil down firmly around the roots, and water plants thoroughly.

Companion Plants for Strawberries

Companion planting is about creating plant communities that have mutual benefits to one another, such as maximizing growth and yield and protecting crops from pests. Good companion plants for strawberries include:

• Borage – This fantastic little herb has many benefits for strawberry plants including deterring insect pests, attracting pollinators, and improving the flavor and yield of your berries.
• Bush beans – Not only does it repel some beetles, but it also hosts nitrogen-fixing bacteria that help fertilize the soil for better strawberry yields.
• Lupin – Another legume that also fixes nitrogen in the soil, as well as attracts honeybees.
• Caraway – Plant this herb near your strawberries and it will attract parasitic wasps and flies that are predators to many common strawberry pests.

Strawberries also play nicely with lettuce, garlic, spinach, or peas. They don’t mix well with any vegetables in the brassica family – such as cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and kale – as they will have their growth impaired if strawberries are nearby.

RELATED POST: How to Grow Strawberries From Scraps

How to Care for Strawberries

Because they’re perennials, to get healthy plants and the optimum fruit production year-on-year, you should remove strawberry flowers and runners the first year you plant them. Foregoing fresh berries in the plant’s first year means you’ll get bigger harvests from larger, stronger plants every year thereafter. Yes, removing flowers and not letting any berries ripen in that first year seems wasteful, but when your berry patch is bursting with big, juicy berries every year after, you’ll be glad you did!

Mulching

First and foremost, you need to create an environment that keeps your strawberries happy. Mulching – a loose layer of material over the soil – is a great way to support the growth of your strawberries.

Once you’ve planted your strawberries and nightly temperature reach 20°F, mulch the bed with 2 inches of compost, straw, shredded leaves, or pine straw. Not only does mulching help control the weed problem, but it also helps keep the soil temperature down and strawberries produce better when their roots are cooler. Plus, a good layer of pine straw helps strawberries grow and ripen without constantly touching wet soil, which can lead to rotting berries and powdery mildew.

How to Water Strawberries

Strawberry plants thrive in a constantly moist environment, requiring at least an inch of water (rainfall counts), every week. This can be increased to two inches of water while the fruit is forming and during the dry periods after harvesting. Watering later helps reduce stress, leading to better fruit bud formation the next year and helps to maintain a healthy central growing bud.

Remember, these berry plants are shallow-rooted, so water-logged soil can cause them to rot, hence good drainage is critical to a healthy plant. Avoiding watering in the early morning and late evening will also help prevent your plants from being wet for long periods.

Although fresh plants can be watered from overhead, it’s best to water established plants with drip irrigation (this kit comes highly recommended). This prevents the fruit from getting wet, avoiding rot and soil-borne diseases like powdery mildew.

Mulching helps to keep the moisture level of your soil consistent, which will also prevent the ground from drying out, saving your plants from dying or becoming unproductive.

How to Fertilize Strawberries

Strawberries are heavy feeders, so you will need to keep your plants well-fertilized for them to reach their optimal potential. However, if you apply too much fertilizer, leaves will overgrow, resulting in poor production of flower stems. Applying the right fertilizer at the right time is critical, and you’ll need different fertilizer for fresh plants than established plants, and different plant food when the strawberries begin flowering.

We only ever recommend organic fertilizers to minimize your impact on the environment and to reduce the health risks associated with chemical fertilizers. However, you don’t have to worry about finding an affordable organic fertilizer, you can make your own organic fertilizer at home, without spending a penny. 

Otherwise, good examples of organic fertilizer include bone meal to increase phosphate in the soil and blood meal to increase nitrogen.

After planting new plants, organic fertilizers should be applied about once a month from June through September. Water the fertilizer well to get the nutrients soaking down into the roots of the growing strawberries.

Tip: Don’t use a nitrogen-rich fertilizer in the spring of a fruiting year, as too much nitrogen will result in soft, fragile strawberries and too much leaf growth. However, nitrogen-rich fertilizer is great for new plants. That’s because fresh plants need to establish strong root systems and plenty of leafy growth.

Our guide to fertilizing strawberries and the best organic fertilizer for strawberries gives you lots more information about what to feed and when.

How to Protect Your Strawberries

As a home gardener, you’re always going to compete with birds for fruit. However, the damage that birds do to a small number of berries is worth it for the number of harmful insects they eat. Grow enough strawberries for you and the birds, and they will keep away common insect pests.

You can protect the vast majority of your berries by covering your strawberry plants with inexpensive bird netting. Plus, slugs can be kept at bay with some simple copper ribbon. More on protecting your strawberries from pests later.

Protecting your strawberries from the elements is also important. While the flowers that show up earliest tend to have the largest fruits, they are also the ones most susceptible to frost early in the season. We recommend covering your strawberry patch if temperatures drop below freezing in the spring. If you use a plastic covering, use stakes to prevent the material from touching the foliage. Check out our post on how to protect your plants from frost for more tips and ideas!

Should You Remove First Year Strawberry Flowers?

All types of strawberries will produce better fruits and bigger yields in subsequent years if all energy is devoted to producing healthy runner plants and establishing themselves in the first year.

So if you want to have strong and productive plants, you need to remove all the flower buds in the first year. Don’t let the new plants bear fruit. Without flower buds, you won’t be enjoying fruits in the first year, but from the second year onwards you’ll get better quality berries and increased yields.

Should You Cut Runners Off Strawberries?

This depends on the type of strawberries you’re growing. For June-bearing varieties, you can allow the runners to grow relatively freely to establish themselves as daughter plants, to form the matted row system we mentioned earlier. However, your strawberries will produce best when they are kept to a density of around 5 plants per square foot.

For everbearing and day-neutral varieties, you should remove flower buds and runners until the beginning of July for new plants. They don’t produce as many runners as June-bearing varieties, instead, they use their energy on multiple harvests each season. Removing the runners before they turn into daughter plants helps to produce a better harvest in the second year, although you may get a small harvest during the first season.

Common Strawberry Pests and How to Control Them

As previously mentioned, companion planting can help with pest control, by either deterring pests, or attracting predators to common insect pests. However, this may not be enough to protect your strawberry plants from the wide variety of pests. 

There are so many strawberry pests that it’s not possible to take you through them all. Instead we have chosen a selection of the most common and troublesome pests, what to look out for, and how to handle an infestation. While other methods are available, we only ever recommend organic pest control methods, as they are better for the environment and the wildlife in it.

Aphids

They may be small, but, in sufficient numbers, aphids can cause several forms of damage to strawberry plants including stunted shoots, the formation of galls, and curled and yellow leaves. They also excrete sticky honeydew, which sooty molds can grow on.

If aphids do become a problem for your strawberries, you can make an all-natural insecticidal soap by mixing 1 teaspoon of cooking oil and ½ a teaspoon of dishwashing liquid with a quart of water. Spray the mixture over your strawberry plants, making sure the tops and underside of the leaves are thoroughly coated. Remember to only use a dishwashing liquid that is free of bleach, fragrances, and degreasers.

Take a look at our post on natural ways to control aphids for tried and true recommendations.

Strawberry Bud Weevils

Sometimes called strawberry clippers, the small beetle is reddish-brown with distinctive black patches. They can cause a problem in early spring, when the adult bugs emerge from overwintering and lay their eggs in the strawberry flower bud, preventing it from opening and producing fruit.

Minimize damage by checking for weevils as soon as buds form and remove any infested buds that have fallen to the ground.

Slugs and Snails

If you’re seeing small but deep holes in the berries, usually under the cap, then you’ve got snail or slugs feasting on your precious fruits. They are more problematic during wet weather, so you can try watering less regularly, which will prevent constantly wet soil that encourages slimy pests.

You could also use citrus rind traps by placing the rinds of oranges, lemons, and limes around the bases of your plants. Slugs and snails will be attracted to the citrus, and you can gather them up each morning.

A great way of deterring slugs and snails – and most any other small insect or spider – is with diatomaceous earth (DE), (this one is highly recommended). It’s a completely organic pesticide that’s made up of prehistoric diatomic fossils that have been ground up into a powder.

Sprinkle directly on the soil around your strawberry plants or even apply a light dusting on the plants themselves. It needs to be reapplied after rain or heavy dew and make sure you only use ‘food grade’ DE, as other types may contain contaminates.

Get more info on controlling slugs naturally here.

Meadow Spittlebug

If you see a clear, bubbly foam at the base of your strawberry plants, you have spittlebugs. While spittlebugs don’t usually kill a strawberry plant, they can stunt it by puncturing the stems near ground level and feeding on the plant’s juices.

A spittlebug infestation can result in small berries, but you can reduce your risk in a number of ways:

• Regularly inspect your plants for the telltale foam and remove it immediately.
• Use a homemade spray of garlic or hot pepper mixed with water and apply it liberally to your plant regularly.
• Cover your strawberries with a floating row cover in summer, to prevent adult insects from laying eggs in your fruits.
• At the end of the season, get rid of old plant material around the base of your strawberries to prevent spittlebugs from overwintering in the debris.

Rodents

Rats, mice, and squirrels love strawberries, but thankfully, they don’t usually roam very far from where they were born. Therefore, if you clear tall grass and brush, keep your grass trimmed during the growing season, and remove any debris from your garden, you eliminate favorable conditions for rodents.

Additional Pest Contol Tips

• If birds start to become a problem, eating more fruits than insects, they can be deterred with balloons with scare eyes positioned about your plants. Reflective Mylar bird tape also works,
• Larger bugs – like slugs and Japanese beetles – can be deterred by spraying your plans with neem seed oil and garlic puree.
• Using gritty mulch – like sand – and keeping beds weed-free is a great deterrent for slugs and bugs.

Common Strawberry Diseases and How to Control Them

Strawberry diseases can affect the fruit, leaves, flowers, and crowns of both fresh plants and established ones. And, in extreme cases can cause the death of the entire plant. As with strawberry pests, we have listed the more common strawberry diseases and only recommend organic methods of control.

There are so many diseases that attack strawberry plants, including powdery mildew, leaf blight, and other soil-borne diseases, and the best method of control is prevention by keeping your plants healthy to begin with.

To keep your plants as healthy as possible, only water plants via drip irrigation, never overhead, to prevent spores and pathogens splashing up onto the leaves or fruits. Keep a thick layer of straw around the base of plants as the berries start to grow, to keep them off the soil. Improve your soil with rich organic matter and the right fertilizer, and remove weeds to increase airflow.

Verticillium Wilt

This fungus can lie dormant in the soil for years until it detects a healthy strawberry plant nearby, which it will very quickly begin to feed on. This will result in a severely stunted plant and once Vertilicillium is in the soil, it is almost impossible to control.

Your best defense is choosing a good growing location with soil that has not previously been infected by Verticillium or has been used to grow plants that are susceptible to the fungus. You could also choose varieties of strawberries – such as Albion or Camino Real – that are more resistant to the disease.

Anthracnose

The fungal infection attacks almost all areas of a strawberry plant and is easily recognizable by the orange ooze of spores. These spores are spread by overhead splashing water, so if you don’t have any rain and stop overhead watering, you may save your crop by removing the diseased plant as soon as possible.

If you buy strawberry transplants from a nursery, kill off anthracnose by immersing the plants in a warm water bath of about 85°F for 30 minutes and transferring them to a bath of  115°F for 10 minutes. You have to be quite precise with this method, but it is worth it to save your strawberries.

Another method to prevent anthracnose is to solarize your soil by covering it with a black plastic tarp the summer before planting. This kills off several fungi, bacteria, and other pests in the top 12 inches of soil. 

Scorch

Primarily infecting the foliage of strawberry plants, scorch initially appears as purple spots on the top side of leaves, which continue to grow larger and darken, causing the leaf to dry and fall from the plant.

While scorch is unsightly, it’s unlikely that it will severely impact the quality of your strawberry crop. As with many fungi, the method of control is prevention. Proper garden sanitation is key, including the removal of infected garden debris, proper plant spacing for adequate air circulation, and the use of drip irrigation to prevent the spores from dispersing from overhead watering.

Gray Mold

Also known as Botrytis rot, gray mold is one of the most common and most difficult strawberry diseases to control. It will easily infect plants that are damaged, spreading quickly and causing damage to the healthy part of the plant. 

The wetter your plants are the more susceptible they are to infection, so don’t overwater your strawberries. Plus, plants must be damaged before they become infected so take good care of your strawberry beds.

Gray mold starts as white spots on leaves, which will then change color from grey to brown. It can also affect stems, buds, and flowers, and eventually, all infected parts of the plants will be covered in a fuzzy gray growth.

Control gray mold by removing and destroying infected plants, and clean between plants so the infection can’t spread. Prevent infections by handling your plants carefully, keeping your plants dry by avoiding overhead watering, and space your strawberry plants properly to promote good air circulation.

How to Harvest Strawberries

Fruits are usually ready for harvesting between 4 to 6 weeks after blossoming. You should only harvest fully red (i.e. ripe) berries and when you have an abundance of strawberries, pick once every few days to avoid stressing your plants.

Don’t pull the berry as this can damage the plant. Instead, sever the stem directly above the fruit and handle the berry with care as they are easily bruised. Strawberries should be dry when they are picked as wet berries will decline more quickly.

RELATED: 15 Strawberry Recipes to Make the Most of the Season

How to Maintain a Strawberry Bed

Your parent plants will be productive for about 4 years before they slow down and need replacing. However, during that time they’re producing runners and young clone plants. After three or so years, you’ll need to thin out your strawberry bed by transplanting runners to new beds or containers, as well as removing the unproductive parent plant.

By thinning out your strawberry bed like this, your plant will be perpetuating indefinitely. So, if you can keep your strawberry plants free of pests and diseases, you won’t need to start new strawberries from seeds or plants, unless you want to try a new variety.

Strawberry Renovation of June-Bearers

If your June-bearing strawberry plants are productive during the first fruiting year and the site is mostly free of weeds, you should renovate for next year’s crop.

1. Immediately after harvesting, mow the plants of your matted row down to a height of 3 inches, being careful not to damage the crowns.
2. Rototill the mulch into the alley between rows. 
3. Fertilize around the crown and top with a thin layer of soil to help promote new growth. 
4. Narrow your matted rows to around 12 inches.
5. Continue to water with 1 inch per week through September and until the first frost.
6. Remove runners that appear after the beginning of September as they won’t have enough time to establish themselves before the temperature drops.

Protecting Your Strawberries Over Winter

Most varieties of strawberries are naturally cold hardy and can survive mildly freezing temperatures. So, if you have mild winters, you don’t need to do much more for your plants.

If you live in an area where the temperature regularly drops below 20°F, your strawberries will enter their dormant stage and will need winter protection. Mulch plants between 3 – 4 inches deep with pine needles, straw, or other organic material. 

Natural precipitation should be sufficient to maintain appropriate soil moisture, but you can water lightly to account for wind loss. Once spring arrives, you can remove the mulch, but you should keep it nearby in the event of additional frosts.

How to Store Strawberries

Unwashed strawberries can be kept in the refrigerator for about 3 to 5 days and they can be frozen for up to 2 to 3 months.

If you have a bountiful harvest, you may be looking for other ways of preserving your berries. Of course, jam is the obvious choice. It’s so easy to make and it’s a great way to enjoy your homegrown strawberries all year round. 

You could also dehydrate or freeze-dry your strawberries, to create a delicious and healthy snack or a great addition to homemade granola. Strawberries also make a stunning vinaigrette for salads and more, which you can easily tailor to your taste with a little experimentation.

For us, there is no better use for strawberries than a beautiful dessert. Whether it be a muffin with chunks of strawberries worked through the batter, a tart, and sweet strawberry and apple crumble, or a fantastic strawberry ice cream, your homegrown fruits will satisfy your sweet tooth.

But did you know that strawberries can also be used in loads of savory dishes? They are a great addition to a grilled cheese sandwich, complement oven-roasted chicken beautifully, and make a super refreshing salsa for bruschetta. Don’t let any of those delicious strawberries go to waste. Add them to your breakfast cereals and salads. You’ll be surprised how many uses you’ll discover for your freshly harvested and frozen strawberries, and anything you make will taste all the sweeter because you grew them yourself.

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