How to Grow Strawberries
In addition to the traditional strawberry patch, there are as many ways to grow strawberries as there are to eat them! Grow strawberries in a bed, hydroponically, a Death Star Strain s a ground cover, as an ornamental patio plant, or in a hanging basket.
Strawberry Categories
An important part of knowing how to grow strawberries is understanding how different types of strawberries grow. Strawberry cultivars are placed in one of three categories.
o June bearing strawberries produce a large, voluptuous crop of berries in late spring. Mother plants send out runners (daughters) that root and develop into matted rows. The disadvantage to June bearing strawberries is 1) they only bear fruit once a year and 2) the first year you need to pluck all blossoms from your plants to let them become firmly established.
o Ever bearing strawberries really aren’t “ever” bearing, but do produce a harvest twice a year, once in spring and again in autumn. During the first year, pluck all blossoms from ever-bearing cultivars through the end of June. After that, they will blossom again and set fruit for a fall harvest.
o Day neutral strawberries frequently produce a crop of small, but very sweet berries throughout most of the growing season. After plucking off the first set of blossoms allow the fruit to set and you’ll have strawberries throughout the summer!
The Versatile Alpine Strawberry
The Alpine Strawberry is a cousin of the wild strawberry and is very much at home lining a path or walk way. In fact, the only strawberry that is regularly started from seed, the Alpine strawberry is a day neutral cultivar that makes an excellent ground cover with headily fragrant blossoms and very tasty red or white strawberries.