This how to grow strawberries article will guide you and help you reap those delicious red berries year after year. Every garden should have multiple strawberry plants growing in them. They are fragrant and beautiful and one of the first to produce its fruit in the spring. Each healthy strawberry plant should yield you about a quart of strawberries. This can help you decide how many to plant.
The first thing you need to do is choose what type of strawberries you want to plant. The following will give you some insight into three types of berries. Look at what space is available for your berries and this will help you determine the one to choose.
There are June Bearing plants which are the most common planted. Typically you will get the largest variety of fruit from this plant. Remember that this plant does produce runners, so you will need to allow for the adequate space. Allow these runners to grow they will help root your plant and increase your next year’s crop yield.
The Ever-bearing plant is another option to look at. It produces several harvests, usually three. It will produce in Spring, Summer and the Fall. Another thing to consider is that with these berries they do not produce runners.
These plants grow wild in Europe and are cultivated there. This strawberry plant made its way to North America around the 1900’s. It is a very popular plant also. The first year your crop is planted you should remove all the blooms and allow it to anchor its rooting system. This seems to defeat the purpose but it will establish a good root system and make next year’s strawberry yield worth the wait.
The final choice is called the Day Neutral. This plant does not just produce a single crop. Instead it will produce and yield berries through out the summer and into the fall months. Day Neutral plants will continue to produce a harvest until the frost comes. Day Neutral refers to the light sensitivity and will produce even with short sunlight days. This one is very popular in more mild temperatures.
Now you need to choose a site for your planting. You want to choose an area that drains well and one that gets full sun access. Planting each plant about five to seven inches in width and deep enough to cover the root system. Plant them approximately twelve to eighteen inches apart, this way you can easily get between them and weed or fertilize.
How do you grow strawberries and yield the best fruit? Well it all begins with choosing the plant then allowing it to have the best soil and providing it with enough water to assist it in its growth. Strawberry plants need about an inch each week to thrive. Allow the water to seep into the group gently as opposed to just dumping water on the plant. Regularly prune and make sure you pick the fruit the day it ripens.