Grow Your Own Tasty Strawberries

Bite into a juicy, homegrown strawberry at your own risk. Once you taste the unadulterated flavor of a fresh berry served up by Mother Nature, there’s no turning back. Store-bought varieties will never taste as good as they once did.

The strawberry is self-pollinating and the quickest cropping of all fruits. Plant berries this spring, and you'll be enjoying shortcake piled high with organic berries within just a few weeks. Depending on what varieties you grow, you can harvest fresh fruit throughout the spring and summer months and into the fall.

In addition to growing in the ground and raised beds, strawberries thrive in containers, including hanging baskets, says Stan Cope, president of the plant wholesaler Bonnie Plants, which supplies strawberries to nurseries and garden centers nationwide.

“Strawberries have a relatively small root ball and can be grown in containers as small as 10 to 12 inches in diameter and 8 inches deep, which makes enjoying them possible for everyone—no matter how much or how little space you have,” says Cope.

For the best luck growing strawberries, it’s important to choose varieties that are well-suited to your geographic region. There are four main types of strawberries: June-bearers, everbearers, day-neutrals and alpines.

June-bearers produce a heavy crop around June or July. Some popular varieties are Allstar, Cabot, Cavendish, Chandler, Earliglow, Flavorfest, Honeoye, Jewel, Kent, Lateglow, Mesabi, Red Chief, Sequoia, Sparkle and Valley Sunset.

Everbearers usually produce spring through fall and include varieties like Ever-Sweet, Loran, Ozark Beauty and Quinault.

Day-neutrals were created by University of California strawberry researchers in the late 1970s. These berries aren’t sensitive to day-length or temperatures—budding up between 35 and 89 degrees. This means they can be grown into the fall in cold climates and even year-round in areas with mild winters. Some popular day-neutral varieties include Albion, San Andreas, Seascape, Selva, Sweet Ann, Tribute and Tristar.

Alpines (Fragaria vesca sempervirens) are small, intensely flavored fruits that appear from spring through fall. There are white, yellow and red varieties, and they are grown from seed.

To have luck growing strawberries, keep the following tips in mind.

Locate strawberries in full sun (6 to 8 hours). “Strawberries like well-drained fairly rich soil, so be sure to add compost or other organic matter when preparing the pot or patch,” says Cope.

Plant strawberries so that the crown is above soil level, yet the uppermost roots are ¼-inch beneath the soil level. Buried crowns rot and exposed roots dry out.

Water strawberries to keep them moist, but not soggy. Containerized plants require watering much more frequently than in-ground plantings. “When it’s hot, you will most likely need to water once or even twice a day,” says Cope. “The smaller the container, the more frequently you’ll need to irrigate.”

Feed plants at least twice during the growing season with an organic fertilizer designed for fruiting plants.

Control slugs and snails by handpicking them off plants, and prevent theft from birds by covering your patch with netting as the first berries ripen.

Mulch to keep berries clean, conserve moisture and control weeds.

Harvest strawberries in the morning when the fruit is cool, and immediately put them in the refrigerator, says Cope. “Wait until just before you eat or cook them to rinse the berries thoroughly with cool water.”

Julie Bawden-Davis is a master gardener and author of The Strawberry Story series of gardening books, including The Strawberry Story: How to Grow Great Berries Year-Round in Southern California and The Strawberry Story: How to Grow Great Berries in the Northeast. Find out more at GardenGuidesPress.com.