Planting and Growing Strawberries for a Sweet Harvest - Greenwood Nursery Guide
Enjoy the taste of homegrown strawberries! This guide from Greenwood Nursery, your trusted online nursery, will help you achieve successful planting and abundant harvests of these delicious berries.
Preparation:
For optimal growth, plant your strawberry plants from our online plants nursery in well-drained soil amended with organic matter. Avoid planting near eggplants, peppers, potatoes, raspberries, or tomatoes due to the risk of verticillium wilt. Rotate strawberry beds if this disease appears. Soils with high lime content may not be suitable. Protect your strawberry plants from winter freezing by applying mulch. Planting on a gentle slope can also minimize winter kill and frost damage to blossoms.
Planting:
Choose an area that receives at least 6 hours of sunlight daily for your strawberry plants. Plant them 15 to 18 inches apart in rows spaced about 2 feet apart. When planting bare-root strawberry plants, trim the roots to six inches long. Dig holes deep enough to accommodate the roots. Inside the hole, mound enough dirt to allow the plant's crown to sit at soil level with roots spread evenly. Setting the crown too high can cause drying. Smooth the soil and water to settle. Protect new plantings from drought. After frost, check for lifted plants and gently replant them.
Care:
Expect heavy fruiting in the second season. Remove first-year blooms to encourage stronger plant growth. Your strawberry plants need at least one inch of water per week during blossoming and until the end of harvest. After the first harvest in the second season, renovate plants by mowing foliage to about 1 inch above the crown, raking leaves, fertilizing (10-10-10 works well, avoid leaf contact), and watering deeply. Protect young fruit by layering straw or newspaper (with non-toxic ink) around the plants to prevent soil splash. In fall, apply a 3-4 inch layer of straw mulch for winter protection. Strawberry plants thrive with organic matter like aged manure and compost. Berries typically ripen 4 to 6 weeks after blossoms open.
Healthy strawberry beds from Greenwood Nursery can yield five to ten quarts of berries per 10 feet of planted row and usually produce for three to five years before needing replacement.
Find a wide selection of strawberry plants and other berry varieties at Greenwood Nursery, your trusted online nursery for quality fruit plants!
