Growing Strawberries

It is pretty easy to grow strawberries in gardens and in containers at home. Before you start to grow strawberries you have to acquire minimum knowledge about the three distinct types of strawberry plants available in nurseries. These plants include summer bearing, perpetual bearing or ever bearing and alpine.

Perpetual bearing strawberries will bear fruits through out the year although the bulk of the fruits will come only in the season that extent from April to October. You can expect fruits from summer bearing strawberries for more than three weeks a year.

Select a site where you can assure maximum sun to grow strawberries. It should also be a place where the soil is well drained. If you are planning to grow strawberries in your garden where you grow other plants do not choose an area where you have grown potatoes to avoid virus infection to the spuds. Long days and warm temperature is the best and the most suitable climate that favor maximum growth of the leaves and runners of a strawberry plant. Short days and cool temperature is good for flower formation in short day varieties of strawberries. You can expect tastier fruits from growing strawberries in areas where the days are warm and sunny and the nights are cool.

If your plan is to grow strawberries in the ground then you should prepare raised bed to plant them. The highest ground is the ideal location to place strawberries and it should always be protected from the frost by placing them at an ideal location. It is better to choose a location where plants that belong to the Solanaceae family were not grown for at least three years.

Prepare the ground by mixing it with compost or well composted manure. Vegetable food fertilizers can also be used to prepare land for growing strawberries. Once the preparation of the land is over, you can cover the land by using a weed block material. Mark the places where the strawberries are to be planted by cutting an X shape in the material with which you have covered the soil. You will be able to protect the berries from the attack of snails, earwigs, slugs and saw bugs by covering the land with the weed block material. It is advisable to prepare the land in this way at least one month before you actually plant the strawberries.

The beds prepared for growing strawberries should have at least be five to six inches height and six to twelve inches width. Arrange the plants eight to fourteen inches apart in a single row on the top of the bed that you have prepared to plant the strawberries.

Any method of plantation that allows the root of the plant to go straight down and spreading dove-tail can be adopted for planting strawberries. Make sure that the soil is firmly pressed against the roots when you plant the strawberry plant in the ground or in the container. The crown of the plant should be above the surface covering all the roots.

Strawberry plants with shallow roots require watering through the growing season. Drip irrigation is the best method of irrigation to be used in a strawberry garden.