Red ripe strawberries, mouthwatering and packed with flavor, firm and without blemish—how long since you have had really good berries? Perhaps you are fortunate and are treated to the surplus from your neighbor’s garden.
But if you are less lucky and must rely on the nearest supermarket for your supply, you know how seldom really good berries are available. The answer is to grow strawberries in your garden.
In most climates strawberries succeed. Where winters are severe. the plants survive if protected with hay; where rainfall is scant. Irrigation or sprinkling will pull them through. The soil, however, can be a limiting factor; if it drains poorly and water stands for even as little as a few hours, strawberries will succumb. Soil drainage can be improved by working in peat moss or sand.
Strawberry plants are perennial, living and bearing from year to year. The ordinary June-bearing varieties produce one crop a year. The few blooms that will appear in the first year should be removed to allow the plants to develop and produce heavily the following year.
Thus, June-bearing strawberries planted this fall will produce their first crop in late spring, 1959. The so-called overbearing varieties, which bear two crops a year, the second often extending until frost, produce a fair crop at the end of the first growing season.
Thus, everbearers planted this fall will be producing next fall.
How to Establish a Strawberry Bed
1. Buying plants: for the longest picking season, select both June-bearing and ever-bearing varieties; see the listing of suggested varieties below and consult, also, your state agricultural experiment station, which can make recommendations for a particular climate and soil; 70 plants (filling a bed about 12 by 12 feet) is a good start for the average-sized family—any surplus can always he froze or made into jam.
2. Where to plant: in full sun, away from moisture-hungry tree roots, and in well-drained soil.
3. When to plant: fall and early winter in southern and Pacific Coast states; in other states planting is done in early spring as well as in late fall. Fall planting is recommended if plants cannot be set out in early spring, either because the soil is too wet to work or because there’s too little time.
A definite advantage in fall planting is that those plants which do survive the winter under their protection of straw can push out new growth in early spring before spring-planted ones get established. The growing season preceding the first year of production is a crucial one; the longer it is, the more the plant will develop and the greater the crop it will set.
In very northerly states, where winters are severe and take a heavy toll, spring planting may be preferred.
4. How to plant: in the home garden, where space is usually at a premium, set plants 15 inches apart in rows 18 inches apart. Keep roots moist until planting time, heeling in the plants if necessary.
A good planting technique is as follows: push the trowel into the soil and pull it toward you; suspend the plant in the hole so that the crown is just a trifle below soil level (the crown must not be covered with soil); withdraw the trowel, reinsert 2” inches from the plant, and push the soil against the roots: then carefully firm the soil with your foot.
A starter solution may be applied if desired (mix 2 ounces of 5-10-5 fertilizer in a gallon of water, or if using a material of a different ratio, follow directions on the label). Water the plants and protect them from the hot sun. Cover with a 4-inch layer of straw or salt hay. Remove protective cover in spring.
Care before the First Crop
1. Water often, so that the top foot of soil is kept moist (a soil soaker works best for this job). An inch of water per week is adequate.
2. Cultivate frequently, removing any runners that may develop and all weeds. (A light mulch of ground corn cobs, pine needles, or straw during the growing season will conserve soil moisture and keep weeds down, as well as keep the berries off the ground. Sawdust has been especially recommended for everbearing varieties. Watch out for nitrogen deficiencies when using sawdust.)
3. Remove all blossoms of June-bearers during the first year; blossoms of ever-bearers should be removed until midsummer, allowing subsequent ones to set a fall crop.
4. Apply a protective winter mulch, if necessary, in your area, putting it down after the first light frosts, but before the temperature goes below 20°.
Harvesting from Year to Year
Strawberries yield heavily for the first two or three years; no plants, however, will bear heavily indefinitely. The usual practice is to replace the plants when their production falls off, either with new plants from the nursery or with runners which have been rooted in sunken pots, detached from the mother plant, and then grown to a good size.
Devise the procedure that will be most practical for you. For example, some gardeners maintain two plantings, backing up the one in production with a second younger one that will be ready to bear when the older planting becomes unproductive.
44659 by Carol Sue Umbreit