Fruit / Cool season
Strawberry
A patient perennial that pays you in year two
Plant out byApr 20zone 6
- Family
- Rose (Rosaceae)
- Sun
- Full sun (6+ h)
- Difficulty
- Fussy
- Days to harvest
- 70-90 days
- Spacing
- 18 in apart, rows 36 in
- Pot size
- 2 gal pot (great in pots)
- Frost
- Hardy
- Start
- Direct sow
- Water
When to plant
Showing .
Averages for a typical garden in the region. Your local frost dates may differ by 2-3 weeks, check a local source.Too late this year (try fall)
In zone 6, sow or plant outdoors Mar 23 to Apr 20. Average last frost Apr 20, first fall frost Oct 20.
Units
The hardest part of strawberries is the first year, when the advice is to pinch off the flowers. It feels wrong. You bought the plants for berries, and here you are snapping off every white blossom. But a June-bearing plant that fruits right away stays weak, while one left to build roots gives a much better crop the next summer. Day-neutral types are kinder: pinch the flowers for the first 4 to 6 weeks, then let them fruit the same season.
Plant in early spring, as soon as the soil can be worked. Set each crown so it sits right at the soil line, not buried and not perched on top. Space plants about 18 inches apart in a bed, closer in pots. They want 6 or more hours of sun and steady water, since the roots are shallow and dry out fast. A late frost can kill open flowers, so keep an old sheet or row cover by the door on cold nights.
Then come the thieves. Birds find ripe berries the morning before you do, and slugs chew holes overnight. Put netting on before the fruit starts to color. June-bearers send out runners all summer and will fill every gap, so trim them or let a few root to replace old plants. A pot or hanging basket keeps the fruit off the dirt and easier to guard. In my house, one berry split with a toddler counts as a good harvest day.
Things to consider
- Skip beds where tomatoes, peppers or eggplant grew in recent years unless you rework the soil first. They can leave behind soil diseases that strawberries pick up and keep for years.
- June-bearers give one big flush over about three weeks. Day-neutrals spread a smaller crop across summer and slow down in hot weather, picking up again as nights cool in late summer.
- The plants stay put for more than one season, so pick a spot you won't need to dig. Pull weeds early, because grass in a strawberry patch is hard to get out once runners weave through it.
Good neighbours
Keep apart
Pests to watch for
BirdsSlugsJapanese beetles
Questions about growing strawberry
When are the berries ready to pick?
Fruit ripens about four to six weeks after the flowers open. Pick only fully red berries, about every three days during the peak, and cut the stem rather than tugging. Berries picked in the warm afternoon taste best, and they bruise less if you hold them by the stem.
Do strawberries come back every year?
Yes, they are perennials, and the crowns survive winter in the ground while runners root into new plants nearby. Many growers swap old plants for young rooted runners after a few seasons, since older crowns tend to slow down. Rooting a few runners in small pots of soil, still attached to the mother plant, makes the swap easy.
How much water do strawberries need?
About an inch a week when rain falls short, and more in pots and hanging baskets, which can dry out by midafternoon on hot days. Dry spells hit shallow roots fast, mostly at flowering, during runner growth and in late summer. A soaker hose keeps water off the fruit and the leaves, which helps cut down on rot.
Save this crop
Pin it to a garden board so it is there when planting time comes round.
Similar crops
Sources
General guidance for home gardens. Frost dates are averages for a zone or region; check a local source (in the US your county extension office) for local timing.