Strawberries are some of the easiest types of fruits you can grow. They’re also a delicious option for people who want to save money by growing their own healthy snacks. You can plant strawberries in your garden, as well as in a pot, and you don’t need to worry about constantly taking care of them. With just a little bit of care, you can get a truly delicious yield that you can use to eat as a snack, add to all sorts of mouth-watering desserts, and even make jam or jelly. Because we’re always willing to provide you with gardening advice, we’re going to tell you all about how to plant strawberries in just 6 steps.
6 Steps on How to Plant Strawberries
1. Decide on the Type of Strawberries You Want to Plant
There are many types of strawberries out there, each one more delicious than the other. The three most important and well-known ones are the everbearing, the June-bearing, and the day-neutral. The day-neutral and the everbearing types are quite similar, which is why some people consider them to be the same. However, there is a slight difference between the two.
The everbearing type usually provides you with a large early crop and a rather small late one. It also only grows a couple of strawberries in between these two crops. The day-neutral type can provide you with fruits all throughout the season. Finally, the June-bearing one produces just one crop. The crop is large, it lasts for about 2 weeks, and it produces the largest fruits out of all of the types we’ve mentioned above.
If you keep in mind these 3 main types of strawberries, you’ll be able to decide which one is the best for you. Are you looking to get strawberries all year round? Then you should plant everbearings or day-neutrals. Just remember that the fruits are rather small and they might take some extra effort to pick. Do you want to get a lot of large strawberries? Then the June-bearing variety is perfect for you. We should also mention that most people choose this one over the other two. This is also partly because of the fact that this type of yield is better for when you want to preserve the fruits or use them to make jam.
2. Decide How Many Strawberries You Want to Plant
The next step in our guide on how to plant strawberries entails thinking about the number of plants you want to have in your garden. If you have a large garden, and you also want to use your yield for desserts and jams, then you’re free to plant as many as you want. Just remember that if you don’t have any prior experience when it comes to growing strawberries or any other kind of plant for that matter, you might find it a bit challenging to take care of them.
On the other hand, if you plant too few for fear that you won’t be able to keep an eye on them, you might find yourself regretting this decision when you need more strawberries and your plants seem to refuse to provide you with any.
3. Buy the Strawberry Plants or Seeds
You have two possible ways of growing strawberries. One of them is by planting strawberry seeds and the other one is by starting them from an actual strawberry plant. The latter option is definitely the most popular, but you can also try the former one. Because we want to help you no matter the decision you make, we’re going to show you how to plant both seeds and runners.
Before we do that, we should mention that you can find different types of strawberry seeds and strawberry plants for sale on Amazon. All you have to do is find your favorite ones and order them online.
4. Plant the Strawberry Seeds
If you’ve decided to order strawberry seeds, it’s time to learn how to plant strawberries by placing the seeds into the ground. You can do this directly in your garden or in a container. The choice depends on how many strawberries you want to plant and what your end goals are. Either way, you’ll first have to make sure the ground is wet enough by watering it.
Then, using your finger, create 1/4″ holes into the ground, making sure that they’re placed 6” apart. This is because you have to take into account the fact that the plants will grow and you don’t want them to hinder each other’s growth. After you’ve done that, you can take the seeds package and place one to three seeds into each hole. You’ll notice that strawberry seeds are quite small. Some find the task of planting strawberry seeds to be rather tedious. If you want to have more precision when doing this, use a pair of tweezers. This can help you move the seeds from the package into the ground easily.
The seeds need to be covered with soil in order to develop properly. Remember to be gentle when doing this. Don’t press too hard on the soil that you place on top of the seeds. If the soil is too compact, the seeds will have a hard time emerging. Until germination, the seeds have to be kept in moist soil. If you want to make sure the soil preserves its moisture for a longer period of time, you can cover it with some plastic wrap. Of course, this is easier in the case of containers. The seeds also need plenty of sun and warmth, so don’t forget to provide them with that as well. This is all you need to know on how to grow strawberries from seeds.
5. Plant the Strawberry Runners
Spring is the best season in which you can plant strawberries, but fall works as well. If you’re planting strawberries by using runners, the first thing you should remember is that you have to plant the runners as soon as you receive them. The proper way to do that is by making sure their crown, which is the thick part between the roots and the stem, is even with the soil. If you make the mistake of placing the crown too high, this will make the roots dry out. If you do just the opposite, you might run the risk of your plants catching diseases and suffering injuries.
As in the case of strawberry seeds, make sure there’s plenty of space left in between the plants. That’s because they’re going to spread rather quickly. Speaking of spreading, most people prefer to simply plant the strawberries and then allow them to grow as they wish. The benefit of this technique is that you usually get to harvest quite a lot of fruits. However, you might notice the plants spreading too fast and taking over your garden. In this case, you’ll have to keep them under control.
6. Take Care of the Strawberry Plants
Even though strawberries don’t require as much care as other types of fruits, this doesn’t mean that there aren’t a couple of tips and tricks that you can learn in order to make sure you get the biggest and most delicious yield.
For instance, if you’re not in a hurry to get a yield as fast as possible, we advise you to pick off any blossoms that you can find in the plants’ first year. This will stop them from developing any fruits. All the energy that the plants consume when growing fruits can now be oriented towards their roots. Thus, they’ll develop a much stronger root system, that will ensure a more prosperous yield next year.
One of the most important things for a strawberry plant is water. It needs quite a lot of it in order to develop, so make sure you water your plants every week. Also, allow the water to seep about 1 inch deep. If you know that there will be times when you can’t water your strawberries as often as they need, you can add some mulch to the soil. Mulch helps to preserve water, while also preventing weeds from invading your plants.
Still, you should expect a certain number of weeds as well. Which is why you must keep an eye on your plants, to make sure you eliminate them as soon as they appear. Also, remember to do this by hand. Finally, once your plants are out of their growing season, you should cut their foliage. Make it 1 inch long and then add a 4-inch layer of mulch that will help prevent frost. When this is no longer an issue, namely in early spring, you can remove the mulch.
Summing It All Up
Whether you’re tired of buying strawberries from the store, or you need a lot of them to preserve in jars and you don’t want to spend a lot of money on this process, then growing your own is one of the best options you have. We hope today’s guide on how to plant strawberries and take care of them has helped you learn the basics of this type of fruit and the growing conditions it requires. When spring comes, don’t hesitate to plant some delicious strawberries in your garden because now you know how to plant strawberries! For 3 exquisite recipes that involve strawberries, take a look at the video below!
