Strawberries are easily one of my favorite foods to grow. Once those beautiful little white blossoms cover the plants, you know it won’t be long. Plucking that first ripe strawberry and eating it while it is still warm from the sun, is a moment to savor. To ensure that the strawberries return year after year, there are a some easy strawberry plant care tips to follow.
Strawberry plants are heavy feeders and need to be fertilized with a good quality compost such as cow manure in the Spring. To encourage more fruit, apply an organic tomato feed. Strawberries have similar needs to tomatoes. Follow the package directions and feed about every two weeks during the growing season.
Easy Strawberry Plant Care Against Pests
Covering the ground with a mulch such as wood chips or straw will help prevent slugs from eating your fruit. Strawberries need a lot of water to produce fruit and the mulch will provide a dry barrier between the soil. Mulching heavily will also help to prevent weeds.
How to Propagate Strawberries
Strawberry plants produce fruit for about four years. The good news is that they grow their own replacements with runner plants. Depending on the strawberry plant variety you have, the plants will send out runners from Spring through summer. Most of these runners will root on their own, but to help things along, you can use a U-shaped metal pin to secure the runner to the soil. The runner will have a baby strawberry plant attached to it without roots. It takes between three and four weeks before the plant establishes roots. Do not cut the runner from the mother plant until roots are established on the new plant. The plant can then be dug up and moved to another spot in your strawberry patch.
Planting Strawberries
If this is your first year of planting strawberries, cut the runners before letting baby plants root. This will allow the mother plant to put her energy into establishing roots. Strawberry plants can spread out very quickly. I suggest making beds that are 30 feet wide so you can pick the strawberries without having to stomp over the plants. For more tips on how to plant strawberries, click here.
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