Grow your own strawberries
- Strawberries are easy to grow. Strawberry plants can be grown almost anywhere – in borders, growbags, containers or hanging baskets
- They just need sun, shelter, and fertile, well-drained soil
- Water during dry periods in the growing season. Water from the bottom as water from overhead can rot the crown and fruit.
- During the growing season, give strawberry plants a liquid feed that’s high is potassium – such as a tomato feed – every 7 to 14 days
- As fruits start to develop, tuck straw underneath them to prevent the strawberries from rotting on the soil. You may want to cover them with netting to deter squirrels & birds.
- Strawberries are traditionally grown in rows directly into the garden soil – often referred to as the strawberry patch. Avoid windy sites which will prevent pollinating insects from reaching the flowers. In poor soils grow in raised beds, which improves drainage and increases rooting depth. Alternatively, try containers or growing-bags
- Pick strawberries when they are bright red all over, ideally during the warmest part of the day because this is when they are at their most tasty.
- Eat them as soon as possible; they do not keep well, but some can be frozen or made into preserves.
Propagation
It's simple to make more strawberry plants. The plants send out runners over the surface of the soil during the growing season. Up to 5 of these can be pegged down, usually in June or July, while attached to the mother plant. When they form a separate plant cut them from the original plant.
Strawberry Fruiting
Eaten fresh or in desserts, strawberries are easy to grow and the perfect summer fruit.
Honeoye | High yields with a sweet and juicy fruit. Perfect for jam making, as a desert or for freezing. | Early Season |
Korona | Very large fruits with great flavour. Very adaptable to all conditions. | Early Season |
Romina | Sweet and juicy with high nutritional value. Good disease resistance. | Early Season |
Cambridge Favourite | Great for container growing, high yields, disease resistance and jam making. | Mid Season |
Elsanta | Long cropping period with reliable fruit, good flavour. | Mid Season |
Hapil | Very large fruits, high yields, great commercial variety, good in a dry summer. | Mid Season |
Red Gauntlet | High yields of large fruit, with a second crop in autumn. Good for growing under cloches/tunnels. | Mid Season |
Sonata | Good commercial variety with large, uniform, sweet fruits. | Mid Season |
Sweetheart | Great in containers or in the ground, fast growing, high nutritional value and sweet flavour. | Mid Season |
Pegasus | High yields and flavour with good pest and disease resistance. Better for heavy soils. | Late Summer |