Growing Strawberries

[Cliff]

Hi gang,

This is a nice thread on Strawberries!  I'd like to add a few lessons learned from us at AeroGrow and from me personally.  Be warned this will probably be a long post.  I'll try not to ramble...

(By the way, I'm by no means an expert in strawberries.  I have grown them outdoors, growing up in Minnesota and Alaska for 20 years.  I have also grown 3 seasons of them in my AeroGardens at home.  All of my information at this point is based on those experiences.  It may be that different varieties of Strawberries will perform differently then I have seen.)

First off, Peat, I hate to say this, but if those were my berries I'd probably pinch off the flowers as soon as possible.  Allow me to explain;

Generally when strawberries flower before they have a well established crown, it's a stress response.  Your berries are better off developing a crown that's at least 1/4 of an inch in diameter before you allow them to flower.  You will get larger, sweeter berries with a larger and more established crown.  Right now your little guys are splitting their energies between developing roots, a more robust system of leaves, expanding and securing their crowns, AND producing flowers quickly so they can propagate.  One of the triggers that I had always used at home is to allow your plants to develop runners before you allow them to develop flowers.  When a strawberry plant is mature enough to think about propagating by runners, it's generally mature enough to make berries.

Concerning growing strawberries from seeds;  Depending on the variety of strawberries you acquire it can take up to a year for the plants to produce berries.  That's a long time to have a plant in your AeroGarden with out a berry to show for it.  Typically at AeroGrow we only tried to grow daughter plants that were grown from runners and had a good sized crown.

One other thing you want to consider when growing strawberries in your AeroGarden is that it's important to keep your crowns from becoming too wet.  Certain varieties of strawberries can be more susceptible to crown rot than others.  Keeping the majority of the crown well above the sponge could be crucial.   (We have yet to complete significant tests of strawberries in the new peat based plugs.  We will most likely begin a new round of tests nearer to the holidays.)

I am pleased to say that we are still committed to making strawberries successful in the AeroGarden.  Somedays it's 3 steps forward and 1 step back...  Other days it's reverse.  <grin>

I hope this has helped.

Cliff

[Peat]

Thanks for the information Cliff, this is my first foray into growing strawberries and I appreciate your help.

I will pinch off my flowers as you said.

The description of these strawberries said : An abundance of large, firm, bright red fruits, throughout the summer until the frosts, from an early spring sowing

This would seem to me that they will produce this summer so, hopefully, I can get something this year?

[Cliff]

My pleasure Peat.

I feel that I have to share that, in my experience, strawberries from seed rarely give good fruit the first year.   Also, I have never grown them in a container, but I have generally heard that they need to experience some degree of cold their first year in the ground to maximize their potential.

I don't know what variety you are growing, but I would recommend talking to a local nursery about the best conditions for strawberries.  There is also a wealth of information on the web.

Last fall I planted 9 daughter plants into a raised bed here in Colorado.  They all had just enough time to become established but I failed to mulch them properly and only 4 of them survived the Colorado winter.  Those four plants are now nearly 12 inches in diameter and nearly 8 inches tall.  All of them have produced a large number of runners.  I currently have 14 new plants establishing in the garden. 

Of those first 4 plants, two have begun to regularly flower and produce fruit.  1/3 of the fruit is about the size of a penny, but the rest is about the size of a quarter.  All of it is delicious.  I currently get about 1 berry every 3 days.  Once my plot is fully grown and established, (about 2 more years at this rate) I will have a 5' by 5' bed of very happy strawberries, and be producing roughly a pint a week throughout the summer.

I have found that strawberries take a lot of love and time to properly establish, but once the garden is flourishing they are quite care free and the rewards far outpace the amount of effort you put into them. 

Cliff

[Peat]

The seeds I selected were http://seeds.thompson-morgan.com/uk/en/product/998/1

The reason being that they seemed suitable for the AG, compact plants suitable for containers. It took quite a bit of searching around to come up with these, I didn't realise how many strawberries were on the market!

Looking at my container, I may have planted them too close as well 

[Ellen]

I planted all kinds of stuff too close in my outdoor container gardens too Peat. Some of the stuff is thriving but I am actually considering pulling some of the plants to give some of the stronger ones some space.   

[Peat]

I got carried away with all the daughter plants I grew, pegging every runner into soil and producing more!

Like you, I will probably have to remove some.

[rosepruner]

I personally have had trouble getting my strawberry plants to fruit very well the first year, and the second year they do ok, and the third year nothing... but then I have them in planters, and i think some of them dried out over the winter because they didn't get any snow because of where I had them. Believe it or not even while they're hibernating they do still need to get some water, even if it's just frozen water. i've just about given up on strawberries because they're a lot of work for very little results, in my experience.  I'm glad to hear that some of you have had better luck with the silly plants then I ever did.

[Cliff]

The odds are good that your berries both froze and dried out.  From what I have read, and experimented with, a 3 inch covering with a straw mulch is great winter cover.  You would want to apply it just about the time the ground temp reaches 40 degrees, (another measure is to apply it just after the third frost.)

The straw mulch does a very good job of keeping the plants protected and holding water.  You will want to remove most of the mulch in the spring once you start seeing green shoots breaking through.  Leaving some of the mulch will keep your berries from touching the ground, but if you leave all of the mulch, you run the risk of introducing decay to your crowns.

I have never tried growing strawberries in a container, so I have no practical advice on how to winter them in that environment.

Cliff

[Joyce]

I found growing strawberries in the ground to be easier than just about anything else.  Each year they mutliplied and produced more berries then the year before.  The only hard part was keeping the crittters out of them.  In a container you would do best to but the container in the basement or garrage to keep the real hard freezes from killing them and give a little water every other week. 

[Peat]

Well, at long last, here they are looking good to eat. Only two ripe ones so far but there are more developing.

Feeling hungry yet?

[gisette]

Cool, Peat! How big are those berries?

[Ellen]

They're so pretty Peat. You'll have to let us know how they taste too.   

[Peat]

Well, they look huge in the photograph (great telephoto lens ), but are, infact, just a little bigger than a dime...

This is the first crop so perhaps they are a little smaller than they should be? I will hang on a little longer and see if they increase in size, if not then it's strawberries and cream for them - hey, my first ever grown strawberry; they/I deserve it. 

Will let you know how they taste Ellen.

[Ellen]

I seem to remember Cliff saying something about first year strawberries in a previous post as not being as prolific. But then Peat, they are your first and that's always exciting!

[Peat]

I didn't actually expect anything this year, so it's pretty good that I have something - however small.

From my maths days... Doesn't Small=Tasty?   

[Ellen]

That sounds accurate to me too Peat!   

[Cliff]

Nice work Peat,

and unfortunately, no.. small does not equal tasty.  <grin>    I am harvesting about a pint of strawberries each week from my little outdoor patch and I can attest that the larger the crown, the bigger the berries and the bigger berries are by far tastier.

I have some research to do on my outdoor strawberries though.   They are definitely tasty, but they are very, very soft.  It may have a lot to do with the quality of soil they are grown in.  The patch I'm growing in is mostly Clay/Sand.   I have to do some research, but it's quite likely I'll rip out the entire batch this spring and import some better soil.   

[Joyce]

Too much nitrogen will make strawberries soft.  Stawberries like a more acid soil.  Adding aged cow manure is one of the best things you can add to the soil for strawberries.  I think if you just add the cow manure you'll notice they firm up a bit.

[Cliff]

excellent!  Thank you Joyce.  I'll do that today.

[Peat]

Thank you Cliff,

I will amend my formula to Small ≤ Tasty, they weren't too bad, just a little small & soft. It's only the first year so I expect things to improve next year. They are currently being grown in quality peat - no relation. 

It was a shame I had to remove them from my AG, I would have liked to have kept them in there and grown them hydroponically. It would have been an interesting experiment, but, they took soooo long and I wanted to move onto growing other plants.

When I get round to it they need spacing out, I will need to dig some up and replant in another container - they are getting very crowded.