How I Grow Strawberries

Most gardeners have grown strawberries at some point or other.  You can't beat helping yourself to a fresh strawberry straight off the plant when working on the plot.  Over the years we have grown strawberries from shop bought plants planted outside in containers, grown strawberries from seeds and also grown from runners taken from plants of others.  But, by far the most successful and easiest to manage method has been growing from bare root.  I find bare root plants very affordable, and successful.  They might not look like much when the plants are delivered, but I found that they have been really reliable.

The local countryside is full of fresh fruit farmers.  In Spring and Summer, polytunnels cover thousands of acres of land all geared up for giving crops the best of starts, and this area of the country is particularly well known for growing strawberries.  Taking the lead from the local farmers, I also grow my strawberries in the polytunnel, but on a much smaller scale obviously.  To maximise the use of space in the polytunnel, I use cheap hanging baskets purchased from Amazon.

I don't use any specific sort of compost to grow them in.  Just good quality multi purpose compost.  To help give the plants some additional nutrition to start them off, I mix in a bit of blood, fish and bone with the compost.  I plant the bare root plants in the depth of Winter, towards the end of January while the new plants are still in their dormant phase.

The compost needs to be kept damp, but not soaking, so a sprinkle of water through the mix and a further waters once the plants are in place.  Then, it's just a case of hanging them up and leaving them to it through the Winter.

With the warmth of the polytunnel, (but depending on weather, this can change each year) sometime in February, the bare root plants should start seeing signs of new green growth.

Keeping the plants undercover in their baskets can mean that come March, you will see some great progress.  It's important to keep an eye on the compost moisture and the weather though.  Frost and snow are still easily possibly through March, and it might be necessary to cover the plants with fleece for those sub zero temperature periods.  Again, the compost needs to be kept damp but not wet.  Sometimes you might need to water once a week.  Other times, maybe several times depending how mild the Spring weather is.

There should be ample nutrition in the compost, along with the blood, fish and bone for good plant development to take place through into May time.  When the first signs of flowers start to appear though, it might be an idea to start introducing some additional feed.  Watering requirements will have also increased by late Spring, so I tend to use a liquid seaweed feed with the watering.  I'll feed the plants every couple of weeks while they are producing flowers and fruit.

In a good year, growing under a polytunnel you could be harvesting by as early as the start of May depending on the variety of strawberry plant.  Like many other fruit and veg, different varieties have been bred and adapted to crop at different times through the year.

As the year progresses, keep on top of the watering and feeding.  Obviously as it gets warmer through the Summer, watering may need to be increased to a daily occurrence.  At some point, the polytunnel may get too hot to accommodate the strawberry plants, or I may just run out of room.  At this point, I take the baskets out of the tunnel and put them outside.  By this point, harvest maybe over or slowing down, so there's not much risk of the fruit being snaffled away by pests or rodents.  Also, now the plants will start sending out their runners in a new phase of growth.  Some growers will use these runners to create new plants.  For the first year though, I cut the runners back.  Strawberry plants should be good for 2 or 3 years in my opinion, so unless you want to increase the number of plants you have, the runners can be cut back.

Through the remainder of the Summer, I keep an eye out for any later developing flowers or fruit, but by this point, the plants shouldn't really be producing much more until eventually into Autumn, the foliage starts to die back.  Every couple of weeks, I work through each of the plants and cut away the dead growth and any other runners.  Eventually, as temperatures drop, the plants will go back to their dormant phase.  At this point, the plants are brought back into the polytunnel and hung up again for the Winter, ready to start again in Spring.

In my experience, bare root plants are a great, cheap and reliable of growing good quality strawberries.  You don't have the hassle of growing from seed, which is always challenging as often, you won't get a worthwhile crop in the first year.  Bare root strawberry plants are also cheaper than buying potted plants, so for a little extra effort you can get as good a crop from cheaper bare root starts that individual potted plants from the garden centres.  It's unlikely that I will grow on runners, unless I intend giving them to someone else, so I will always look at starting afresh every 2 to 3 years with new plants.  This will also allow me to try new varieties as the years go by.

Varieties grown: Elsanta and Cambridge Favourite