Strawberries are one of my favourite fruits. I love that we can grow them here and not have to rely on buying them at the grocery store.

If you ever talk to seasoned strawberry growers, you’ll know that they are pretty insistent on the type of plant they grow, and why that’s the best strawberry.

But don’t let that gardening talk scare you from growing them in your garden.

Strawberries are a simple plant and when treated well, will continue to grow year after year in your garden giving you abundant fruit.

Parts of the Plant

Roots

Having healthy roots is super important to the survival of your plant. They grow quite shallow and are often only in the top 3-4” of soil.
This means it’s really important to keep them well watered. Especially when you first plant them and they’re trying to get established in the garden.

Crown

The crown is the first short stem that comes off the roots. When you plant the strawberry, you don’t want to bury that crown or the plant will rot. That dotted line on the photo is where your soil line should be.
Planting too shallow and the roots will stick out and then the plant will dry out and die.
From this crown is where all the branches, leaves and fruit stems are going to grow.

Leaves

The leaves are going to supply your plants with all the energy needed to grow.
Throughout the growing season a new leaf will be produced every 8-12 days. The leaves can live up to 3 months and then will start to die.
As the temperatures drop you may notice that the leaves will grow larger and faster in preparation for winter.

Where to plant them?

Strawberries need full sun to grow to their best potential. So choose a spot in your garden that gets at least 12 hours of sunlight.
They also don’t like to have wet feet. So make sure you’re not planting them in the lowest area of your garden. If it rains a lot, they’ll be too wet and could start to rot.
Having access to water for irrigation is important. So make sure they’re close enough to the house or purchase a few extra garden hoses to get that water to them!
Nice rich soil is also important. You can add compost or well-aged manure to your garden to give those plants a great boost.
Avoid the heavy clay areas of your garden. The soil will stay super wet when it rains and then the soil will get rock hard when it’s dry.

Types of Strawberries

Day-Neutral

Day Neutral strawberries aren’t sensitive to the length of days. This means that the plants will start to produce flowers and then fruit when the temperatures start to warm up in the late spring and early summer.
Most varieties will start producing flowers and fruit in July and will continue well into September or October, depending on when you have a killing frost.
Varieties to choose from Tristar, Seascape, Tribute, Albion, Fern and Hecker

June Bearing

June Bearing strawberries will start to form their flower buds in the late summer and early fall (after fruit production) when the day length is shortening.
These flower buds will finish developing in the spring. This is why they have a short window of production from Late June to Early July. They take the summer off of producing fruit to set those flower buds for the next season.
It’s very important to keep watering your strawberries even after fruit production so that they can set those fruit buds in the fall!

Varieties to choose from: Kent, Glooscap, Red Coat, Honeoye, Bounty, Jewel, Cabot, Cavendish, Brunswick, Wendy, St. Laurent

Is one better than the other?

Choosing which type of strawberry is all about personal preference.

If you’re looking to put a pile of fruit into the freezer in a short time frame you might want the June Bearing. If you like to spread out your food processing and enjoy weekly fresh fruit you might want the Day Neutral.

Maybe try a few plants of each and then decide from there.

What do I have in my garden?

I’m experimenting with a few different varieties of strawberries. I currently have Wendy, St, Laurent and Albion and have grown Seascape in the past.

Next spring (2023) I will be adding Seascape berries back into my garden. I love them more than any other strawberry I’ve grown. I find that they are very productive and give the biggest berries I’ve seen.

Go Big! Go Small!

You can never go wrong with strawberries in your garden. It doesn’t matter whether you plant 10 plants for a little bit of fresh eating or 500 to fill your freezer up for winter.

Garden-grown berries have way more flavour than any berry shipped across the country. You won’t be disappointed!

Dreaming of Fresh Strawberries…….

Heidi Motz

Day Neutral or June Bearing? Taking the confusion out of growing strawberries