What colour and taste – when grown at home that is, completely different from those purchased from you know where!
If you are preparing to grow your own, when looking at where to plant them, don’t plant them where tomatoes, eggplants, capsicums or chillis have been in the last 3 years, they can pass on diseases to the strawberries.
Remember they are a European cool climate plant, so they need a little extra attention in Australia, so if you are growing them in one of our many hot areas, grow them under some shade cloth so they don’t get sun burnt.
In cooler climates a good position is nice and warm with full or part sun. They like good air circulation, but be aware, they are shallow rooted, and too much wind can dry them out. They are great to grow in pots, which enables you to move them if it gets too windy or sunny.
Strawberries need good soil – compost, matured manure, mulch, preferably prepared earlier to let the soil mellow. 2 weeks before planting pull the mulch back a bit and water the soil with some liquid fertiliser.
You can buy strawberry runners from your local garden centre. You are looking for runners with healthy white roots, removing any that are old and crusty. Remove leaves from the crown, dig a wide hole with a little bit of raised soil in the middle, then place the crown on the soil, fanning out the roots over the mound. Back fill, making sure the crown stays at ground level and is not buried. Water and mulch.
Keep an eye on them and give them another feed in about 3 weeks and then again once they start to flower. Strawberries like moist soil, but not soaking, and avoid wetting the foliage and fruit (to evade fungus).
It is hard to be exact about when they will harvest as there are too many influencing factors – type, weather, soil, location, but they can be renewed for many years. Be aware that they can be sensitive to virus and you should move them every 3 years or so to a new bed – or let them run there themselves!
Strawberries can take over a bed sending out runners. If you want to contain this, you can pull some up and transplant the pups into little pots then back into the ground or in a bigger pot when they are ready. Or give them to friends or family, one plant can send out a lot of runners
Enjoy!
Peter