Plant and care for properly

Cultivation behind glass

When you no longer want to search for wild strawberries along the edges of the forest and in clearings, plant the delicious fruits in your own garden or on the balcony at. The best time for that sowing begins at the end of February and extends to mid-March. How to handle the cultivation in the house:

• in advance the Seeds soak in water for 4-6 hours
• Peat sand, coconut fiber or commercially available Sowing soil pour into a seed bowl
• Scatter the seeds, sieve them thinly and moisten with water from the spray bottle
• Cover with foil or place in the greenhouse at 18-20 degrees Celsius

The germ layers show up within 3 weeks. The cover is now ventilated more frequently until it falls away completely. The location should now be light, but not full sun, and a little cooler so that the seedlings do not die off. Piked the youngsters with 3-4 leaves are placed in individual pots, where they must be kept constantly moist until they are planted out.

Select location and prepare carefully

In contrast to sensitive cultivated strawberries, wild strawberries offer in terms of Choice of location more flexibility. As the robust plants in the wild prove, they thrive excellently even under less optimal light conditions. The local strawberries achieve their optimum under the following conditions:

• sunny to partially shaded locations
• easy growth also as underplanting of bushes and trees
• nutrient-rich, humus-rich, fresh-moist soil
• in the Flower box or bucket is used commercially Potting soil based on compost as a substrate

The soil is loosened up deeply so that the young plants you have grown yourself or bought ready to take root cheerfully. Weeds, roots and stones have to give way completely. Ideally, you should clean the excavation with a Pass-through sieve. Then enrich the soil with compost, stable manure, horse manure or a special one Berry fertilizer.(€ 11.35 at Amazon *)

When is the planting time for wild strawberries?

You have the choice between two planting dates, each of which has its own advantages. Wild strawberries planted in July will deliver the first fruits as early as May next year. Under good weather conditions, young plants planted in March or April bear the first fruit curtain in the same year.

Instructions for professional planting

Give the groomed floor a few days to sit down. Then you can start with the plantswithout working the clod again intensively.

• Put the potted young plant in water for 30 minutes
• In the meantime dig holes with twice the volume of the root ball
• a planting distance of 20 centimeters is considered sufficient or 25 plants per square meter
• Pot the soaked plants, place in the soil and water generously
• the heart bud must stand above the surface

in the pot or balcony box, first create a drainage over the floor openings so that no waterlogging occurs. Suitable inorganic material are crushed pottery shards, pebbles, Grit(€ 49.99 at Amazon *) or Perlite.(€ 39.50 at Amazon *) Then fill in the substrate halfway, press a hollow in it and plant the wild strawberries.

Maintain properly right from the start

The planting went in the garden and successful on the balcony, your wild strawberries will present an enchanting white bloom in May. So that the growth process leads to the longed-for harvest of sugar-sweet fruits, the following aspects are important in the care:

• regularly to water, whereby the substrate should dry
• before flowering fertilize with compost or liquid fertilizer
• break out the first flowers after planting to increase the yield
• mulch with straw or Bark mulch from the beginning of fruiting

If you have done everything correctly, you will harvest countless small red strawberries with a wonderful aroma throughout the summer until the first frost. Keep in mind that even wild strawberries are not to ripen. Only pick fruits that are completely colored. Specimens with a green and white border will not be harvested.

How to prepare wild strawberries for winter

Wild strawberries are hardy and can therefore be cultivated for several years without any problems. So that the plants thrive just as diligently in the next season, they receive another care cycle after the harvest. Before the buds for the following year are planted in autumn, cut The plants back. The heart bud is not affected by this measure.

Following the pruning, wild strawberries are fertilized with compost or an alternative organic resp. mineral preparation. Winter protection is not required in the bed. The specimens in the planter are placed on a wooden block in front of the house wall. Wrapped in bubble wrap or Garden fleece, the root area is protected from freezing through.

Tips & Tricks

The wild strawberry diligently spreads out a large number of foothills. If you stem this urge to spread by pruning, the delicate leaves are far too good to dispose of on the compost. Scalded with boiling water, they make an invigorating and at the same time highly aromatic tea.