Strawberries: from planting to harvesting

The sweet strawberries simply taste best from your own garden. We show what is important when planting and caring for strawberries.

The start of the season for domestic strawberries (Fragaria) is eagerly awaited by many strawberry lovers every year. And when the time comes and strawberries are even growing in their own garden, adults and children are as happy. Discovering the bright red fruits in the bed and eating them right away is a wonderful experience every year.

We'll tell you how best to plant, care for, overwinter and ultimately harvest and store strawberries so that you can enjoy your harvest to the full. We also provide an overview of the best strawberry varieties for your garden.

Strawberry varieties

If you are looking for strawberries exclusively in the gardening trade, you will unfortunately be denied a huge variety of varieties. Many varieties are less well known, but are well worth a search. Basically, strawberry varieties are to be distinguished primarily according to the time of harvest. The early-ripening varieties (such as 'Fraroma', 'Lambada', 'Haneoye' or 'Elvira') can sometimes be harvested as early as May. The late-ripening varieties (for example 'Symphony' or 'Mieze Schindler') bear fruit until around the end of August. The popular varieties 'Korona' and 'Sonata' are among the mid-early ripening varieties that ripen during the strawberry season. There are also varieties that have been in foal twice or more times, such as 'Ostara'. The different varieties vary not only in terms of ripening, but also in terms of their taste, their consistency, their demands on the location and their susceptibility to disease and many more Factors. which Strawberry variety best suits you and your garden, you can read here.

Plant strawberries

There are a few things to keep in mind when planting strawberries for a successful harvest. We counter tips on site selection and planting time and also show you how to grow strawberries on the balcony or even vertically.

Planting strawberries: location choice

As always, successful cultivation depends largely on the location in which the plant feels comfortable and the right approach to planting.

Strawberry plants are very sensitive to frost. They therefore prefer sheltered places where no cold lakes form. Sunny locations with well-structured, well-ventilated, humus soil are therefore ideal. Like most berries, strawberries also like a slightly acidic soil, although botanically they are not berries at all, but rather common nuts. On the other hand, they do not tolerate soil compaction and waterlogging as well. So where there is a bed with not too loamy, heavy soil in a sunny location that is as sheltered from the wind as possible, nothing speaks against planting it with strawberries.

Strawberries are relatively undemanding and can therefore be easily planted in pots or flower boxes. For example, the Plantura organic tomato & vegetable soil outstanding. In this way, balcony owners can also grow the delicious summer fruits at home. In addition, pots often have the advantage that they are easy to transport and that the strawberry plants can be better protected from frost in this way. When it is dry, however, the roots in a pot have fewer options for water supply. When cultivating strawberries in pots, more attention should therefore be paid to watering than in the bed.

Planting strawberries: planting time

Strawberries are best planted from late July to mid-August. In late summer and autumn they will then have enough time to develop roots and flower buds for the first harvest next year. If you missed this period of time, you can still plant the strawberries without worries until September and also in spring. However, these only bear fruit a year later.

Planting strawberries: procedure in four steps

1. Before planting, work some compost, composted manure or organic fertilizer into the soil or add some of it to the planting hole when planting. This gives the little strawberry plants energy to grow.
2. Place the plants on the bed so that there is always 25 to 30 cm of space between the strawberries. Leave a gap of about 40 to 45 cm to the next row. In pots or troughs, a circular space with a diameter of 25 cm is calculated for each plant. The strawberry is planted in the center of the circle.
3. Now the young plants are placed in the ground. Pay attention to the correct planting depth. This is very important because the heart leaves (the small tips of vegetation in the middle of the plant) or the roots of plants that are too deep can rot easily. Strawberries that are planted too high, on the other hand, run the risk of their roots drying out.
4. Now water the plants properly. In summer temperatures, water a little every day for a week if possible. Then make sure that the strawberries do not dry out for another two to three weeks and water them every few days if necessary.

More detailed information about the perfect location and the right procedure for Planting strawberries see this article.

Grow strawberries on the balcony

Especially if you have limited space, you can think about so-called hanging and climbing strawberries. All strawberry varieties that produce strong runners are suitable for both climbing and hanging. If you want a climbing strawberry, the tendrils are pulled up on a scaffold. If you do not do this, you automatically have hanging strawberries, as the runners hang down from the mother plant. Traffic light strawberries are also another way of harvesting strawberries on balconies or making them look decorative.

More on how to Grow strawberries on the balcony can learn from this article.

Grow strawberries vertically

If you have very little space available, you can also grow strawberries vertically, i.e. one above the other. This is the trend of so-called vertical gardening, which is both space-saving and decorative.

How to use gutters or pipes to create a vertical strawberry garden create, you can find out here in our special article.

Caring for strawberries

For a high-yield harvest, strawberries should be properly fertilized, watered and overwintered. We will also show you why it is worth pruning after the harvest.

Fertilize strawberries

The nutritional requirements of strawberries are not very high and garden soils are usually rich in nutrients. Nevertheless, you can promote your little plants a little. When planting strawberries should be a little compost be added - that helps with growth. Slow-acting organic fertilizers are also suitable. After each harvest, we recommend fertilizing with compost (approx. 3 to 5 l / m²), composted manure or high-potassium fertilizer such as ours Plantura organic tomato fertilizer. In autumn the plants will form the flowers for the next year and need a lot of energy for this. In the following spring there is a little compost again for the plants (3 to 5 l / m²) or fertilizer (see packaging for the amount to be used). Continue this way until autumn, when the plants will be harvested for the last time (usually after three harvest years).

More information on the correct Fertilizing strawberries can be found here in our special article.

Primarily organic long-term fertilization: Instructions and dosage quantities for strawberries

1. Before planting: 60-110 g / m² (5 to 9 tablespoons) of our Plantura Organic tomato fertilizer work into the top soil layers
2. Water the soil and the freshly placed plants well so that the granules can dissolve
3. In autumn after harvest and in spring fertilize 40-70 g per plant (3 to 5 heaped tablespoons)

tip: If you are ours Plantura organic universal fertilizer already have at home, you can simply use this to fertilize your strawberries. Although it is less rich in potassium than the tomato fertilizer, it is still well suited.

Pour strawberries

The strawberry places high demands on its water supply. At the time of its very early budding, it can usually still feed on the relatively moist winter soil. Between flowering and maturity, however, irrigation should definitely be carried out during the dry periods, also during the growing phase. In the latter, it is particularly important to water daily, whereas for mature plants it is usually sufficient to water every few days, depending on the weather. Waterlogging is to be avoided. And remember to water in the morning (this is usually better against snails) or in the evening. After the harvest, the plants' metabolism slows down and they no longer need a lot of water. Only after the leaves have been cut off, until the plants have produced new foliage, a little water needs to be added in the event of drought.

Cut strawberries

Strawberry leaves are often attacked by fungal diseases. Among other things, these mushrooms like to overwinter on the strawberry leaves so that they can spread quickly in spring. For this reason, strawberries are cut after the harvest in summer either as a precaution or if the disease is already present to contain the pathogen. However, this cutting of the leaves must be done by the end of July at the latest, so that the plants have enough time have to grow young, healthy leaves and flowers again for the next year before it gets cold in autumn.

In a nutshell: which plants do you cut and how?

• For plants that have already borne fruit, cut off the foliage, especially if the leaves are abnormal
• Freshly planted strawberries are not cut
• In the case of varieties that ripen very late, only cut until mid-August if there is a strong disease infestation
• All leaves are removed in such a way that the heart leaf is not damaged
• The leaves are removed from the bed so that no potential pathogens remain

Hibernate strawberries

Unfortunately, both the roots and the flowers of the strawberry plants cannot stand frost. Because the roots are not very deep and therefore not well protected. The flowers are particularly sensitive in spring and should therefore be protected from late frosts. Strawberries in pots or flower boxes should spend the winter in a sheltered place. If you choose a covered winter location, don't forget to lightly water your plants every now and then on frost-free days. In frost-prone locations, strawberry plants in the pot should be covered with brushwood, straw or fleece, just like their conspecifics in the bed. However, the straw should not cover all of the plants, as this harbors the risk of a damp and fungus-attracting microclimate. Therefore, only place the straw around the plants. Brushwood and fleece are more permeable to air and moisture and can therefore be placed over the whole plant.

More about the Overwintering and cutting strawberries You will find here.

Propagate strawberries or buy plants?

If you would like to have strawberries for your own garden, the question arises whether you should propagate them yourself or buy strawberry plants. We compare these two options below.

Buy strawberries

Strawberry plants are easy to buy in hardware stores, garden shops or online. The price for single plants or sets of several plants is extremely low. However, you should go looking for the right strain with a certain idea. It is therefore advisable to find out beforehand about varieties that are adapted to the location and have the right taste and also not to ignore the time of ripening. If you consider all these criteria when choosing a variety, it can take a while to choose the ideal variety for your garden. This time is usually worth it and you can enjoy your own harvest even more.

Propagate strawberries: sow nuts or plant runners

Strawberries can very easily be propagated yourself using so-called runners, often incorrectly referred to as offshoots. This type of propagation has the advantage that the runners are clones of the mother plants, so you have the same variety that you originally planted. However, depending on how the runners are obtained, there is a risk that the runners will spread soil-borne fungal diseases. But you can avoid that with the right technique.

You can find out exactly how the runners and the somewhat more complex propagation via the nuts of the strawberries work in our article on Propagating strawberries.

Picking, storing and preserving strawberries

With strawberries, the line between not quite ripe and overripe is extremely fine. It is all the more gratifying when you can harvest the red delicacies at the perfect time. But what is the best way to store strawberries when the harvest should bring in more fruit than you can actually eat fresh?

to pick strawberries

Depending on the variety, picking is from the end of May to the end of August. In order for the fruits to hold better, however, you should harvest in the morning when the fruits are still cool. However, it should not be forgotten that strawberries do not ripen afterwards. They should therefore only be harvested when they are red all around. During harvest time, it is advisable to pick two to three times a week.

Store and preserve strawberries

Strawberries are very sensitive fruits and therefore unfortunately do not keep very long fresh. Especially the tasty varieties from the garden that have not been selected for shelf life should therefore be consumed or processed within two days. During this time, the strawberries will be least damaged if they are spread out on a plate or flat bowl in the refrigerator.

The good thing is that there are countless ways to preserve the delicious fruits. Sometimes it makes them even better. Strawberries can be kept very well in the form of jam, compote or in frozen form as ice cream, strained or even as whole fruit. Here you can find more helpful tips on Freezing and preserving your strawberries read up.

In this article you will also find ours 10 best tips for a successful strawberry harvest. And also the Top 5 sweetest strawberry varieties we have compiled for you here.