EVERYTHING I wish I Knew When I First Planted Strawberries

My strawberry garden wasn't always abundant. In fact, I made a lot of mistakes. In my first strawberry patch, I made so many that I decided to do a whole video outlining all the mistakes I made.

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[fitzluna]

An old horticulturist taught me a trick: if birds are after your strawberries, spray paint a bunch of berry-sized rocks red, and scatter in your strawberry bed before the berries ripen. The birds will learn that the red does not equal food and leave the ripe berries alone.

[mitchellgrell]

Dear Luke, in Germany we grow strawberries in a sightly different way. We usually take good growing runners from the existing patch, and once early potatoes are harvested ( or other early crops), we use this ground as the new patch. We plant the young strawberry plants from mid July until mid October - for the best root development the earlier the better! We water and fertilize them during the late summer and autumn months. In late May and June we have great harvests with large strawberries. If you let these plants stay for a second year, you have more berries the second year, but they tend to be a bit smaller. We usually take the old strawberry plants after the second year, because they generally are already exhausted. We also mulch (most often with straw), for the reasons you mentioned. Thanks for the video. I learned some new tips as well!

[jeannamcgregor]

I wish I had known that every critter in my garden (especially the raccoons) will steal ripe strawberries the night before I planned to pick them. I can't just have an open bed: they need to be contained in a sturdy strawberry prison. The best are made of hardware cloth with jagged cut edges...netting just isn't enough.

[Handmaidenofyeshua]

Absolutely did not know strawberry plants from seeds do not produce well the first few years. Was pulling my hair out as to what I was doing wrong. Thank you, now I can throw away my wigs!!😂

[mostuniquemary]

Last year I did an experiment where I interplanted bush beans with new strawberries in one bed and no interplanting in another bed (no fertilizer, fresh compost garden soil). HUGE difference! For those that don't know, beans add nitrogen to the soil.
The rocks work like a charm! Did that last year (just red, we didn't do the green and black)....gave me SOOOO many more strawberries! I've put them out and there's peck marks on them already. Grrr.

[wenn]

I have a large raised bed of strawberries next to my house. On the open side are bricks and then a walkway and my yard. The biggest problem I have is slugs. I cover them with tulle fabric and weight it down with bricks as soon as they start turning. I was a little slow this year and lost a couple, but it really helps. Keeps birds away, too. I use dark green tulle so it isn't obvious from the road. It works much better than bird netting and is way cheaper. Works great for berry bushes, too.

[jadeinthewoods]

Seascape strawberries are super tough and they spread like crazy! I bought about 20 bare root plants 3 years ago and now have three 10 ft beds filled with ever bearings plants. Every spring, I thin the beds out a bit by transferring about 10 to a new bed and those take off as well. I think I spent $30 on the original plants and now we get so many strawberries every year that we don’t know what to do with them all. Yes, they definitely need good compost to grow well. Good compost and lots of sun.

[amandasupak]

Chapter select
1:05 Mistake 1
2:54 Mistake 2
5:25 Mistake 3
6:43 Mistake 4
9:31 Mistake 5
10:43 Mistake 6

BONUS! 6:14 Squirrel found by @Contest WIll

[wendymacneill]

Didn’t know that I should be planning on replacing my plants after 4 years and changing the bed. Your regrets are now my wisdom. Thanks!

[gailharden]

The first lesson I learned, was don’t plant too deep; like the crown needs to be above the dirt level. I lost EVERY PLANT because I planted them too deep. So I repurchased and replanted. The second ones are doing great. I didn’t realize they need a good bit of fertilizer. I’ll do better on that too. I do keep them watered good, and have put a bird netting over them. Hope to have strawberries soon. Thanks for all the info. Love your videos. From Georgia!

[loristricklin]

I have learned that growing bare root anything is to soak the plant in water to rehydrate the roots before planting. Do not soak overnight as this will lead to mushy roots and dead plants. Soak for a couple of hours prior to planting out. I use straw to mulch my beds (that is where the name "straw"berry came from). The straw not only helps with keeping the ground moist but also keeps the berries from coming into contact with the dirt and rotting. Just a few things I have learned through trial and error.

[valkyrise]

Took me a few years to figure out strawberries! My biggest tip is to remove runners... it seems you are sort of forced to choose between berry production OR new plants. Such a huge difference. Happy growing!

[allysonpfortmiller]

A question I can never seem to get answered is - do you let the plant runners fill up the beds? If you turnover a bed every four years, aren’t you also turning over some plants that are only two years old and still producing? Why not just pull out the old plants and keep the newer ones? too hard to keep track? I have so many questions!

[yooptrooper]

Clip your runners for more and bigger berries, NITROGEN for early green growth, and POTASSIUM for bigger and better fruiting as soon as you get your first flush of flowers. I use 6-24-24, a typical potato fertilizer. Allow one runner per plant if you plan on regenerating your beds the next year.

[crazyskml]

Was not aware that the first year they really don’t fruit. Now that I am older, I am hearing that about a lot of plants more and more. My great uncle had a 2 acre garden, I just always saw fruits and veggies. Was not aware that it took years to get that way.

[Omegawerewolfx]

I let my patch take over the entire area. Then the birds and chipmunks brought seeds to all my neighbors. Now they have strawberries growing like weeds too :P

I keep my Alpine berries to pots so i can move them away from heat in the summer.

[miasmom]

Zone 5a here. The Everbearing variety really does well here.

[batzzz]

I used wild strawberries. Went nuts and turned 10 plants into about 50. excited for those buds to might tonight!

[brandonhorwath]

I'm getting ready to sleep by my strawberry plants with a shotgun...

[judybutler]

Thanks Luke! I always learn something new from you, no matter what you're planting.
I grew 'ever bearing' berries from seed about 3 years ago, starting them off in an 2 X 3 X 4 ft indoor greenhouse.
They started out really well. I had very good grow lights, a humidifier, fertilizer and a little fan. All the best conditions.
However, these plants failed once I put them outside in pots that sit on my balcony railing.
They all died. They were well watered and fertilized but I think the problem was insufficient lighting. Both my balcony and bedroom window face Northern exposure. So, the most direct sunlight was only from sunrise to noon hour. Then, only indirect lighting the rest of each day. I got the plants as far as flowering with a teeny-weeny strawberry in each flower but that was as far as I got so I was at least proud of myself for that. Last year I was in hospital for a year, so I never had a chance to grow anything. But this year, I'm growing some 'Double Petunias' and cherry (indeterminate) tomatoes and will supplement the lighting with grow lights outside. I will try to buy some strawberry seedlings, too, and see what happens. Also going to try a few 'Baby Beets' (for pickling).
Wish me luck, Luke! Have a Great growing season!
Cheers!
Judy
Southwestern Ontario 🇨🇦