Growing Strawberry Plants
(Fragaria)
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
| P | P |
(Best months for growing Strawberry Plants in USA - Zone 5a regions)
P = Plant out (transplant) seedlings
- Easy to grow. Plant with crown (of roots) just covered.. Best planted at soil temperatures between 50°F and 68°F.
- Space plants: 12 - 39 inches apart
- Harvest in approximately 11 weeks. Strawberries bruise easily when ripe, handle carefully. Pick with a small piece of stem attached..
- Compatible with (can grow beside): Better in a bed on their own to allow good sun and air circulation
- Avoid growing close to: If you are using rotation beds, avoid putting strawberries where you have grown tomatoes, potatoes, peppers or eggplant
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Ripening fruit
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Strawberry plants
Strawberries are low-growing, leafy plants,between 12-15cm (about 6 inches) high and will spread to about 50-100cm (20-40 inches). They have five petalled flowers, usually white or sometimes pink. The flowers are followed by delicious red fruits, which have their seeds on the outside. Later in the season, the plants send out runners like thin stems, across the garden. They will take root to form new plants. Cut them off and leave the parent growing.
At the end of fruiting, trim off old yellow leaves and clean up any mouldy fruit still attached.
Strawberries like well drained soil with plenty of humus . To prepare your bed, dig in some compost before planting and possibly use a liquid fertiliser during the growing season. Well fed strawberries taste better. To protect the fruit from moulds, use some form of mulch around the plants. Straw, pine needles, or black plastic are all suitable. Mulch will also help suppress weeds. Protect your plants with some sort of netting or bird scarer or you will lose most of your crop.
Culinary hints - cooking and eating Strawberry Plants
Pick strawberries and eat them straight from the garden - warm from the sunshine, delicious!
Strawberries can be used in any dessert needing soft fruit or berries. Summer pudding which also has raspberries and blackberries or boysenberries, mousse, trifle, dipped in melted chocolate or just with cream.
Sprinkle a bowl of strawberries with balsamic vinegar and a little sugar to enhance the flavour and colour.
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