"Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did."
Dr William Allen Butler, 17th century English physician & writer
The ancient Greeks called them
komaros, which means "a mouthful"; the Romans called them
fragaria because of their delicate fragrance. By any name, the strawberry is a most wonderful delight. After receiving two magazines with strawberry meals featured on the covers, I had to pause in our pruning discussions to talk about my favorite summer fruit.
Being delectable is not the most important characteristic of strawberries. They are also found on many lists of superfoods (foods high in
phytonutrient content). Strawberries are rich in:
Vitamin C - reduces the severity of colds, important factor in collagen production-aiding in healing skin wounds and broken bones, helps prevent cataracts, is a first line of defense against cancer.
Vitamin A - important for vision, immune function, embryonic development and reproduction, skin health, reducing risk of heart disease, and antioxidant activity.
Iron - builds red blood cells, muscle proteins, and healthy bones, helps blood carry oxygen needed for energy.
Magnesium - needed in every cell in the body, used in over 300 enzymatic functions including regulation of blood sugar, and controls calcium utilization.
Potassium - vital for maintaining the correct water balance in the body, ensures good nerve and muscle function, helps balance the body's pH.
Sulfur - found in all body cells, accounts for 1 percent of your body weight,is an integral part of the biological
cement that forms skin, hair, nails, and the cartilage that shapes your
nose and pads your joints.
Calcium - builds and maintains strong bones and teeth, aids in muscle and nerve control, blood clotting and blood pressure.
Silicon - gives strength and stability to nails and connective tissues, important to bone formation, helps prevent arterial plaques (atherosclerosis).
So now that we know why we should
eat them, let's talk about how to
grow them.
Choosing Your Strawberries Because strawberries are such a fragile and soft fruit, the best source is from a home-grown garden. One of the parent species of the garden strawberry, Alpine strawberries (
Fragaria vesca ) are extremely easy to grow from seeds or divisions. They make good hanging pot or ornamental edging plants. They produce small, aromatic berries from early summer through frost.
There are three types of garden strawberry cultivars (
Fragaria x ananassa ): Junebearers, everbearers, and day-neutrals.
Junebearers are those which bear their fruit in June
(as early as April in Florida and California). This type of strawberry produces a single large crop over 3-4 weeks. If you want to freeze a lot of fruit at once, these are the plant for you. There are early-, mid-, and late-season cultivars available. Junebearers spread by runners.
Everbearers produce a mild crop in June, a few scattered berries though the summer, and a small crop in late August. These are especially productive in northern areas with long summer days. The total harvest for everbearers is much less than the total harvest for Junebearers. This is a great selection if you want fresh berries all summer long. They are easier to control than Junebearers because they produce fewer runners. This is not a type that does well in West Virginia.
Day-neutrals are unaffected by day length. They are extremely productive and bear fruit from June through frost in northern areas, or January through August in milder climates. They are fragile and sensitive to heat, drought and weed competition. If you are willing to give them the care they require, they will reward you with a generous supply of berries throughout the season from relatively few plants.
If you have room, you might plant all four types of strawberries to get maximum harvest.
Planting Your Strawberries In my part of the country
(West Virginia), April is the month to plant strawberries. We should not plant them any later than June 1st. Our average temperature range for April through May is highs of 67-75° F and lows of 44-53° F. You can judge when to plant your strawberries by the dates when your area temperatures fall into these ranges. I plant in raised beds and try to keep to the recommended spacing in those beds. If you plant in traditional rows, the following are planting recommendations.
In soil that is well-worked and without excess moisture plant:
- Junebearing strawberries 18 to 24 inches apart in rows at least 36 inches apart, with the soil line above the roots, but not covering the crowns. Allow the runners to grow in all direction so the daughter plants fill in between the mother plants to form a wide, solid row. Flower buds on the Junebearing strawberries should be manually removed
in the first year to avoid flowering and fruiting stress on the young
plants. Removal of flowers allows the plants to direct their energy into roost
system establishment and the development of a healthy, and large leaf
canopy to fuel next year's crop.
- Everbearing and day-neutral strawberries in a hill system. Space plants 12 inches apart in rows with 24-36 inches between rows. Remove all the runners so only the
original mother plant remains. Removing the runners causes the mother
plant to develop more crowns and flower stalks. Multiple rows are
arranged in groups of two, three or four plants with a two foot walkway
between each group of rows. Plants are set about one foot apart in
multiple rows. Immediately mulch day-neutral strawberries as the plants are very sensitive to warm soil temperatures. Flower buds and runners should be removed only through early July the first year and may be allowed to fruit after this date.
Don't delay...you still have time to get some strawberries planted. You can be biting into your own juicy, sweet fruit as soon as early August. Believe me, you have never tasted a sweeter strawberry than the one you harvest from your own garden!
Please remember to use organic practices with this fragile, soft-skinned fruit. What ever you put on the strawberry plants, you
will be eating. For more information on the importance of organic strawberries, read "
Why Choose Organic Strawberries?" and "
The Dirty Dozen: Top Foods to Choose Organic."
Visit our
Thyme for the Garden resource page for strawberry recipes for health and beauty and good eating.
(WC-1040)
The ancient Greeks called them komaros, which means "a mouthful"; the Romans called them fragaria because of their delicate fragrance. By any name, the strawberry is a most wonderful delight. After receiving two magazines with strawberry meals featured on the covers, I had to pause in our pruning discussions to talk about my favorite summer fruit.
Being delectable is not the most important characteristic of strawberries. They are also found on many lists of superfoods (foods high in phytonutrient content). Strawberries are rich in:
Vitamin A - important for vision, immune function, embryonic development and reproduction, skin health, reducing risk of heart disease, and antioxidant activity.
Iron - builds red blood cells, muscle proteins, and healthy bones, helps blood carry oxygen needed for energy.
Magnesium - needed in every cell in the body, used in over 300 enzymatic functions including regulation of blood sugar, and controls calcium utilization.
Potassium - vital for maintaining the correct water balance in the body, ensures good nerve and muscle function, helps balance the body's pH.
Sulfur - found in all body cells, accounts for 1 percent of your body weight,is an integral part of the biological cement that forms skin, hair, nails, and the cartilage that shapes your nose and pads your joints.
Calcium - builds and maintains strong bones and teeth, aids in muscle and nerve control, blood clotting and blood pressure.
Silicon - gives strength and stability to nails and connective tissues, important to bone formation, helps prevent arterial plaques (atherosclerosis).
Choosing Your Strawberries
Because strawberries are such a fragile and soft fruit, the best source is from a home-grown garden. One of the parent species of the garden strawberry, Alpine strawberries ( Fragaria vesca ) are extremely easy to grow from seeds or divisions. They make good hanging pot or ornamental edging plants. They produce small, aromatic berries from early summer through frost.
There are three types of garden strawberry cultivars ( Fragaria x ananassa ): Junebearers, everbearers, and day-neutrals.
Everbearers produce a mild crop in June, a few scattered berries though the summer, and a small crop in late August. These are especially productive in northern areas with long summer days. The total harvest for everbearers is much less than the total harvest for Junebearers. This is a great selection if you want fresh berries all summer long. They are easier to control than Junebearers because they produce fewer runners. This is not a type that does well in West Virginia.
Day-neutrals are unaffected by day length. They are extremely productive and bear fruit from June through frost in northern areas, or January through August in milder climates. They are fragile and sensitive to heat, drought and weed competition. If you are willing to give them the care they require, they will reward you with a generous supply of berries throughout the season from relatively few plants.
If you have room, you might plant all four types of strawberries to get maximum harvest.
Planting Your Strawberries
In my part of the country (West Virginia), April is the month to plant strawberries. We should not plant them any later than June 1st. Our average temperature range for April through May is highs of 67-75° F and lows of 44-53° F. You can judge when to plant your strawberries by the dates when your area temperatures fall into these ranges. I plant in raised beds and try to keep to the recommended spacing in those beds. If you plant in traditional rows, the following are planting recommendations.
In soil that is well-worked and without excess moisture plant:
Don't delay...you still have time to get some strawberries planted. You can be biting into your own juicy, sweet fruit as soon as early August. Believe me, you have never tasted a sweeter strawberry than the one you harvest from your own garden!
Please remember to use organic practices with this fragile, soft-skinned fruit. What ever you put on the strawberry plants, you will be eating. For more information on the importance of organic strawberries, read " Why Choose Organic Strawberries?" and " The Dirty Dozen: Top Foods to Choose Organic."
Visit our Thyme for the Garden resource page for strawberry recipes for health and beauty and good eating.
(WC-1040)