Get It Growing: Growing strawberries
Published 3:38 pm Wednesday, April 29, 2015
Recipe: Strawberry Smoothie
By Betsy Wharton, Clallam Canning Company
Ingredients:
• 2 cups frozen strawberries
• 1 banana (frozen, if available)
• 1 cup yogurt or milk
• ½ cup orange juice
• 2 cups of spinach
Place all ingredients into a blender and process until smooth. Pour into tall glasses and serve.
Makes: 4 servings.
Strawberries grow well in the Pacific Northwest. For a bumper crop (and enough strawberries for smoothies, shortcake, fresh eating and more), follow these simple steps.
Select strawberry varieties suited to our climate. (See sidebar.) Three types of strawberries are available: June-bearers, everbearers and day-neutrals.
June-bearers have the largest and most flavorful berries. They produce only one bumper crop each summer around June or July.
Everbearers and day-neutrals produce smaller and fewer berries. Everbearers produce two crops (in June and again in late summer or early fall) and day-neutrals produce berries throughout the summer.
Plant June-bearing varieties for high quality berries for freezing and preserving and everbearing or day-neutral varieties for an extended harvest of fresh strawberries.
Locate strawberries in an area with full sun, well-drained soil and good air circulation. Avoid frost pockets (low-lying areas into which cold air drains) because strawberries bloom in spring and can be damaged by late frosts.
Plant strawberries as soon as the soil is dry enough to be worked in early spring. To plant bare-root strawberries, the most economical way to start a strawberry patch, dig a hole deep enough to allow the roots to go straight down but somewhat spread. Set plants so that the soil covers the roots completely but not the delicate crown (the growing point where new leaves emerge).
For strawberry plants purchased in containers, dig a hole twice the size of the rootball and set plants at the same depth as at the nursery.
Give plants sufficient room to grow. June-bearing strawberries produce more runners (“daughter plants”) and need extra room. Plant June-bearing strawberries about 15 inches apart in single rows that are 3-4 feet apart. Plant everbearers and day-neutrals 12 inches apart in two or three closely-placed rows.
Remove all runners from everbearers and day-neutrals. For June-bearers, position runners so that they fill in between the mother plants. When a density of five or six plants per square foot is achieved, remove subsequent runners from June-bearers.
Fertilize new plants with a balanced fertilizer (one with equal proportions of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) at 2, 6 and 10 weeks after planting.
Observe plant growth to guide fertilizing practices after the first year. Fertilize your strawberries if plant growth is not good. Fertilize June-bearers in late July (after the harvest) and everbearers and day-neutrals a couple of times throughout the summer. Do not fertilize strawberries after early August.
Because strawberry plants have shallow roots, hand weed carefully. Mulch around the base of the plants to keep fruit from lying directly on the soil, conserve moisture and control weeds.
Water deeply but infrequently, about 1-2 inches each week. Use drip irrigation, if possible, to minimize wetting the fruit and foliage.
Protect your strawberries from the cold. In late fall, cover plants with 3-5 inches of loose straw after temperatures drop below freezing.
In spring, remove the straw when you see new leaves emerging. Use floating row cover in early spring if plants are in bloom and frost threatens.
Strawberry plantings have a more limited life span than other berries. When productivity declines after about 3-5 years, it is time to find a new planting site and start all over again.
Strawberry cultivars recommended for Western Washington stae:
June-bearing — Hood, Puget Summer, Puget Reliance, Rainier, Shuksan, Tillamook
Everbearing — Quinault, Fort Laramie
Day-neutral — Seascape, Tribute, Tristar
Jeanette Stehr-Green is a Washington State University-certified, Clallam County Master Gardener.
