Raising Strawberries—a New Breakthrough!

Speed-raising strawberries, see below!

Ever since we started our homestead garden, strawberries have been one of our main crops. And for years and years, I followed all the best practices for planting and cultivating: 

*Planted healthy, bare-root nursery starts in fertile soil

*Pinched off the first-year flowers for vibrant root-growth, 

*Watered and fertilized them regularly, and as growers recommend,

*Clipped the plants down to encourage new growth at the crown.

Plus I added one additional element into my berry-raising: I really put my heart into my strawberry babies!

Now keep in mind that strawberry plants aren’t like blueberry shrubs. They generally produce a good berry crop for about 3-5 years, while blueberries will bear for many decades. Before our own blueberry shrubs started to bear reliably, my husband John and I used to visit a blueberry U-pick that had 7-foot tall, 50-year old shrubs!

Now, any of you growing strawberries, you know about the 3-5 year issue—the virus that develops in cultivated strawberries. It’s not a condition you can fight with sprays or powders; it’s just one of those inevitably things that causes the plants to lose vigor.

In a few short years, a strawberry plant will go from producing large, plump, flavorful berries to tiny, seedy ones. However, the last few years here on our little homestead, I was running into a problem: my new strawberry plants were going downhill within 2 years.

I was getting frustrated—what was up with these plants? My best guess is that our cool, very rainy climate somehow encourages the virus. Still, who knows.

So I decided to mix things up—and raise my own starts! Here’s my post from two years ago detailing the process of speed-raising a strawberry crop. 

Last summer, when the plants matured, I had what looked like an amazing crop. Then along came…

The Bear. 

He broke into our fences, knocked up the strawberry nets, then tore up the plants—and gobbled every berry, white or red, within reach. I ended up stripping these vibrant new plants of every berry, so the bear wouldn’t smell the ripening fruit.

And be motivated to invade our yard for a 3rd time.

What was interesting was that all these plants I’d stripped of berries produced long, vigorous runners! It’s my guess that because they hadn’t put energy into producing fruit, the plants had extra growing oomph.

And instead of clipping them, as is recommended, I decided to just let the runners root, and start new plants all on their own. 

Well. It was the best decision I ever made!

For this year’s strawberry season, my expectations were low. After the bear stole our berries, I kind of lost my emotional investment in raising strawberries. I went with my previous homesteady mantra when I had a crop failure: “Que sera, sera.”

What will be, will be. So here’s what happened this summer. My original strawberry plants weren’t that productive. But the runners I’d let root produced large, healthy plants, and large, high-quality berries! 

The largest berries were from the runners I let grow wild!

We didn’t have a huge crop this year, but we did have nearly 4 weeks of a nice bowl of strawberries for our breakfast. 

And here’s what’s funny.

I hadn’t fertilized the runner-set plants, I only occasionally weeded around them—and basically left them to their own devices. So that’s my new strategy:

I’ll set the strawberry runners, water them, and pick whatever berries come along next year. And be happy with what I get!

As for our neighborhood bear this year, you can see what he’s been up to at Little Farm Writer, always free to read!