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Get Your Hands Dirty
Berry, berry good
Fresh, healthful berries are one of the great joys of summer. They top many lists of favorite, healthy foods. And growing them is one of the easiest things even non-gardeners can do.
Berries can be grown in sunny plots and even in containers. A special strawberry pot has pockets that each can hold either another plant or a runner from the main plant. All they need is a sunny spot where they can get at least six to eight hours of sunlight each day.
June Bearing strawberries produce a single, large crop per year during a two or three week period in early summer. June Bearing are the traditionally grown strawberry plant, producing a single flush of flowers and many runners. They are classified into early, mid-season and late varieties. The largest fruits are generally from June Bearing varieties.
Everbearing strawberries, which don’t send out runners, produce two to three harvests of fruit during the spring, summer and fall.
Day Neutral strawberries will produce fruit throughout the growing season. These strawberries also produce few runners. Everbearing and day neutral strawberries are great when space is limited, but the fruits are usually somewhat smaller than June bearers.
I was asked recently about why strawberries plants may not produce any fruit one season. While plants do tend towards some pests such as aphids, the most common reasons for infertile berry plants are either age or a late spring frosts, which we experienced in the Wood River Valley this June. Also, cooler than normal temperatures can damage flowering, which can further leads to a lack of potential fruit.
Mid-Valley resident Paul Bates planted his first patch in 1978. He has had continuous fruit ever since in his south-facing, raised berry patch.
“When plants get old they stop producing,” he said. “Then you can occasionally go through the bed and take out the old ones. There is about a three year cycle.”
Strawberry plants also have fairly shallow roots. They need to be watered frequently as they can dry out really fast. Bates suggests sprinkling water on them every day.
Besides a light watering more often, soil should be well drained, healthful, and rich in nitrogen. Don’t use chemicals fertilizers or pesticides on anything that will later be consumed. Instead, fertilize once a month or so with liquid fish emulsion, fishmeal, pelleted chicken manure, compost, or a green manure crop.
Now that you have a healthy crop, you can enjoy the fruits of your labors.
Personally, I am partial to popping a couple ripe fragolini in my evening Prosecco. Cheers!
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