Strawberries

Fragaria × ananassa

Strawberry plants come back every year. Summer-fruiting kinds give berries in early summer. Everbearing kinds fruit from summer into autumn. A bed gives a good crop for three or four years. Then replant in a new spot to avoid soil diseases. Use rooted runners, the young plants the old ones send out.

Looking after it

Water: Strawberries need normal watering. Water regularly in dry spells. Pots and hanging baskets dry out fast, so water them often. Water the soil in the morning, so the fruit and the heart of each plant stay dry. Feeding: Their feeding needs are average. In the ground, a mulch of compost each spring is usually all they need. In pots, give a general liquid feed every two weeks. Once the flower buds form, switch to a feed high in potassium.

Harvest and keeping

Pick the berries when they are red all over, in the warmest part of the day. They don't ripen after picking. As the fruits form, spread straw under the plants to keep them clean. Take the straw away in autumn. They are best eaten the day you pick them. Keep them in the fridge and wash them just before eating. Frozen berries lose their shape, so use them in smoothies and desserts.

What can go wrong

Grey mould. In wet weather the fruit gets a fuzzy grey rot. Water in the morning without splashing and keep the fruit on straw. Remove rotten berries straight away.
Birds. Birds take the fruit as it ripens. Before the berries colour, cover the plants with netting on a frame. Pull it tight and fix it down well.
Vine weevil. In pots, plants wilt and collapse because white, C-shaped grubs are eating the roots. In late summer, water a biological control into the compost. It is made of tiny worms called nematodes.

Growing facts: RHS, UC ANR and seed-company sowing guides. Strawberry care: RHS. Pot size: Iowa State University extension. pH: Cornell Cooperative Extension. Keeping: Kansas State and University of Missouri extension.