Strawberries

by Brad Sylvester

We'll start with some general informaiton about strawberries and then talk about the strawberry patches we have at Sylvan Gardens. Strawberry plants reproduce mainly by sending our runners above ground which touch down to the soil and take root forming an entirely separate plant.   A strawberry typically only produces well for a couple of years before it peters out and the yield drops.  The productive period can be prolonged by snipping off runners as they form and making sure the soil around the plant is well cared for (with compost added annually).  I am letting the runners develop on our plants so that, hopefully, we can get fresh plants and expand our strawberry patch.  You can either let the runners take root directly adjacent to the parent plant, or you can slide a small planter underneath if you intend to move the new plants to another location. In either case, once the new plant is established and has formed roots, snip the runner connecting it to the parent plant.  To get the very largest strawberries from your plants, pinch or snip off all but 4-5 of the blossoms when they appear.  By removing runners and keeping the blossoms to a small number, the plant can pour all its energies into making those four or five strawberries as big and juicy as it possibly can.  Many commercial growers plow the strawberries under each year, and rely on new plants to replace the old.  this makes sure that all the plants are young and at the peak of their production.  Properly maintained strawberry fields should yield well over 10,000 quarts of strawberries per acre each year.

It is also possible to grow strawberries from seed.  Save the seeds from a ripe strawberry, and place them on top of a light potting mixture mixed with compost. Cover them ever so shallowly and keep them moist. A heating pad beneath the pot will help the young plant to develop faster.  Once the plant has four or five leaves, it can be moved from its protected pot to the outdoor location where it will reside.  Remember to gradually harden off the plant by exposing it to the outdoor weather and sunshine for short periods at first and then increasing the duration each day for a week to ten days before transplanting.  getting a good rate of germination and survival from seed is difficult and is generally not used by commercial growers. 

Most of the strawberries grown today are from Fragaria x ananassa or the Garden Strawberry variety, a true-breeding hybrid which dates back to the 18th century.  Unlike many other fruits, most strawberries will self-pollinate without help from man or insect, but the extra pollination help provided by bees will generally result in bigger strawberries.    Strawberry plants are a favorite of many moth larva and any caterpillars on the plants should be removed by hand. 

Diseases and Pests

Mildew, blight and leaf spot can damage your strawberry patch.  Leaf spot is a fungus and will appear as white spots on the strawberry's leaf.  Leaves affected by any of these should be removed.  Burying will kill the leaf spot fungus so technically it is ok to use these removed leaves in the composter, but as a generally rule, I don't recommend putting disease or parasitized plant parts where they may eventually end up back in the garden.  Put them in the trash to be hauled away or the brush pile to be burned.  Note that by plowing their strawberries under each year and starting over with new plants, commercial growers are also killing mildew and leaf spot fungus so that it doesn't persist from year to year in their fields.

The fruit itself may be eaten by snails, slugs, and of course, birds.  The former can be caught by  shallow containers of beer placed around the edge of the strawberry patch.  They are attracted by the scent and crawl in and either drown or absorb a fatal dose of alcohol. I'm not sure of the specific cause of death, but in any case, this will keep slugs and snails off the strawberries.  Birds can be deterred by shiny aluminum pie plates that twist and flash in the wind, realistic looking statuette of predators such as owls, or by children and pets running around the yard.  You can also use netting over the strawberry patch to keep birds away.  This link http://www.jamm.com/strawberry/harvests.html#Hints-Deterring also describes using strawberry sized rocks, painted red as decoys to fool birds.  What a fantastic idea!

Herbal Remedy?

It is said that the roots of the strawberry plant or a tea made from the leaves will help cure diarrhea and even serious cases of dysentery.  I've never tried it and have no idea what a recommended dosage would be.  Seek an expert's (and a doctor's) guidance before trying anything like this.  The strawberry itself is supposed to be good for sunburned if cut open or cruched and then rubbed on the affected area.  Good luck with that.  Fair warning, it'll be sticky.

Nutritional Information

Strawberries contain about 45 calories per cup or 180 calories per quart.  They are a great source of vitamin C, potassium, and flavinoids.  Flavinoids are powerful anti-oxidants found commonly in brightly colored fruits and vegetables.  Maybe those herbal remedies have some merit after all since some flavinoids have been shown to help reduce the build-up of fluids that cause diarrhea.  Flavinoids have also been shown to inhibit the growth of tumors and even kill cancer cells, though it isn't clear that you can effectively get them into your system by eating high flavinoid foods.  In any case, it certainly doesn't hurt and may, according to research published by the Linus Pauling Institute, cause the body to produce more "Phase II enzymes" that help expel carcinogens from the system.  Sounds like a healthy and natural detox program to me. Consult your doctor or check out the Linus Pauling Institute reseach directly for more information.  Don't rely on me or Sylvan Gardens for authoritative health information, I am not a doctor!

Strawberries at Sylvan Gardens

Comparing a new strawberry patch in a raised bed to one in ordinary sandy soil

This spring (2008), I ordered Whopper Strawberries from Gurney's Seed and Nursery .  I ordered 2 bags of 10 plants and got another 2 bags free as part of their special promotion.  Each batch, though labelled 10 plants, had between 13 and 17 plants in it.  So instead of the 40 strawberry plants I ordered, I ended up with about 60.  The plants arrived as bare root stock, but with some green growth already beginning at the tops.  The roots where full and plump.  They looked as strong and ready to burst into  action.  I planted them in early May, within about a week of the plants arriving in the mail and they are growing very nicely. 

I planted about 30 plants each in two different locations.  ( I actually made a video of the planting that I was going to post here, but the noise from the nearby babbling brook was rather annoying in the recording so I didn't post it). First, I used one of the raised bed gardens and planted about 30 plants there.  Because the strawberry plants are low-growing, I also mixed in a few Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans that will climb above them without causing any crowding issues.  The beans will also help add some nitrogen back into the soil.  The other half, I planted on a part of my property where the soil is quite sandy and very little grows well.  Strawberries ordinarily do well in sandy soil, so I thought they might be ok there.  This particular patch is right next to our blackberry patch and is surrounded on two sides by forest.  Sure enough, within the first week one of the strawberry plants in this patch was nibbled down to the ground by some roving herbivore during the night.  Fortunately, this is the only plant that was eaten, and the rest are doing fine.

I wasn't sure if I would get much fruit the first year, but the plants were soon loaded with blossoms and now with developing strawberries.  The strawberry plants in the raised bed are doing much better as I would expect (the soil is better and they are watered more frequently).  I expect to begin harvesting strawberries from the raised bed garden on or around June 22nd.  The strawberries in the sandy area are a bit behind that and most likely will be ready to pick around July 4th or so, which will be fun if we have company for the holiday. 

This photo was taken June 19th.  The silver circle in the middle

is a US quarter that I placed next to the strawberries to show the size.

A Breakfast Recipe for Strawberries

Of course, strawberries are absolutely delicious to eat right out of the garden, but here's A Quick Breakfast Recipe that I like.  It's fat free and takes less than 2 minutes to make.  A great option when you're heading off to work in the morning.  If you don't have your own strawberry patch, this works great with frozen strawberries as well.   

Future updates

At the end of the season, I'll add a note here with the total weight of the strawberries we picked from each of these two patches and a picture or two.  It'll be ineresting to compare the raised bed strawberry patch yield with sandy soil strawberry patch yield.

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