How to Take Care of a Strawberry Plant

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If you want delicious and beautiful strawberries to eat and enjoy, then you’ll need to learn how to take care of a strawberry plant. These plants are not difficult to care for, but you do have to remember to give them a little attention, or else like any living thing they will not thrive or grow as you’d hope.

Now, the different techniques you practice will depend on things like how you planted them and where you planted them at. A field of strawberries needs different care than one that is planted in a strawberry pot, but most berries all have the same needs of water and sunlight.

Give Your Plant the Best Environment to Grow

Strawberries will flourish when the environmental conditions are ideal. It can be difficult to get the optimal conditions outdoors all the time since the weather is unpredictable, but if you are growing strawberries indoors than you have better control.

Sunlight: Your plants will need about 6 hours of sunlight each day. Some species such as Alpine Strawberry Seeds do okay in the shade, but the majority of them should be planted in a spot where they can get a good amount of sunlight. If planting indoors, using a sun lamp or keeping your planter near a window and rotating it each day can work just as well often times. Be careful that they do not get too much sun however – they will not survive well in direct sunlight in very hot temperatures – strawberries like cooler weather more than hot weather!

Water: Strawberries have very shallow root systems, which means they need a very steady schedule of watering. If your plant has not yielded many berries or has very small leaves, it is usually an indication of water stress. You should never let the soil go below 50% moisture. (Many people want to know how many times to water a plant per week, but it really depends on the level of moisture in the soil. For this we recommend a simple little inexpensive gadget called a soil moisture meter)

Temperature: Strawberries do not do well in very hot climates, and they will not blossom if the soil temperature is too hot. If indoors, you will want to keep the temperature at about room temperature around 65-68 degrees. Outdoors you will want to make sure you do not use black mulch or black plastic covers over your plants, as this will cause the sun to make the soil underneath too hot.

Protect Against Pests

Strawberries can be affected by things such as molds, bugs, and plant eating animals just like any plant can be. Using fungicides and incesticides is one option, but the harsh chemicals are not worth the risks if you ask me. The best thing to do is practice a few tips for prevention.

Place straw around the berries: Find a local farmer near you who has fresh straw available and place it around the beds as you would with mulch. This keeps the fruit off the ground and protect it from rotting and moisture loving molds.

Pick Berries Daily: Do not let your berries stay on the vine once ripened, as this can increase the likelihood of problems.

Space Properly: Plants that are grown too close together do not do as well as those properly spaced. Most find that planting them between 12 to 18 inches apart is a good rule of thumb to follow.

Use a Fence: I’ve lost a many good strawberries to deer, groundhogs, and other garden pests. Fencing around a garden can help, you may also want to plant marigold flowers close by to deter the groundhogs. If birds are a problem, consider draping netting over the plants.

Prevent Stress: Make sure your crop gets the right amount of water, sunlight, and other environmental factors and your plants will be much less likely to become diseased.

Learning how to take care of strawberries will take a little practice, but the payoff is always well worth the time and effort invested in growing these plants – who could resist the delicious temptation of fresh, homegrown strawberries?

Grow Strawberries in Strawberry Pots

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One of the easiest ways to get started is to grow strawberries in strawberry pots. If you’re unfamiliar with how to plant a strawberry pot, you’ll find these 5 simple steps are easy and fun to do! These containers are typically made from clay, terracotta, or stone and generally have small openings where the strawberries will grow from, sometimes referred to as pockets. This is a great solution for patio gardening or growing them on a porch or deck, as it does not take up a whole lot of space.

Now, at first glance, this method may seem a little confusing, but it’s actually really easy! There are many different options on the different pots and strawberry planters to buy, but most of them generally require the same setup and care. Most of the products out there are pretty versatile as well – you can use them for growing a number of other things besides berries!

Just in case you might be confused as to what a strawberry pot is, here’s a few examples you can check out if you’d like:

This cute planter not only has a red cardinal at the top of it, but is actually pretty reasonably priced at $27.99 – it retails for about $42 everywhere else I looked – Click Here to Order

There are also more basic styles, such as this very simple Smith & Hawken Grow Pot available from Target:

Click Here for Smith & Hawken® Grow Pot

Now that you have an idea of what a strawberry grow pot is, you are ready to learn how to grow strawberries in pots!

Materials You Will Need to Get Started:

1 Strawberry Pot with Pockets/Grooves
A strawberry plant for the number of pockets you have
1 1/2 inch plastic PVC pipe the same height as your pot with holes drilled in it (some pots are self watering or come with this, so if you already have it, you don’t need it. You can also make your own pretty easily)
Potting Soil Mix
Watering Can & Water

Handy Tip: If you are using a terracotta pot (one that is not plastic), then here’s a great tip that will help you before you even get started: Soak it in water! Terracotta will absorb all the water in the soil and cause it to dry out really quickly, so doing this will help reduce it from drying out too quickly after you plant.

Ready to get started? Here’s the 5 simple steps:

Step 1: Fill With Dirt: Using the best potting soil for strawberries is recommended, as it will help your plants grow the best. Fill the container with the dirt up to where the first pocket or groove is, you will add more in later.

Step 2: Plant Your Plants: Take each plant that you have and then place your plants in the groove where the first level pocket is and fill the remainder of the pocket up with soil.

Step 3: Insert Watering Pipe: Some planters will have this built in or are small enough that it won’t be necessary. However, if your planter doesn’t include this and is over a foot tall it is highly recommended for easy and proper watering. You can make your own easily by using a plastic pvc pipe and drilling holes into it. Insert it in the center of the pot, making it just deep enough that it will stand on its own.

Step 4: Fill in the Remainder of the Soil: Once the pipe is secure, fill the pot with the remainder of the soil. You’re almost done!

Step 5: Water: You’ll want to water your plants well, especially the first time. Pour water slowly into the tube, around the top of the strawberry pot, and also in the

Now that you have our 5 simple steps for growing strawberry plants in a pot, you’re ready to get started! Do you have any tips we might have missed for growing strawberries in pots? Have questions? Share them in the comments below!

What is the Best Soil for Strawberry Plants?

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A strawberry field with sandy soil.

One of the most common questions we get asked is “What is the Best Soil for Strawberry Plants?” While strawberries are very forgiving on the different types of dirts and soils out there that are available, there are some things to consider before choosing a strawberry beds soil mix – and a few common mistakes many people make that can cause your plants to not produce fruit at all.

For starters, strawberries do not grow well at all in dirt that was previously used for tomatoes, eggplant, potatoes, and peppers. You need to be very careful where these plants were grown before – so when possible, use fresh soil and wait at least three years before planting strawberries in those spots. Those plants are highly susceptible for causing Verticillium Rot which isn’t good for your strawberries at all!

Strawberries do not like too much water, but they also need watered often, so that is another factor to consider when choosing a potting mix.

If you are someone who likes to measure PH before planting, it should ideally have a PH ranging between 5.5 and 6.3 to promote the best alkaline acid environment.

Strawberries do very well in sandy soil mixtures. Something you can do is either look for a sandy loam mixture at your local garden supply store, or even create your own mixture by combining one part top soil or building sand and three parts potting soil along with your favorite fertilizer. If using sand, it should be coarse as they use for concrete and not fine like playground sand, as this allows more room for air to breathe around the plant’s roots.

How you fertilize your plants is entirely up to you. If you have access to good quality manure or a compost pile that works very well for all natural options, and they are also many other different fertilizers available. You should only need to fertilize the plants at the very beginning of the growing season, though some may fertilize again after the first round of crops. Never fertilize more than this! It could make your plant not flower or produce fruit!

Lastly, you will want to make sure the soil you are growing in stays cool, as strawberries will not grow in very hot temperatures and you’ll want to protect your plants from ground bugs and diseases. While black plastic covers for dirt are popular for keeping away insects and mold, and the use of lawn mulch may also be appealing, neither one is the best option.

You might be surprised at what you should use – straw! (This is why strawberries are called strawberries after all!) Find the cleanest and freshest hay/straw available to you and cover the ground all around. It will help keep the ground cooler, protect against those pesky diseases and pests, and is usually pretty cost effective as well. If you do not have any access to straw in your area, another viable option is to use clean pine needles. Avoid mulch when possible, as most trees are full of fungi that could potentially cause problems for your plants. Best of all, in the fall when the crop is done, you can cover the plants with the hay to protect them from the frost and winter seasons until you’re ready to grow next year! If you carefully tend to your garden you will never need to buy a strawberry plant again, as they are perennial!

What potting soil mix for strawberries do you like the best? Tell us what you do in the comments below!

Growing Strawberries in Containers

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Learning how to grow strawberries in containers is pretty easy to do, and a popular choice for many people who have limited outdoor space. Because the plants have a shallow root system, growing strawberries in containers is much easier than other fruits or vegetables as long as you water them properly. Another bonus is that you plants will not be as prone to the many insects and weeds that can happen in traditional flower beds.

The first thing you will want to do when gardening container strawberries is choose the right containers that will fit your needs. We’ve had plenty of success with strawberry pots and hanging baskets, however just about anything will work. Some people have found that plastic totes or even your everyday run of the mill flower pots work just fine. Since the plants are less likely to get diseases the farther they are planted away from each other, while you can grow many in one pot, we tend to like to plant no more than two or three per pot, and planting them in single pots is perfectly okay as well.

You will want to plan to keep your containers in a place that gets a good amount of sunlight, since strawberries love their sunshine! They do not however like very hot temperatures, so it is best to put them in a place where they will get full morning sun from sunrise to around 11 am and then shade for the hotter parts of the day. Fortunately, since the containers are portable, if you need to move them you will be able to.

Ever-bearing strawberries are the most popular and preferred types to use, since they will give you at least two good crops per year, though some may produce fruit more than this, depending on the species and variety you choose.

It is best to use plants and transfer them into pots, though you of course may choose to germinate your own seeds as well, though this may take longer and will likely depend on when you plant them whether you will get a crop this year or next year. Since the plants are perennials, most will plant them in the fall and then they are ready to go by spring and summer.

The type of dirt you choose is very important as well, since just straight up potting mix is not going to work as well as you would think! These plants like a sandy soil mixture, so it’s best to mix up a blend of potting soil with either sand or a sandy top soil, and if you wish to use fertilizer you will want to place it in the soil at this time as well. Be careful not to over fertilize your plants, as this will inhibit their fruit production, not to mention waste fertilizer! It is generally recommended to fertilize just once when transplanting and if needed again soon after the first crop of berries is produced. While some may suggest every 10 days, this is not usually necessary and there is the risk of doing more harm than good. See our article on best potting mix for strawberries for more details on which dirt blends work well for container gardening.

When you first transplant the plants into containers, you are going to want to make sure you pinch off the flower blossoms and pick any existing berries off. This will help you get a much better yield later and help the plant make the best adjustment to the environment.

Once your plants are in place for the containers, all you will need to do is ensure you water them regularly (soil should always be moist!) and keep out of too hot of temperatures. Before long you’ll have some beautiful and delicious looking berries to enjoy!

When the growing season is over (usually by late fall), you’ll want to make sure you carefully protect your plants over the winter so they’ll grow back next year. Covering them with a thick bed of straw will typically help protect them from the cold winter frost and snow, or you can always bring them indoors for the winter and they may just keep producing all winter long! You might also want to check out how to care for strawberry plants to ensure that you’re doing everything you can to be successful in growing strawberries in containers!

Easy Homemade Stawberry Jam Recipes

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Now you know all the tips for growing strawberries, you need a few good easy homemade strawberry jam recipes to make to enjoy the fruits of your labor! This is probably the best reason why anybody would ever even want to grow strawberries in the first place!

So, let’s start off with what strawberry jam is. Basically it is a fruit spread that is quite tasty on things like toast and muffins, not to mention your favorite peanut butter and jelly sandwich! While there are some very difficult canning recipes for advanced cooks and chefs out there, you can actually make it quite easily just by following some very simple and basic steps.

First, you will need canning jars and lids and rings. You can get them at most stores, but some only carry them seasonally. If that’s the case, you can always get them online by clicking here. Sometimes they are cheaper online, too, so that’s always a nice bonus!

The first thing to do is to wash your jars out as much as possible. Some people will actually sterilize them, which is never a bad idea if you are worried about germs, mold, and whatnot. It’s also a very good idea to keep your hands very clean and do not let the lids or the jars touch anything except a very clean towel.

Now, onto the recipe!

You Will Need:

2 pounds of strawberries
4 cups of sugar
1/4 cup bottled lemon juice

The first step is an easy one: carefully and thoroughly wash off your strawberries and cut the tops of them off. While the tops are edible, they are very bitter, and you probably don’t want them in your jam, do you? So, that’s why it is very important to cut them off first!

Next, you’re going to need a pretty big stock pot, since that is going to make it easier for you to stir the jam while it is cooking. Place the strawberries, the lemon juice, and the 4 cups of sugar in the pot and mix it all together very well.

Now, you have all of your ingredients in the pot, so what you’ll want to do is stir it on a low heat setting until the sugar dissolves. Once the sugar is dissolved, you are ready to turn up the heat and bring it to a boil. Be sure you keep stirring it often, because you do not want burnt strawberry jam! This is a time when it is helpful to have a digital thermometer, because you will want the mixture to be 220 degrees.

Once your mixture reaches 220 degrees, you can either freeze the jam in freezer jars or if you would like to can them that is a good option as well. For canning, processing should be done in a water bath canner for 10 minutes, though time may vary depending on your altitude.

So, now you know our homemade strawberry jam recipe, do you have any easy strawberry jam recipes you’d like to share with us in the comments section below?