Dirty Business: Planting Strawberries

Each year I try to experiment with something new.  Some things work better than others.  For example, the asparagus works, generally speaking, but I definitely planted them too deep so they come up too thick.  Whereas the onions and garlic did so well last year that we’re growing even more this year.  So, this time the big experiment will be strawberries. 

There are two basic methods for growing strawberries:  starting from seed or purchasing bare root crowns.  I wasn’t about to mess with the seed method, so went with purchasing the bare root crowns instead.  The nice thing about ordering crowns is that you can select when you want to receive them so that your growing conditions are good.  I ordered mine to arrive during the last week of March because these are a June-bearing variety, which means they fruit early.  If I had ordered a day-neutral variety, those tend to fruit later in the season, and so would have ordered them to arrive later.  But I am the perennial kid waiting for Christmas, so June-bearing was the way to go.

The crowns arrive in a dormant state—essentially allowed to dry out but not quite die.  This gives me a little leeway for planting time, in case the weather takes a bad turn.  Fortunately for me, they arrived just before a nice, sunny weekend so I was able to plant them within a few days of arrival.

I had tested the pH of the soil a week earlier and saw that it was basically in range for strawberries, if a wee bit on the acid side.  Because strawberries are perennials, and because they will eventually take over whatever area where they are planted, I decided to place them in one of the landscaped beds behind the house.  We haven’t grown much there—mostly because it doesn’t get quite the full-day sun that other beds get, so annual vegetables don’t do well there.  Right now, it has been the dumping ground for all of the useless bushes that I’ve pulled from the other parts of our garden and that Mrs. Butcher wouldn’t let me throw out.  So, it’s a gamble to put them here, but my hope is that they will eventually take hold and do well enough to justify removing the useless bushes.  All that is a long way around to my point:  I spread some wood ashes in the bed and then turned the soil a few days before planting these to bring the pH up a bit.

So, armed with my trusty trowel, it was time to get to work.  I had to start by reactivating the crowns, which is simple enough.  I had to gently pull them apart from each other.  The roots get pretty tangled up and they are delicate so I can’t just yank them apart.  Once the crowns were separated from each other, I would put a few at a time in a container of water to get hydrated.

We have a bunch of plastic domes from bird feeders which we use as miniature greenhouses for our early crops.  So, I took each dome and pressed it into the ground a bit to create a perimeter in which I could plant the crowns.  Then it was time to dig and plant.  I used the trowel to create a thin hole that was as deep as the roots.  It’s important to make sure that the roots are planted straight down, so I also took a thin piece of wood in order to guide the roots downward.  I wasn’t so much tamping the roots as just gently making sure they got where they needed to go.

Then I firm the soil around the roots, but have to take care not to bury the crown itself.  The soil should only come up to the middle of the crown, which is pretty difficult considering there’s basically an inch to work with between the top of the crown and the beginning of the roots.  I’m sure I’ll have to work with a few of these after a week or so, depending on how they’re responding, to make sure the soil is at the right level.

Now, if I was doing this by the book, I would make sure there was roughly 12-18 inches of space between each crown.  But, that’s not how we roll here.  Mrs. Butcher had developed a method which involves planting in denser concentrations and then using structures to make sure everything grows vertically.  Not everything lends itself to vertical growing, but we have found that most plants can fare quite nicely in tighter quarters.  So, I’ve spaced these crowns approximately 8-11 inches apart, which allows me to plant four crowns under each dome.

Strawberries like their water—they need about 1-2 inches per week—so the first watering needs to be a good soaking.  Whenever I put plants in the ground, I always give them an initial watering which includes fish emulsion.  You can buy this stuff pretty much anywhere and really gives plants a good jump start.

I use a couple of tablespoons per gallon in a watering can.  This stuff is essentially liquified, rotted fish, so it stinks to high heaven.  That’s to say I do not recommend measuring and pouring this stuff inside the house or while wearing any clothes you care about.

Once the watering is complete, then I place the domes over the crowns.

We’ve taped some thin Styrofoam sheets which act as diffusers so the plants won’t burn, while the domes themselves keep the moisture and the heat in.

From this point I check under the domes daily to see how the plants look and if they need any water.  So far, I’ve been watering them every other day.  After a week, some are doing better than others, but so far so good.

Two of these crowns are showing new growth while the other two still seem to be working on their roots.  They might need a little help if I don’t see any improvement after another week—perhaps some adjustment of the soil level around the crowns to start.

So, I guess we’ll all find out together if this plan will boom or bust.  One thing to keep in mind is that I won’t be harvesting these strawberries this year.  Like asparagus, strawberries need time to establish themselves so they can be more productive later.  So, this year I’ll be pinching off all of the blossoms and even cutting most of the runners which will grow from the crowns to try and start new plants.  Next year (assuming these plants survive) will be the harvest year, and I’ll also let a few runners take hold to try and expand the strawberry patch—and hopefully crowd out the useless bushes.