The Pleasure Of Home Grown Strawberries
August 29, 2008
Remember the Beatles song: Let me take you down, ‘cause I’m going to Strawberry Fields. Nothing is real and nothing to get hung about. Strawberry Fields forever. Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see. It’s getting hard to be someone but it all works out. It doesn’t matter much to me.
They were right as there is nothing like a sun-ripened, freshly picked strawberry, and summer doesn’t arrive until the first, fresh strawberries appear in the shops. But, nothing could be more therapeutic than growing your own. Not only will you get an even sweeter fruit, having allowed it to ripen on the plant, but you will also derive pleasure from sowing, planting and harvesting your own strawberry crop. The added pleasure of knowing you grew it with your own hand, without pesticides and chemical fertilizes will make the crop that much more meaningful and healthy. Any one, even children can grow strawberries without having a garden, as it is easy to plant strawberry plants outdoors to ensure a moderate crop the following summer.
Commonly, strawberries are planted in the ground, but it’s just as easy to plant them in containers, such as, hanging baskets, flower pots, barrels or tubs, so long as they have a hole in the bottom to facilitate drainage. Choose containers that drain the soil properly and that are easy to move them around to ensure that the plant receives adequate light, which means they should not be too heavy.
As for strawberry plants, there are early mid-summer, mid-summer and late summer varieties that fruit between June and August in the summer. Perpetuals produce a modest amount of fruit throughout the summer, very often fruiting into November and are an excellent way of extending strawberry growing season.
The best strawberries grow in loamy, well-drained soil containing organic matter. For growing in containers, fill these with soil and plant the strawberries so plant roots are well covered. In general, plants should be placed two feet apart. So, unless you are using large containers, you may want to plant only one strawberry plant per container.
Strawberries need to be watered just enough to keep the soil damp and will not grow well if over-watered. The water should be able to drain away from the soil so the plants are not standing in water.
While, strawberry plants need six to eight hours of sunlight a day, they also need to be kept in the dark from sunset to sunrise. Place potted strawberry plants in direct sunlight during the day for best results, if you can’t then use plant grow lights, which can be placed on timer to switch off at sunset and switch on at sunrise.
They should be checked regularly, especially new growth for aphid infestation. Spraying them with an appropriate insecticide or organic pest controller will prevent further damage. Greenhouse grown strawberries are rather prone to red spider mites, which cause the leaves to turn brown and, in severe cases, die. Use an appropriate organic treatment or insecticide.
They are also prone to powdery mildew that appears as purple spots on upper surfaces of the leaves, with a white fungus underneath. This causes the plant to eventually shrivel up and dies. Regular watering during dry periods is a good preventative measure as is spraying an appropriate fungicide in severe cases.
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