This Is the Best Time to Plant Strawberries for the Sweetest Results
Knowing when to plant strawberries lets you maximize growing time so you can harvest plenty of sweet, juicy fruit. And you’ll want to grow as many as possible because the best strawberries you will ever put in your mouth are the ones you grow yourself. Garden-ripened strawberries have a rich flavor and sweetness that supermarket berries cannot touch. Here’s how to time your planting right.
Best Time to Plant Strawberries
The best time to plant strawberries is in the spring, between March and May. Exactly when you plant strawberries depends on the type of plant and your climate. Plant dormant, bare-root strawberry transplants in the spring as soon as the soil is warm enough to get a trowel through. You can do this before your last frost date. Plant potted transplants as soon as you buy them and after the risk of frost has passed.
In areas with mild winters (USDA Hardiness Zone 9 or higher), you can plant strawberries in the fall so plants have time to get established before the hot summer months.
Types of Strawberry Plants
There are several general types of strawberry plants, categorized by when they produce fruit.
June-bearing strawberries like ‘Allstar’ and ‘Earliglow’ produce fruit in June only the year they are planted. June-bearing varieties produce the largest crop per season, but they do so in a narrow window of time, usually a period of three weeks. These plants produce lots of runners, so they are a good pick for a spot where you want them to spread.
Ever-bearing strawberries like ‘Quinault’, ‘Ogallala’, and ‘Jewel’ produce fruit three times a year (spring, summer, and fall) beginning in the year they are planted and continuing in years after. Ever-bearing types produce few runners so are a good pick for containers or for a spot where you want the plants to stay put.
Day-neutral berries like ‘Albion’, ‘Tristar’, and ‘Elsanta’ produce fruit throughout the growing season. They make the most fruit during the cool periods of the growing season and may not make much fruit in hot weather. They are a good pick for cooler climates.
Alpine strawberries are basically wild strawberries you can grow in your garden. The fruit is smaller and more fragile than other types of strawberries. Alpine strawberries produce fruit continuously through the growing season and they don’t send out runners. Because they are in limited commercial production, many people grow these strawberries from seed.
Planting Strawberry Runners
Like any perennial, strawberry plants die back in winter and start growing again when the soil warms in the spring. After blooming and producing fruit, many types of strawberries grow runners that have baby strawberry plants at the tips. Those runners root themselves in the soil near the mother plant.
Runners can suck a lot of energy from your strawberry plants, energy that could be used to make more fruit. For that reason it’s best to snip off runners every time you see them. Ideally you’re doing a weekly pruning of runners throughout the growing season. Removing those runners tells the plant to focus on making big strawberries, not baby plants.
You can use those pruned runners to propagate new plants. Snip off runners with baby plants when they have developed a few tiny roots. Replant the baby plants in their own pots. The runner vine will fall off and the baby strawberry will become an adult plant that’s a clone of its parent. You’ll have free plants to share with your garden pals.
Strawberries produce more fruit if you clip off most of the runners, allowing each plant to produce no more than 3 daughter plants each summer.
When to Plant Strawberries from Seed
If you want to grow strawberries from seed, start seeds indoors in December to have transplants ready for the outdoor garden in the spring. There’s a step before planting strawberry seeds in soil: Seeds need to be chilled to improve germination. To do this, put the entire pack of strawberry seeds in your freezer for three to four weeks.
When you are ready to plant the seeds, take them out of the freezer and allow them to reach room temperature. Then sow seeds in trays of potting medium and place the tray under a grow light.
You probably won’t get a good fruit harvest that first year from seed-grown plants. Strawberries need a year to get strong roots and leaves to support a good berry crop.
Where to Plant Strawberries
Sturdy little strawberry plants can produce a lot of fruit in a small space. And you can get a little head start on the growing season by planting strawberries in containers, hanging baskets, and raised beds, while you wait for garden soil to become workable in spring. Once your soil has thawed and maybe dried out a little from melting snow, you can plant strawberries where they can sprawl over a wall or form an edible groundcover. They also work well as edible edging in a mixed bed.
