If you want the sweet satisfaction of harvesting your own sun-ripened berries from the garden this summer, then strawberries are the perfect place to start. Strawberries are easy-to-grow, even from tiny seeds, and, while you may want to wait until year two to harvest a bushel full of berries, these creeping plants will deliver an annual crop for up to five years.
Ready to start planning a summer full of your favorite strawberry recipes? Here’s everything you need to know about growing strawberries from seeds.
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Choosing The Right Strawberry Varieties
The first step to growing strawberries from seeds is to pick the right strawberry variety for your garden. A few of the popular varieties include:
- Alpine Strawberries: These are smaller strawberries than what you’ll find in a grocery store, but they have a sweet, delicate flavor.
- Everbearing Strawberries: While there name might sound like they produce fruit throughout the season, everbearing strawberries typically have two harvests, one in late spring and one in late summer.
- June-bearing Strawberries: If you’re looking for a strawberry plant that will quickly cover your garden, look for June-bearing strawberries. These plants produce runners and spread rapidly. As the name indicates, you’ll have a large harvest in June.
- Day-neutral Strawberries: This is a large category that includes crowd-pleasing strawberries like Albion and Seascape. As long as temperatures stay above 45°F and below 85°F, these should produce the highest yield of most strawberry varieties.
Sowing Strawberry Seeds
Strawberry seeds aren’t in a race to germinate. They can take up to 45 days for the first tiny green leaves to appear. That means most gardeners are starting them indoors in seed trays well ahead of the spring season.
“To grow strawberries for a late spring harvest, start by sowing seeds indoors in seed or plug trays during the fall,” says Sara Rubens, certified garden coach and founder at Seed to Sanctuary.
Use a seed-starting mix and cover the seeds with just a dusting of soil. Using a fine mist, keep the soil moist. You’ll want to monitor it regularly to make sure it doesn’t dry out, especially since the seed trays will need significant light and warmth to grow. Rubens recommends, “Keep the seed trays in a warm environment, such as a greenhouse or under grow lights, to encourage healthy growth. Once the plant plugs are large enough, you can transition them to an outdoor growing space.”
Caring For Strawberry Seedlings
Once the strawberry seedlings begin to grow, make sure that they continue to receive lots of light, whether that’s eight hours of bright, indirect sunlight or eight hours of a grow light daily. They’ll continue to have significant water needs during the early growing phases, and one to two inches of a water a week is ideal for strawberry seedlings.
As the plants grow, look for them to reach several sets of leaves. This is when they’re ready to make their big transition to outdoor plants (assuming the threat of frost has passed!).
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Transplanting Seedlings To The Garden
When your strawberry seedlings have been living a cushy, sheltered life inside, you shouldn’t just throw them into the garden to fend for themselves. Instead, you’ll go through the process of hardening off your young strawberry plants. This means you’ll let them gradually acclimate to their new home outdoors. Start by bringing the seedling trays outside for a few hours a day, ideally placing them in a spot where they are sheltered from wind and bright, direct sunlight. Let them get used to the elements. After one to two weeks, they’ll be ready for their big outdoor debut.
Rubens recommends choosing a spot with full sun, ideally eight hours of direct sunlight daily. “Avoid areas near tall trees or buildings on the south side, as they can block sunlight, especially in winter,” says Rubens.
She advises that raised beds are one of the best growing environments for strawberries. “They should be at least 6–8 inches deep to help keep the soil drier and make plant care easier. A 3-foot by 15-foot bed can accommodate about 30 strawberry plants,” explains Rubens. However, you can also plant them in one- to five-gallon planters for a similar environment, or simply plant them in your garden beds.
Rubens adds, “Well-drained soil is essential for healthy plants. If your soil needs improvement, mix in compost to enhance its structure and nutrient content.”
Maintaining Strawberry Plants
“Strawberries require consistent moisture,” says Rubens. Each time the top inch of the soil feels dry, it’s time to water your strawberries again. This typically adds up to about one inch of water a week during the harvest season.
Ideally, strawberries will have a slightly acidic soil, so a well-balanced fertilizer is the best option for encouraging fruit production and healthy plants.
Strawberries will also produce the best fruit when they have adequate growing space to spread out and bloom. “Stagger your strawberry plants instead of arranging them in straight rows. This allows for better airflow and prevents overcrowding,” says Rubens. It’s also a good idea to surround strawberries with companion plants that will offer beneficial pest control.
When you start looking towards the second year of your strawberry harvest, you’ll need to make sure they’re prepared to survive the winter. Rubens says, “Protect your plants from cold weather by using row covers made from lightweight, non-woven fabric. These covers let in sunlight and rain while helping to retain heat, especially when placed on early in the day.”
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Harvesting And Using Strawberries
While you’ll start to see blooms during your first summer with your strawberry plants, many gardeners will tell you to pluck those right off and wait a year. It’s often said that letting the strawberries focus on growing their runners during the first year will lead to a stronger, larger harvest in the second year. But that’s entirely up to you!
And, once you’ve decided to pluck those first juicy strawberries, give them a quick rinse, then make the all-important choice: do you eat them right then and there? Or do you decide to bake a sweet summer classic?