Strawberries always taste better still warm from the sun. It doesn’t matter how readily available they are from the shops we love to eat them straight from the garden.
Strawberries can be grown from young plants bought in the garden centre, from seed, or propagated from runners of existing plants. Seeds should be sown in February or March. There are many different varieties available, and if careful consideration is given to the choice of varieties, fruit can be readily available from early June until September
For advice on planting strawberry runners see our guide on How to Plant Strawberry Runners.
Step 1: How to plant a strawberry plant
If you are planting new plants the best time of year to do this is October but it can also be done in April.
Prepare the soil by digging in Gro-Sure Farmyard Manure or Gro-Sure Vegetable Growing Compost and plant in row with plants 12 inches apart, 18 inches between rows. Begin feeding in spring with Gro-Sure Tomato Plant Food.
Step 2: How to remove a strawberry runner
When the plant is producing flowers, it will also produce ‘runners.’ Runners are long stalks trailing out of the container or planter, and these will grow as the strawberry plant is trying to multiply and produce more young plants.
It’s important to cut off these runners to allow all the plants’ energy to go into making new flowers (and therefore more strawberries!)
Step 3: How to harvest strawberries
Harvest fruits when ripe by pinching the stalk which your fingers just above the fruit. Picking regularly ensures you remove all damaged and diseased fruits too.
Step 4: How to plant strawberry runners
Once flowering and fruiting is complete, runners can be cut off the main plant and re-potted into a pot with a multi-purpose compost, such as Gro-Sure All Purpose Compost. Alternatively, if they are small plants, they can be pegged down onto the surface of the soil or a pot of compost, and left there until rooting is established. The plants’ stem (still attached to the ‘mother’ plant) can then be cut, and the plant dug up and re-planted, or removed from its pot and replanted elsewhere.
Make a hole in the compost and put in the runner plant.
Water well and place in a cold frame ready to grow for next year.
