Fall is the perfect time to transplant your evergreen strawberry plants. As for the non-remontant varieties, they are planted in the spring. By respecting the gardener’s calendar, you can enjoy delicious strawberries on sunny days. What could be better than producing your own crops yourself? The strawberry plant is really very easy to cultivate, in the countryside as in the city, in the garden in the ground, but also on the terrace or the balcony because it likes pots and planters. Spotlight on planting the Fragaria.
Planting strawberries: when is the best time?
The planting time for strawberries depends on the variety. Two types of strawberries must be distinguished, namely:
- The varieties non-rebounding which produce strawberries in May and June. This is for example the case of the famous Gariguette that we love so much because of its exceptional taste qualities.
- The varieties remontantes which only start producing in June or July but production continues until the first frosts. In this category, we find among others the Mara des Bois, the Mount Everest, the Mariguette or the Charlotte.
Flowering of strawberries begins in April for certain varieties only.
It is from September to November that you can transplant your seedlings bare root strawberries or from February until April. As to strawberries in cups, they are transplanted in place preferably in September but one can without problem wait for the beginning of autumn while avoiding as far as possible going beyond mid-October. It is important to give each foot time to take root before the first frost. In this way, these strawberries will bear fruit the following year. Latecomers who have missed the boat can nevertheless plant their strawberries in the spring as soon as the earth has warmed up in the sun.
Planting strawberries: method to follow
There is nothing very complicated in the fact of plant strawberries. It is simply necessary to install the plants in a well ventilated ground, adapted to their needs and to offer them a sunny exposure. Thus the strawberry plant likes to be installed in the ground:
- without stones,
- Without weeds,
- Rich in organic manure,
- Acid.
He doesn’t really like chalky soil. It is therefore essential, if this is the case, to enrich the soil with peat.
here are the two distinct planting methodsdepending on whether you want to grow your strawberries in the ground or in pots or planters.
For a planting strawberries in the groundit’s necessary :
- Hill the earth to a height of 20 cm and a width of 60 cm,
- Separate the rows by 60 cm,
- Install a black plastic film of mulching and pierce it every 40 cm or lay a natural mulch such as cocoa pods, a carpet of dead leaves or straw, in order to:
- limit the development of weeds,
- retain heat,
- avoid evaporation during hot weather.
- Use a planter to make a hole in the ground per plant, the width of which must be equal to that of the roots,
- Place the strawberry plants in the holes,
- Fill in each hole without burying the collar, which must remain at ground level,
- Tamp the earth,
- Water.
For the planting strawberries in potsthe method is as follows:
- Choose a container with a perforated bottom that is 25 to 30 cm deep,
- Place 3 to 4 cm of gravel at the bottom of the pot or planter in order to promote drainage because the roots of the strawberry should not be immersed in water,
- Cover the gravel with a mixture of 50% strawberry planting soil and 50% good garden soil,
- Place the plants in place, spacing them 15 to 20 cm from each other in a planter or, if you opt for individual pots, by planting only one plant per container,
- Water.
Two contributions offertilizer are essential thereafter: one end of March or beginning of April, and another in summer at the end of the first harvest. You also have to think about trellis the fruiting runners for climbing strawberries and to remove them as they appear for other varieties since they do not give strawberries. So there’s no need for them to exhaust their feet for nothing. Finally, after the last harvest of the year, it is necessary to remove all the faded leaves. As for the waterings, they must be moderate and this is even more important in winter because the excess of water leads to rotting of the roots.