HO-46
Growing Strawberries
FRUIT PRODUCTION • COOPERATIVE EXTENSION SERVICE
DEPARTMENT OF HORTICULTURE • PURDUE UNIVERSITY • WEST LAFAYETTE, IN
R. A. Hayden, Extension Horticulturist

The strawberry is the most popular small fruit grown in the home garden. It is relatively easy to grow, produces large quantities of good quality fruit without requiring extra equipment, and it can be grown in home gardens all over Indiana.
Twenty-five plants can yield 25 to 50 quarts of berries ripening from mid May to late June depending upon the area of the state in which they are grown.

Cultivars
Good early season cultivars are Earliglow and Sunrise. Earliglow produces larger fruit than Sunrise. Redchief, Guardian and Surecrop are suggested as mid-season cultivars. Surecrop is the most reliable plant producer and will yield best under adverse conditions. Redchief and Guardian, however, will give greater yields of excellent quality berries under good management systems. Sparkle, Delite and Marlate are suggested cultivars for late season. Sparkle is an excellent quality berry with deep red color throughout. Delite and Marlate are excellent yielders. If an everbearing cultivar is desired, Ozark Beauty is suggested, and Fort Laramie appears to be a promising new selection.
Disease-free plants are important to successful strawberry production. To insure disease-free plants, always buy healthy, virus-free plants from a reliable nursery rather than using plants from your own or a neighbor’s planting.

Site
While strawberries will grow on most soil types found in Indiana, they will do best on well-drained loams or loamy sands. The best site is one which permits good soil drainage and good surface drainage so that water doesn’t accumulate in the area of the planting. Where the only site available is one on heavy soils with poor soil drainage, the strawberry bed should be raised a minimum of 6 to 8 inches to permit good internal soil drainage to be established. A number of types of beds will accomplish this purpose. Raised beds which are surrounded by landscape timbers or strawberry pyramids can be used
to good advantage. Soil amendments should be used to improve the soil to provide for adequate productivity.
Areas that had been planted to strawberries, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, or other crops susceptible to soil diseases should not be planted to strawberries within two or three years after those crops have been removed from the area.

Land Preparation
Where possible, a green manure crop should have been grown the previous year. Oats, rye or Sudan grass are excellent green manure crops which could be plowed down before planting strawberries. Strawberries grow best on soils having high organic matter content and high fertility levels. In raised bed situations, extra organic matter can be incorporated from a compost heap or through the addition of organic materials such as peat or well-rotted straw and manure.
In the early spring before planting, the strawberry bed should be fertilized by working in 2 pounds of 6-24-24 or an equivalent analysis fertilizer per 100 square feet. Work this into the top 6 inches of soil. High levels of phosphates and potash are desirable for best fruit production. The ground should be worked as soon as possible in the spring, and the plants should be set early in order to obtain the best growth and plant production in the first year.

Planting
Rows should be spaced 42 to 48 inches apart depending upon the space available in the garden, and the intensity of culture that is practiced. Plants should be set 15 to 24 inches apart in-row. Wider spacings should be used for earlier plantings and the narrower space for later plantings.
Plants should be set with the crown (the fleshy part from which the leaves develop) at the soil surface (see Figure 1). If the plants are set too shallow, roots tend to dry out before they take hold, and the plant may die. If planted too deep, the plants may also fail to grow. Firm the soil around the roots, and then water thoroughly.