Vegetable · Rosaceae
Strawberry
Fragaria × ananassa
Give it full sun, steady water, and clean straw mulch, and the strawberry rewards you with sweet fruit year after year.
Full sun
Every 2–4 days
59–77°F · 15–25°C
90–120 days
Overview
The strawberry is a low, ground-hugging plant, and one of the easiest fruits to grow at home. It belongs to the rose family and lives as a spreading perennial, its crown throwing out slender runners that creep across the soil and root into new plants. A single planting keeps setting fruit for several years before the old crowns need renewing.
There is more than one kind, and the type shapes both the fruit and the plant. June-bearers ripen one heavy flush over a couple of weeks in early summer and fling out long runners that mat over a bed, while day-neutral and everbearing plants carry fruit from late spring into fall and send out only a few runners. That difference in runners is what you see most on the ground.
The prize is the fruit itself: a plump, sweet, red berry studded all over with tiny seed-like achenes. Give the plants sun, even moisture, and clean straw beneath the berries, and the fruit swells firm and unblemished. Let the bed crowd or the fruit rest on wet soil, and it softens under gray mold and a dusty gray coat instead.
Care
The short version: full sun, evenly moist soil with about an inch to an inch and a half of water a week, rich sandy loam on the acidic side, and clean straw mulch to hold the red berries up off bare ground.
Light
Strawberries want full sun, ideally 8 or more hours a day, to fill the fruit with sugar and color. A little partial sun is tolerated, but real shade thins the crop and leaves the berries dull and watery rather than deep red.
Water
Keep the soil evenly moist but never waterlogged, which comes to about 1 to 1.5 inches (2.5 to 4 cm) of water a week. Watch it closely as the flowers open and the berries swell, and lay the water at the base so the leaves and fruit stay dry.
Soil
Set the crowns in well-drained sandy loam worked full of organic matter. A pH of 5.8 to 6.5, on the acidic side, suits them best, and the free drainage is what keeps the roots firm and pale rather than rotted.
Temperature
The plants grow best in the 59°F to 77°F (15°C to 25°C) range. The crown is hardy enough to overwinter in the ground, but flowers and fruit shrivel once summer heat pushes well past that band.
Humidity
Average humidity of 40% to 70% suits them, so there is no number to chase. Air moving through the low canopy matters more, since the still, damp air trapped among crowded leaves is where gray mold and leaf fungi settle in.
Feeding
A balanced 10-10-10 goes on in spring at planting and again after summer renovation. Keep spring nitrogen light on fruiting June-bearers, or the plants run to soft, leafy growth and set fewer firm berries.
Pruning
Pinch the first-year blossoms off June-bearers so the crown thickens instead of fruiting, and thin the runners so the mat does not choke itself. Renovate June-bearing beds after harvest by mowing the old foliage and thinning the plants, and remove every runner on day-neutral types.
Repotting
Refresh or pot up container plants every 1 to 2 years, and renew in-ground beds every 3 to 4 years. Shrinking berries, fast drying, and roots circling the pot all show the crown has outgrown its ground.
Size & spacing
The plants stay low, a mound of leaves 6 to 12 inches (15 to 30 cm) tall, spreading 12 to 24 inches (30 to 60 cm) wide as the runners root out. Give them that room so air slips through the leaves and the berries stay clean.
When to plant
Strawberries go into cool early-spring soil, set as dormant crowns or leafed-out transplants as soon as the ground can be worked. From there the low plants push new leaves, then flower, and carry fruit from early summer through fall depending on the type you grow.
Northern hemisphere
Southern hemisphere
Typical months for a temperate climate: start earlier in warm zones, later where spring frosts linger.
- Plant: Early spring, as soon as the soil can be worked; set dormant crowns or transplants 2 to 4 weeks before the last frost.
- Harvest: June-bearing: harvested over 2 to 3 weeks in early summer; day-neutral and everbearing: harvested from late spring through fall.
Hardiness
USDA hardiness zones: 3–10
Temperature: down to -40°C
Troubleshooting
Most strawberry trouble shows on the parts you can see: soft patches on the fruit, spotting on the leaves, or a plant that shrinks and wilts as the roots fail below. Wet conditions usually set it off. Match the look of what you find below, then act while it still helps.
Stunted, wilting plants that push few new leaves
A plant that stays small, flags in dry weather, and pushes barely any new leaves is being eaten from below by a soilborne rot, either red stele or Verticillium wilt. Lift it and slice a root down its length: a healthy core is white, but an infected one runs reddish-brown through the center, and a plant that far gone will not recover. Pull and destroy the affected plants, set new ones in well-drained ground, choose resistant cultivars, and keep strawberries off soil that lately held tomatoes or potatoes.
Fix:
- Remove and destroy affected plants
- Improve soil drainage and avoid waterlogging
Soft brown patches and fuzzy gray mold on ripening berries
That soft, light-brown patch spreading over a reddening berry is gray mold, the fungus Botrytis cinerea, and it moves in during wet, humid weather. It starts as a water-soaked spot, then dulls into a dusty gray coat that fuzzes over the fruit where it touches soil or a neighboring berry. Pick ripe fruit often and lift away the marked berries, then set clean straw beneath the plants, open the spacing, and keep every berry off bare soil.
Fix:
- Remove and destroy infected berries promptly
- Harvest ripe fruit frequently
- Improve air circulation and keep fruit off bare soil
Small purple spots and reddened, scorched leaf margins
Small angular spots in purple to brown, scattered across the upper leaf surface with reddish-brown scorched edges, are the mark of leaf scorch and leaf spot, a pair of fungi. The blotches crowd together on the oldest leaves until whole blades turn reddish-brown and dry, though the fruit itself is rarely touched. Strip the old spotted foliage at renovation, keep the leaves dry, and reach for a labeled fungicide only when the spotting runs wild.
Fix:
- Remove and destroy old infected foliage at renovation
- Apply a labeled fungicide if infection is severe
Toxicity
For homes with pets, the strawberry is safe from its low leaves to its trailing runners to its red fruit. No part of the plant carries a toxic compound, so a curious cat, dog, or rabbit that takes a bite is in no danger. The ripe berry is a wholesome treat for pets and people alike, best offered in small amounts.
Safe for
People · Cats · Dogs · Horses · Rabbits · Livestock · Birds
Cats None
From the low leaves to the trailing runners to the red fruit, nothing on a strawberry is toxic to cats. A cat that chews a leaf comes to no harm.
Dogs None
A dog can nose through the plants and take a bright-red berry with no danger. Keep the helping small, since a lot of fruit at once may loosen the stomach.
Horses Safe
Horses can graze right up to the low, spreading plants safely, as every part is free of toxin.
Rabbits Safe
The leaves and the ripe fruit hold no harm for rabbits, and a thin slice of red berry now and then is a fine treat.
Livestock Safe
Cattle, goats, and sheep can browse the low foliage with no toxic risk.
Birds Safe
Birds pick the ripe red berries off the plants without harm, and will clear a bed before the household does.
People Safe
The sweet red fruit is safe to eat fresh or cooked, and the leaves, stems, and runners are harmless too.
No toxic principle is present in the plant; the ripe fruit is edible and safe for pets and people.
Varieties
Strawberries fall into three broad fruiting types and a long list of named cultivars, each with its own habit and berry. These are the ones worth knowing before you plant.
June-bearing (Junebearer)
It sets one heavy flush of fruit over 2 to 3 weeks in early summer and throws out long runners that root into a spreading mat.
Day-neutral
It carries fruit steadily all season whatever the day length, and sends out only a scattering of runners.
Honeoye
A very cold-hardy June-bearer that crops heavily and holds large, firm, bright-red berries.
Albion
A day-neutral bearing big, cone-shaped, sweet berries on plants with strong disease resistance.
Seascape
A heat-tolerant day-neutral that fruits across a wide range of climates.
Ozark Beauty
A well-loved everbearer that carries two main flushes of fruit, one in spring and another in fall.
Companions
Strawberries do best beside low crops and pollinator plants that share the bed without crowding them, and worst beside relatives and heavy feeders that pass along wilt or steal nutrients.
Plant near
Bush beans: Legumes fix nitrogen and compete little with shallow strawberry roots.
Spinach: Low-growing leafy crop that uses bed space efficiently without shading strawberries.
Borage: Attracts pollinators that improve strawberry fruit set.
How to propagate
Strawberries multiply almost on their own, throwing out runners, the thin creeping stems, that root down into fresh daughter plants wherever they touch the soil.
Offsets & pupsEasy
Summer to early fall · 4 to 8 weeks
The plant clones itself along its runners, the slender stems that creep out from the crown. Through summer and into early fall, small daughter plants swell at the joints of those runners, and pegging one against the soil roots it before it is cut free of the parent. It anchors down within 4 to 8 weeks, and one vigorous June-bearer can spin off roughly 120 runner plants in a single season.
DivisionModerate
Early spring or after renovation · 4 to 6 weeks
An old plant that has swelled into a cluster of several crowns can be lifted and pulled apart to renew a tired planting. Do it in early spring or right after renovation, easing the rooted crowns apart by hand and resetting them. Each split crown grips the soil again in about 4 to 6 weeks.
SeedDemanding
8 to 10 weeks before the last spring frost, indoors · 2 to 3 months to transplant size
The achenes on the fruit are true seeds, but sowing them is mostly for breeders and alpine types, since hybrid garden strawberries do not come true to the parent. Start them indoors 8 to 10 weeks before the last spring frost, and expect a slow crawl, as the seedlings take 2 to 3 months to reach transplant size.
Myths
The strawberry is a true berry.
Look closely at the fruit and the name unravels, because botanists class it as an accessory fruit. The plump red flesh swells from the receptacle, while the real fruits are the tiny achenes, the little seed-like dots pressed into pits all across the surface.
Let June-bearing plants fruit heavily in their first year.
A heavy first-year crop pulls strength from a young plant before the crown thickens up. Pinch off the first-year blossoms on June-bearers and the crown and runners fill out sturdier, returning far larger berries in the seasons that follow.