Growing Strawberries!

How many strawberry plants do you think it takes to grow an abundant crop? This spring I learned!

At the beginning of 2017 my mom challenged me and my sisters to choose a Farm Project to work on. I have many interests on our farm such as gardening, raising a new animal for the farm, and building projects such as pens for the animals or trellises for the garden. I had so much to choose from.

My sister Olivia chose gardening. She planted a bountiful garden full of lettuce, cabbage, beets, and tomatoes! My other sister, Sophia had a different project in mind. She has always been interested in yarn and fiber. This year she has been earning money and saving it up to buy a spinning wheel. Her project is raising a male and female sheep. She will raise them, have them sheared, and use their fiber for spinning. Then she can crochet with her hand spun yarn. On her blog: Courageisfoundinunlikelyplaces.blogspot.com, she has a crocheting project which you can use! Go see it, and you may love to crochet this beautiful headband! Strawberries are one of my favorite fruits and I love to garden. My farm project for the year was to plant a strawberry patch. Home grown plants, and fibers are wonderful, and we were eager to get started.

To begin, my dad bought me 25 strawberry plants from Bob Wells Nursery, in East Texas. Later, after I planted them in a rich fertilized soil, I realized that you need more than 25 plants to produce enough strawberries for a family. If you are going to sell them at a farmer’s market, or any nearby produce stores, you will need many, many more plants! You may need 500-1000 plants depending on how healthy they are. I bought 73 more plants and ended up with a wonderful crop of berries. After watering them each day, and picking the ever-growing weeds, I soon began seeing green mini strawberries producing. Each morning I woke and ran out to my garden hoping to find my first ripe, red strawberry. It was thrilling one morning in March to find a perfect strawberry hidden under the green leaves. Since that morning, I have harvested many more delicious berries, but have learned that the first crop of strawberries do not produce as much as the following years. Even though it has been hard work, I am glad that strawberries were my farm project. Olivia’s garden is growing vegetables amazingly, but Sophie is waiting to purchase her Sheep in August.

Quick Tips for Gardening Strawberries:

1.      You should always be prepared to more plants then you think!

2.      Make sure the Strawberries you buy are healthy.

3.      Make sure to place down pine needles or leaves to keep the weeds somewhat under control.

4.      The third tip also helps when watering your plants. It will keep the moistness inside the plants.

5.      Strawberries love water! Make sure to water them at least four times a week, depending on the rain. In the summer, water them every day, or to make it easier, buy an Irrigation which waters your plants for yourself!

6.      Birds love these berries so you may want to place a netting over the top, or hang an old C.D. up, and that should keep them away.

7.      Strawberry plants will give of Runners which are stems that they produce. They connect to the other plants, and produce more strawberries. Although this gives you more and free plants, they most likely will spread fungi, and can kill the plant. Cut them off as soon as possible!!!

8.      Ants and other insects will try to come and eat your berries. Grow a Yarrow plant nearby, or next to them and that should keep away most bugs.

9.      Don’t give up!

10.   Lastly, have a good time, and enjoy!

You can grow these berries in barrels. Although it is not as eye catching, it keeps away all weeds, and is so much easier to water! I have not tried this technique yet, but if you do, you are more than welcome to send me a picture or message on the Blogger comets! You can also send me questions, and I would be more than welcome to answer them.