Growing Everbearing Strawberries

The everbearing strawberry plant is perfect for strawberry lovers—it bears fruit two to three times per year, giving you plenty of strawberries for recipes like strawberry smoothies and strawberry shortcake. Suitable for gardens and farms in USDA Hardiness Zones 3 through 10, everbearing strawberries are perennials that do well in dappled to full sun.

The best time to plant your everbearing strawberry plant is in the early spring. The leaves on an everbearing strawberry plant are green, and the flowers that will produce strawberries are white. The strawberries themselves are one to two inches in length, red with yellow seeds, and juicy and sweet in flavor.

Light

You want to provide a spot in your garden that gets full sun for your strawberries. At the same time, Look for an area that receives dappled sun in the afternoon so as to avoid scorching the plants delicate foliage, thereby ensuring a continual production of berries to harvest through the summer and into the fall.

Soil

Provide them with an organically rich soil that is well-draining. The pH should be as close to neutral as possible. We recommend having a bag of premium potting soil that you can add to the hole while planting, such as Miracle Gro’s Organic Choice Garden Soil, which will enrich your growing medium and fertilize at the same time.

Water

Juicy strawberries are the best; and that juiciness comes from being certain that your strawberries get and adequate and regular suplly of water. An inch of water per plant per week, in general, will keep the plants healthy they will produce that juicy fruit everyone loves. The one thing you need to make sure of is that your soil drains well, as strawberries are susceptible to root rot.

Planting

The best time to plant your everbearing strawberry plant is in the early to mid-spring. If you’re planting more than one everbearing strawberry plant, make sure the holes are 12 inches apart. You can also plant the strawberries in containers or raised beds. If you choose this method, mix potting soil and compost together and place the plant in a hole in the center. When your first batch of flowers bloom, cut them off and allow the plant to focus on creating a strong root system, which will help produce better strawberries in the future.

You should see your first strawberries in the first year of planting. You will get two strawberry harvests—one in the late spring and one in the late summer or early fall. You may also get a third harvest in late fall.

Picking your harvest is important as it prepares your plant for its next bounty. You want to remove fruit that is bright red and large. Any fruit that seems too small and lingering at immaturity should be removed. Your goal is to harvest as much fruit in as small a window and get your plant focused on producing more blooms, which produces more fruit.

Available in the garden center in flats or by the pack for planting in both the garden and within containers. Get them now and you can enjoy your very own home-made Strawberry Banana Pineapple Smoothie.