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STRAWBERRIESTheLusciousRedFruit

T he image of a bowl of slicedred strawberries with cream

and maybe a little sugar is a tan-talizing picture. You can grow bigred strawberries that bear by th,~bucketful in your own garden.

I know that some of you havetried the strawberry plants thatnurseries sell in the springtimewith poor results. The plants justdo not have enough time to getestablished to produce a goodcrop before the summer heat ar-rives. With a fall-planted annualsystem, which we will be' discuss~,ing, the summer heat problem iseliminated. First, let's get ac-quairited with the famous andtasty red berry.

The history of the strawberry

BY RICHARD ASHTONFreelance Writer

20 TEXASGARDENER' JULY/AUGUST' 2008

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is interesting, and the currentlycultivated strawberry yarieties area fairly recent development. Wildstrawberries are indigenous toboth Europe and the WesternHemisphere. The wild berrieswere picked and sold in marketsin Europe as far back as Romantimes. In America, Indians usedthe berries before European set-tlers arrived. When English shipslanded in'Virginia in 1588, theEnglish found wild strawberries

, growing there. The strawberriesthey foundi were supeI;ior to the..wild strawberries of Europe insize, flavor and beauty. Cultiva-tion of wild strawberries began inAmerica as early as 1643in Mas-sachusetts. The first account ofhow to cultivate the wild Euro-pean "wood" strawberries wasgiven in a French publication in

1578. During the 19th century,crossbreeding was started to im-prove the strawberry. The ground-breaking variety resulted from across of a Virginia wild varietyand an imported Chilean wild va-riety that produced a larger,firmer berry. The result was thePineapple strawberry. The Pine-apple strawberry was the first stepto our present big-fruited straw-berries. During the revolutionaryperiod, in 1780, the first Ameri-can hybrid strawberry 'Hudson'was deyeloped. T?day more than30,000 acres of strawberries arecultivated in the United States.With an acre producing around20 tons of strawberries, that addsup to a lot of fruit!

The origin of the word "straw-berry" comes from the word"strew," and that word came from

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the fact that the plants send outrunners.and "strew" themselvesabout. The Anglo-Saxon word"strew" was later converted to theEnglish word "straw." Manythought the name had to do withthe fact that straw was sometimesused as mulch for strawberriesand, although incorrect, it is aninteresting association.

Scientifically, the strawberry,belonging to the Fragaria genus,is a member of the large rosefamily (Rosaceae). Fragaria meansfragrant. The "fruit" are actuallythe enlarged ends of the stamensof the plants. This results in theseed being on the outer skin in-stead of inside like most fruit.

Today's strawberry, Fragaria xananassa, is a herbaceous peren-nial, producing leaves at close in-tervals on a short stem, producingflowers at the terminal positionon the stem axis with roots at thebase of the stem. This stem struc-ture is called a crown and is theregenerative part of the plant.

A plant has about 30 roots butmay have up to 100. Most of theroots are in the top 6 inches ofthe soil. The primary roots liveone year. To maintain its peren-nial nature the plant initiates newroots at the nodes at'succeedinglyhigher levels on the base of thecrown. Old plants gradually loseground contact and succumb todrought or stress. To achievegood production the old plantsneed to be removed or isolatedeach year and replaced withyoung plants from plantlets onrunners or by completely replant-ing. The old p'lants put out run-ners that form new daughterplants on stolons. A daughterplant initiates roots at the secondnode of the stolen. When theseroots are developed the newplantlets can be severed from theold plant. This forms the basis ofreproduction for new plants ei-ther in the garden or intpe nurs- .ery.

The flower buds are formedfrom late summer into fall andthe number of buds formed atthat time determines the maxi-mum number of berries the fol-lowing spring. The strawberryfruit itself is formed followingfertilization and develops by en-

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largingits cells. Generally, the. period from bloom fertilization toripe fruit is 30 days, but it can beas little as 20 days or as long as60 days depending on conditions.

Our'summer heat preventsmany of the everbearing straw-berry varieties from producingwell. Everbearing varieties willproduce strawberries in Texas butwill not match the production ofthe June-bearing varieties, andthe berries they produce are usu-ally small.

June-bearing varieties can anddo produce bountiful crops. Timeof planting is a critical factor forthese one-crop, June-bearingstrawberries. You want them toproduce their full crop before theheat of summer arrives. To dothis you need to plant in the falland let them get established be-fore the first fall frosts arrive.Strawberries can stand our wintertemperatures but do not growmuch during this time. Havingthem established in the fallmeans that with the first warmingof spring they will start substan-tial new growth and shortly puton blooms and some runners.This system of fall planting andspring bearing, followed by re-moval of the plants and startingover again, is the very best systemfor Texas.

June-bearing varieties that dowell in Texas are 'Sweet Charlie,''Festival,' 'Camarosa,' 'CaminoReal,' 'Ventana' and the mostcommon, well-adapted variety,'Chandler.' The 'Sequoia' and'Douglas' varieties will suffice ifyou can not get the better variet-ies. Sources for these varieties arelisted below. Presently the onlyway to get these varieties at theright planting time, in the earlyfall, is to mail-order them. Wehope that, in the fulure Texasnurseries will offer strawberryplants in, the fall. Order yourplants so tpat they will arrive inthe latter pkrt of Septefuber. -,

Choose a sunny location foryour berry patch. Full sun is amust. The best soil for your straw-berries is a sandy or loamy soilthat is loose and will let waterdrain away from the plants. Tightheavy soil should be avoided oramended. You can amend your

soil by adding sand and peatmoss, compost or potting soil.Into this soil you can mix a time-release fertilizer such as Osmo-cote. Follow label directions as toamount. Usually these time-re-leased fertilizers will last fromthree to 12 months, Water the soilbefore planting. In order to makesure that the drainage is goodmost growers put their strawber-ries on raised beds that areformed by either hand or ma-chine. These beds should beabout 8 inches above the groundarea between the rows. Strawber-ries will not tolerate waterlogged,poorly drained soil. Althoughstrawberries do best on soils witha slightly acid pH, good crops.have been obtained on soils hav-ing a pH as high as 7.6.

Commercial growers fumigatethe soil before planting to steril-ize it and thus prevent soilbornediseases. Home growers can usesolarization to achieve about thesame results. This is done by lay-ing down clear (not black) plasticon the ground for a month ormore in the hot part of the sum-mer before fall planting time.

.This heats the soil, thus some-what sterilizing it. It will also killmany weed seeds. Be sure theclear plastic is in full contact withthe ground so it will trap theheat.

You now have a choice ofwhether you want to use a blackplastic soil covering or go withnatural soil. Most commercialgrowers use black plastic to e'n-sure that the berries do not rot asfruit rot is a major problem withstrawberries. The black color alsowarms the soil in the spring, re-sulting in earlier berries thatripen before "the summer heat."So it is suggested that you use ablack plastic covering on the soil.If you chose the natural soil youwill still get berries, but some willrot on ground contact. Somepeople'do raise 'strawberries with-out the plastic without too manyproblems. But the plants will beara little later and you will have toweed and water more.

Either way you want your bedsspaced 2-1/2 to 3 feet apart withroom enough on top of the bedfor two rows of plants that are 18

TEXASGARDENER. JULY/AUGUST. 2008 21

'Chandler.'

Fresh picked strawberries.

.'Camarosa.'

22 TEXASGARDENER. JULY/AUGUST' 2008

inches apart. Within the rows theplants should be 12 inches apart.If you used the black plastic, cutthe openings by making a slit inthe plastic for each plant. With atrowel, make a crevice in the soiland bury the plant so that themiddle of the crown is even withthe soil line. This positioning ofthe crown is very important.Planting too deep will result inthe plant rotting and planting tooshallow will dehydrate the plant.Spread the roots out a little in thecrevice and push the soil inaround them. Sprinkle the trans-plants with water daily for a weekto 10 days until the plants be-come established. Then water asneeded depending on rainfall. Ifyou used black plastic then littleweeding will be needed. Other-wise, weed as necessary. After thefirst frosts of winter you will havelittle to do except water if it be-comes too dry. With the blackplastic and loose soil, sprinklerirrigation is the best wateringmethod.

In the early spring you shouldsee new growth followed byblooms. This is the critical timefor your strawberries. Frosts can

.and do occur during this timeand, although the plants them-selves are hardy, the blooms arenot. To prevent bloom or fruitloss due to frosts two methods canbe used. First, you can use sprin-klers to prevent frost damage.Second, row covers can be usedduring cool nights. Try to removethe row covers during warm days,and only cover them as necessary.If you just have a small patch, youcan use a large piece of clear plas-tic with something under it tohold it off the plants as a deter-rent to frosts.

The plants will produce somerunners that need to be pinchedoff to put all the energy of theplant into making berries,

With these simple steps you. should beprodlidng ample crops

of delicious strawberries. Most ofthe named June-bearing varietieswill yield 1 pound or better ofberries per plant. So if you want25 pounds of strawberries in theearly spring then plant 25 or 30plants (you may lose a few).

Problems with pests and dis-

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feases may be encountered occa-sionally. Spider mites can be aproblem and there are sprays thatwill deal with them. Contact yourcounty agent or garden center.Anthracnose can be a problembut many of the varieties I havelisted are resistant. Fruit rot canbe minimized by applications offungicides. With black plastic toprevent ground contact this prob-lem will be reduced. Powdery mil-dew can be a little problemduring a very wet period. Gener-ally, there are few pest and dis-ease problems with strawberriesgrown with the annual system. TG

Richard Ashton is the author ofseveral books on fruit growing, in-cluding The Incredible Pomegran-ate - Plant and Fruit, Jujube -The Chinese Date, Sweet Cher-ries For Southern Orchards andPlums of North America. They areall available from Third MillenniumPublishing at www.3mpub.com/ashton or they can be purchasedthrough the Texas Gardener book-store.

SOURCESHere are two sources of fall

strawberry plants (June bearers):Shasta Nursery in Anderson, Califor-hia, is on the Internet at www.root

stock.com and has an ordering pageat http://plantingstockstore.stores.yahoo.net/. or phone (530) 365-2768. They carry the varieties 'Chan-dler,' 'Camarosa,' 'festival' and'Sweet Charlie.' They sell 25 plantsfor $8 plus shipping (the shipping maybe as much as. or a little more than

the plants). Lassen Canyon Nurseryof Redding, California, is at www.lassencanyonnursery.com or by phoneat (530) 223-1075. They have all theJune bearing varieties listed as doingwell in Texas. They have a minimumorder of 100 plants for $25 plus ship-ping. If you do not need that many,you may want to go in with. spmeone.kelse and divide the plants. Both thesenurseries have growing farms in coolsummer areas of northern Californiaand Oregon where the chilling re-quirement of the plants will be partlymet before you get them. This is es-pecially important to those of you inthe more southern parts of Texas.

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'Festival. "

'Sweet Charlie.'

TEXAS GARDENER. JULY/AUGUST. 2008 23