Want to build a raised strawberry bed for raised vegetable garden?
Strawberry plants love aerated, well drained soil in a raised bed. In fact, they will not grow well in any other type environment. Having them in a container or raised strawbery bed is even more important that the soil PH!
I learned this lesson the hard way. One whole strawberry for the entire growing season last year. Yikes.This year, I put installed a raised strawberry bed and and also used a planter container (I have multiple plants) and just a few weeks into the season, we get a few berries a day. Here is a great video on how to use a raised strawberry bed:
Two things to remember when building a raised strawberry bed:
1. Choose your varieties wisely. Not all varieties are made for certain climates. AND there are three main types: june bearing, day neutral and ever bearing. June bearing bear a single crop for 2-3 weeks in June. These are super sweet usually. Day neutral bear fruit all season long. And Ever bearing have 2-3 harvests: spring, summer and fall. Day neutral and ever bearing both bear smaller fruit than june bearing. There are also wild cultivars that produce tiny but really tasty fruits. When choosing which variety/cultivar , you should consult your local gardening club or local county agriculture extension to find out which plants do the best for your particular soil and climate.
2. Go organic! My opinion, is that one of the main benefits of growing your own fruits/veggies is that you can keep nasty pesticides and fertilizers out of your body. A simple way to provide nourishment and protection for your organic garden is to have a worm farm. The worms will provide you with castings to on your garden as fertilizer and pesticide.
Don't want to build your own raised strawberry bed?
Here are the most common strawberry cultivars and a brief description.
1. Honeoye Honeoye strawberries are day-neutral June-bearing strawberries. They are early season producers and set large, firm, bright orange-red to red fruit. Few, if any, strawberries can out-produce this variety for the average gardener. Honeoye is widely adapted, but its strawberries obtain their best flavor when grown in raised beds or lighter soils.
2. Earliglow Earliglow is an aptly named June-bearing strawberry. It sets and ripens its fruit sooner than virtually every other strawberry variety available. It is the standard. Berry size is medium to large, although size tends to decrease toward the end of the season. The deep red berries themselves are very symmetrical, conical, and tough. They have excellent, sweet flavor and are a great choice for canning. They are also resistant to many common strawberry diseases.
3. Allstar Allstar is a June-bearing strawberry. Having an almost perfect strawberry shape, glossy red appearance, and good firmness makes it well-liked by gardeners far and wide. . It is a late mid-season producer. Mild and sweet flavor.
4. Ozark Beauty Ozark Beauty is the most popular ever-bearing strawberry. Its popularity stems from its large yields of unusually large strawberries (for an everbearer). The red strawberries are sweet, but the most significant benefit of Ozark Beauty is its production profile. While June-bearers produce one early crop and then are finished, this everbearer produces a large early crop and a second crop later in the season with a few berries produced in between also.
5. Chandler Vigorous, high-yield June bearing plants produce loads of solid red, wedge-shaped berries. Perfect for the home garden, Chandler has an exceptional flavor and is a great variety for preserves, pies and fresh eating. A very good choice for Southern gardens.
6. Jewel Jewel strawberries is a june bearing variety and are well-known for fresh shipping due to its firmness and abrasion-resistant skin. Jewel strawberries are wide and large wedge-shaped berries.
7. Seascape Seascape is an ever bearing strawberry variety that was initially developed for the California strawberry industry as a variety resistant to viral diseases common there. However, it has proven to be tolerant to early heat, requires less chilling, and even grows well on the East Coast. It is a dependable choice. It is one of the most reliable producers in the fall, and it even performs well in hot, dry climates. It produces fewer runners than the June-bearers. A drawback of Seascape plants is that it is patented. This means that it is technically illegal to propagate this variety.
8. Tristar Tristar is a day-neutral strawberry variety that is excellent for both fresh eating and freezing. The berries are firm, red, very sweet, and solid with no hollow cores. They begin producing with a bang early, will produce all summer long as long as conditions are tolerable, and will increase production again in the late summer to fall as they produce maximally at that time. Runners from Tristar plants will flower and fruit even before rooting. They are an excellent choice for hanging baskets.
9. Sparkle Sparkle strawberries are a classic favorite and have been a popular strawberry variety for over 60 years. It is widely considered the best strawberry variety for making jam. It is an extremely vigorous variety that produces a high number of runners, so the strawberry bed must be monitored to ensure it doesn’t get too thick.
10. Surecrop Surecrop strawberries are aptly named. They are the surest bet for producing a good yield compared to all other June-bearers. The fruit is medium to large with good firmness that holds up to shipping. They are ideal for canning and are sweet with a bit of tartness. As the name indicates, this variety will do well virtually anywhere, even poor or dry soils.
10. Fort Laramie Fort Laramie strawberry plants are everbearers. They produce large to very fruits that are scarlet on the outside and dark pink to scarlet on the inside. This variety will produce blooms, berries, and runners simultaneously and is very cold hardy. Its strawberries have an exceptional aroma and a firm, honey-sweet flesh that makes them a great choice for fresh eating or processing. Fort Laramie is also a very good choice for growing hydroponic strawberries.
I hope you enjoyed this article on raised strawberry bed.
