Strawberry Establishment - Planting and Other Basics

Here are a few of the things that are most important when it comes to establishing a healthy planting whether in bare ground in matted rows or on plastic-mulched raised beds in plasticulture.

Soil conditions

Working the soil when it's too wet causes clods to form, which spells trouble for your strawberries. Planting in cloddy soil results in poor root-to-soil contact, but also makes it difficult to set plants at the correct height. Either the plants settle too much once gaps in the soil fill in, causing soil to wash into the crown area which can cause a crown rot, or the plants end up perched too high, and the roots become exposed and dry out. Neither scenario ends well.

However, in a friable soil with good structure, the plants' roots will make good soil contact, allowing them to take up the moisture and nutrients they need to grow. Improving the soil structure by increasing its organic matter content helps.

Moisture!

Make sure beds are trickle-irrigated in plasticulture plantings before planting, and then give them a day or two to drain before planting. Planting is much easier when the beds are nicely moist, not dry or too muddy. Keep the plantings well-watered in dry spells. This will allow the plants in matted-row plantings to produce enough runners to fill in the beds, and will make it easier for the runners to root. It will also keep those plasticulture-grown plants growing nicely.

Planting stock

If planting dormant plants, leave them at the nursery until you are ready to plant, unless you have a place to store them that can be kept very cold (30-31 degrees) and doesn't have apples in it. If the plants are held at warmer temperatures for even a couple of extra weeks, they are using carbohydrate reserves just to stay alive that they should have been putting into growing leaves and roots, plus they tend to send out leggy leaves that get broken off at planting.  Apples produce a gas (ethylene) that can prevent your strawberry plants from growing.

Order a few more plants than you need, and give yourself the option of discarding very small ones. Some smallish plants often are in the orders, but very small plants spend much of the summer growing to the size they should have been in the first place. Instead, they should be producing runners to fill in the row in matted-row plantings, and branch crowns to increase yields in plastic-mulched raised beds.

In matted-row plantings, early-rooting daughter plants will provide much of the yield for the following year. In plasticulture, a higher proportion of small plants don't survive after planting, and those that do produce lower yields, resulting in a decrease in overall yields. It takes just as much (or more) time and money to take care of a partially filled weak bed as it does to take care of a vigorous one, and the payback is worse. In the photo at the beginning of this article, the two plants on the left would be fine to use, while the one on the right, only measuring about ¼" in diameter, is too small.

Nitrogen (in moderation)

Notice that your plants aren't looking so green, or aren't growing all that well? First, make sure there is sufficient moisture in the soil, and if lack of moisture isn't the problem, just a little extra nitrogen, along with enough water to give the plants a good drink, often makes them jump. 

The bottom line is that if the planting starts out vigorous, you won't have to spend money or time coaxing it along later. Chances are, the plant growth will outpace much of the damage from diseases and insects, and weeds won't be as much of a competition, either. All of this together makes caring for the planting easier in the long run, and helps to ensure a good return on your investment of time and money.