6 Tips for Massive Strawberry Harvests All Summer Long: First Production Care & Growing Strategies

Welcome to The Rusted Garden Homestead today's video is all about how do you get a really big Harvest of strawberries rule number one you want to have a lot of plants rule number two you want to mix the plants up there are basically three types there are June bearing strawberries and they produce a big crop usually around June today is May 22nd the strawberries here are coming in early so you want to have a mix of different varieties of June bearing and then you also want to have ever bearing which means they're going to continue to produce over the summer and you also want to have some alpine strawberries which I'll show you shortly those three types ensure that I'm always getting strawberries out of my Towers now of course part of getting a harvest like this is really setting up your containers the right way and I've already done a video on that so I will link that in the video description I have a whole series going on right now and growing in these vertical Towers these vertical Planters from greenstock garden but again different Towers just look at all the different strawberries on there I mean it's it's just wonderful this is a great harvest this year so this video is really focusing on how do you maintain production how do you take care of your plants when you first get the initial set of strawberries and again if you want to follow me and subscribe I'll be showing you how I take care of these come July kind of get them refreshed and ready to go again for the rest of the season this is production out of the June bearing plants I also grow in Towers so I'm maximizing the footprint in a little 2T X 2T footprint I have one two three four five tiers and I let the runners come out they'll develop over the summer I tuck them into other places just for a quick side tip if you want larger strawberries you can remove some of the runners but strawberry plants have to be replaced every 3 to 5 years so you don't want to go in and remove all the runners but you can remove a few that'll put a little bit more energy into developing larger fruit but I'm not worried about you know super siiz strawberries I want a strawberry that's nice and sweet and I just want them to keep coming I mean they are hidden everywhere on these plants the June bearing are early so I'm getting a lot now but the ever bearing are starting to produce and they're typically smaller than the June bearing but they produce again for the whole season so mix up the different strawberry types into your Towers or into your beds it's just a beautiful production of plants let's go over to here I want to show you the alpines alpine strawberries you know what they are in the same class of strawberri but they're more like wild strawberries they don't produce Runners they just set lots of tiny fruit like this that's really soft tastes like a little strawberry jelly bean I used to not like them but they've kind of grown on me and they're just like a little quick snack but mixed in here again I have the alpines the June bearing and the ever bearing and that ensures that I get a big crop of strawberries really in middle of May and June and then they continue growing or they continue producing through the entire season now to keep these going once you get production going like this you really want to get in and feed them with any water soluble fertilizer when I'm in Towers I will feed each pocket any water soluble fertilizer works as long as npn is represented I recommend aggro Thrive I'm not going to show you how to do that cuz that's just going to take up your time and all I'm doing is pouring the liquid fertilizer the water suable right into here give it like 3 seconds get them the nutrients they need to create more leaves use the energy to create Runners and also to create more strawberries you also want to get in clean up the Dead Leaves remove the weeds that will help get your strawberries into a good place to continue producing for the summer now it does kind of make sense you feed them more we also want to keep up on the watering you don't want to overwater strawberry plants that can can impact how they grow but you don't need to be afraid that you're really overwatering what do I mean by that you want this to dry out a little bit but you don't want it to dry out completely so we have 90° temperatures today we had 87 yesterday there's still moisture in there but I'm going to give get in give them a big drink of water but I'm not watering these every other day I'm not keeping a lot of saturation in the soil I'm just making sure the moisture stays in there I have strawberries in Towers I have them in containers and again producing very nicely more of the alpine strawberries you can see some right in there I mix it different types of strawberries together I'm going to be picking all of these today that's why I wanted to do the video now I have all kinds of containers around your container should have drainage holes I mean just look at everything that's coming out of these containers again common sense you're going to need a lot of strawberry plants to get a really big Harvest but you want to stay up on the watering and on the feeding you can see that the runners are coming out some of these I missed they're you know they're overripe they're starting to turn brown you also want to treat your area for snails and slugs they tend to love the strawberries I use baited pellets they have iron phosphate or sulfur in there and I just scatter them around liberally don't put big piles down that will kill off the snails and slugs cuz the last thing you want is to have just you know the delicious strawberries coming and then they have damage from snails and slugs like this one's going to be perfect I can smell it from here you're also going to sometimes have your strawberry plants produce strawberries that are kind of bland maybe a little sour I've never figured out the solution there's a lot on the internet saying how to fix that you really can't you let them get nice and ripe not over riped sometimes the environment affects them how much rain you get affects them but just stay consistent with the watering and the feeding and you're just going to get beautiful strawberries like this strawberry plants can get diseases on the leaves usually different fungal issues like this pattern brown circles concentric circles C circles within circles is usually a sign of a fungal issue that can happen sometimes on a couple of leaves doesn't necessarily mean it's going to spread this happens more often on my Alpine Type strawberries and I just kind of leave them go they don't seem to jump from the alpines to the June bearing or to the ever bearing I'm just looking for great well there's a rabbit and well that one looks like a butt but you know the weather the temperature fluctuations in cold and heat can really distort the strawberries but they look kind of cool again a beautiful strawberry right there to deal with any kind of fungal issues coming up I usually just make a baking soda solution I don't want look at all them I mean these are nice and red and soft I mean that's going to be absolutely delicious I like using a baking soda spray cuz it really doesn't change the flavor I don't want to use organic oils don't want to use chemicals don't want to coat these with something that don't that won't easily wash off one 1 tablespoon of baking soda maybe two if you want to do that always test spray before you do anything with chemicals on leaves even if you trust me and you've used baking soda in other parts of your garden you want to spray it on the leaves wait 48 Hours see if there's any damage but baking soda makes a great anti antifungal you just mix that in water you don't need soap you don't need oil mix it through Shake It Well spray the leaves changes the pH on the leaves and that makes it harder for fungus to live they like to live on a certain pH by adding baking soda you're increasing the alkalinity on your strawberry plant leaves and that will take care of the fungus just a quick rinse underwater would rinse off any residue baking soda but I really don't I mean I really don't taste it when I have to use it I mean absolutely they're just beautiful mixed in my strawberry Towers I have parsley I have Tiny Tim Tomatoes mixing up what I'm growing in there in some cases I just have a tower set up up with strawberries and again I like to plant different varieties different types put them in the top as a Runners come out I will populate the lower tiers that's a great way to save some money as we're going by you'll see a a tower that I'm letting die off now because it's 90° those are cool weather crops I'm going to be cleaning that up being and put something else in there if you want to grow vertically I recommend greenstalk Garden I'm affiliated with them and you can find these tiers these vertical Planters in the video description I mean just look how beautiful they are you can mix up different plants grow whatever you want really in them here's another quick look at some of the alpines the whole key for your strawberries is water I think and fertilizer management you don't want to overdo it I have a lot of videos on strawberries but I just want to again stress at this point when they start producing a light feed of a water soluble fertilizer really goes a long way green up the leaves get them ready to continue producing throughout the rest of the summer mean just absolutely prolific tons of strawberries coming all the way around I highly recommend them and this is what you want to see a beautiful strawberry more on the way in different stages and you're going to have strawberries really throughout the entire year what's really cool about these come the winter or come the fall you think that your strawberries are going to stop producing here in Maryland they kind of get refreshed when that cool weather comes in September and I got a whole other round of strawberries coming out of there through September and October until the really the cold came they are super Hardy in the cold they can take temperatures down into the teens Fahrenheit even minus degree temperatures I'm in Maryland Zone 7 and these come back every year thanks so much for watching please check out my seed shop at The Rusted garden.com and I really recommend growing strawberries and Towers it's a great way to have an abundance of strawberries thanks for watching

Channel: Gary Pilarchik (The Rusted Garden)

Views: 21,380

Keywords: garden, gardening, homesteading, growingfood, organic, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, herbs, vegetable gardening

Id: zOEuqOCtHnc

Length: 10min 11sec (611 seconds)

Published: Fri May 24 2024