Strawberry Growing Masterclass: My Top Tips for Huge Harvests

Everybody loves strawberries and everyone can grow them! Sweet, juicy and oh-so nutritious-delicious. no matter what size space you have to grow them, with a little know how, you can grow the tastiest strawbs and keep them coming all season long. Yum! Welcome to our Strawberry Masterclass!

For more details on how to grow strawberries from runners, see:

For more of Bens’ top strawberry tips, watch this:

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I challenge you to find a
strawberry that tastes anywhere near as good
as one you’ve grown yourself.
In fact I’ll let you into a little secret,
you can’t.
Strawberries can be grown just about anywhere,
in the ground,
in pots
and dangling down seductively 
from hanging baskets.
And with a few tips of the 
trade they’re super easy too.
If you want to grow perfect, sweet, juicy,
aromatic strawberries every time
you’ve come to the right place.
Welcome to our Strawberry Growing Masterclass.
Look at these little beauties.
We’re going to get these planted in a moment,
but first let’s just take a look at the 
different types of strawberries you can grow.
I want to be sure I can pick 
strawberries for as long as possible
and that means growing a selection of varieties
that together will crop over an extended period.
Now for this purpose strawberries 
are divided into three main types:
Summer fruiting or June bearing strawberries
tend to produce their fruits all in one go
over a period of about 2 to 3 weeks.
Now within this group they’re divided into 
early mid and late season fruiting strawberries,
which will crop anytime from 
early summer to late summer
and even spring if you’re in a warmer climate.
Then there are our ever bearers, also known 
as perpetual or all season strawberries.
These guys tend to crop on 
and off throughout the summer
and even in to early autumn.
If you’re after a steady supply of 
strawberries to pick kind of as and when
then this might be the choice for you.
If on the other hand you’re after 
lots of strawberries all at once
for making say jams,
then those June bearers or summer fruiting 
strawberries would be more your thing.
Closely related to the ever bearers 
are day neutral strawberries,
so called because they aren’t 
affected by day length.
These will produce their tempting 
berries throughout the growing season
in a small but steady supply.
Separate from all of the above, kind 
of in a little world of their own
are the Alpine and wild strawberries.
I’ve got them here growing out 
of the cracks in this stone wall.
Now these have a really really intense 
flavor although the berries are very small,
but they’re perfect dainty berries 
for topping say your porridge.
Now as the name implies these are easier to 
look after than the largest strawberry plants
and they’ll grow just about anywhere
as a beautiful edging plant or as here, 
growing out the cracks of your wall.
Some strawberry varieties have an 
incredible resistance to pests and diseases
or an award-winning reliability, quite literally,
earning themselves either an 
all America selection or a  
Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit.
If you’re new to strawberry growing or are  
just bewildered by the sheer 
number of varieties out there
promising all sorts of benefits, well then 
these might not be a bad place to start.
And here’s that same list ordered 
according to ripening period.
Pick one or two from each column and you’ll 
have yourself the perfect all-season selection.
Strawberries will grow just about anywhere,
but you’ll get the best results, 
meaning sweeter, more fragrant fruits
and more of them
if you aim for a minimum of 6 hours of sunshine
or eight or more if you’re aiming for perfection.
I’m going to be turning over 
one of my beds to strawberries
and just to help things get off to a raring start
I’m popping in a couple of buckets 
of really well rotted manure.
Now you could just use garden 
compost, something like that,
for a bit of extra organic goodness.
And then for good measure, just 
a handful of blood fish and bone.
Now this is a balanced organic fertilizer.
If you’re uh looking for something vegan there 
are kind of labeled brand alternatives available.
Just look for something that’s 
balanced and of course organic.
And I’m just going to fork this in so 
Rosie doesn’t start munching at it,
cause you’re a bit of a mischief 
sometimes aren’t you, with this stuff.
And here are our plants.
Now these are potted strawberries,
but you can also find bare root 
strawberries, also sold as runners.
Now these offer really excellent value for money.
They look pretty shocking though, with next to 
no leaves and really rather scraggly affairs,
but don’t let that put you off.
Once you get them into the 
soil they’ll be well away.
Many commercial growers plant their 
strawberries through black plastic.
This helps to warm the soil early in the season.
It retains moisture, suppresses weeds and it 
keeps the strawberries off the muddy soil.
You can mimic this at home by using old 
compost or potting mix sacks like this.
Just open them out along the seams
and then have the black side facing up
and then secure it in at the sides, tucking 
it in and using pins to hold it all in place.
And then to plant all you have to do is 
cut a slit an X-shaped slit like this
and then fold back the flaps like that.
Pop your strawberry plant in and then 
fold it back neatly around the plant.
I’m not that keen on using plastic directly 
on the soil for prolonged periods of time,
and besides, slugs can 
potentially lurk underneath.
So a plastic free alternative 
is to use strawberry mats made  
from natural materials like coir or coconut fiber,
but just make sure they are wide enough 
to cover the entire width of the plant.
Believe it or not, some aren’t.
They can be on the pricey side though so an  
excellent alternative is to 
use the strawberry namesake,
straw.
And I just think that looks 
a lot more attractive too.
There’s room in this bed for around six plants,
which leaves about 45 cm or 18 inches 
between plants in each direction.
Now getting the right depth is important
and that’s very easy for container 
grown strawberry plants like this
because they’re planted at the same depth as 
they were in in their nursery pot like that.
But for bare root plants we need 
to be a little more careful.
For bare root plants it’s really important to make 
sure you don’t plant them too deep or too shallow.
Too deep and the plant could 
potentially just rot away
and too shallow and it’ll wave about 
in the wind and dry out really easy,
creating a brittle and weak plant.
You want to plant it so that the 
crown, that’s where the leaves emerge,
sits ever so slightly proud of the soil like this.
These plants are going in right 
next to my bed of garlic over there
and would you believe it, garlic is the 
perfect companion plant of strawberries.
It doesn’t just keep vampires away, it helps 
to do to deter many pests such as spider mites.
Now you might find our Garden 
Planner useful for this very purpose.
If you select the plant that you’re interested 
in and click the Companion Planting button
it will suggest perfect companions for that crop.
As these plants are going to remain 
relatively small in this first season
I’m going to interplant 
them with even more garlic.
Now this lot was started off 
in the greenhouse in the autumn
but they’re big enough to plant outside now,
so let’s get them in between. Wonderful stuff.
I’ll add the straw around these plants later on in  
spring once they’ve grown on a 
bit and are starting to flower.
That way I won’t smother them.
With their compact habit and quick cropping,
strawberries make an excellent 
choice for container growing,
meaning that anyone can grow them.
I’ve grown them very successfully 
in wide, shallow contain containers
and I’ve also tried them in hanging baskets, where 
the fruits hang down inviting you to pick them.
Now you can sometimes grow them in strawberry 
planters like this, but I’m not so keen on them.
I’m finding that when I water, the compost 
or potting mix just kind of gets blasted out,
exposing the strawberry like this so it sort 
of rocks about and dries out even quicker.
For this reason I’d avoid these or choose 
strawberry planters with cupped planting pockets,
or perhaps a strawberry tower.
I’m going to put together a 
strawberry cascade instead.
I’ll just move you there Rosie.
And it uses three pots of 
progressively smaller size.
And to fill it I’m going to use a potting 
mix that’s an all-purpose potting mix
that’s been split 50/50 with 
a soil-based potting mix
and that will just give it a bit of body 
and help it to stop slumping down so much.
So to start I’m just going to half fill the  
largest container with our 
potting mix, there we go.
And now for our second pot.
And just so we get everything nice and central  
I’m going to stick in this bamboo 
cane just while we set things up.
And then slide the pot down like that 
through its central drainage point
and that’ll mean just keep it kind 
of neat while we’re filling it.
And let’s half fill this one
and then our final pot,
slide it on, there we are,
and I’m going to fill this one mostly to the top.
And now planting time.
I’m going to plant three in the bottom tier,
two in the middle tier and one in the top.
We’ve got a nice three tiered effect now.
You might need to just kind of split 
it apart a bit like that, the roots,
just to kind of slide it in.
Now obviously we’re planting a lot closer 
than we did in the ground over there
but that’s absolutely fine because in containers 
they can be planted a little bit closer like this.
Ah. There’s a little C-shaped grub which 
is a tell-tale sign of vine weevil.
That is a real pest problem of potted plants,  
so if you find them just remove 
them and well get rid of them
and hopefully it won’t cause any damage.
Right, and then two plants 
for our middle tier here
and then finally one plant right here in the top.
There we go, that looks alright doesn’t it?
It doesn’t look like much now but 
these plants will soon bulk out
and by summer they’ll be cropping
and should create a really 
beautiful visual effect.
Now growing strawberries like this 
will raise them up off the ground  
so the strawberries themselves 
are much less likely to get muddy
and they’ll get a lot less 
attention from slugs as well.
Now you could take the same concept 
and use for example colorful buckets,
anything that graduates in size and where 
you can make drainage holes in the bottom.
The great tip with strawberries 
is to keep them well watered  
while they are establishing and during dry weather
and that is especially important for 
container plants because obviously  
they won’t be able to get their roots 
down into the native soil down below.
Once the plants are a bit 
bigger and starting to fruit
do try and aim your water at the base of plants
so you’re not wetting the fruits which might 
lead to problems like sort of mould on them.
Once my strawberry plants start to flower  
I will water them with a high 
potassium liquid tomato feed,
which will help to encourage those 
fruits to swell into their gorgeousness.
And then early in spring I will tickle 
in a general purpose organic fertilizer  
just to help power plants up 
for the coming growing season.
Do take the time to mulch 
around your strawberry plants.
As I said, I will be using straw and putting 
it around once the plants have grown on a bit.
The straw will really help to keep 
those fruits nice and blemish free.
Then it will be removed at the end of 
the season so I can go in and tidy up  
the old plants by cutting away all the 
old foliage and dead seaves and so on
so they can sit nicely over the winter.
Now if you haven’t got straw you could 
use something like dried grass clippings.
Watch out for birds.
Netting is one option to keep them 
physically off your ripening fruits
but just make sure it’s in place before 
the fruits start to really color up.
Another some might say genius alternative is to 
paint strawberry sized rocks a bright red color
and then nestle these in amongst your plants 
and in the lead up to fruit ripening time.
Now the theory is that birds will 
come down, peck at the strawberries,  
find its rock hard and get a rude awakening 
and then disappear and not return.
Has anyone tried this? Let 
me know in the comments.
Another idea to keep the birds off 
is to just feed the fruits in here
as they’re just about to start ripening 
up to protect them from those birds
and have it in such a way 
that the rain can’t get in.
This will also create a nice warm 
microclimate for those fruits to ripen.
The other pest to watch out for is slugs.
Now if the hole in the strawberry has kind of got  
sharpish angles that’s likely 
to be a bird pecking at it,
but if the hole’s slightly rounded 
that’s more likely to be slugs.
So to control them set up beer traps as 
your fruits start to turn a pinkish color
and keep the beer topped up and empty regularly.
Slugs are especially a problem in wetter climates,  
which is why it’s not a good idea 
to put your mulch down too early.
Now sometimes you’ll see a hole 
with pill bugs or woodlice in them.
They haven’t created the hole, the slugs have,  
and then the woodlice or pill bugs are taking 
advantage of the opportunity created for them.
So take care of the slugs and then 
they won’t make an appearance.
Now for more tips on organic natural 
slug control do check out our video on  
that which I’ve linked to down in the description.
Also watch out early in the season for sudden 
frosty weather when your plants are flowering.
Now strawberries are super hardy 
but the flowers themselves can  
turn to a blacken mush if they get a hard frost
so if it’s going to be a bit chilly just cover 
them over with something nice and warming
like this nice thick fleecy row cover for example.
The real joy of growing your 
own strawberries is that you  
can pick them at the absolute peak of perfection.
Never again will you have to put up 
with hard insipid fruits like these,
you know the ones with this nasty band 
of white where it hasn’t fully ripened.
These are a thing of history.
Pick strawberries in the warmth of the afternoon 
sun if you can for that really developed aroma.
Now strawberries will store 
really well in the fridge
but the cold does knock back the flavor a bit
so bring them out to warm up before you eat them.
Strawberries produce lots of thin 
wiry stems called runners and we  
can use these to our advantage 
to grow more strawberry plants.
Now this is very simple,
it’s just a question of pinning them down 
into the soil or a pot of potting mix
and then once they’ve rooted you can 
cut them free from the mother plant.
Now that’s what I’ve been doing here and I’m going 
to have a few more strawberry plants as a result.
Producing more strawberries like this is 
really simple to do and Incredibly satisfying.
Do check out our video on that.
Unless you’re actively wanting to grow more plants
then I would suggest removing those runners
because that will concentrate 
the plant’s energy into
bulking itself out and of course 
producing those luscious fruits.
And I would say don’t let any runners form 
in at least the first season for this reason.
That all said, as as plants become 
older they do become less productive,
so using runners is a great way to replace them.
Strawberries are also quite 
easy to start from seed.
Look at these guys here.
These were sown about a month ago and then grown 
on under grow lights to bring them on a bit.
And then after I pricked them 
out into their own plug trays
they’ve come out here and they’re 
growing along really nicely.
I think I surprised myself actually with 
just how quick and easy they were to grow.
Now these are of an everbearing 
or perpetual variety,
but I figured I might sow myself some more Alpine  
strawberries which I can then 
use as edging to my flower beds.
So I’ve got my pot here of just 
saved seed starting mix and I’m  
just going to scatter the seeds 
very finely over the top like that.
There we are.
And there’s no need to cover them 
because they need light to germinate.
And then to water them I’m going to 
use this pump action mist sprayer here
and that will avoid disturbing the seeds.
If you haven’t got one of 
these then maybe water the  
potting mix before sowing your seeds 
so you don’t sort of dislodge them.
There we go. Now this is going to go 
inside into the warm to germinate,
then once the seedlings are up they 
will go into their own plugs or pots
and they’ll be safe to come back out here as well.
I’ll then grow them on and 
then plant them out in spring.
While we’re here by the way, let me 
just show you these plants here that  
I potted up and brought in here about a week ago.
Now this is called ‘forcing’ because I’m 
bringing on an extra extra early harvest
by just adding a little bit of extra 
warmth, courtesy of the greenhouse here.
These will fruit at least two weeks and as much 
as 4 weeks earlier than strawberries outside.
Then once they have finished flowering 
I’ll plant them back outside where they  
will have that much more leg room 
and will be easier to look after.
Do check out this video next to get the 
low down on growing more strawberries
and share your tips for growing the best strawbs.
I’ll catch you next time.