Strawberries
We have been growing strawberries for years (almost a decade!). And yes, that sounds like a long time; but, we only get to do it once a year, which means we’ve only actually grown strawberries 8 times (do you remember the first 8 times you rode a bike?). And at least the first 3 times were a total shot in the dark because I was such a young farmer and had so little experience that I didn’t even have an inkling of what might be going right or wrong, I was just hoping for fruit! And we got fruit, we always get fruit. Fresh, juicy, delicious fruit that is such a treat coming off the long winter fruit desert.
But is that fruit as good as it could be? Or even as good as it should be?
These are the whispers of doubt that plague me now that I have more experience and more knowledge of all of the ways in which you can go wrong growing fruit. The last couple of years I have noticed that, while the berries are always delicious, there is definitely variability in quality and flavor. You might get one berry in a pint that is a little more watery than it should be or a little sour. And then this brings up endless questions about ripeness and expectations and standards and what does quality mean anyway??
But enough is enough: this year I’ve buckled down and decided to get to the bottom of it. We are, finally, 10 years later, going to get good at growing strawberries—and I mean for real, not just by accident.
Here are some things that I have learned and some things we are going to implement moving forward:
Pick the right varieties.
Berry variety obviously has a huge impact on the flavor and quality of the fruit. Moreover, nurseries will breed different varieties for all kinds of reasons that are important but have nothing to do with flavor (think size, firmness, plant vigor). Here is how we are picking our varieties this year:
Choose a good nursery. We like Nourse. Not only are they widely respected among farmers big and small, they have an incredible “growers team” that is on call to answer (intelligently!) questions about fertility, plant healthy, and berry quality. I only learned about this incredible resource this spring and it has been a game changer.
Focus on your growing region specifically. We have learned (the hard way) that some berry varieties that produce exceptional fruit in the north will have inconsistent ripeness and fruit quality in the South.
For next year’s harvest, we are going to plant Yambu, Darselect, Galleta, and Flavorfest. These are varieties we have grown before, mostly with success, and which seem to be the best suited to our particular farm needs. We also have some new tricks planned that will hopefully help us get the most delicious berries over the longest season possible.
Plan and plant carefully.
I feel like we have tried every planting style and method in the book, or at least I can say that we’ve tried something different every year. In general we stick to the same basic biennial production plan which requires planting a new crop every year and leads to a big harvest in May. Within that broad strategy we have also tried:
Cultivating runners. We used to always save our own daughter plants for the following year. This can be great because it saves money (although not so much when you really get down to labor costs…) and you get to replicate your own favorite varieties. However we have found it hard to manage the runners and their subsequent plant growth consistently. There are so many things that can go wrong!
Potting up bare root plants in the Greenhouse. This has the advantage of growing out new plants under manageable conditions before planting them in the field where conditions can be particularly harsh here in the high summer months. The downside is that it is hard to give the plants enough space and we have lost many to disease and overcrowding.
Planting on plastic mulch. Plastic mulch is probably the most common way strawberries are cultivated. With good management and good soil conditions it might be the best way to grow them. However we have not always had great management practices and we don’t often have good soil conditions. As a result plastic mulch has been tough for us— the strawberries and weeds over grow the mulch and it can be very hard and tedious to remove. (It also doesn’t feel great to throw armloads of plastic into the dumpster every year).
Planting in straw mulch. This is what we have done most recently. It has the advantage of maintaining cool, moist conditions for establishing plants while also adding organic matter to the soil and suppressing weeds. However, it breeds slugs that damage berries and harbors moisture and disease that can also damage berries.
This year are going to try planting bare roots out directly into white landscape fabric. The fabric is supposed to keep the environment cooler and planting out directly with very close irrigation management will hopefully lead to a higher success rate. We have also pushed back our shipping date and will make a focused effort to prepare the beds properly before the plants arrive.
Water on a careful schedule.
Irrigation has perhaps the biggest effect on both the success of the plants and the flavor of the berries while they’re producing. My main takeaways:
Don’t underwater while the plants are growing. Strawberries like a lot of water while they are growing. However, too much water will stunt the root development—ideally the roots will stretch out in search of water, which happens while the beds are beginning to dry out. At the same time, when the plants are first getting started, the crowns need a high humidity environment to produce leaves without putting too much stress on the roots.
Don’t overwater while the plants are fruiting. While the plants are flowering it is a good idea to make sure there is plenty of moisture in the beds. After that it is best to water the bare minimum while the fruit is developing. Too much water leads to watery berries. This is another reason it is important to grow berries under cover (we grow ours in mobile cat tunnels). Spring rains will totally ruin a strawberry crop.
This year are planning to lay drip under the landscape fabric and totally saturate the beds a week before planting. That way the beds will be full of moisture but starting to dry out at the time of planting. Then we will use overhead sprinklers to keep the crowns moist without actually adding too much water to the soil. After the plants are established we will water them weekly via drip until the winter, and then in the spring we will water them weekly as they are flowering but then quit watering them altogether as the berries begin to develop.
Focus on fertility.
This last point is perhaps the most challenging for us. Aside from water, fertility will have the largest impact on berry quality and flavor. As some of you might remember from our last blog post, fertility is particularly hard on our farm because the alkalinity and high pH of our well water is blocking up the available nutrients in our soil. This means unbalanced fertility may be the cause of the inconsistency in flavor in our berries. It also will be particularly challenging for us to manage as we do not currently have a way of fertigating or acidifying the water out in the field where we grow our strawberries. However, I have learned some things that will inform our practices and hopefully lead to better results even within our current dynamic. These include:
Don’t overfeed. Excess nitrogen can make the berries taste watery in the same way that over-watering can.
Focus on Magnesium. Strawberries really want a lot of Magnesium, and this can be applied foliarly (that is, by applying directly onto the leaves instead of into the soil) with something as simple as epsom salt. We are going to try spraying the plants with an epsom salt solution when the plants are halfway through flowering.
Take plant tissue samples. More data is better! As we head into fruiting next spring I am going to prioritize getting the plants analyzed so that we can make better decisions about how to add nutrients as necessary. One thing that is tricky about strawberries is that even when the plants look fine you might have a nutrient imbalance that is going to affect the quality of the fruit.
In addition to these steps, we are also moving the berries to our newest field which, since it’s only been in production for a couple of years, hasn’t been subjected to as much irrigation and therefore is starting with a more balanced nutrient profile and lower PH.
All of that is to say… we love strawberries. We love them so much that we are going to try to overcome our fears and our obstacles and work to be the best strawberry growers we can be. Also, I really hope that you have enjoyed the berries this year and in years past despite some inconsistencies. I know they’re not perfect, but I also know that they’re pretty darn good.