Strawberry plant questions.

[wvgardener]

I'm new here, and also new to growing certain fruits and vegetables.
Last year I planted some strawberry plants outdoors, they produced some berries, but not many. After the winter they came back up, so I transplanted some of them into pots. I now have some of them under a grow light, and some in natural light. So, because I don't know much about growing them, I have a few questions.

1) What is the best fertilizer to use on the plants before they bloom? I've read that they need about 5-10-5 fertilizer?

2) As a way to fertilizer them, would Miracle Gro Plant Food Spikes 6-12-6 work? Or should I use something different?

3) The plants are two years old, do I pinch the buds this year, or is that for new plants only.

4) Once the plants get bigger and vine out some, should I let the 'daughter' plants grow and stay there, or grow, them move els where? Or just not let the plants spread, so that the 'mother' plant gets more nutrients?

5) If you grow strawberries, in your opinion, what is the best method of growing them? Outdoors, hanging baskets or bag, pots, flower boxes?


Any advice would be great!
Thank you.

[opabinia51]

Hi WV and welcome to the HG,

here we advocate towards people to use organic fertilzers which are better for the soil your plants are growing in and therefore better for your plants.

Anyway, for my strawberries (which are heavy producers every year) I have them in a little enclosure made out of 4x4'd that I got as scrap wood at a local lumber year. I use leaf mold, sheet compost and liquid organic fertilzers with them.

The liquid organic fertilzers are Liqid seaweed and a little liquid fish (really smelly stuff so I only use it when the plants don't have fruit).

1) Before they bloom instead of spending money on a synthetic fertilizer that will kill any beneficial biota in the soil and not replace any lost nutrients from the soil try adding some compost which you can buy or make yourself for free.
If you hot compost, you can have good, earthy smelling compost in a month.

2) No the food spikes are made of salts which do what I mentioned above. The liquid seaweed fertilzer would be good and as a slow release fertilzer use a handful of kelp meal.

3) Nope. They should be sending out runners though, bury the stems so that they set root and in the fall sever the attachment to the mother plant.

4) Yes, this is basically what I just described above. Once they have set root, you may wish to move them around a bit.

5) Well, here's the thing; what works good for one gardener does not work for another. If you have certain insect infestations then baskets, high above the soil works. If you have a healthy vibrant soil (lots of information on how to get that on the site) then, I say in the ground. Basically the only way to know is to try things out and figure out what works best. Try all three and see what works best

Have fun with your strawberries!

[wvgardener]

Thanks, opabinia.

Good tips.
I'll try the organic fertilizer now, but will have to wait for the compost since it takes a while.
And yes, I'll just have to try different things for growing them, and see what works.

Thanks again.

[opabinia51]

Not a problem.