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Want to grow bigger, sweeter, and more productive strawberry plants? 🍓 In this complete strawberry growing masterclass, you'll learn the essential techniques that can dramatically increase your harvest, whether you're growing in raised beds, containers, or directly in the garden.
In this video, you'll discover:
The best soil mix for healthy strawberry plants
When and how to fertilize for maximum fruit production
Proper watering techniques to prevent disease
Common mistakes that reduce your harvest
Pruning and runner management tips
How to keep strawberries producing longer
Natural ways to protect your plants from pests and diseases
Expert harvesting tips for sweeter, juicier berries
Whether you're a beginner or an experienced gardener, these proven methods will help you enjoy healthier plants and baskets full of delicious homegrown strawberries.
👍 If you enjoyed this video, don't forget to Like, Subscribe, and turn on notifications for more gardening tips, growing guides, and high-yield harvest secrets.
#Strawberries #Gardening #GrowStrawberries #HomeGarden #VegetableGarden #OrganicG
Want to grow bigger, sweeter, and more productive strawberry plants? 🍓 In this complete strawberry growing masterclass, you'll learn the essential techniques that can dramatically increase your harvest, whether you're growing in raised beds, containers, or directly in the garden.
In this video, you'll discover:
The best soil mix for healthy strawberry plants
When and how to fertilize for maximum fruit production
Proper watering techniques to prevent disease
Common mistakes that reduce your harvest
Pruning and runner management tips
How to keep strawberries producing longer
Natural ways to protect your plants from pests and diseases
Expert harvesting tips for sweeter, juicier berries
Whether you're a beginner or an experienced gardener, these proven methods will help you enjoy healthier plants and baskets full of delicious homegrown strawberries.
👍 If you enjoyed this video, don't forget to Like, Subscribe, and turn on notifications for more gardening tips, growing guides, and high-yield harvest secrets.
#Strawberries #Gardening #GrowStrawberries #HomeGarden #VegetableGarden #OrganicG
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Most folks try growing strawberries just the once.
00:03They put in a few plants, they watch a leaf or two come up, they get maybe one or two
00:08little sorry berries, and then they decide that strawberries are fussy and difficult
00:13and not worth the bother, and they never try again.
00:17And that is a shame, because they had it backwards.
00:21The strawberry is not a difficult plant.
00:24It is one of the most generous plants there is, and once you understand how it wants to
00:29live, it will give you bowl after bowl of sweet red fruit, and then it will multiply
00:36itself into a whole patch that feeds you for years.
00:40The trouble was never the plant.
00:42The trouble was that nobody ever explained to those folks how a strawberry thinks.
00:47So let me do that today.
00:49My name is Elias Yoder, and I farm here in Lancaster County in Pennsylvania.
00:55And a good strawberry bed is one of the sweetest things a family can have, for the berries
01:01come on in early summer when a body is hungry for the first fresh fruit of the year.
01:06And the children will pick them faster than you can grow them, and there is no store-bought
01:12berry that ever tasted half so good as one warm off your own plant.
01:18My grandmother had a strawberry bed by the kitchen door that she never once replanted in all the
01:25years I knew her, for she kept it going off its own runners, and every June the whole family
01:31lived half on strawberries.
01:34I can still see the little ones coming in from that bed with red mouths and red fingers,
01:40having eaten far more than ever reached the bowl.
01:43She never scolded them for it.
01:45She said a strawberry eaten warm in the sun by a child was the berry doing exactly what
01:51the good Lord made it for, and the ones that reached the kitchen were a bonus.
01:57Before I go on, I will say this once and then leave it be.
02:01I gathered the whole of it, all these old ways of growing your own food, into a book.
02:07You can find it at EliasYoder.com.
02:11The book is the long version.
02:14If you want it, it is there.
02:16I will not mention it again.
02:18The first thing, and everything else rests on it, is to understand what a strawberry actually
02:24is and how it grows, for it is unlike most everything else in your garden.
02:30Your tomato and your pepper grow up tall and make their fruit up in the air.
02:36A strawberry does the opposite.
02:38It grows low and flat to the ground, and it spreads outward, and this is the key thing.
02:45It multiplies itself constantly.
02:49A strawberry does not just make fruit.
02:51It makes more strawberry plants.
02:54Here is how.
02:55Through the season, a strawberry plant sends out what we call runners, long, thin stems that
03:03snake out across the ground like arms reaching away from the plant.
03:07And wherever one of those runners touches down on soft soil, it takes root and makes a whole
03:14new baby plant, joined to the mother by that runner.
03:18Now, most folks, when they see these runners, either fret over them or cut them off without
03:24a thought.
03:25But those runners are not a nuisance.
03:28They are the whole secret.
03:30Those runners are how one strawberry plant becomes ten, and ten becomes fifty, and a few
03:37plants become a whole bed that feeds a family.
03:40The strawberry does not want to stay one small plant.
03:45It wants to spread and cover ground and build itself into a patch.
03:51And once you understand that it wants to multiply, and you work with that wanting instead of against
03:57it, everything changes.
03:59The other thing to know about the strawberry is that its roots are shallow.
04:04They run out sideways just under the surface rather than driving down deep.
04:09And that tells you two things right off.
04:13It means a strawberry does not need deep soil, so it grows fine in a shallow bed, or a pot,
04:20or even a hanging basket.
04:22But it also means that because those shallow roots cannot reach down for water or reach
04:29out through hard-packed ground, the strawberry must have loose, soft, rich soil right there
04:36at the surface, and it must never be let go dry, for a shallow root dries out fast.
04:43Loose, rich soil, and steady moisture.
04:47Remember that.
04:48The second thing is to choose the right kind of strawberry for what you want, for they
04:53do not all bear the same way.
04:55And this trips folks up before they even start.
04:58There are three sorts.
05:00The June-bearing kind gives you one great big flush all at once in early summer and is
05:07then mostly done.
05:08And that is the one for you if you want a big pile together for making jam and putting
05:14up.
05:14The ever-bearing and day-neutral kinds do not give one big flush, but keep giving smaller
05:21pickings, wave after wave, right through the season, and those are the ones for a steady
05:27bowl for the table all summer rather than one great glut.
05:32There is no wrong choice, only what suits your table.
05:36Just know which you are buying and why.
05:39And whichever you choose, start with healthy plants.
05:43Look for bright green leaves and a good firm crown, that being the central growing point
05:49where the leaves all come out, right at the base.
05:53That crown is the very heart of the plant.
05:56A strong crown makes a strong plant, and a strong plant makes much fruit.
06:02Pass over any that look rotted or sickly at the crown.
06:06The third thing is to give them the right place to grow.
06:10Now the strawberry is wonderfully willing, and will grow in a bed, in pots, in a grow bag,
06:17in a hanging basket, in a barrel with holes in the sides, near anywhere you can think of.
06:23But wherever you grow it, three things must be right.
06:26The soil must be loose and rich, and above all, well draining, for those shallow roots rot and smother fast
06:35in soggy ground.
06:36So a soil full of good compost, lightened with leaf mold and a bit of coarse sand to keep it
06:43open, is just the thing.
06:44It should feel soft and crumbly in the hand.
06:48Second, the plants must have room to breathe, for crowded plants in close stale air breed disease, and give weak
06:57plants and small fruit.
07:00And third, not negotiable, they must have sun, a good six hours a day at the least, for it is
07:07the sun that makes the sugar in the berry.
07:09A strawberry in the shade gives plenty of leaf and little fruit, and that fruit, sour.
07:16Plant them where the sun falls long and full.
07:20The fourth thing is to plant them right, and there is one detail here that ruins more strawberries than all
07:27else, so hear me close.
07:29When you set a strawberry plant, the crown, that central point where the leaves emerge, must sit exactly level with
07:38the surface of the soil.
07:39Not buried, not sticking up.
07:42If you plant it too deep and bury that crown, the crown rots and the plant dies.
07:48If you plant it too high, with the roots half exposed, the roots dry out and the plant dies.
07:56It must be just exactly at the soil line, roots below, crown right at the surface, leaves above.
08:04Get that one thing right and you are well begun.
08:08Then, water it in well and keep it steadily moist while it settles in, for those shallow new roots dry
08:16out quick.
08:17And here is a thing to know about a fresh planted strawberry.
08:21At first, it puts all its effort down into growing roots, and little seems to happen up top.
08:28Do not fret over that and do not rush it.
08:31It is building its foundation down where you cannot see.
08:35Patience in that first stretch is repaid later in a strong plant.
08:40The fifth thing is to feed them, for the strawberry is a hungry plant.
08:46It grows fast, it flowers often, and it fruits over and over, and all that steady work takes steady feeding.
08:55Starve it and it will still grow, but the berries come small and sour and few.
09:01The old wisdom is to feed it differently as it grows.
09:05Early on, while the young plant builds its leaves, it wants a feeding that pushes leafy growth.
09:12And rich compost, or a drink of manure tea, gives it that.
09:17But once it flowers and sets fruit, it wants change.
09:21And now, it wants what builds flower and fruit rather than leaf.
09:25And a little bone meal worked in with a dusting of wood ash serves well, the same as for other
09:32fruiting things.
09:33Feed it little and often, rather than heavy all at once, like keeping a steady fire fed, rather than throwing
09:40on one great log.
09:42Every flower is a strawberry waiting to happen, so keep it fed, and it will make you flowers by the
09:49dozen.
09:50The sixth thing is the cleverest, and it is about managing the plant's strength.
09:55For here is the heart of getting a big harvest instead of a middling one.
10:01A strawberry, as I told you, is trying to do three things at once, all the time.
10:06It is trying to grow its leaves and roots, it is trying to make fruit, and it is trying to
10:11send out runners and make new plants.
10:14And it has only so much strength to divide among the three.
10:19So you, the gardener, get to decide how it spends that strength, and that decision is most of the game.
10:27Here is the first part.
10:29On a brand new strawberry plant in its first weeks, pinch off the earliest flowers.
10:35I know that sounds backwards, throwing away your first flowers, but hear the sense of it.
10:41A young plant that is allowed to fruit right away, pours its strength into those few early berries, and stays
10:49forever a weak little thing.
10:51But a young plant whose first flowers you pinch off, is forced to put that strength down into roots and
10:59leaves instead,
11:00and it builds itself into a big, strong plant that will then bear you far more fruit for far longer
11:07than the one you let fruit too soon.
11:10Pinch the first flowers, and you trade a handful of early berries for a whole season of heavy ones.
11:18It is a fine trade.
11:20And here is the second part, the runners.
11:23The plant can spend its strength on fruit or on new plants, but not fully on both, so you choose.
11:31Want the biggest, sweetest berries off your plants this year?
11:35Cut the runners off as they come, and all that strength stays in the fruit.
11:41Want to build up your patch?
11:43Let the runners run, guide them to bare soil, and let them root into new plants.
11:50Most folks do some of both, rooting a few to grow the patch, and cutting the rest to keep the
11:56fruit big.
11:57Either way, you are the one deciding how the plant spends itself, and that is how you get a harvest
12:04to be proud of.
12:06The seventh thing is seeing those flowers through to fruit, and keeping the plants clean and healthy while they do
12:14it.
12:14Those little white flowers with the yellow centers are each a strawberry in the making, but a flower must be
12:21pollinated before it can become a berry.
12:24Out of doors, the bees do that work for you, one more reason to keep them welcome and never poison
12:32them.
12:32If your plants are sheltered where the bees cannot get at them well, do the bees work yourself, going over
12:40the open flowers gently with a soft brush, the same as I showed you with the cucumbers.
12:44And good pollination matters for the shape, too, for a well-pollinated flower gives a full, even berry, while a
12:53poorly pollinated one gives a small, lumpy, misshapen thing.
12:58So sun and moving air and room between the plants give you better shaped fruit besides.
13:07And once the berries begin to swell and form, two things matter greatly.
13:12The first is water.
13:15A plant swelling its fruit cannot bear to go dry, not even briefly, for a dry spell just then gives
13:23you small, hard berries, or poor flavor, or fruit that quits altogether.
13:29So keep that soil evenly moist all through the fruiting, steady and even.
13:36And the second is keeping the fruit up off the wet ground.
13:40And here is where the plant gets its very name.
13:44You tuck a good blanket of clean straw all round and under the plants, so the berries rest on the
13:51dry straw instead of down in the wet dirt.
13:55That straw does a world of good all at once.
13:59It keeps the berries clean and dry so they do not rot or mold or get gnawed by the slugs.
14:05It keeps the soil from splashing up onto the fruit and leaves in a rain which spreads disease.
14:12And it holds the moisture even in the soil below.
14:17That bed of straw under the berries is the oldest strawberry wisdom there is, so old it is written right
14:24into the name of the fruit.
14:26And it is one of the best things you can do for a clean, sweet crop.
14:32And the eighth thing is the harvest and the wonderful secret folded inside it.
14:37Pick your berries when they are full red all over and just slightly soft for that is when the sweetness
14:44has truly come.
14:45Folks get this wrong.
14:47Picking the moment a berry looks red, but a barely colored berry is not yet sweet, for the flavor comes
14:54in last a day or two after the color.
14:57Wait that extra day past the first blush of red and you near double the sweetness.
15:03Pick in the cool of the morning when the berries are firm and pick gently, pinching or snipping the stem
15:11just above the berry rather than yanking, which tears the plant and pulls away the flowers coming behind.
15:18And here is the secret in it.
15:20The same law I have given you for the cucumbers and the peppers and near everything that fruits.
15:27The more you pick, the more you get.
15:30When you take the right berries off, the plant turns its strength right back into making new flowers and new
15:37fruit.
15:38But leave the right berries hanging and the plant slows down, thinking it's work done.
15:43So pick faithfully, every day or two in the season, and the plant keeps bearing far longer and heavier than
15:52it would if you let it sit.
15:54Now let me give you one last thing the source of most folks' knowledge leaves out, and it is the
16:00thing that turns a one summer strawberry patch into one that feeds you for years.
16:06A strawberry plant does not live forever.
16:09After three or four years, an old mother plant grows tired, and its fruit falls off in size and number.
16:18Now most folks, when their bed peters out like that, tear the whole thing up and start over, buying new
16:25plants.
16:26But you need not, and the old gardeners never did.
16:30Remember those runners.
16:32Each year you let a few of the runners root down into strong new young plants, and those young ones
16:40take over the bearing as the old mothers tire.
16:43And after a few years, you quietly dig out and discard the worn old plants, and the young ones carry
16:51on.
16:51Do that, letting the patch renew itself through its own runners, and you need never buy a strawberry plant again,
16:59and that bed will feed you not for one season, but for the rest of your life, forever renewing itself
17:06from its own children.
17:08That is the whole genius of the plant, if you only let it do what it means to do.
17:14Let me say a plain word about who profits from you not knowing all this, and it is no dark
17:21scheme.
17:21A strawberry, more than near any plant, is one you buy once and then never need buy again, for it
17:30multiplies itself for free by its own runners into all the plants you could ever want.
17:36And a bowl of fresh strawberries at the store costs dear, and out of season it costs dearer still, and
17:44they are picked hard and pale and shipped far and never taste of much.
17:49So there is fine, steady money in selling you strawberries, and in selling you fresh plants each spring, and no
17:58money at all in teaching you that a few plants and their runners and a bed of straw will give
18:04you sweeter berries free for the rest of your days.
18:08Nobody earns a wage teaching you that.
18:10So it does not get taught, and folks give up after one poor try, believing the plant to be difficult,
18:18when it is in truth one of the most generous and giving things that grows.
18:24The money runs toward the store and away from the runner rooting quietly in your own bed, and it always
18:31has.
18:32So there is the whole of it, all eight.
18:36Understand that the strawberry wants to spread and multiply and work with it.
18:41Choose the kind that suits your table, one big flush or steady pickings.
18:47Give it loose, rich, draining soil, room to breathe, and full sun.
18:53Plant it with the crown exactly at the soil line, neither buried nor bared.
19:00Feed it steady, for leaf early and for fruit once it flowers.
19:06Manage its strength, pinching the first flowers off a young plant, and choosing between fruit and runners as you please.
19:15See the flowers pollinated, and tuck clean straw beneath the berries.
19:20Pick often, and pick fully ripe.
19:24And let the patch renew itself through its runners, and it will feed you for years.
19:29Do those things, and you will have bowl after bowl of the sweetest fruit of the summer,
19:35and a bed that keeps on giving long after most folks would have given up.
19:40Tell me down in the comments what county you garden in, and whether you have tried strawberries before,
19:46and how they did for you, and whether it was maybe the buried crown or the missing straw that tripped
19:52you up.
19:53For now, I think you may know.
19:55And if your family kept an old strawberry bed going for years off its own runners, tell me about it.
20:02For that is the way it ought to be done.
20:05Next time out here, I want to show you how to build a proper compost pile the old way, layer
20:11upon layer,
20:13so that you make your own black crumbly gold to fill a strawberry bed with.
20:18For that shallow-rooted, hungry little plant wants the richest, softest soil you can give it right there at the
20:26surface.
20:27It is the foundation under all of it, and it is past time I showed you.
20:32But for now, remember this.
20:34The strawberry is not a fussy or a difficult plant.
20:38It is a generous one, forever trying to give you both fruit and more plants at once, asking only that
20:46you understand what it is doing and lend it a hand.
20:50Work with its nature, and it will feed you and your children for years off a single planting.
20:56The people who built this country with their hands knew that, and we are only just starting to remember it.
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