Sweet, juicy strawberries are a genuine and fleeting treat right off the plant. I don’t know about you, but my mouth starts watering just thinking about homegrown, perfectly ripe and sun-warmed strawberries! The grocery store’s refrigerated berries can not compare! Not only are they delicious, but they are relatively easy to grow and one of the limited perennial fruits that we can grow in Zone 4. Whether you’ve inherited some plants or looking to start your own berry patch, it’s important to know how to plant and maintain a healthy strawberry patch to minimize disease and pests and ensure fruitful harvests year after year. Below are guidelines and best practices for growing (and wrangling) strawberries in the garden.

Plant Selection

The most common types of strawberries fall into two categories:

June Bearing produce one big crop per year, usually in June or early summer.

Everbearing produce two crops per year, starting in June and one in August or September.

There is also a native strawberry in Montana, Fragaria virginiana (which is deceptively called Virginia strawberry). These berries are small and tasty, and it’s often hard to find the fruit before the critters do. In my opinion, this variety of strawberry is a great ground cover option ideal for shady areas and improving pollinator and bird habitat, which is exactly what they do in the woods. However, if you’re looking to fill your freezer, make jam, or satiate a family, I’d recommend choosing a June bearing or everbearing type of strawberry that is bred for production purposes.

To begin your new strawberry patch, ask a gardening neighbor! Since strawberries spread with runners and always produce an abundance of “daughter plants,” your neighbor will probably be more than willing to share. You can also find strawberry starts at any local nursery. I even start seeing them pop up on Facebook Marketplace in May.

Planting

Like most plants, the best time of year to plant is spring. One of the easiest ways to plant strawberries in a home or community garden is in a matted row system, where daughter plants are allowed to develop into a solid mat. An alternative is the spaced row system, where the daughter and mother plants are spaced evenly along a row.

Plant on slightly raised beds to assure good soil drainage and work aged manure or compost into the soil to improve its structure and water-holding capacity. Form the soil beds 18-24 inches wide and three to four inches above grade. Make sure to provide adequate space for sprawling, and set plants 24 inches apart.

Make planting holes deep and wide enough to accommodate the entire root system without bending it. If roots are longer than 8 inches, trim them when transplanting. Most importantly, don’t plant too deep! The roots should be covered, but the crown should be right at the soil surface.

Firm the soil about the plants and water them in. If you can lift the plants with a quick jerk on a leaf, the soil is too loose, and the roots may dry out.

In the first year, pick off blossoms to discourage strawberry plants from fruiting. If not allowed to bear fruit, they will spend their food reserves on developing healthy roots, and the yields will be much greater in following years.

Managing Runners

As the plants grow, you want to keep the beds from becoming overcrowded, which can reduce yield and lend itself to spreading disease and pest habitat. Interestingly, the best time to wrangle your strawberry patch is after the fruit harvest. Managing runners and the daughter plants is the fundamental way to keep your strawberry bed healthy and fruitful year after year. What more, first and second generation plants produce the highest yields!

Because strawberry plants produce an excess of daughter plants, prune extra runners and old plants every season after the last harvest. Here’s how:

If you have the spaced row system, leave only four daughter plants evenly spaced (about 10 inches apart). New daughter plants produce the best fruit the following spring if planted early in the spring, and each plant has at least ten leaves by autumn. When new plants are established, remove the old ones (three years and older).
If you have a matted system, pull any weeds, trim rouge runners, and cut all strawberry plants down to 2” above the soil level. Don’t worry, the plants will bounce back over the course of the summer!

Best Practices for a Fruitful Harvest

Moisture is incredibly important due to their shallow roots, and strawberry plants need a lot of water when the runners and flowers are developing. Water adequately, about one inch per week.
Keep the beds mulched to reduce water needs and weed invasion.
Be diligent about weeding, especially in the first months after planting.
Often we don’t realize that a lush strawberry forest creates a cool and damp environment perfect for slugs and other pests, including rodents. Once the berries start ripening, harvest daily once the berries are completely red. If you can beat them to it, this will also help deter pests.
Keep your strawberry plants thinned and not overcrowded to minimize disease or fungal problems.
Many berries are damaged by birds. Excluding the birds with netting or row cover can be effective. Another method is to drive stakes into the ground at the corners of your strawberry bed. Stretch twine between the stakes and attach streamers every five feet along the string to deter birds.

Netting strawberries is the most effective way to keep hungry birds out.

Learn More - Strawberry Recipes

Learn how to make farm fresh (or garden fresh) strawberry popsicles with the Youth Farm.
Enjoy a Strawberry Rhubarb Scone recipe.

References:

Montana State University Extension, Strawberries in the Home Garden, by Cheryl Moore-Gough, MSU Extension Horticulture Specialist and Dara Palmer, Montana Master Gardener Coordinator, November 2019

Oregon State University Extension, Early Spring is the best time to plant strawberries, March 2024

Great Bear Native Plants, Native Plants for Western Montana - top picks for 2022, by Christine Lawson, April 19, 2022

Updated May 30, 2024. Formerly posted as “Wrangling Strawberries,” by Emily Kern in 2017.

Growing Strawberries