What's Growing & How

June Strawberries

Planting year

We plant the June bearing strawberries in late April or early May. They normally blossom around early June at witch time the blossom is removed to help encourage the growth of runners. The plants spend the summer growing and producing runners to fill in the rows. We cultivate the young strawberries several times throughout the summer to pull the runners in to make a row. In the late fall we cover the strawberries with straw to protect them from extreme temperature (both very cold temperatures as well as warm temperatures) during the winter.

Second year

The straw will be removed form the field in April so that the plants can start to grow. They will start to bloom in late may and it takes approximately 4 weeks from 10% bloom to first harvest. Our average start date for pick your own is June 22nd, although we have started as early as June 10th and as late as June 30th. (It all depends on Mother Nature) Harvest usually lasts about 4 weeks. Once harvest is completed the leaves are mowed off to remove the diseased leaves and to encourage new growth. The walkways are then rototilled to narrow the strawberry rows and incorporate the straw in the walkways. In the late fall we then spread the straw on the plants again.

Third year

The plants are treated the same until after harvest when they are normally then plowed down due to the reduced plant health.