What's Growing & How

Day Neutral Strawberries

First year

These are strawberries that produce fruit all summer instead of just in June. We start by laying plastic on the ground to help with weed control as well as to warm the soil in the spring to get the plants growing faster. Holes are punched through the plastic with a machine and the plants are planted through the plastic by hand. The new plants start to blossom about the first of June at which time the blossom is removed until the plants for about 3 weeks to allow the plants to get established and get large enough to be able to produce fruit. We would normally start picking these berries in mid July but the heavy picking does not begin until August. These plants will fruit until the first heavy frost which is usually mid to late October. We then cover the plants with straw for the winter.

Second year

The straw is removed in early April, and they are treated the same as June strawberries until harvest is complete, however because of the plastic on the row they normally start to fruit about 1 week ahead of the June strawberries. They will be picked for about 3 weeks at which time the plants need a rest period. They will not start to fruit again until early to mid august. They have fruited so heavily in June that they do not have the energy to produce bloom during this period, and it takes some time for the plant to build up enough energy to start producing fruit again. Once the fall harvest starts they will be picked until the first heavy frost at which time we remove the plastic and plow up the field.