Strawberries are common red fruits that are known to be a mix of sweet and sour. It is used in many desserts, like strawberry shortcake, and is not one of the cheaper fruit choices out there. Despite this, strawberries are still widely used and bought by a lot of people, and are cultivated in almost every country around the world. Though they thrive in colder temperatures, tropical countries have also started to grow them in their own lands to sell for profit.
Learning how to prune strawberries is just one of the skills you will need in order to have strawberries of your own. Pruning will ensure that your strawberries will not waste energy and focus instead on its fruit production. As a result, your strawberry will not only yield more fruit, it will also bear a much more healthier and tastier fruit. However, pruning is just one of the steps for a productive strawberry, you will also need to learn how to harvest them, how to plant them, and how to take care of them. Growing and cultivating fruit takes a lot of time and patience, but with a little help, you will be able to taste the freshest strawberries in no time.
1. How to harvest strawberries
Knowing how to harvest strawberries is one of the last steps to getting your very first strawberry fruit on your own. Harvesting is a step that comes after a long list of steps in terms of growing and taking care of your strawberry fruit. Knowing the standards and best practices to taking care of strawberries is very important if you want to be make sure that whatever you plant will not die nor wither. Skills such as pruning will also be very important, since this skill involves the maintenance of the plant that produces the fruit. Again, it might take some time for an actual fruit to blossom, but most of the time, seeing and tasting fresh strawberries from the garden are some of the best and most fulfilling feelings in the world.
To start growing your own strawberry fruits, you will have to know whether you want to start growing strawberries when they start out as seeds, or using existing strawberry plants. You can decide by knowing how much time you are willing to spend to cultivate such plants and fruits, and how much effort you are willing to put in. Of course, growing a strawberry plant from seed to fruit is also very fulfilling, and can be a good choice for those who are willing to do the work to get their very first strawberry.
There are also more than just one type of strawberry fruit that you can grow, so before you start planting, also know which type you want to plant first. These types produce different sizes of strawberries, which is why knowing which type you want will be important since they produce different sizes and tastes. Sometimes, we have our different preferences when it comes to the type of fruit we want of a certain species, and knowing this choice is the first step to creating a wonderful source of said fruit which is within reach for us.
As soon as you have chosen the type of fruit or strawberry that you want, the next step is to purchase the seed or the plant itself. Strawberry seeds and plants can be purchased from local markets or dealers, who also have a knack or business for growing these plants themselves. After you have made you purchase, you are now ready to get started on planting the seed or plant in your own space allotted for growing the plant.
To start planting, you have to make sure that the are you picked to plant the strawberry fruit is conducive for the growth of this plant. Thus, the soil should not be dry and without nutritious substances, and the location should be one with full sun exposure to produce the largest yields. Strawberries grow better when there is sun exposure. It is recommended that your strawberry at least receives 6 hours of sunlight a day. You should not use your typical backyard soil for your strawberries as they are not ideal for growth and may even cause your strawberry to wilt. The soil you should chose should have a pH level between 5.5 and 6.5 and also it should be a well draining soil. Although your strawberries certainly need moist for its growth, you strawberry will instead wilt if they are not placed in a well drained soil.
Start growing your strawberry in late spring or early summer, and depending on which variety you have chosen, you can harvest it as soon as the fall season comes in. If you are planting your strawberries on the outdoors, avoid planting them near some vegetation such as trees. Trees can inhibit your strawberry’s growth by absorbing the moisture away from the soil to which your strawberry needs for its growth. Your strawberries are susceptible to drought, therefore select a location that can be easily access with water and that can be watered with rain.
Water your strawberry regularly and only water them enough that your soil becomes moist. Don’t water them too much as that would drown or cause the roots to rot in your strawberries instead. When watering your strawberry, only water the base part of the plant and avoid watering the fruits and leaves. Watering the fruits and leaves could cause fungus and rot in your strawberry.
As your strawberry is growing, continually weed your soil. Weeds can quickly engulf your strawberry if left unattended, especially the newly planted strawberries. Look out for weeds in the soil regularly, and if you notice some weeds, immediately pull it out along with its roots. You can use your hand or some garden tools in weeding the soil.
2. Should I cut leaves off strawberry plants
Once you have a plant or strawberry fruit that has started to grow, you might ask yourself: “Should I cut leaves off strawberry plants?” The answer to that would be that no, you do not have to cut the leaves of strawberry plants, unless you want to prune the plant, which is another part of the maintenance process for strawberry fruits. A perfectly healthy and functional leaf should not be pruned, as this is where your strawberry is being produced. Before pruning, in order to maximize the fruits that have started growing, you need to know how to harvest strawberry fruits. After some years, strawberries will be ready for harvesting. To harvest strawberries, you have to be gentle, since these fruits easily bruise when they are picked. They should also be dry.
3. Pruning strawberry flowers
Pruning strawberry flowers involves removing the thin flowers that eventually grow on strawberry plants and also pruning off the diseased or brown leaves. To prune them, simply pinch them off through their thin stems and remove them from the plant. You can also opt to cut them using sheers or scissors that are sharp enough to cut these stems. The scissors or sheers you use in cutting the flowers off should be clean so as to avoid the spread of unwanted diseases among the parts of the strawberry plant. Pruning is an important process since it involves the removal of unwanted and diseased parts of a plant, as well as the portions that have been considered to be dying. Thus, learning how to do this kind of part of the process should be something you learn before you start planting.
If you notice some old leaves in your strawberry plant, cut them off. Old leaves no longer contributes to producing nutrients for fruit bearing, but they still absorb energy and other nutrients. Cutting the old leaves off will help your strawberry save some nutrients and energy and focus more on fruit production.
Conclusion
Strawberries are delicious yet tricky to cultivate on your own. As beginners, trying to learn new things such as how to prune strawberries may take you a while to master, but through time, things such as this will get easier for you. Planting your own fruit will allow you to have a fresh and natural source of said fruit, and to develop skills that you did not have before you started to plant your own fruits. Strawberries are a good choice, since they can be eaten by themselves, or with other food like desserts.
The number of food that strawberries can be added to are numerous and delicious, while strawberries alone are also a good snack to have since they provide a lot of health benefits and nutritional value. Now is the best time to start to get into planting and to learn about everything there is to know about fruits like strawberries.
Do you have any thoughts or questions about this process? Comment below! Also, our website also offer some guides as well such as, How To Grow Water Chestnuts and How to Grow Zucchini?
