Red-ripe and bursting with juice, strawberries are the sweet taste of childhood. Their scent conjures lazy days, warm evenings and suppers finished with homemade strawberry shortcake, warm from the oven and topped with sliced berries and clouds of whipped cream. They are spring's first fruit, one of the joys of living.
Strawberries are relatively easy to grow in your own little patch or in a strawberry jar on the patio. A strawberry jar won't produce great quantities, but it will be enough for a few blissfully decadent daiquiris.
There are two types of strawberry -- June bearers, which actually begin coming on here now, and Everbearing. Everbearing are in reality thrice-bearing: They set a crop once in the season's beginning, another in mid-summer and a third in fall.
Until recently, everbearers have had less flavor than June-bearing varieties, but Tribute and Tri-star "break the mold," according to Sylvia Robertson of Brittingham Plant Farms in Salisbury.
June bearers ripen within a week to 10 days of each other. One of the keys to successful strawberry cultivation is choosing the right cultivar for your area. Luckily, the USDA breeding program at the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center has spent years developing strawberries that are perfectly adapted to our climate.
Strawberries need full sun, fertile soil, good moisture and drainage.
They like a slightly acid soil. To prepare the soil, till thoroughly to a depth of 6 inches to 8 inches. Some experts recommend mixing in rotted barn manure before planting, but Robertson disagrees.
"The most important tip ... is not to fertilize prior to planting," she says, adding that fertilizing before blossoming will produce heavy leaf growth at the expense of blossoms and fruit.
Robertson suggests fertilizing again in late August when the fruit buds are forming. "It will stimulate berries for next spring," she explains.
Planting instructions usually say to pinch off blossoms the first year to allow the plant to put all its energy into growing "daughter," plants, the self-rooting offshoots that perpetuate the patch. But Robertson says that you can have fruit the first year. "You need to choose between lots of berries or lots of runners the first year so you don't exhaust the plants," she explains. "For first-year fruit, let blossoms produce, then fertilize, and cut off some of the daughter plants."
"The rule of thumb is to leave a couple or three runners per plant the first year," says John Miller, president of Miller Nurseries in Canandaigua, N.Y. "Some people don't leave any the first year, but after that, keep them to three or four runners. It's better because then the mother plant can put its energy into berry production instead of babies."
The second year, thin out the row after fruiting. Cut off leaves, but be sure to leave the crown, the knot of root and shoot at the center.
To do this, many people set their mower at its highest setting and mow the patch. Once leaves are sheared, narrow rows to about 12 inches wide.
Leave one crown every five or six inches in each direction," says Sam Ervin, president of Indiana Berry & Plant Co. "Make rows 12 to 24 inches wide max. It's better to have four rows than a 10- by 10-foot patch since berries produce best on the edge of the rows where the light reaches them."
"And keep the weeds out," Robertson advises. "Mulch with straw in between the rows because straw neither adds nor takes away from the soil pH. But don't put straw too close to plants to keep from inhibiting the rooting of daughter plants."
The best time of year to plant strawberry plants is early spring, though you can plant successfully now and in early August. When planting late, pinch off blossoms the first year, and keep well watered and mulched.
Sources:
Allen Plant Co.
P.O. Box 310
Fruitland, Md. 21826-0310
410-742-7122
Fax: 410-742-7120
Brittingham Plant Farms
P.O. Box 2538
Salisbury, Md. 21802
410-749-5153
Fax: 410-749-5148
Indiana Berry & Plant Co.
5218 W. 500 S.
Huntingburg, Ind. 47542
812-683-3055
Fax: 812-683-2004
J.E. Miller Nurseries
5060 West Lake Road
Canandaigua, N.Y. 14424
800-836-9630
White Flower Farm
Route 63, P.O. Box 50
Litchfield, Conn. 06759-0050
800-503-9624
Bustin' out all over:
STRAWBERRIES
Places to pick your own strawberries
Baltimore County
Steven Huber, Sr.
12208 Philadelphia Rd.
Bradshaw, Md. 21021
410-679-1948
Charles County
Rose Hill Farm
Route 6
Port Tobacco, Md. 20677
301-934-4006
Carroll County
Baugher's Farm Orchard Market
1236 Baugher Rd.
Westminster, Md. 21158
410-876-5642
410-857-0111 (pick-your-own information)
Sewell's Farm
3400 Harney Rd.
Taneytown, Md. 21787
410-756-4397
Cecil County
Walnut Springs Farm
3910 Blue Ball Rd.
Elkton, Md. 21921
410-398-3451
Frederick County
Glade-Link Farms
Route 194
New Midway, Md.
301-898-7131
Harford County
Shaw Orchards
Route 23 at Maryland-Pennsylvania line
Stewartstown, Pa. 17363
410-692-2429
717-993-2974
www.shaworchards.com
Howard County
Sharp's at Waterford Farm
4003 Jennings Chapel Rd.
Brookeville, Md. 20833
301-854-6375 e-mail: dsharpfarm@aol.com
Larriland Farm Inc.
2415 Route 94
Woodbine, Md. 21797
410-442-2605
301-854-6110
Rock Hill Orchard
28600 Ridge Rd.
Mount Airy, Md. 21771
301-831-7427
Prince George's County
Cherry Hill Farm & Orchard
12300 Gallahan Rd.
Clinton, Md. 20735
301-292-4642
301-292-1928 (recording)
www.cherryhillfarm.com
Miller Farms
10140 Piscataway Rd.
Clinton, Md. 20735
301-297-9370
SOURCE: University of Maryland Extension Service
Strawberry Daiquiri
Serves 4
Half-fill a blender with fresh, ripe strawberries. Add a squeeze of lemon, a tablespoon of brown sugar, a tablespoon of heavy cream (or 2 tablespoons of light cream) and fill to the top with cracked ice. Blend on highest speed until completely blended.
For the alcoholic version, add the desired amount of rum (about 4 jiggers to a blender full) while blending.
Best varieties for Marylanders
Tribute and Tristar are the premier everbearers. Among June bearers, Earliglow is not only one of the first, it's also one of the best with great flavor and disease resistance. Northeaster is very large, juicy, productive and disease-resistant. Surecrop, a staple in garden centers, is a good berry for people who don't have a lot of time, as it tolerates neglect.
Two good midseason varieties are Primetime and Redchief, though Primetime is not considered as flavorful as Earliglow. It redeems itself, though, with great production of very large berries and excellent disease resistance. All-Star, an all-things-to-all-people strawberry, produces lots of big berries. Its one drawback is its color. It's not as bright red as some others.
Late season berries include Lateglow and Sparkle, a very sweet, small berry that is good for jams. Lateglow is a very large, juicy berry, but has large leaves with a tendency to hold moisture next to the berries, which promotes rot when heat is combined with too much rain.