How to Grow June-Bearing Strawberries and Everbearing Strawberries

Choose a location for your garden that has nutrient-rich, well-drained, sandy loam soil and full sunlight. Strawberries grow best in soil that has a pH level between 6.0 and 6.5. Prepare your soil two to three weeks before planting by mixing about 4 lbs. of a 10-10-10 or 2 lbs. of 6-24-24 fertilizer for each 100 square feet of soil. Mix the fertilizer into the soil at a depth of around 6 inches.

Choose an appropriate cultivar for your strawberry garden. Several varieties of June-bearing strawberries are Delmarvel, which bears large fruits and is resistant to both verticillium wilt and red stele; Allstar, which is a disease-resistant cultivar that yields very large fruits; and Annapolis, which yields large strawberries and is resistant to red stele. Everbearing strawberry cultivars such as Quinault, Fort Laramie and Ozark Beauty have a low to moderate yield, but the berries have a soft texture, a bright color and a good flavor.

To grow June-bearing strawberries, plant the young strawberry plants in rows that are approximately 3 to 4 feet from one another. Leave between 18 and 30 inches of space between each plant. Use a hill system when planting everbearing strawberries. Place the seedlings in groups of between two and four. Leave about 1 foot between groups within rows and approximately 2 feet between rows of plants. If you have limited space, you can also grow strawberry plants in container gardens or terraced beds.

Plant strawberry seedlings outdoors in early spring after any danger of frost has passed. Dig a small hole in the soil and place the plant in the hole just deeply enough so that the soil covers the upper part of the roots. Pat the soil down gently around the roots and water the young plants thoroughly. Make sure the plants get about 1 inch of water a week. Promptly remove any weeds that grow in the strawberry beds.

Encourage vigorous plant growth by pinching the flowers off of June-bearing strawberry plants as soon as they appear. The "mother" or original plants send out runners that will form new daughter plants. Remove the flowers from everbearing strawberry plants at the end of June, but leave later-blooming flowers intact to ensure a late-summer or early-fall strawberry crop. Harvest the berries approximately every other day. Allow the fruit to ripen completely before picking.