How to Grow Strawberries With Mold

Plant strawberries in mid-spring, just after the last frost, to give young seedlings warm soil and air at planting. Choose a site with full sunshine and quick drainage for best strawberry production. Avoid sites that held tomatoes, potatoes, peppers or eggplants, as those crops leave soil-borne fungi behind.

Amend strawberry planting sites with leaf mold and organic compost to improve soil quality and drainage. Dig up the top 6 to 8 inches of natural soil and add 2 inches of organic compost and 1 inch of leaf mold. This mixture gives the strawberries rich, long-lasting nutrition and loosens the soil for root growth and drainage. Mix 6-24-24 granular fertilizer into the top 6 inches of soil at a rate of 2 lbs. every 100 square feet.

Plant strawberry seedlings in holes as deep and wide as their root balls so that their crowns sit at soil level. Strawberries fail in deep or shallow plantings. Give the seedlings 15 to 24 inches in the row and leave 36 to 48 inches between rows.

Water strawberries with 2 inches of water every week to maintain soil moisture. Mix leaf mold with traditional organic mulch like wood chips or bark to produce a heavy, nutritious mulch. Lay 2 inches of this mulch mixture on the soil around and between plantings to keep soil moist and free of weeds. Strawberries fail with competition and in dry soil.