Grow Strawberries From First Plant to Next Generation
Not sure when to plant strawberries, whether you should remove the flowers, what to do with all those runners, or how to keep your strawberry bed productive year after year?
Get my free printable Strawberry Growing Guide and build a simple plan for planting, growing, harvesting, and propagating strawberries so you understand what your plants need now and what they’re preparing for next.
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WHAT'S INSIDEÂ
Build a Strawberry Plan for Your Own Garden
Inside the printable, I'll show you:
- How the strawberry growing cycle actually works, from a young plant to flowers, fruit, runners, and the next generation of plants.
- What to consider when deciding whether to plant your strawberries in spring or fall.
- Why I removed flowers from my spring-planted June-bearing strawberries their first year, and how fall planting may change that timeline.
- How I propagate strawberry runners and turn them into new plants for future beds.
- How to plant strawberries correctly, including crown depth, spacing, soil, watering, and container considerations.
- A simple seasonal roadmap so you know what your strawberry plants are doing through spring, summer, fall, and winter.
- How I manage flowers and runners depending on whether I’m trying to establish plants, grow fruit, or propagate the next generation.
- Basic feeding, watering, mulching, and pest-management notes to keep your plants growing without making strawberry care complicated.
- A year-to-year planning page so you can keep productive plants coming instead of starting your strawberry patch over from scratch.
Why I Made This
I’ve grown strawberries for years, and for most of that time, I followed the same basic system.
I would propagate new plants from runners in the spring, remove the flowers and runners through their first growing season, and wait until the following year for the big harvest.
It worked, but it also meant giving those plants an entire season of garden space before getting much fruit from them.
This year, I’m trying something different.
Instead of waiting until spring to plant the young runners I propagated from my strawberry beds, I’m planting them in the fall so they have time to establish before winter.
For June-bearing strawberries, that timing matters. Cooler temperatures and shorter days are part of what trigger the plants to develop the flower buds that become next year’s strawberries.
And the more I understood what the plant was actually doing through the seasons, the more the whole growing cycle made sense.
This guide brings together the system I use for planting, growing, harvesting, and propagating strawberries year after year—along with what I’m changing in my own garden to get new plants established earlier.
Make Your Strawberry Plan Before You Plant
You don’t need to plant strawberries and then spend the next year wondering whether you should let them flower, cut off the runners, or move the baby plants.
Use the guide to understand the strawberry growing cycle, choose your planting time, plan your bed, and decide when you want your plants focused on establishing roots, producing fruit, or making the next generation.
By the end, you’ll have your planting plan, spacing, seasonal care notes, flower and runner strategy, propagation plan, and year-to-year strawberry cycle together in one printable guide.
Get the Free Guide