Another rainy April day ( no surprise -we've had the rainest April in 126 years ) but rather on the warm side so I decided to plant Strawberry baskets. I planted 15 each of two varieties -Ozark Beauty and Quinalt, both superior in fruiting and disease resistance. I used wire hanging baskets and lined them with the cocoa shells. Just poke a hole in the sides and insert the strawberry plants. Fill basket with a good potting soil and tamp the plants down. Plant two or three on top and keep well watered. Strawberries are heavy feeders so apply a good fertilizer at least once a week. This is a fun project if you have children or grandchildren. Strawberries start producing fruit in 5-6 weeks. The Ozark Beauty, an everbearing, claims to have as many as 200 strawberries on one plant. If this is true I'll be giving friends and family a lot of strawberries this summer.
Written by Carolyngail at Sweet Home and Garden Chicago All rights reserved
I started Ozark beauty last year....what type of fertilizer do you use. I used a fish+ kelp diluted. Will that work? :-) roberta
ReplyDeleteI wondered if this was going to be strawberries or blueberries? Tasty post. Strawberries make good groundcover, too.
ReplyDeleteI use a liquid high phosphorus one named Fox Farms
ReplyDelete'Tiger Bloom '. It's also organic. You can usually find it at better garden centers.
Close call, Nell Jean ! I really prefer blackberries ( big surprise coming from the South,eh?) but Strawberries are actually the most popular berry in the world according to what I've read.
ReplyDeleteDo you have any advice for blueberries. My husband and I have been trying for the past few years. I will follow the strawberry advice, but our resident racoon does come by every evening and steal some from our patch and he bites each one! :-) we are in zone 5
ReplyDeleteFirst of all Roberta, Blueberries need a cross-pollinator ( two different varieties) and they love a very acid soil so preparing the soil with an acid amendment such as lot of peat moss or Black Forest soil condition helps.
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