Strawberries are a nice tasting fruit which are surprisingly easy to grow at home.
However, when you start thinking about how to develop strawberries in Ohio there are some things to consider.
To start, you will only get a good harvest of strawberries if you plant them at the right time, and take care of your plants.
If you are excited about growing strawberries at home in Ohio, then get ready to begin.
This complete guide below will teach you everything you need to know to have the most impressive strawberry harvest you have ever had.
Do Strawberries Grow Well In Ohio?
Strawberries prefer to grow in cooler climates.
In general, temperatures between 60 and 80 degrees will grow the best.
In Ohio – the average daily temperature in the summer is between 62 and 74 degrees, and so this is a great zone for growing strawberries.
There are typically three different types of strawberries and selecting which variety to grow for your area is essential.
Before we dig in to all the details, let us take a look at the three different types:
- June bearing strawberries are early-season plants that begin to ripen as summer starts. You will notice the peak concentration of fruit in June and July, but that concentration drops off quickly so you do not have a long harvest window.
- There are also mid-season strawberry plants which begin to ripen after your June-bearing plants. Surprisingly, they start fruiting just 1 week after June-bearing plants so you won’t have to wait very long to have strawberries to pick.
- Lastly, there are ever-bearing strawberries although many people call these day neutral cultivars. Ever-bearing plants will have fruit grow all season but are most fruitful in early summer and middle fall.
In this guide, we will get into the best type of strawberry for home use.
For now, let’s think a little more about the intricacies of growing strawberries in Ohio.
If you are in the north-east part of Ohio, we would recommend planting strawberries between mid-April, to mid-May.
The reasoning for this is by mid-April the crop will be easier to manage as the soil will not be as wet.
Also, it’s used to be cool enough for the plant to be able to get established where you would have obsticals if it was any longer than that.
Some gardeners like planting strawberries in the fall. This assures that you will be the first to get a strawberry harvest in the growing season.
However, I would not recommend this in Ohio as you will have more of a risk of frost damage that early.
While we will discuss frost protection later, young plants are much easier to kill by frost.
What’s The Best Type Of Strawberry Plant For Growing At Home In Ohio?
Previously we discussed the different types of strawberry plants and promised we would share with you which is best for Ohio.
Overall, the June bearing strawberry plant will probably be your best bet since you will get higher yields, and the quality is really good.
There are so many options to choose from though.
But there are some strawberries you could use that will hold up here in Ohio such as Guardian, Lester, Surecrop, and Earliglow.
You could also plant a few ever-bearing like Tristar if you wanted to try those as well.
It is nice to have options. Just make sure you plant them at the right time.
Do Strawberries Self Pollinate?
Strawberry plants do self-pollinate: this is a fact.
However, it is helpful to have bees nearby to assist with this.
Of course, if a gardener is growing strawberries indoors, as would be the case in a greenhouse, they will not have the advantage of pollinators readily accessible.
To offset this issue, the use of a vibrating device is a gardener’s best solution.
If growing strawberries outdoors, one must make sure to have plenty of other ways to attract pollinators to your garden:
This could include planting native vegetation, adding a nearby water source, and using chemicals as rarely as possible in the yard.
Where Should I Plant My Strawberries?
When it comes to your strawberry plants, you want to ensure that you find a full sun spot as that is where they are going to perform the best and you’ll see the best yield when it comes to harvest time.
Not only does full sun yield the greatest quantity of strawberries, but it improves quality and this is something we all desire.
Soil type is not of much concern as strawberry plants will do fine in all kinds of soil.
However, if you want to give them the best opportunity, then plant them in some fertile, loose soil and incorporate as much organic matter as you can.
It is also helpful as a general guideline to try and keep soils a little more acidic with a pH of 5.8 to 6.5.
Strawberry plants also don’t like excess moisture in the soil so avoid those soils if possible.
The best way to prevent excess moisture is to place the plants in a raised bed for proper drainage.
It is also a good idea to keep your strawberry plants away from areas where you recently planted tomatoes or potatoes, as there could still be elevated number of diseases and insects lingering in those areas.
Ensuring Enough Space For Plants
Selecting an appropriate spot for your strawberries is very important, but giving the plants enough space is equally important, if not more so.
Strawberry plants do not like to be crowded together especially if you are working with June bearing varieties.
In this case, you want to plant them at least 12 to 24 inches apart. If planting in rows, you want to leave at least 36 inches between rows.
With ever-bearing strawberries, you will have a little more wiggle room to plant them a little closer together, but we wouldn’t recommend planting them less than 8 to 12 inches apart.
The same spacing for rows still applies.
When planting the plants in the ground, you want to only cover half of the crown but make sure the roots are completely buried.
Be careful to not bend the roots and have them bent horizontally as this can cause damage.
Don’t Forget To Remove The Blossoms
If you’re going to be growing June-bearing strawberries, you’ll want to make sure you remove flowers as soon as you see them.
You’ll have to do this throughout the whole growing period.
You will get much higher fruit production where no flowers are allowed.
If you’re going to be growing ever-bearing strawberries, you will remove flowers as they start appearing, but only up until about mid-June in the first year.
After that, you can leave the flowers so they can fruit!
How Do I Need To Fertilize And Water My Strawberry Plants In Ohio?
If the intent is to produce any type of plant, it is as important as water and fertilizing it properly.
Without them, there is little hope of survival, and growing strawberries in Ohio is no different.
Before we dive into which fertilizers you will use for your strawberry plants, we should mention that you want to make sure you are testing the soil regularly.
Don’t be overly concerned about this; testing every few years will usually be sufficient.
The benefit of testing every once in a while is that your strawberry yield will be much higher quality than it would be otherwise.
So, before you plant your strawberries:
- We suggest you apply lime and nutrients as recommended by your soil testing results.
- You will also need to save and use nitrogen which can be added in one ounce increments every 100 square feet after the installation date at least seven days later.
- After that we also recommend applying another treatment of nitrogen in mid June schedule and in mid August if we have had a wet summer.
When it comes to strawberries, you’ll want to keep watering in mind, particularly during drier times.
Generally, strawberries require anywhere from one inch to one and a half inches of water weekly.
You will certainly want to maintain this schedule between the month of June into mid-August.
However, it is even more important to not over water as strawberry plants do not like to sit/stand in wet, soggy soil.
Problems With Pests And Diseases In Strawberry Plants
Just like any other types of plants, strawberries also fall victim to a variety of diseases and pests.
For you, even if you can never fully protect against them, being knowledgeable is your best bet for having an advantage.
Slugs
The slug is one of the most significant issues facing strawberry plants.
This is true whether the strawberries are growing inside or outside, so you need to keep a close watch.
Slugs can certainly do a fair amount of damage to your strawberry plants, but they will be more effective if they are grown in soil (in other words, plants growing in soil will face slug damage sooner than if the strawberries are grown in containers).
That is one of the key reasons we recommend planting strawberries in containers.
Just be sure you keep up on your watering because containers can dry out much faster.
Also, make sure to choose top-quality potting soil.
Aphids
Aphids are another common pest that infects the strawberry plant.
If you’re an avid gardener then you’ll know that these pests are a nuisance throughout the garden.
More often than not, you can find the aphids on the bottom sides of the leaves of your plant, as well as on the stems.
When they sit here, they are constantly sucking the sap from the plant.
After aphids suck the sap, they will leave what is referred to as honeydew on the plant and honeydew acts as a lure to attract other pests.
Japanese Beetles
You won’t mistake the Japanese beetle, which is a large pest often over 1 cm in length and has an attractively distorted copperish green color.
These bugs are problematic because they are known to chew their way through flowers and skeletonize their leaves.
If you don’t do something about the Japanese beetle in a day or two, they could cause real damage to all of your plants.
However, if you use floating row covers and be diligent about removing any bugs by hand, you’ll have a certain amount of success against this pest.
During the winter, you can infuse the soil with nematodes which will cull the population during the cold weather.
If you want to use a natural method for controlling Japanese beetles, you may want to use neem oil as a spray.
Strawberry Spider Mites
Spider mites can cause all sorts of issues with your strawberry plants, and they are such a nuisance.
Part of the issue is their size; they are quite small so it’s not easy to even see them, and just when you think you got rid of them all, they pop back up.
You will know for sure if you have spider mites because they will make the leaves of the plant become yellow and stippled.
You may also notice webs appearing all over the leaves, and while you are looking very closely at the leaves you can see the spider mites going about their business.
While they are a super pain, spider mites are easy to deal with: a strong jet of water will help significantly reduce the numbers and is a good first step.
Things like insecticidal soaps can also be effective when used in conjunction with that option.
You are probably better off getting products that are pesticide- or insecticide-specific for spider mites.
Angular Leaf Spot
Strawberry plants are susceptible to a viral foliar disease, recognized as angular leaf spot which is caused by a bacteria.
The plant will then begin to show lesions that are water soaked and they will be visible on the bottom of the leaves.
Over time they will enlarge and ooze if not treated.
What is concerning is that the bacteria can survive through the winter and return the following spring.
The bacteria are feeding off the pieces of debris in and around the crops.
Although it is not impossible to get rid of angular leaf spot, it is extremely difficult and a lot of people struggle to do it at all.
This is mainly due to the lack of a chemical control for this disease.
Works Well – The best way to reduce an incidence of your plants being infected by angular leaf spot is simply to buy certified disease free plants and properly rotate your crops.
Gray Mold
Another significant strawberry disease is gray mold, which is a fungal disease rather than a bacterial disease.
You may also see small rotten patches on the fruits, and you will notice that the flowers die quickly, usually turning brown.
As the disease attacks the fruit, mycelium-like structures will surround the fruit and eventually cause it to mummify!
You usually recognize a threat with gray mold during moist, humid conditions, but you can’t modify the weather, so you need to develop alternative strategies.
Make sure your plants are well spaced apart, and don’t let the soil dry out or become saturated.
If some of the plants are infected, you will need to remove them altogether so the disease doesn’t spread.
You may opt to use some preventative fungicidal products, but these do not always have 100% reliability.
Protecting Strawberry Plants Against Frost
As we mentioned before, strawberry plants are very susceptible to frost damage especially in spring.
For this reason, it is even more important to make sure that you have adequately protected those plants over the winter.
The best way to ensure this is by mulching the plants and then removing this mulch as spring approaches and frost loses its grip.
If you have not provided the best frost protection possible for the strawberry plants, you will see a poor harvest.
Conclusion
The state of Ohio is a wonderful place to grow strawberries, as its climates are precisely what strawberries love.
However, if you want to achieve a high yield, you will need to provide effective management for your strawberry plants.