The Best Method For Harvesting Your Strawberry Plants

Strawberries are the perfect plant for first-time fruit growers. They're not terribly complicated to cultivate, and the sweet berries are ready to pick four to six weeks after flowers appear on established plants. This is long before apples and other popular fruits are ripe. In the northern United States, strawberry harvest time is typically in May or June, and a few months earlier in the South and California. Growing the best possible strawberries includes a number of factors, like weeding their growing area often, watering them thoroughly when the blossoms are forming, and fertilizing them at the optimal time. 

But if you want the plants to thrive year after year, picking them at the right time and in the right way also matters. It's essential to harvest berries when they hit peak ripeness. Most varieties will be bright red when this happens. The time of day matters too — pick your berries in the afternoon when their flavor is likely to be the sweetest. After that, pop them in the fridge and eat them within five days, ideally sooner, since they don't stay fresh for long. You'll need to gather ripe fruit every couple of days for three weeks or so if you're growing June-bearing plants.

Beyond timing, gently harvesting strawberries also helps keep plants healthy and encourages them to produce more fruit in the future. Handling the berries with care prevents bruising and other injuries that can compromise your harvest, so resist the urge to yank them from the stem. Instead, either cut the stem about an inch above the berry's top or pinch the stem and twist it to set the fruit free. Try pinching the stem with your thumb and index finger to get a firm grip without causing harm to the plant. Leave a bit of stem on the berry to help it stay fresh for as long as possible. Place your berries in small containers to keep them from getting crushed. 

To protect your strawberry plants at harvest time, take a few other precautions as well. First of all, watch where you're going when moving through the strawberry patch. Stepping on a plant can harm it enough that it won't grow much fruit next season. Keep your garden's paths uncluttered so you don't crash into a plant or trip and hurt yourself. Also, don't try to reach all the way across a wide row of plants to harvest your bounty. Venture to the other side of the row to pick its berries. If you stretch an arm across several plants, you're likely to bump them, which may lead to breakage. Finally, once the growing season winds down, prepare your strawberry plants for winter to shield them from the perils of ice and snow. When the warmer months roll around, there are lots of other ways to keep your strawberries happy. Prune away dead branches and runner weeds, mulch the garden beds, and try this clever trick for keeping strawberries from drying out.