Good morning guys! I'm super excited because I finally got my hands on some
Charlotte strawberries. I've been pining after these from my own garden for over
a year now, ever since I tasted them at someone else's farm. And I know all
strawberries are delicious-- my former favorites were Cabot and Wendy
which are pretty hard to beat. Oh my gosh would you be quiet over there?! Sorry my
hen is real excited she just laid her egg.
But Charlotte blows everything out of the water it's amazing! It's just like
this sweet wonderful strawberry candy bomb of flavor! Charlotte is a French
variety that came from a cross between Mara du Bois a French heirloom and a
California variety, which I can't remember the name of right offhand, but
if you're familiar with Mara du Bois you know that it kind of has a cult
following because of it's incredible flavor and this amazing aromatic floral
fragrance that it has. The problem with Mara is that the berries are quite small
and soft. So what Charlotte has done is to take that amazing, amazing flavor and
combine it with a bigger, firmer berry which makes for a really nice eating
experience. So I'm gonna get my new Charlottes planted today and I also
wanted to share with you a few tips that I've kind of learned about growing
strawberries through trial and error over the years. Now the very first thing
I want to point out, and this could perhaps be the most important is this
soil. Now I wish this were our soil, it is not.
We have horrible awful clay soil and this has taken a lot of work on my part.
My point is here, the strawberries will actually do well in a wide
variety of soil types, but they don't like heavy slow draining wet soil which
is pretty much exactly what I have. So to amend this soil, and to amend this
whole plot where I've got these berries planted, I basically had to dig out a lot
of the clay, bring in some peat and compost, mix everything together and then
dump back on this site before I plant it. So
now what we have is this nice well-draining, high in organic matter
soil, which is really gonna support strawberries. The other thing to keep in
mind with strawberries, is that they do prefer a slightly higher pH, so between
5.5 and 6.5. So these are bare root strawberry plants,
you can see they don't look like a whole lot here but these will perk up once
they're planted. So I got these in the mail, I actually bought these plants from
Gurney's and just receive them about a day and a half ago. As soon as I got them
I stuck the roots in water and let them soak and then I'm gonna separate these
out. I think I should have ten plants here. I'm gonna get these planted. So when
planting strawberries you just want to make a planting hole that's gonna be
deep and wide enough to accommodate this root system without crowding or bending
it. So I'm gonna go in here make a nice deep hole, place this plant in here make
sure I got enough room for the roots. And then you want this crown, which is the
very top growing point of this plant here, to be right at soil level. So place
my plant and then I'm gonna backfill with my soil, make sure that crown stays
level and just firm that soil in to kind of get rid of any air pockets. And we're
going to do the same with the rest of the berry plants. Depending on where
you're planting and what variety you have you'll see planting instructions
varying from anywhere between ten inches apart for plants to 24 inches. Some
plants will need a little extra room because they tend to be very vigorous,
put out very vigorous runners. In general I like to space mine about twelve inches
apart that gives plenty of room for the plants to spread and put out new runners
and makes for a nice filled in, kind of a pretty strawberry patch.
Now I've got these all planted I'm just gonna give them a small dose of a
balanced fertilizer, a 10-10-10 will work well. And that's just to get these plants
kind of a jumpstart on growth. Something to keep in mind with strawberries, I've
noticed a lot of advice out on the internet that says to fertilize them in
the spring, but from looking at university research you actually want to
avoid fertilizing them with nitrogen in the spring because this will lead to a
lot of excess foliar growth and soft berries-- which is not good because soft
berries are more prone to attacks from insects and rots and those types of
things. It's better to actually fertilize them right after the harvest because
that will help rejuvenate the plants, especially if you're doing a planting
renewal at that time, like mowing down all your plants and letting them flush
out new growth. The other thing is to avoid over fertilizing in general, over
nitrogen in general because again that will lead to a lot of foliar growth
on these plants at the cost of the yield-- so you'll get more foliage, less berries
which is not what you want. And then we're gonna water these babies in. You
want to keep these watered well until they get established and then
strawberries, as a general rule, prefer about an inch to an inch and a
half of water per week. It is important to keep them watered, but it's equally as
important not to get overzealous and overwater them because waterlogged roots
are going to do just as much damage as under watering them. So if you're unsure
like how much rain that you got, stick your finger an inch to two inches down
in the soil, if it feels super dry down in there just give them a nice deep
drink of water once a week. And then the last step with these newly planted
berries is to mulch them. Now the name strawberries
may have given you a clue but strawberries grow well with a straw
mulch. It helps kind of keep their roots cool and moist it helps suppress weed
competition. But I will tell you honestly my absolute favorite preferred mulch for
strawberries is pine bark mulch or pine fines. I don't have any right now so I'm
not using them, but I find that it works really well, at least in my area with my
soil because the pine tends to add a little bit of acidity, it looks really
nice, and it does an excellent job keeping the weeds suppressed. So just
keep that in mind-- you can also use things like pine needles,
I think they sell like a chopped straw mulch which is actually a little easier
to use, but kind of anything that's gonna help suppress the weeds. Now keep an eye
on your plants as they grow because in about a month, month and a half or so,
sometimes even less, they'll actually start to put on blossoms the first year.
You are going to want to pick these off. I know that seems really
counterintuitive like "What? I'm planting these for berries, why would I pick the
flowers off?" But bear with me here. You want to do this because if you let them
fruit the first year you are essentially sucking their ability to put vigorous
growth into the plant and the roots. So by pinching the blooms off in the first
year you're allowing the plant to get a really nice vigorous root system to
really put a lot of growth and strength into this plant and that's gonna give
you a bumper crop the following year. And it's going to give you bigger healthier
plants and bigger yields in the long run. So that's it! I got my new Charlottes
planted and I'll be enjoying berries in a couple of seasons-- and I
highly recommend you get some strawberries planted too! Thanks for
watching and I'll see you next time.