Do you want to know if you can eat strawberries in the first year of harvesting? Yes! We often receive queries from customers.
Asking whether or not it is OK to harvest strawberries from first-year plants, but you absolutely can.
The strawberries from my grandpa’s farm were looking beautiful and mouth-watering. He had so many grandchildren and didn’t know how to share the first harvest of his strawberries.
He didn’t get a huge amount from each plant this year, but the plants will be more productive by the following year.
He was hopeful and wanted everyone to enjoy his garden.
ALSO READ – Are June Bearing Strawberries Perennial
Now, Let us get started
What Is The Earliest Strawberry
Honeoye: The proven standard early strawberry variety, fruiting 4 – 6 days earlier than ‘Elsanta.’
Bright, shiny, good-quality fruits are abundant from mid-June to mid-July because they are often grown on ‘Pick Your Own’ farms.
You can tell it’s a good cropper with a high percentage of large fruit.
Grows to 30cm
Symphony (PBR)’: Bred by the Scottish Crop Research Institute, this variety will produce supermarket-quality fruits that keep well.
They have a uniform shape, well-colored flesh, and a delicious flavor. The plants are strong growing and have an excellent resistance to mildew. Grows to 30cm.
Garden care:
It is recommended to plant the dormant bare-root plants (runner plants) that are sent out as soon as they arrive, usually within a few days.
After 20 minutes of soaking in lukewarm water, the plants’ roots will be rehydrated, and you may begin to dig holes twice as wide as their root systems.
Spread the roots of the strawberries and set them in a hole with the crowns touching the earth. Fill the hole with organic stuff and water well.
Separate rows of plants by 75 cm (30 in) and plant them 45 cm (18 in) apart if you’re using runners or potted plants. Mulch around the base of the plant rather than the crown, and water deeply after planting.
ALSO READ – When To Plant Day Neutral Strawberries
When To Pick Strawberries
When strawberries are consistently red and firm, it’s time to harvest them. Find brightly colored strawberries that still have their green cap, which is referred to as a calyx in botanical terms.
There shouldn’t be any mold on the fruit, and it should be medium firm with a strong strawberry aroma.
Strawberries aren’t ripe yet if they have too many different colors and are partially white. Their softness indicates that they are ripe beyond their prime.
Methods for Selecting the Most Delicious Strawberries
Grab the stem immediately above the strawberry and pinch it off approximately ¼ inch above the calyx to harvest the strawberries.
Preserve the strawberry’s firmness and quality by leaving the cap on and washing the berries just before eating.
When the weather is nice, pick berries every day; when it’s cold, pick them every two days.
Picking berries first thing in the morning, when they’re at their most calm, and then putting them in the fridge will help them survive longer in warm weather.
ALSO READ – When To Fertilize Day-Neutral Strawberries
What Is The Lifespan Of A Strawberry Plant
After a few of years of growth, strawberry plants reach their full potential, and then they enter a decline that culminates in senescence and eventual death.
In perfect circumstances, a strawberry plant has a potential lifespan of five or six years.
They often start to lose strength after three fruitful years, and strawberry yield drops very sharply after that.
Strawberries are susceptible to environmental diseases and opportunistic fungi, which often attack as the plants age and become weaker.
Typically, a brown, withered, disintegrating mass is the final result of a plant’s death process that begins with blemishes, flaws, and browning of formerly healthy components.
The Reproduction Process Of Strawberry Plants
Perennials rule the strawberry patch. Seeds can be used for reproduction. Strawberry plants from seed are notoriously difficult for home gardeners to grow.
One more thing that runners may do is produce strawberry plants. Runners are tall, leafy plants that may spread their roots by coming into contact with damp dirt.
When a strawberry plant’s runner becomes detached from the crown—the main mass of roots—it retains all the characteristics of its parent plant.
A runner is a clone of the mother plant regardless of whether it is severed and transplanted.
The strawberry plant you’ve been nurturing for a year, two, or even more is actually simply a younger seedling.
ALSO READ – When Do June Bearing Strawberries Bloom
What Are The Best Early Strawberries
Earliglow June Bearing Strawberry is the earliest strawberry, ripening fruit faster and earlier in the season than any other variety.
Extend the length of your strawberry season with these flavorful, firm, and deeply red berries. Earliglow performs exceptionally well in the eastern United States.
Delicious and savory When it comes to little fruits grown in backyard gardens, strawberries reign supreme.
You may grow them in charming pots on your balcony, patio, or deck, or in compact areas like flower borders.
Flora Fragaria x ananassa, Latin name In light of Maturity Size: 6-8 inches in height, Age: 1st year after cultivation.
When: March–April for blooming and June for ripening Produces one pint
Diseases and Pests: Earliglow Edition When it comes to pests and viruses, strawberries are incredibly tough. Mulch your berry plants with straw to prevent slugs and berries off the soil.
Of the June kinds that yield fruit early in the season, Earliglow is the first. Zones 4–8 are ideal for its growth, and once fruited, it yields an abundance of runners. You can’t beat the size, juiciness, color, and taste of Earliglow berries.
Earliglow is one of the easiest varieties to cultivate. You may use a container, a raised bed, or even rows to plant it. It can withstand a lot of illnesses, such as red stele and verticillium wilt.
ALSO READ – When Do Alpine Strawberries Flower
Which Strawberries Are Sweeter
There are no sweeter strawberries than the Alpine Strawberries. A very delicious fruit that may be grown, it is also called Fragaria Vesca.
How are Alpine Strawberries defined?
Alpine strawberry plants are smaller, don’t have runners, and produce much smaller fruit—about the size of a fingernail—though they seem quite similar to modern strawberries.
The alpine strawberry, which is a member of the Rosaceae rose family, is a variation of the wood strawberry, which is known as “fraise de bois” in French.
In Europe, North and South America, northern Asia, and Africa, you may find these little plants growing wild along the edges of forests.
The low Alps were the original site of the discovery of this wood strawberry variety about 300 years ago.
From June to October, alpine strawberries produce fruit continually, in contrast to wood strawberries, which only do so in the spring.
ALSO READ – Types Of June Bearing Strawberries
Final Thought
Having shown that strawberries may be consumed in the first year of harvesting, it is noteworthy that strawberry plants yield many times their weight in harvested strawberries during their lifespan.
They are among the most prolific plants when evaluating output relative to their biomass.
Strawberries start ripening four to five weeks post the emergence of the initial blossoms and persist in ripening for around three weeks.
Have you contemplated cultivating strawberries alone this year? Consequently, several providers offer a variety of strawberry cultivars for purchase.
If you planted earlier in the year, you may already have a few to harvest, which is OK.
Likewise, if you receive strawberry plants that are flowering/fruiting shortly, plant them in pots or beds, and you can harvest any that ripen over the next few weeks.
You probably won’t get a huge amount from each plant this year, but the plants will be more productive next year.