how to plant wild strawberries

Wild strawberries (Fragaria virginiana) are prized for their aromatic fruit and delicate white blossoms and are appropriate for decorative and culinary gardens in USDA plant hardiness zones 3 to 8. Because wild strawberries are rarely found in commercial gardens, farmers who want to cultivate them must spread them themselves. Wild strawberry plants will flourish once reproduced if placed in a moderately shady, fast-draining ground. However, in order to create a sizable harvest of fruit, the plants must be correctly separated and mulched.

1. In late spring or early summer, start fresh wild strawberry seedlings. Look for an embedded plantlet around the base of an established wild strawberry plant, which forms when a stalk contacts the earth and takes root.
2. Cut the stalk that connects the wild strawberry to the rooted plantlet. Use a precise, spotless set of scissors. Create a 3-inch circular around the plantlet’s root. Using a portable shovel, dig down to a 5-inch depth along the 3-inch line.
3. Pry the embedded plantlet from the earth and cover in the cavity it left. Place the plantlet in a 4-inch container filled half with yard soil and half with acidic fertilizer. Place the wild strawberry in a moderately shady location and fully water it.
4. For three to four weeks, grow the wild strawberry in a moderately shady location to enable it to develop a bigger, more fruitful root system. During the summer, relocate the plants to an area of the yard that receives four to six hours of direct sunlight per day. Every week, add 1 inch of water.
5. Prepare a sowing spot in the fall for maritime areas, or in the spring for interior regions. If feasible, use an elevated planter or cultivate a growing area that gives 12 to 14 square inches of room for each plant. Avoid places with bad drainage or stony, artificial soil.
6. In the upper 10 inches of earth, work a 5-inch-thick layer of slightly acidic, organic manure. In an elevated garden, space the wild strawberries 8 to 14 inches apart, or 12 inches apart in the ground. Make the sowing openings 1 inch deeper than the containers, so the plant’s base is barely above the dirt level.
7. After sowing, water each wild strawberry to a depth of 4 inches. To keep the earth wet, apply a 2-inch coating of fertilizer around each plant. Leave a 1-inch space between the soil and the wild strawberry bushes’ bases.
8. Throughout the growth season, provide 1 inch of water per week. Reduce the chance of decay by not fertilizing during wet or chilly conditions. During prolonged times of dryness or heat, increase irrigation to twice weekly.