Description
Description: Height, spread, bloom
The strawberry is a low-growing herbaceous plant with a fibrous root system and a crown from which arise basal leaves. The leaves are compound, typically with three leaflets, sawtooth-edged, and usually hairy. The flowers are generally white, borne in small clusters on slender stalks arising, like the surface-creeping stems, from the axils of the leaves. As a plant ages, the root system becomes woody, and the mother crown sends out runners that touch ground and root, thus enlarging the plant.
Propagation
Plants are propagated from runners
Season for planting
Spring.
Requirements: location, soil, light, water, frost, warnings
It needs 6-10 hours a day of direct sunlight, it prefers loamy soil that drains well. The well-drained soil needs aged manure or compost. Do not plant in a site that recently had strawberries, peppers, tomatoes or eggplant. Provide adequate space for sprawling. Be diligent about weeding. Strawberry plants need a lot of water
Blooming season
It blooms in spring.
Diseases and other problems
Around 200 species of pests are known to attack strawberries both directly and indirectly. These pests include slugs, moths, fruit flies, chafers, strawberry root weevils, strawberry thrips, strawberry sap beetles, strawberry crown moth, mites, aphids, and others. The caterpillars of a number of species of Lepidoptera feed on strawberry plants. For example, the ghost moth is known to be a pest of the strawberry plant. Strawberry plants can fall victim to a number of diseases, especially when subjected to stress
Maintenance
Watering strawberry roots, and not the leaves, is preferred as moisture on leaves encourages fungal growth When the growing season is over, mow or cut foliage down to one inch. In winter mulch plants about 4 inches deep with straw, pine needles, or other organic material.
Benefits for bees.Strawberry pollination is best accomplished by bees and other insects. Although the flowers do not produce a lot of nectar, bees will still visit the flowers and ensure complete pollination.Encourage bees and insects to visit your strawberries by planting other flowering plants nearby.