Nearly every homestead has a strawberry patch, hidden somewhere around the home or main garden.
Strawberries are simply delicious when grown at home, nothing like their unripe grocery store counterparts.
They are sweeter, more flavorful, and softer!
However, growing strawberries seems to take an eternity when you don’t have much patience.
……… Who am I kidding? They really do take an eternity, to be honest.
They’re a painfully slow growing crop, especially when you start with immature plants.
Hold on though- don’t get too upset yet! You should have strawberries in 12 months or less, depending on the variety of plants you have!
This is still less than the wait for fruit trees, berry bushes, walking onions, and other plants, right? So it’s not that awful!
Let’s figure out WHERE you are with your plants, and find out when you’ll get fruit!
How Long Does It Take to Grow Strawberries?
So, to start, let’s go over the different stages of growth for strawberry plants.
There are two main types of plants: June Bearing, and Ever Bearing. Both varieties will provide you with delicious strawberries, but in different ways. There are pros and cons to both, so choose carefully! Everbearing plants will produce fruit “all summer.” What this means is, the plant will flower and fruit in spring, then a few months later, and again a few more month later if possible. If warm weather lingers, it could continue even more! However, you should only expect 3 crops per plant. The cons? Everbearing plants don’t generally send out runners (if they do, it’s rare), and they don’t produce as much fruit as June Bearing plants due in one fruiting. June Bearing plants are expected to produce more fruit annually than their everbearing counterparts, but they produce it all in one large crop in spring. In 7a, our strawberry crop begins at the end of April and is in full swing by May. Therefore, there are no fresh strawberries during the summer aside from my everbearing plants. If you are transplanting strawberry plants of the Junebearing variety, expect to wait until next growing season.
Thus, if you have June bearing plants and it’s now August, you know you have a while to wait.
Let’s get to the timeline:
- Seeds- not yet sprouted; at least a 1 year wait
- Seedlings- 0 to 3 months old; 3 month to 12 month wait
- Immature Plant- 3 to 6 months old; 0 to 6 month wait
- Mature Plant- If everbearing, watch for flower buds.
- Mature Plant with Runners/Daughter Plants: You will likely be waiting for next spring’s fruiting season.
Another Exception: Yellow Wonder Alpine Strawberries
This year, I grew some Yellow Wonder Alpine Strawberries. They are a bit different, but here’s my timeline for those:
- Seeds started in January
- Seedlings stayed small until March
- Transplanted in early May
- Plants began flowering in July
- First Fruit in August
How long did I wait for yellow wonder strawberries to fruit? Looks like it took roughly 8 months; but that’s from seed. 99% of people will not start strawberry plants from seed. However, after I succeeded at growing strawberries from store bought fruit, I knew the yellow wonders would be easy to grow; I was right.
These are incredibly delicious berries, by the way. I highly recommend adding them to your garden as soon as you’re able to! You can’t find them in stores, because they don’t last for long before they start to rot.
I Have Strawberry Runners First Year; How Long Does It Take to Grow Fruit?
If you are in your first year and your strawberry plants are sending out runners, you likely have June Bearing plants. I’m also going to guess that they were transplanted a few months ago, and that you’re in the middle of summer; meaning your runners are “running” everywhere, invading your backyard. In the photo below, you can see how easily they take over (if they haven’t swallowed your garden… yet.)
If this is true of your strawberry patch, then you’re probably going to be waiting for another 9-10 months or so. While this is quite a bummer, I will tell you this:
Those 10 strawberry plants you planted are going to turn into 500 strawberry plants before fall hits, and guess what that means? That’s right. You’re going to have a massive bumper crop of fruit! Just be sure to protect your fruit from slugs, squirrels, and other aggravating pests, because they will take you for everything you’re worth when it comes to strawberries. The slugs will ALWAYS find your berries.
Strawberry plants are on our list of 6 Perennial High-Yielding Food Plants You’ll Rarely Have to Tend, which is amazing for the homesteader who feels a bit lazy some days (we all do, don’t we?)
How to Pinch Off Strawberry Flowers: Increasing Strawberry Yields
If you have plants that you transplanted in late fall or early spring, it is recommended that you pinch off the strawberry flowers. Sure, this sounds counterproductive. But, those berries you MIGHT get won’t be worth it. It’ll be a small crop at best. Instead, pinch them off to allow the plant to grow more vigorously, thereby improving crops next year!
All you have to do is locate the flower bud, and pinch it off just under the bud on the flowering stem. The stem the bud is on will not produce any kind of leaves, it exists solely for fruiting and flowering, with just a single flower/fruit growing from each.
You can either severe the stem with your finger nails, or you could trim it with a pair of scissors! Pinching off strawberry flowers isn’t difficult, and it doesn’t require too much finesse to be honest.
The First 6 Months: What Can I Expect From My Strawberry Seedlings?
While most people aren’t growing these plants from seed, I do. Therefore, I will not skip on this unique seed starting process. I started on this path when I tried growing seeds that came off of a store-bought berry. I was incredibly curious and… guess what? It worked! If you want to read about how to grow strawberries from seed, I’ve got you covered.
If you choose to start from day 0 with seeds, be aware that they are of moderate difficulty to germinate. You will need to stratify them, which takes some time. If you have started with seeds and have seen no progress, we’ll help you troubleshoot strawberry seed germination. They are slow growing during these first few months, and you will need a bit of patience.
When Will My 6 Month (or Older) Plants Begin Fruiting?
If you have a 6 month old everbearing plant, watch for flower buds to form. Once the flower is pollinated, it will take 30 days before the strawberry ripens. You’ll usually see half a dozen or more berries on one plant; this will improve as the plants age. Again, if you have June bearing plants… you’ve likely passed strawberry season if it’s July or later.
One idea (if you want to force June bearing plants to fruit) is to place the plants in the freezer. Try putting them in the freezer twice a day for a few hours (alternating between the kitchen counter) for 4 or 5 days, then leave them in the freezer. It may take a week or two of freezing temperatures to put the plant through a false winter, but once they’ve gone through, slowly expose them to more and more warm temperatures. Slowly reintroduce them to sunlight (or you’ll burn them!), and you might wind up with some forced flowering and fruiting.
Why Is My Strawberry Plant Not Producing Fruit?
For a lot of people, the lack of fruit is infuriating. Strawberry plants can be finicky if they don’t have what they need; if your plants aren’t producing fruit and/or are displaying some other symptoms, you might need to interfere.
We’re going to run through a quick list of potential causes for why your strawberry plant isn’t producing fruit:
- You’re outside of flowering/fruiting season
- The plant is in between flowering cycles (everbearing)
- The plant is too young
- There is a lack of pollination
- Slugs are eating them before you can
- The squirrels have devoured them
- The plant is deficient in nutrients or light (you may see deformed strawberries)
Troubleshooting: Why Are My Strawberries Small and Deformed?
Have You noticed that your berries look a little… odd? You could have a variety of issues at hand. Two of the biggest include boron deficiency and Tarnished Plant Bugs.
Below, we’ll discuss boron.
As for the tarnished plant bug (which, we don’t encounter in our area), it will feed on the strawberry fruits causing odd shaped berries. Feeding damage will cause the berries to have indents, creases, and even bubbled spots, that look almost like the strawberry had grown around string tied around it while it was still small. These bugs can take a serious toll on your strawberry crop; but if you have different beds and find an entire plot is not affected, the bugs might not be the culprit.
Boron Deficiency in Strawberries
Boron is an important nutrient for strawberries. However, it’s needed in only the tiniest amounts; it’s actually really easy to cause boron poisoning if you’re not careful. If you need to treat a boron deficiency in strawberries, I urge you to ensure that you’re mixing the proper amount in water, and use it sparingly.
When strawberries are deficient in boron, you find both deformed strawberries and a lack of berries overall. Truthfully, the damage can look similar to that of the Tarnished Plant Bug. If you have very poor soil (for example, you used topsoil instead of compost/gardening soil), boron deficiency could be the issue.
Chlorosis: Strawberry Leaves Light Green? This Could Be Why…
If the plant is in poor soil, is overcrowded, or is competing with weeds, you likely need to feed it. For a natural alternative, offer the plant compost, compost tea, rabbit manure, or goat manure.
Do not feed the plant right before the first frost date, and do not feed it before it fruits. Instead, feed it during the summer, up to 4 weeks before the last frost. You don’t want to plant to overexert itself before cold weather and you certainly don’t want soft berries!
If your soil is poor, you may have compounded symptoms; for example, you could have pale plants with deformed berries. In this case, you would have to treat the plants for both symptoms.