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Are Strawberries Easy to Grow? Yes, With Two Catches

Strawberries are among the easiest fruit to start and the easiest to neglect. The two things that decide a crop, and why year three disappoints.

By Zakaria 3 min read Save to Pinterest — opens Pinterest in a new tab
Ripe strawberries resting on a straw mulch that keeps the fruit off wet soil
Photo: Lana Kravchenko, Pexels License, via Pexels
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Genuinely yes — they crop in the first year and forgive a lot. The two things that catch people out are not difficulty. They are a deadline and an expiry date.

What makes them easy

  • Crop in the first season, unlike most fruit
  • Self-fertile — one plant is enough
  • Pots, baskets, grow bags, beds, towers all work
  • Shallow-rooted, so no deep soil preparation
  • Tolerant of imperfect soil and erratic gardening

Catch one: they expire

A strawberry plant's working life
YearCrop
1Light — many growers remove the first flowers to build the plant
2Peak
3Peak
4Noticeably down, fruit smaller
5+Little worth picking

Virus load builds up and the crown ages. Nothing visibly dies, which is exactly why it catches people — the bed looks healthy and produces almost nothing.

Run a rolling third

Each summer, peg runners from your best plants into small pots of compost sunk beside them. Once rooted, sever and plant out. Retire the oldest third of the bed every year.

A third of your bed is then always young, you never have a replacement year with no crop, and it costs nothing.

Catch two: the last five days

Everything can go right for months and you still eat nothing. Birds and slugs take the fruit between colouring up and ripening.

  • Net properly — held clear of the plants on hoops so birds cannot reach through, and pegged down at the edges so they cannot walk in underneath. A net lying on the foliage feeds them
  • Straw or mats under the fruit lifts it off wet soil and cuts slug damage sharply. It is where the name comes from
  • Collect slugs after dark in the week before ripening — the highest-value fortnight of the year for it
  • Pick promptly. An overripe fruit left on the plant draws everything in

Why the fruit is small

In order of likelihood:

  1. Old plants — see above
  2. Crowding. A bed thick with unchecked runners is plants competing with their own offspring
  3. Irregular water while the fruit is swelling. This one acts directly and fast
  4. Too much nitrogen — lush leaves, almost no fruit. The classic over-feeding symptom

Runners

They are the plant’s way of reproducing, and they are expensive. Cut them off through the cropping season and the plant puts that energy into fruit instead.

Keep a few from your healthiest plants only, and only when you want replacements — never from a plant that has looked sickly, since that is how virus travels through a bed.

Common questions

Are strawberries easy to grow?

Yes — they are one of the best fruits for a beginner. They crop in the first year, need no pollination partner, grow happily in pots, hanging baskets or a bed, and tolerate a lot of rough treatment. The two things that catch people out are both about time rather than difficulty: plants decline sharply after three years and need replacing, and the fruit has to be protected from birds and slugs in the week before it ripens or you will not eat any of it.

How long do strawberry plants last?

Three good years, then a steep decline. A plant crops lightly in its first year, peaks in years two and three, and drops away in year four as virus load builds up and the crown ages. The standard approach is to run a rolling replacement: peg down runners from your best plants each summer, grow them on, and retire the oldest third of the bed every year, so a third of the bed is always young.

Why are my strawberries small?

Usually age, crowding or water. Old plants make small fruit, a bed thick with unchecked runners makes small fruit because every plant is competing, and irregular watering while the fruit is swelling shrinks it directly. Too much nitrogen is the fourth cause and produces the classic symptom of lush green leaves with very little fruit underneath.

What do I do with strawberry runners?

Cut them off unless you want new plants. Runners cost the parent plant a lot of energy that would otherwise go into fruit, so removing them through the cropping season gives a better harvest. When you do want new plants, let a few runners from your healthiest plants root into small pots of compost sunk beside them, then sever the runner once rooted and plant them out — that is your replacement stock, free.

Do strawberries come back every year?

Yes, they are perennials and come back for several years, dying down to the crown over winter and regrowing in spring. That is exactly why the three-year decline surprises people: nothing dies, the plants simply produce less and smaller fruit each season until the bed looks healthy and yields almost nothing.

What is the single biggest cause of losing the crop?

Birds, followed closely by slugs, and both strike in the few days between a fruit colouring up and being ripe. Netting the bed properly — supported clear of the plants so birds cannot reach through, and pegged down at the edges so they cannot walk underneath — is the difference between picking a crop and watching one disappear. Straw or mats under the fruit lift it off wet soil and cut slug damage considerably.

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