General Information

‘Cambridge Favourite’ is a robust variety, with firm, rounded fruits. ‘Elsanta’ has smaller fruits but with much better flavour and is a very popular dessert variety.

A sunny exposure is preferable. Although you can get a harvestable crop with as little as six hours of direct sunlight per day, the largest harvests and best quality berries come from those plants that get the advantage of full sun. The position must be open and airy to reduce mould and disease around the plants. Avoid planting in frost pockets, as late frosts can kill your plants.

To grow great strawberries, your soil should be well drained and rich - a good garden or pre-loved allotment soil is usually suitable. If farmyard manure is used it should be old and well rotted, so it’s as free from weed seeds as possible. Potassium, in some form should be added. The bed should be thoroughly prepared, so that the plants take hold quickly after transplanting.

Although strawberries won’t thrive in saturated ground, they do need a slightly moist environment. Amend your soil with a good supply of nutrient-rich organic matter as needed, to both improve aeration, drainage, and increase moisture-holding capacity.

The shallow-rooted strawberry plant is poor competition for weeds, shrubs, trees, or other plants. Till the bed in the Autumn to eliminate a lot of the weeds that cause problems during the growing season. Choose a spot away from large trees, which may send roots into your strawberry bed. Also, be sure to locate your strawberry bed away from any spot where you have grown peppers, tomatoes or potatoes. These plants can harbor verticillium wilt, which is devastating to strawberries. Strawberries should also not follow grass or corn in the rotation.