With our research partner, Freeport High School Student Vegetable Farm, the annual strawberry plants study has continued to grow well into September.
In July and August, we removed runners and cleaned the beds weekly to reduce pest pressure (yellow jackets, lygus bugs, small mammals). While these actions are helping with pest management, one of the challenges with growing these plants in mixed vegetable rows is that pest pressure can be more severe from neighboring beds all season long.
Last year, we saw that these berries hit their peak into the end of September and October, with 'Albion' and 'Seascape' performing best in yield and size compared to 'Mara Des Bois.' Since these plants are under drip irrigation and plastic, we fully expect this year to look like last year.
Unfortunately, the impact of the drought in Northern Illinois in May and June eliminated our non-irrigated plot in Jo Daviess county for the year. This plot, with the same varieties as Freeport High School, was unable to recover. We will not have data from this plot for year 2, though there will be results from year 1 (2022).
In week 7 of our day-neutral strawberry research, runners have appeared. These extensions of the plant are encouraged when growing perennial strawberries but as an annual strawberry we need to remove these.
Day-neutral or annual strawberry plants should have their flowers-fruit removed the first 6 weeks in order for the plant to focus on root-development. After 6 weeks, allow for the fruit and flowers to develop.
Day-neutral strawberries are grown as an annual in Northern Illinois, planted as bare roots the first week of May with harvest into Halloween. In the 2nd year of this on-farm research, Grant McCarty, Local Foods and Small Farms Educator, discuss what's happened so far, goals for...
As we wait for strawberries to develop, the weekly management is focused on removing the runners, extensions of the main strawberry plant. Some fruit and flowers have currently appeared which should mean yields of berries in 4-6 weeks.
Why grow annual strawberries compared to June-bearing/perennial berries? Grant McCarty, Local Foods and Small Farms Educator, explains reasons for his day-neutral strawberry research and what he has seen so far from last year's harvest. More conclusive recommendations will be...
In this month's update on the day-neutral strawberry research in Northern Illinois, Grant McCarty, Local Foods and Small Farms Educator for University of Illinois, discusses how yields are looking and some of the challenges he is still noticing in the research.
You can find short YouTube videos (less than 1 minute) of the research at go.illinois.edu/StrawberryYouTube.
Cover images taken on September 13, 2023 show many berries remain on the plants waiting to ripen as well as some of the harvested fruit. The ripened fruit is from all three varieties in the research project. Smaller berries tend to be the ‘Mara Des Bois’ variety and one that we would not recommend based on the small fruit size. ‘Albion’ and ‘Seascape’ produce much bigger berries. Yet again, we expect greater yields towards the end of September. Photo credit: G. McCarty, Illinois Extension 2023.