Homegrown strawberries taste better than anything you can buy in a supermarket
Image: Strawberry ‘Vibrant’ from Thompson & Morgan

If you like growing delicious strawberries we’re delighted to bring you a collection of the best advice from the internet. These bloggers, YouTubers and Instagrammers are people who practise what they preach, growing heavily-fruiting strawberry plants season after season, and sharing their knowhow so that you can enjoy a bumper crop too. Read on for some great strawberry-growing tips…

This article was reviewed by T&M’s horticultural team and updated on 14 February 2024.

Grow several varieties to extend the cropping season

Ben recommends planting your strawberries in a sunny spot and watering regularly
Image: GrowVeg

Choose the right strawberry varieties and you could be picking fruit from late spring right through to early autumn, says Ben from ever-popular gardening YouTube channel, GrowVeg. Here, he gives an excellent rundown of the best varieties to choose and how to grow them to max out on quantity and flavour. He says if you’re keen to try your hand at making jam, be sure to grow a strong maincrop strawberry, while for sheer intensity of flavour, you can’t beat the tiny fruits of alpine varieties.

Force strawberry plants for an extra early harvest

The Cambridge strawberry varieties work well for forcing early crops
Image: Strawberry ‘Cambridge Favourite’ from T&M

Did you know it’s possible to get strawberries to fruit 4-8 weeks earlier than normal summer crops, and all without sacrificing flavour? As Tejvan at Gardener’s Tips explains, the old ways are still the best. Here he details how to force strawberries in the greenhouse or under cloches. He says if you’re growing under glass, “you want a strawberry with a compact habit and mildew resistance. Try one or more of the Cambridge varieties: ‘Favourite’, ‘Regent’, ‘Rival’, or ‘Vigour’.”

Use our strawberry guide to find the right variety

Strawberry plants are often delivered as strong, bare root runners
Image: Strawberry ‘Sweetheart’ from Thompson & Morgan

If you’re wondering which strawberries to grow, this advice from Thompson & Morgan’s horticultural team is just the ticket! For small, sweet berries from July through to September, choose Mignonette; if you’re after a heavy-fruiting plant that delivers large fruits ready for Wimbledon, ‘Sweetheart’ is your go-to choice. Do check out the full article for tips on ever-bearing varieties as-well-as great advice on how and where to plant your strawberries.

Improve soil quality for success with strawberries

Eli picks a huge bowl of strawberries every day at harvest time!
Image: In the Garden with Eli and Kate

“You want to get in there with all your homemade compost, [and] lots of organic loveliness,” says Eli at In the Garden with Eli and Kate. She enjoyed a bumper crop in 2020 and is on hand to help you achieve your best harvest ever this season. Check out her post to discover her top five tips to help you have a successful strawberry growing season. Soil quality is number one. Visit In the Garden with Eli and Kate to find out what else you can do to boost your crop.

Don’t plant strawberries too deeply

Amongst the strawberries recommended for container growing is ‘Honeoye’
Image: Strawberry ‘Honeoye’ from T&M (© Photos Horticultural)

Strawberries are best planted in the autumn, says Carol at The Sunday Gardener. But don’t worry if you’ve left it to the spring because they’ll grow vigorously at this time of year too, although you might get a slightly smaller harvest the first season. New to planting strawberries? Avoid planting them too deeply. Carol says the crown – the part where the roots meet the stems – should be level with the soil, but not buried or it may rot.

Plant strawberries in ground free from verticillium wilt

Net your strawberries to stop birds stealing the entire crop
Image: Simplify Gardening

Avoid growing strawberries in ground that’s previously grown potatoes, tomatoes and chrysanthemums, says Tony at Simplify Gardening. These plants are particularly prone to the fungal disease verticillium wilt which also affects strawberries. Just one of Tony’s top ten tips for growing The Best Strawberries Ever, he also says you need sun, shelter and good, well drained soil. Do take a look at his video to find out what else you can do to grow better fruit this season.

Fill a hanging basket with trailing strawberry plants

These strawberry runners are destined for space-saving hanging baskets
Image: Ancoxon

How do you get to enjoy a great harvest of delicious succulent strawberries without taking up space in the garden? Take a leaf from Instagrammer, Ally’s book. Posting at @Ancoxon, she says she grows her strawberry plants in hanging baskets – a great space-saving solution. A vegan, low-waste allotmenteer who also keeps rescue chickens, you’ll find some wonderful photographs of Ally’s feathered friends here, as well as inspirational snaps from the veg patch.

Build a vertical planter for a small garden

This vertical planter is a great way to pack lots of strawberry plants into a small garden
Image: Spicy Moustache

For keen urban home-grower Alessandro, producing his own fresh strawberries is an act of love for his grandfather. If you’re experimenting with vertical growing to save space, this post is a must. He enjoys an easy to reach, juicy harvest in his small garden space from his attractive DIY strawberry tower. See him build his own vertical strawberry planter at his popular TikTok @spicymoustache using a heat gun, an old pipe and a few old plastic pots. Great stuff!

Try growing strawberries in upcycled gutters

Strawberries ‘Just Add Cream’ are delicious eaten straight from the plant while warm from the sun
Image: @pegsplot

A great space saver, Claire @pegsplot says she’s reclaiming her raised beds and growing her strawberries in gutters attached to the side of her shed instead. It’s also a great way to keep her harvest away from hungry snails. Want to know what she grows? Strawberry ‘Just Add Cream’ is the name of this super sweet variety!

Replace old plants to keep fruit yields high

The French ‘Mara des Bois’ variety crops all summer long
Image: Strawberry ‘Mara des Bois’ from Thompson & Morgan

Strawberry plants yield fewer berries after the first few years, says Tanya of Lovely Greens. That’s why she pulls up her oldest rows of strawberries and replaces them with fresh plants each year. Tanya offers highly informative video tutorials including two ways to grow strawberries, her favourite fruit! We recommend her step-by-step guide to making a strawberry planter from an old pallet, and her excellent demo of how to rejuvenate your strawberry patch. This time around, she’s very excited to try Thompson and Morgan’s ‘Mara des Bois’ for the first time.

Transplant your strawberries in winter

Putting a bit of effort into your strawberry patch gives a rich reward at harvest time!
Image: @snewland97

Looking for a winter garden job? Steve Newland has the answer for you. It’s the best time of year to give your strawberry patch a good tidy, he says. He plants any spare rooted runners along a path in December to make a tasty treat in summer within easy reach for harvest. “Most advice says to transplant in early Autumn or late Winter but they’re tough plants,” he says, so don’t worry if you’ve left planting a bit late. Find plenty more top tips for growing a rainbow of fruit and veg over at @snewland97.

Revamp an old strawberry bed with ‘No-Dig’

Young plants formed from runners can be used to rejuvenate your tired strawberry bed
Image: My Family Garden

Are your strawberry plants a bit past their best? If so, you’ll love this video by My Family Garden. Here your green-fingered host explains how to strip out the old growth and replace it with young runners from the main plant. Replanting the runners in a freshly prepared no-dig bed, he also demonstrates why the no-dig method makes planting and growing so much easier – it’s all down to applying plenty of compost with a good mulch on top to suppress weeds.

Create new strawberry plants by potting up runners

A punnet full of gloriously ripe strawberries is a thing of beauty
Image: @greggrowsuk

If you’d like to boost next year’s strawberry crop, Greg @greggrowsuk has this excellent hack to share: “Pot the little shoots (runners) up from this year’s growth by rooting them in compost before cutting from the main plant! These can be planted and will start to crop from next summer!” Check out his Insta post to see for yourself how successful this method is for Greg – when he posted this pic of his mouth-watering fruit, he was already busy making his second batch of strawberry jam.

Peg strawberry runners to the soil to form roots

Strawberry runners are called ‘stolons’ and root readily in moist soil
Image: @gingergrows1

Strawberry plants are natural spreaders. “Under ideal conditions it is not uncommon for a single plant to produce between 30 and 50 runners!” says Instagrammer Hannah. That’s a lot of jam and Eton mess! Root your own free plantlets by pegging the runner stem onto the soil or, if you want to make gifts for friends, into a compost-filled pot like Hannah. Firm contact between stem and the soil is essential to prompt rooting, she says. Achieve bumper crops for free by following Hannah’s top propagation advice on her Instagram page @gingergrows1.

Divert slugs with a sacrificial strawberry

A weed control fabric reduces work and prevents fruit spoiling on damp soil
Image: Green Lane Allotments

“If you find a strawberry nibbled by slugs, don’t remove it,” says Sue at Green Lane Allotments. That’s because, rather than move onto a fresh berry, the slug will come back to the same fruit for its next nibble. If you’re sceptical, so was Sue, but it does seem to work and is definitely worth a try should your fruit suffer an attack. She also recommends laying a weed control fabric to keep the berries clean.

Lay weed suppressant to keep your bed tidy

Getting the strawberry bed organised is a winter job for Mark
Image: Mark’s Allotment Plot

Allotmenteer Mark lays a weed suppressant layer under his strawberry plants to keep weeds at bay. The fabric blocks light and kills off any young weeds as they appear, he explains. Fantastic for the time poor gardener! To keep producing lots of juicy berries, he plants young rooted ‘runners’ alongside his mature plants and richly fertilises the soil with chicken manure. Visit his YouTube channel, Mark’s Allotment Plot, to see how he refreshes his patch in time for spring in no time at all!

Enjoy your strawberries in a delicious jam

Preserve your strawberry gluts by making delicious jam
Image: The Marmalade Teapot

“If the craving for jam strikes, then there is no better way to satisfy it than strawberry,” says Katie at The Marmalade Teapot. She reckons “Homemade jam is easier to make than most people expect,” and to prove her point, gives you her delicious strawberry jam recipe plus instructions on how to make it. Worth a look for the photos of scrumptious-looking jam alone, this post is a must for anyone seeking a little bit of strawberry flavoured inspiration.

We hope you’ve enjoyed our collection of the best information and advice on growing your own strawberries. Head over to our strawberry hub page for more dedicated strawberry guides and links to all our exciting varieties available to buy. With a little bit of help from these amazing bloggers, YouTubers and Instagrammers, you’ll be growing your own bumper crops of juicy strawberries in no time. Tag us in to your pics!

Sophie Essex

Sophie Essex is a freelance garden writer with a passion for horticulture and environmental conservation. With a BSc in Botany/Plant Biology from the University of Plymouth, she further honed her expertise through a Masters of Science in Biodiversity and Taxonomy of Plants from The University of Edinburgh.

Sophie has also worked as a professional gardener and landscaper, showcasing her practical skills by transforming outdoor spaces. Her commitment to fieldwork is further evident in her acquisition of a Certificate in Field Botany from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, and over the years, she has interned at the Eden Project, Cornwall, the National Trust for Scotland and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Find more information about Sophie over at LinkedIn.