Preparing to grow strawberries

Page last updated: Thursday, 14 April 2016 - 3:53pm

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Life of a planting

Most growers keep their strawberry plants for only one season, because fruit size falls in the second year and disease and management problems increase. Some growers cut plants back at the end of the first season to allow one early flush in about March of the following year.

Varieties

New varieties of strawberries are released every year. Widely planted varieties for the Perth region are Camarosa, Festival and Albion and for the south of the state, Albion and San Andreas.

Planting material

Strawberries can be affected by virus diseases which seriously reduce the vigour of the plants, resulting in lower yields. Certified strawberry runner schemes operate in Victoria and Queensland to supply virus-free planting material. Grower-members of these schemes produce planting material of acceptable standards under Government supervision. Growers should obtain certified planting material from these sources. Certified runners are available from Victoria and Queensland.

Runners should be ordered well in advance of requirements (generally a year ahead), since supplies can be short.

Driscolls, who operate a closed loop marketing system using their own varieties, also have a network of growers in Australia.