It's Strawberry Season in NW Arkansas! 04/23/2024

Enjoying some freshly-picked strawberries from the backyard! Strawberries are one of the easiest fruits to grow in the home garden and they are very cold-hardy with little to no protection. They do sometimes get fungal diseases, but usually respond well to low-level fungicides like Sulfur Dust. My biggest challenge has been to keep them watered enough to survive the many weeks of 100+ degrees days we get here. They will definitely benefit from a shade-cloth covering to prevent them from getting scorched during the Dog Days of Summer. I like that they send out runners and multiply on their own. These I have growing around the house escaped from their containers years ago. They are mostly the 'Cardinal' variety developed by the U of A. We also have some California 'Chandler's'. I have a few of the 'Everbearing Ozark' variety, but they have not produced much fruit for me in my open air backyard MICROWAVE OVEN SCORCHED ZONE. There are many different varieties and types of Strawberry Plants. "June-Bearing" generally ripen all at once during a 2-week period in Early Summer. This type seems to produce better for me here, but it's more like Late-April, not June. The "Everbearing" type will produce a smaller amount of fruit intermittently throughout the Summer, if the conditions are mild and favorable to them. They stop producing when it gets too hot, but they sometimes produce another small crop in the Fall when it starts getting cool again.