For a lesson on growing strawberries
Let's begin with the story of how the strawberry came to be
Here in Virginia - strawberries, Fragaria virginiana are a native plant, and grow well as a groundcover in part-shade.
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| Violets and Wild Strawberries - at the Museum of the American Indian DC (photo Mary Van Dyke) |
Find the story of The First Strawberries as a book or as an audio download (References at end of this blog entry).
Growing Strawberries
Strawberry cultivars are bred and selected for different qualities for human-eating.
Check them out at http://strawberryplants.org/. - and select some cultivars that suit your climate, ecology, timing and taste...
Grow strawberry plants close together to crowd out weeds. But if you're growing for prime fruits you may space your plants further apart. Here comes the math, engineering, technology and science....
Plans
First considerations: What shape and how big is my planting bed? How many berry plants can I fit in? Are you growing in the ground or in a pot?
Here I'll show my design for 2 raised beds with internal dimension about 3' 4" x 6'
Draw out a sketch plan roughly to scale at the recommended planting distance of about one foot per plant.
Or work the other way round...
If I have 8 strawberry plants to plant in two rows of 4:
How big an area of ground will they need at a one-foot spacing apart?
Sketch it...and make your bed to suit...
How big a planting bed do you need if you space at the recommended distance of two-feet apart?
Planting
Buy strawberry plants. Prepare soil and plant your strawberry plants following instructions on the pot or at strawberryplants.org
Protection
From experience I know that molds, pillbugs or roly-poly's, slugs, mice, chipmunks, and birds all like to feed on strawberry fruit...
The next step in the design process is how to keep off these predators and pests that (like me) also like to feast on strawberries?
One option might be to plant lots of plants and hope for the best?
But, if you have a small number of plants you're more likely to want to protect them from birds with bird netting, while a farmer with a large crop will not net and will factor in extra plants for bird loss.
If you choose to go with bird-netting - the choice is then "Does it need a support structure - or not?"
I have two beds this year and I am experimenting:
1) In one bed I lay the lightweight bird-proof netting straight over the plants. And I pin it down the edges of the net with some wooden 2 x 3's. That works well at the moment.
2) On the second bed, I build a frame out of PVC piping. This is an easy project for 5th graders and up. It's like a construction game. The PVC tube connectors are available in two sorts: 90 degree L's and T's. There are no 3 way corner connections.
Can you design a cheap and strong frame to fit your bed? How many legs is it going to have? Have a go and see what structure you come up with.
For this example of the 3' 4" x 6 ' bed.
I decide the frame will be rectangular and stand on four legs, and that the maximum unsupported span of PVC piping will be about 3 or 4 feet. I decide the legs will be about 6 " in the ground and 18" above ground - i.e. 24 inch length.
Here's my cutting list of 1/2 " diameter PVC pipe that is available in 12 foot lengths:
10" #4
24" #4 (legs)
36" #2
48" #2
Can you count the connector pieces I need? How many T's and L's do I need?
That's right - 4 T's and 4 L's
Next I assemble the frame - this takes about 10 minutes and is very easy as the connectors and tubes twist and push together - no glue is needed and the frame will be demountable at the end of the season.
Put the bird netting over the frame and secure along bottom edge with loose laid 2 x 3 timbers.
Does this netting work? Does it need a frame to function well? Time will tell....
Topic Extension
Why do you think this farmer uses hills, black plastic and underground irrigation?
What are the pros and cons of this method of growing that is now called "Plasticulture"
What do you think the standing-pipe sprayer is for?
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| Picking strawberries at Mackintosh Farm, Berryville VA (Photo by Mary Van Dyke) |
Think of some other ways you might grow strawberry plants if you were a farmer?
What problems would you need to solve in each case?
What issues are eliminated or added to the problem of "growing strawberries" design if you hang the strawberries in hanging baskets? Or grow strawberries in stacked boxes?
Next steps: we look at Strawberry Science close-up, mulching and harvesting...
References:
Native Virginia Strawberries: http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=FRVI
The First Strawberries, retold by Joseph Bruchac and illustrated by Anna Vojtech
The First Strawberries, free audiodownload from Storynory
Strawberryplants.org for information on growing strawberries
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