Facts about Strawberries

Anything and Everything you ever wanted to know about Strawberries

Strawberries are often used to flavor other foods, such as ice cream. Apart from its interest as a dessert fruit, the strawberry draws interest due to the peculiarities of its structure, its tendency towards variation, and the gardener’s success in exploiting this tendency.

HistoryFragaria comes from “fragans”, meaning odorous, an allusion to the perfumed flesh of the fruit. Madam Tallien, a great figure of the French Revolution, who was nicknamed Our Lady of Thermidor, used to take baths full of strawberries to keep the full radiance of her skin.

Fontenelle, centenarian writer and gourmet of the 18th century, considered his long life was due to the strawberries he used to eat.

TriviaThe Norwegian municipalities of Norddal and Kvæfjord have strawberries in their coat-of-arms.The strawberry is the state fruit of Louisiana.Strawberry Music is a retailer of music in the United StatesStrawberry is a clothing store in The Mall at the World Trade Center that survived the collapse, the store was next to New Balance and Tie Rack, and across Casual CornerStrawberry was one of the fruits offered for bonus points in the game PacMan.
CultivationStrawberry varieties vary remarkably in size, colour, flavour, shape, degree of fertility, season of ripening, liability to disease and constitution of plant. Some vary in foliage, and some vary materially in the relative development of their sexual organs. In most cases the flowers appear hermaphroditic in structure, but function as either male or female.

For purposes of commercial production, plants are propagated from runners and generally distributed as either bare root plants or plugs. Cultivation follows one of two models, annual plasticulture or a perennial system of matted rows or mounds. A small amount of strawberries are also produced in greenhouses during the off season.

The bulk of modern commercial production uses the plasticulture system. In this method, raised beds are formed each year and covered with black plastic, which prevents weed growth and erosion, under which is run irrigation tubing. Plants, usually obtained from northern nurseries, are planted through holes punched in this covering. Runners are removed from the plants as they appear, to encourage the plants to put most of their energy into fruit development. At the end of the harvest season, the plastic is removed and the plants are plowed into the ground. Because strawberry plants more than a year or two old begin to decline in productivity and fruit quality, this system of replacing the plants each year allows for improved yields and more dense plantings. However, because it requires a longer growing season to allow for establishment of the plants each year, and because of the increased costs in terms of forming and covering the mounds and purchase plants each year, it is not always practical in all areas.

The other major method is to maintain the same plants from year to year. The runners of established plants should be allowed to root in the soil adjoining the plants, which should, therefore, be kept light and fine, or layered into small pots as for forcing. As soon as a few leaves are produced on each the secondary runners should be stopped. When the plants have become well-rooted they should at once be planted out. They do best in a rather strong loam, and should be kept tolerably moist. The ground should be trenched 50-100 cm deep, and supplied with plenty of manure, a good proportion of which should lie just below the roots, 25-30 cm from the surface. The plants may be put in on an average about 50-60 cm apart.

The plantation should be renewed every second or third year, or less frequently if kept free of runners, if the old leaves are cut away after the fruit has been gathered, and if a good top-dressing of rotten dung or leaf mold is applied. A top-dressing of loam is beneficial if applied before the plants begin to grow in spring, but after that period they should not be disturbed during the summer either at root or at top. If the plants produce a large number of flower-scapes, each should, if fine large fruit is desired, have them reduced to about four of the strongest. The lowest blossoms on the scape will be found to produce the largest, earliest and best fruits. The fruit should not be gathered till it is quite ripe, and then, if possible, it should be quite dry, but not heated by the sun. Those intended for preserving are best taken without the stalk and the calyx.

A mulching of straw manure put between the rows in spring serves to keep the ground moist and the fruit clean, as well as to afford nourishment to the plants. Unless required, the runners are cut off early, in order to promote the swelling of the fruit. The plants are watered during dry weather after the fruit is set, and occasionally till it begins to colour. As soon as the fruit season is over, the runners are again removed, and the ground hoed and raked.Fragaria × ananassa ‘Chandler’ , a short day commercial variety grown in California.Strawberries are often grouped according to their flowering habit. Traditionally, this has consisted of a division between “June-bearing” strawberries, which bear their fruit in the early summer and “Ever-bearing” strawberries, which often bear several crops of fruit throughout the season. More recently, research has shown that strawberries actually occur in three basic flowering habits: short day, long day, and day neutral. These refer to the day length sensitivity of the plant and the type of photoperiod which induces flower formation. Day neutral cultivars produce flowers regardless of the photoperiod. Most commercial strawberries are either short day or day neutral.

While rarely if ever done commercially, strawberries may also be propagated by seed, and a few seed propagated cultivars have been developed for home use. Seeds are acquired commercially or saved from fruit ripened early in the summer. They may at once be sown, either in a sheltered border outdoors or in pots, or better in March under glass, when they will produce fruits in June of the same year. The soil should be rich and light, and the seeds very slightly covered by sifting over them some leaf-mould or old decomposed cow dung. When the plants appear and have made five or six leaves, they are transplanted to where they are to remain for bearing. The seeds sown in pots may be helped on by gentle heat, and when the plants are large enough they are pricked out in fine rich soil, and in June transferred to the open ground for bearing.

DiseasesThe most troublesome fungoid attacks to which the strawberry is subject are mildew and leaf spot. The former, like all mildews, attacks the leaves and spreads to the fruit, these being covered with the white mycelium. The fungus is identical with that causing mildew in hops (Sphaerotheca humuli), and its development is greatly furthered by exposure of its host to cold draughts or low night temperatures. Spraying the foliage with potassium sulfide (K2S) (mixed with water at a 1:40 ratio by volume) should hold it in check, but the plants should not be sprayed when the fruit is developing. The leaf spot is caused by the fungus Sphaerella fragariae. The first symptom of this attack is the appearance of small, circular, white spots on the leaves, having a broad, definite, dark reddish margin.

On these spots a whitish mould develops, and this is followed later by the perfect form of the fungus, the fruits of which appear to the naked eye as small black spots seated on the white dead spot on the leaf. Potassium sulfide may be used as for the mildew, or, perhaps better, Bordeaux mixture. Some recommend cutting off the leaves after fruiting and turn the beds over so as to destroy the fungus in the leaves.

The grubs of the cockchafer (Meloloniha vulgaris) and the Rose chafer (Cetonia aurata) frequently feed upon the roots of the strawberry and do considerable damage, while the larvae of the Ghost Moth (Hepialus humuli) and garden swift moth behave in a similar way. The imago of Cetonia aurala also frequently damages the flowers of the strawberry by devouring their centres, and is often troublesome in this way in forcing-houses particularly. The carnivorous ground beetles, particularly Pterostichus nigra and Harpalus rufimanus, when the fruit is ripe attack it at night, returning to the soil in the daytime. They are to be caught by placing jars containing some attractive matter, such as meat and water, at intervals about the beds with their mouths sunk level with the surface of the soil. Millipedes also are often found in the ripe fruit, but occur mostly where the soil is very rich in organic matter and poor in lime. Slugs and snails also snack on the fruit, as do birds. Slug pellets can be used to reduce their numbers, with child and animal safe versions available. Organic solutions to slug attacks include beer baiting. See Pest control of slugs for a range of organic and non-organic options.

EtymologyThe name is derived from Old English strēawberiġe which is a compound of streaw meaning “straw” and berige meaning “berry”. The reason for this is unclear. It may derive from the strawlike appearance of the runners, or from an obsolete denotation of straw, meaning “chaff”, referring to the scattered appearance of the achenes.

Interestingly, in other Germanic countries there is a tradition of collecting wild strawberries by threading them on straws. In those countries people find straw-berry to be an easy word to learn considering their association with straws.

There is an alternative theory that the name derives from the Anglo-Saxon verb for “strew” (meaning to spread around) which was streabergen (Strea means “strew” and Bergen means “berry” or “fruit”) and thence to streberie, straiberie, strauberie, straubery, strauberry, and finally, “strawberry”, the word which we use today. The name might have come from the fact that the fruit and various runners appear “strewn” along the ground.

Popular etymology has it that it comes from gardeners’ practice of mulching strawberries with straw to protect the fruits from rot (a pseudoetymology that can be found in non-linguistic sources such as the Old Farmer’s Almanac 2005). However, there is no evidence that the Anglo-Saxons ever grew strawberries, and even less that they knew of this practice.

Nutrition. One cup (144 g) of strawberries constitutes approximately 45 Calories (188 kJ) and is an excellent source of vitamin C and flavonoids.