Strawberry growing made easy

Strawberries are an exotic fruit that is gradually taking root in Ugandan.

However, although some farmers grow it, a lot of it is still imported. The berries can be grown by urbanites using small spaces at their homes. For example, it does not cost much to invest in 500 plants.

Each seedling costs between sh4,000 and sh5,000, totalling sh2.5m. A set of 500 planting bags costs sh100,000 and stands may cost between sh100,000 and sh200,000.

After two months, you can harvest at least 25kg weekly from the plants. Each kilogramme goes for around sh12,000. Harvesting from the same crops goes on for three years. 

Selecting soils

The soil should be mixed with well-decomposed animal manure before being packed into polythene bags that we use for transplanting the splits. These must be consistently watered until new leaves sprout.

Strawberries require well-drained, sandy-loam to loamy soils, with ph levels of between 5.0 and 5.5. However, strawberries can be grown in clay soils if a sufficient quantity of compost is added to the soil during soil preparation. It takes at least 75 days for the splits to mature and start bearing fruit. The mother plant can continue producing fruits for the next five years. 

By 30 days, the plant will start flowering, but if you are doing business, the plant is still young and unable to fully feed itself and the berries.

Therefore, the flowers that come before 60-75 days should be aborted.

Strawberries are mainly propagated from split or runner plants. The crowns may be divided to get new plants, but this is somewhat more difficult.

Planting density 

There are several ways of planting strawberries, these include on the ground, raised beds and containers, as well as vertical or raised beds.

Vertical farming or planting on raised beds does not only increase the plant population in the same space, but it promotes good water drainage well as larger berries are also encouraged to develop.

Beds should be 60cm-75cm wide, 100cm-120cm apart, with plants 15cm-30cm apart over the beds. The strawberry plant is shallow-rooted and requires fertilisers during the growing season to keep it vigorous.

Nitrogen is the most important and is critical in subsequent growth. After 30 days, fix 10g per hole in-between the plants.

The second month, top dress with NPK 17:17:17, 10g (a tablespoon) per hole between the plants.

Strawberry is considered a heavy feeder, so regular boosting with foliar feeds, such as Easy grow, improve vegetative, flower and fruit growth and provides calcium to firm the skin of the fruit and decrease fruit deformities. A kilogramme of NPK costs sh140,000. 

Irrigation

Irrigation is critical immediately after planting to ensure crop survival. As the plants are shallow-rooted, they require 2.5cm of water per week for 12 weeks per growing season.

Irrigation increases yields by 2.5 times (250%), boosts runner rooting, growth rate, flower bud formation and is useful in pesticide application. It also helps in frost control, prolongs harvest and cools the crop to prevent sunscald.

Compiled by Joshua Kato (editor, Harvest Money) and Rebecca Azza (Best Farmer and strawberry grower in Garuga)