Looking for a variety of strawberry to grow that looks beautiful and taste delicious? Then my friend you are on the right page. Learn how to grow Ozark beauty strawberries in your garden whether it is a container garden, terrace garden, or backyard. Ozark beauty strawberries are extremely and taste very sweet.
How To Grow Ozark Beauty Strawberries?
To grow this variety of strawberries, you have to keep patience as It does not produce fruit in the first year. You will be able to enjoy its fruits from the second year onwards.
Location for Ozark Beauty Strawberries
These strawberries are an everbearing variety. The shape of the fruits is uniform and can adjust in all types of gardening situations. Being a perennial plant, you must protect your plant in winter.
Choose a location for your Ozark beauty strawberry plant such that it gets maximum sunlight. They like to grow in full bright sun and produce a high yield. 6 hours of sunlight per day would be sufficient to produce fresh and sweet fruits.
While planting the strawberries make sure there is a distance between two plants to avoid the competition between space, nutrients, sunlight, and moisture.
Make sure the soil in which you are planting Ozark strawberries contains organic matter like pear, moss, and perlite. Instead of mixing this organic material in the soil while preparing the soil, use potting mix. It already contains the nutrients required for the plant to grow. Moreover, you can apply two to three-inch of organic compost to the soil.
If you are planning to grow these strawberries in a pot or container, make sure there is a large drainage hole at the bottom of the pot. This hole will allow the air and excess water to pass and prevents the root from rotting.
The Strawberry plant is known to have a very low tolerance for dry conditions. Hence, frequent watering would be required to keep the soil moist. Overwatering will harm the plant so water accordingly.
The pH of the soil should lie between 5.0 to 7.0. you can easily check the pH of soil using a pH kit. These kits are easily available at the near gardening stores.
Methods of planting Ozark strawberries
An easy way of growing Ozark beauty strawberries would be buying Ozark strawberry plants from a local nursery.
Make sure the plants you buy from the nursery should be pest-free and healthy so they can produce tasty red and fresh fruits.
Growing Ozark Strawberries From Seeds
If you are growing these strawberries from seeds, then you should use high-quality Ozark seeds. The seeds should be of a variety that is repellent to pests and produces healthy plants. It is the cheaper way of growing Ozark strawberries as compared to buying a planting from the nursery.
To make the proper use of seeds, all the information will be printed on the pack of seeds. Read and apply the steps to grow a beautiful plant of strawberries. Take a few seeds, put them in an air-tight container, and freeze them by keeping them in the freezer. This will encourage the germination process. After 2 to 4 days, take out the seeds and leave them out at room temperature.
And, now take a seed tray or a small pot and fill it with the high-quality potting mix. Sow the seeds in it about an inch deep. Keep the soil moist by spraying water on the surface of the soil after some hours. The seeds will germinate within a week or two.
Care for Ozark Strawberry Plant
To grow juicy strawberries in your garden, Only growing the plant is not enough. You have to care for the strawberry plant as well. It would be not possible to get the fruits without caring for and giving them proper conditions.
1. Sunlight. It is a very important factor for all plants. Some need direct sunlight to grow, some plants need indirect sunlight to thrive. In the same way, you have to choose a location for your strawberry plant where it can get direct sunlight for 6 to 8 hours per day. In Ozark strawberries, the yield is indirectly proportional to the amount of sunlight the plants get.
2. Watering. It is another very important factor for a plant to grow. For growing strawberries make sure It gets water frequently. The right amount of water at right time will produce red juicy and sweet fruits.
3. You may cut the runners of the strawberry plant if you want but it is suggested that you must leave 2 to 4 runners as they help in bearing the weight of the fruit.
4. Flowering. this plant produces flowers very quickly. And, to make your plant stronger cut off the flowers when the plant produces them for the first time. Now the plant will consume the nutrients and grow stronger. The second time your plant produces flowers, be ready for the bearing of the fruits on the strawberry plant.
5. Fertilizers. fertilize the plant regularly in order to keep it healthy. A balanced and slow-release fertilizer that is rich in nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium works the best.
6. Prunning. This variety of strawberries does not require much pruning. You can prune the runners if you want.
Disease and Pests
Strawberries are very sweet and tasty, so birds and pests try to eat them. You can cover your plant by a birds net, in order to protect it from birds. There are several other pests that loves to eat the fruits and leaves of the plant. Some of them are Nematoda, Strawberry Mites, Aphids, Strawberry Powdery Mildew, Grey and Black Rot etc. You should look for them take preventive measures for your plant to keep them away.
Harvesting Strawberries
If you are looking for the best time for picking strawberriies, I would say it is the in the morning. The fruits are not firm which means you have to pick them carefully or you will get the bruises.
To harvest the strawberries from the plant, hold the stem with your index finger and thumb and by the other hand twist the fruits and pick it our slowly. Picking without twisting could harm the stem.
You should not pick the strawberries with green tip. It means they are not ready to harvest. It needs more time to ripe. Harvest only those which are ripened properly and the fruits is grown fully.
A refrigerator would be best to store the strawberries. Most people make jam and jelly from these strawberries. And if you want to store the fruit a quite more longer, put it in the freezer for future use.
Thanks for reading.