Orlando Berry Basket
Sets
Winter bed, then a huller
Growing Strawberries in the Florida Home Garden calls Florida the winter strawberry capital, grown as an annual, not a perennial. Single-crown plants go in from late September to early November. Fruit starts in November and runs into April or May in two or three cycles, interrupted by freezing weather. The plants come out at the end. Best fruit comes from young plants with no more than four or five branch crowns. A huller does not set a crown in October.
The home-garden strawberry guide names Camarosa, Florida Brilliance, and Sweet Sensation Florida127 for the home garden. Florida Brilliance and Florida127 produce more early and have been the most productive commercially in Central Florida. Expect 1 to 2 pints per plant across the season. Blueberries are a second crop on a different soil pH. Do not mix the beds in your head.
Huller after pick
A huller is for fruit you already picked. It does not move the fall planting window. OXO's strawberry huller and a plain huller are the same job. Buy one because the bowl is full today, not because a March bin at the store looks cheap.
Pull the cap without taking half the berry. Get this.
Same job, named handle. Get this.
Bed cover
The home-garden strawberry guide wants black polyethylene on the bed, 1 to 1.5 mils, because it controls weeds and keeps fruit cleaner. Clear plastic is not recommended. Frost cloth is a different object: it is for a freeze night on plants you already set, not a substitute for the plastic mulch. Pack plastic when you build the bed. Pack cloth when the forecast is the job.
Cover a clump you mean to keep on a light freeze. Get this.
A strawberry magnet is last
A strawberry magnet pack is a fridge souvenir. Test the steel. It does not plant a crown. A city resin is Orlando as a plaque. Print-at-home files stay on Shop. Pack the winter bed first, huller second, magnet last.
Stick fruit on a steel door. Get this.
Bed, cloth, huller, then steel
If it is late September through early November and you are setting a bed, black plastic and the right fertilizer are first. If fruit is on the counter, the huller is first. If a freeze is listed and plants are in, cloth is first. If the job is a souvenir, test the steel, then the magnet.
Work 2 pounds of 10-5-10 with micronutrients, including boron, into every 10 feet of row before planting. About half the nitrogen should be slow release. Rake a quarter across the top. Band the rest an inch deep down the middle. Drip tape emitter side up, 2 to 3 inches deep. Cover with black polyethylene. Set transplants through slits. Do not bury the crown. Do not leave roots exposed. After establishment, drip or soaker at low pressure. Water once a week early, two or three times later when plants are bigger and days are warmer.
Containers are allowed: planter boxes, strawberry pots, barrels. That is the patio version that can move indoors on a bad night. Blueberries still want a different pH. Do not fertilize a blueberry like a strawberry because they share a shop.