What Stops Everbearing Strawberries? - Garden Quickie Episode 299

Even the name itself lends to the idea that the epic production is never going to stop. Yet, everbearing strawberry plants do stop producing. Eventually. A modern strawberry plant is a hybrid wonder falling into one of three categories. June bearing, everbearing, and day neutral, which is basically a type of everbearing. June bearing varieties produce one big crop per year, and that's it. Whereas, the everbearing and day neutrals, well, they keep the party going. Hi, I'm Jeff from The Ripe Tomato Farms. Welcome back to another episode of The Garden Quickie, the show where in two minutes or less, we're strawberry masters. Because today's episode is once again all about them. Specifically, what is it that causes everbearing strawberries to finally stop producing? Time's short, though, as you know it is, so let's dive in. Strawberries, regardless of the variety, are indeed perennial plants that come back year after year. But to accomplish this, the plants must also go dormant every winter as part of their annual cycle, a cycle that's necessary to getting all of these flower and fruit that we're talking about. Strawberry plants form the flowering buds for the following year in the fall, a full six-plus months ahead of time. The impending winter not only triggers this flower bud formation, but it also induces a natural dormancy for the plants. It's why you don't see equatorial tropical strawberries. The plants get the clue to stop growing and stop producing, and instead put all of its energy back into the roots, the crown, and the brand new flower buds. The chill of winter sets up these flower buds to sprout in the spring, and without this natural dormancy, a strawberry plant would just be a mass of weak, uninspiring foliage. As you can guess, then, there's two clues for our strawberry plants to stop producing – decrease in temperature and loss of day length. The threshold temperature for strawberries to stop flowering and stop producing fruit appears to be about 45 degrees Fahrenheit, with slight variances for different varieties. This is known and it's been tested, but it can also happen earlier in the season when that day length falls shorter than 12 hours per day, as strawberries are classic long-day cultivars. Fascinating stuff. Almost as fascinating as checking out the next episode of the Garden Quickie. Thanks for watching guys, and hey, if Garden Quickies are your thing, make sure to subscribe and click on this playlist here as we explore and solve more growing issues in two minutes or less.