The life of a strawberry

At Heeks Farm in Durham, NC, I ordered strawberry plants in June, with delivery expected in October. We’re preparing for our first season offering pick your own strawberries in Durham, and the journey begins long before the berries ripen.

With the plants taken care of and my soil test results back from the NC Department of Agriculture, it was time to plow the field and amend the soil with critical nutrients like phosphorus, potassium, and nitrogen. The final step in field prep was laying plastic mulch to create raised beds for planting. This mulch helps conserve water and dramatically reduce weed pressure.

In August, I got a surprising notification from Cottle Farms, my plant supplier: a new and aggressive disease had been detected in the strawberry plants. Nurseries up and down the East Coast and in Canada were affected, and millions of infected plants were destroyed.

The disease is called neopestalotiopsis (or “neo p” for short). Not much is known about it yet, and most conventional fungicides have proven ineffective. Some local growers decided not to plant strawberries at all this year due to the uncertainty. But for me—this being my first year growing strawberries at scale and our first season welcoming customers to pick their own—not growing wasn’t an option.

Thankfully, Melinda at Country Farm and Home (every sustainable farmer’s best friend, and the best farm supply store in the area) located a tractor-trailer of disease-free plants from California and distributed them to local growers like me.

It’s been a challenging start, but we’re excited to offer families a place to pick strawberries near Durham and Chapel Hill—grown with care and intention.

Planting Day (Times 8000)

The 8,000 bare root plants arrived on October 19. It took me five days to plant them.

Bare root strawberry plants are very different from plugs. Plug plants come 50 to a tray, are green, and have roots in soil—much easier to plant and care for early on.

Bare root plants are more primitive: a mass of stringy roots and a trimmed crown. You lay them on the plastic mulch and use a planting tool—basically a knife—to tuck each one into the soil. It’s important to get the depth just right: not too deep, not too shallow. And then… you do it 8,000 times.

After planting, I used overhead irrigation for several weeks to keep the plants from drying out during the warm, sunny days of late October and early November.

Weeds, Wind, and Winter Covers

Slowly, the dormant brown crowns began to sprout green leaves. But they weren’t the only things growing—weeds arrived in force and had to be pulled by hand. Tedious but crucial: weeds compete for water and nutrients, and baby strawberry plants can’t afford to lose that battle.

I spent days crawling row by row, hand-pulling weeds. (Little did I know, this would be just round one.)

Next came the row covers—large sheets of agricultural fabric that protect the plants from freezing temperatures. These covers are anchored with bags of dirt or rocks every 20 feet to withstand winter winds.

The covers stayed on until January. By then, the plants had hardened off and could tolerate the cold. From then on, I’d only need to cover them again during frosts threatening blooms and fruit—mostly in March and April.

Spring Brings Weeds, Bugs, and Bloom

When the covers came off, I was happy to see that the strawberries had done well under their winter blankets. Unfortunately, so had the weeds—bigger and tougher than before. Another full round of hand weeding was necessary. Each row takes me about four hours to weed.

As the weather warms in February and March, insect pressure and disease risk increase. I scout regularly for aphids and spider mites and use a few key products to manage them:

 • Sil-Matrix, a potassium silicate spray, helps control mites and aphids. Silicon, the second-most abundant element in Earth’s crust, has a desiccating effect on soft-bodied insects.

 • Pyganic, a natural pyrethrin derived from chrysanthemums.

 • A neem-based product for additional insect suppression.

To fight soilborne disease, I apply beneficial microbes like Actinovate, which outcompete harmful pathogens such as botrytis. On the leaves and fruit, I use Howler EVO, which builds a healthy plant microbiome and helps prevent issues like anthracnose and neopestalotiopsis. All of these products are approved for use in organic farming by OMRI.

Almost There…

Around March, blooms appear—finally! That means we’re just a few weeks away from opening the fields to customers looking for the best U-pick strawberries in Durham NC.

This is a crucial stage where the plants need plenty of nutrients to support fruit development. It’s also when frost risk becomes a big concern.

Strawberry blossoms are extremely sensitive to freezing temperatures. A hard frost at the wrong time can wipe out an entire crop. That means row covers may need to go back on any time the forecast looks risky.

But eventually—one day—I walk out into the field and see a flash of red. The first ripe berries have arrived.

From soil test to first harvest, it takes nearly ten months of hard work, constant vigilance, and a lot of care to bring strawberries to your table. So when you come out to pick your own strawberries in Durham, just know those sweet red berries are the result of nearly a year’s worth of effort—and we’re thrilled to share the fruits of our labor with you.