Season Two!

and we start with a bang. here we are at the beginning of season two, and that’s an exciting number in gardening, because the second season is always the best… just ask some hollyhocks. i’ve decided, empirical evidence in hand, that an “all-one-crop” concept will serve me best. so i picked my number one: strawberries.

i love strawberries. which is why i never eat any. they’re never good. sure, there are those few weeks in early summer where, if you get them at a farmer’s market or stand, they’re spectacular; i eat them then. lots. my goal here is to feel like a kid again when i bite into one of them. nyc is lucky enough to have a farmer at the market who has a variety called tristar, which is “day-neutral” (which is to say that its fruiting process isn’t dependent upon length of day, like june strawberries are), and bears fruit from june all the way to first frost. these berries are emphatically flavorful. eating them is one of those all-too-rare food experiences where it’s just so darn good that i can honestly say it tastes as good as it did when i was a kid, and wallow in my own euphoria for a while. like my mom’s tomatoes. or my friend lorraine’s apricots. so if these taste so good, and produce so long, why doesn’t everyone grow them? well… the berries aren’t huge and perfect looking, which means people won’t buy them. really, they’ve done studies about this kind of thing. taste is secondary to appearance when it comes to consumer perception. it used to frustrate me, but since i’m not a farmer (at present), i let it go. now i just think of it as more good strawberries for me.

this is my first time planting ananassa strawberries (i.e. “regular” ones), but last season’s alpine strawberries (which, by the way, are still quite well, in dirt on my bedroom windowsill) will give me the experience i need not to kill them. but what will be different is the size of the plants and the fruit yield. even though my alpines are healthy as can be, you’d need something like 240 plants to make 6 jars of jam. i’m looking forward to harvesting a usable quantity of fruit. the plants will be much bigger, with leaves probably 4-5 times the size of the alpines’, and the overall plants larger as well. but i’m not worried about space. in truth, the garden i built was destined for strawberries. here’s why.

one system of planting strawberries is called the “hill system” (confusingly, since it does not involve hills, or elevation of any kind). in this configuration, plants are situated in clusters of 2 or 3 plants along rows. the rows are kept quite tidy by the gardener, with runners being clipped off as they develop so the whole thing doesn’t turn into a tangled mess. the plant clusters are spaced about 12” or so apart. given that my system’s sites are about 9” apart and that you can grow more densely in hydroponics, that’s certainly fine. vertically speaking, i won’t have to worry about plant leaves getting burned onto the surface of the bulb, like i did with tomatoes and peppers in season one. so, reason one, space. perfect.

the medium i’m using, expanded clay pebbles, is also ideal for strawberries. strawberries don’t like “wet feet,” as everyone says. in this medium, i can nest the crowns into the medium deeply enough so that the plants will be stable, but far enough above the high-tide line that when the system fills, they stay dry. ebb-and-flow, the hydroponic concept i employed in designing this system, seems like an excellent match for strawberries as well, because it allows thorough nutrition for the root zone and a medium supportive enough for the plant.

so i’ve rationalized why it’s perfect for strawberries. usually that’s enough for me; i’m a good rationalizer. but if i were undergoing a period of self doubt (which i’ve experienced maybe twice in my life, for about 5 minutes each time), all i’d have to do is look at the strawberries. they’re happy. really happy.

i ordered a packet of 25 bareroot runners from an online nursery. when i planted them, this past tuesday, they all looked just like you’d expect: a few dead leaves, crispy clipped runners and old stems, and a general dry, brownish condition, like the one pictured here. wednesday night, as soon as i got home from work, i took a peek. imagine my surprise when many of the leaves i had supposed were dead were standing up, and, furthermore, new green was already in evidence on the plants!

now, early on the fifth day, i’ve got completely new leaf clusters, that aren’t just budding out but are open and growing and have clearly-defined edges. and on every plant but one there are even newer leaves that are shooting straight up, saluting me and telling me they’re ready for duty. the one plant that’s “not like the others” is the dead-looking plant pictured above (i didn’t have adequate lighting to snap a shot when i first planted, but that’s what they all looked like, plus some with “dead” leaves). it’s the only one that hasn’t done anything. fortunately, i only planted 18 plants, and have 7 more, wrapped up and in the crisper drawer. i will probably replace this guy today.

as if that all this weren’t convincing or exciting enough, there is a fully opened flower on one plant, with an identifiable berry at the center. it may seem callous, but i’m going to have to snip that little guy off today. i’m going to snip off all the flowers (and runners, if any develop) until the plants are quite large, trusting in the botanical concept that larger leaf area = better photosynthesis = more sugar production = better-tasting fruit. honestly at this rate it shouldn’t take too long anyway. there's another flower about to open on a neighboring plant, which i'll snip when it has a stem.

i can’t wait to see what happens in another week! happy planting season everybody!