How to get flavorful strawberries: 3 tips for growing sweet, juicy fruit

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Berry specialist Anya Osatuke shared tips for growing flavorful strawberries at the Indiana Horticulture Conference this year.

Osatuke researched strawberry flavor and quality while getting her master’s degree at Cornell University.

“Getting good yields and good flavor are things you can accomplish at the same time,” she said. “But pest resistance is hugely driven by the variety you select. So, it’s pretty important to select resistant varieties from the get go.

“From our research, these are meaningful ways to invest in your strawberries.”

How to grow flavorful strawberries:

1. Select varieties with good flavor.

“The most important thing you can do to grow flavorful strawberries is to select varieties that have been bred for that,” Osatuke said. “There are a lot of good options. When I’m considering a new variety, I Google the name of the variety and look up the patent.

“The document says who discovered the variety, who named it and how they evaluated it. Those will often describe how flavor was evaluated and how acceptable it is. That can be a helpful resource if you’re not sure about a new variety.”

2. Invest in irrigation.

“Investing in irrigation can be worthwhile,” Osatuke said. “Whether it’s investing in a misting system to keep strawberries cool, if you’re on a south-facing slope maybe, and you know your berries get really hot in the summer.

“During really hot days, if you could cool those down a little bit, that can actually increase their sweetness.

“Also, because so much of the fruit size is based on the expansion of the cells and the water they have to become juicy, it can be a huge influence on quality if you invest in an irrigation system — to make sure your strawberries always get the water they need to grow big and plump.”

3. Consider low tunnels for season expansion.

“It seems like, in the fall for day neutrals, it can be great to have something to keep temperatures more stable to extend the growing season,” Osatuke said.

“With day neutrals, because Albion likes low temperatures consistently, it can also make sense to use low tunnels to extend the season in the earlier direction — earlier into spring. They don’t seem to mind if it’s cold, and they’re still plenty sweet.”