A day neutral strawberry is a specialized variety of the common garden strawberry, genetically distinct due to its unique fruiting pattern. These plants produce fruit continuously throughout the growing season, offering a steady supply of berries rather than one single, concentrated harvest. This ability to fruit independent of the changing seasons makes them highly desirable for both home gardeners and commercial growers aiming for an extended market window. Their defining characteristic is sustained, moderate production until the first hard frost of autumn.
The Science of Day Neutrality
The continuous fruiting of day neutral varieties stems from a lack of sensitivity to photoperiod, which is the amount of light a plant receives over a 24-hour cycle. Most plants, including traditional strawberries, rely on a specific photoperiod to trigger the initiation of flower buds. Day neutral plants possess a genetic mutation that bypasses this requirement, allowing them to form flower buds regardless of the length of daylight hours.
Instead of day length, the primary factor governing flowering and fruiting is temperature. These plants continuously initiate new blossoms and set fruit as long as temperatures remain within a tolerable range, typically between 45°F and 85°F (7°C and 29°C). When temperatures consistently rise above 85°F, production can temporarily slow or pause entirely until cooler conditions return.
Day Neutral vs. Other Strawberry Types
Strawberries are broadly categorized into three types based on their fruiting behavior. The most widely recognized type is the June-bearing strawberry, which forms its flower buds only during the short days and cooler temperatures of the previous fall. This results in a single, large flush of fruit over a two-to-three-week period in late spring or early summer.
The second type is the Everbearing strawberry, which produces two distinct, smaller harvests each season—one in late spring and a second in the late summer or early fall. Everbearing types have a significant gap in fruit production during the hot mid-summer months, making their yield pattern discontinuous.
Day neutral varieties are a modern improvement on the Everbearing type, maintaining a steadier, more moderate yield that extends from the first spring flush until the season’s end. While the overall yield of a Day Neutral patch can be high due to the extended season, the individual harvests are much smaller and the fruit size may be slightly reduced compared to the single, concentrated pick of June-bearing plants.
Practical Cultivation and Harvest
Growing day neutral strawberries requires a different management approach than the traditional single-harvest types because the plants are constantly expending energy on both vegetative growth and fruit production.
When first planted, a grower should remove any flowers that appear for the first four to six weeks to allow the plant to establish a strong root system and sufficient leaf area. This initial sacrifice of early fruit encourages a more productive and sustained yield later in the season.
A crucial maintenance task for these continuous-fruiting plants is the routine removal of runners, which are the horizontal stems that produce new daughter plants. Day neutral strawberries will divert significant energy into forming these runners, and if they are not consistently clipped, the plant’s energy will be pulled away from fruit development, reducing the overall berry yield.
Because day neutral varieties are constantly producing, they have a higher demand for nutrients throughout the season than other types. This requires a program of frequent, light fertilization, often through a method called fertigation, where nutrients are delivered directly through the irrigation system. Harvesting must be done regularly, typically every one to three days, to ensure peak quality and flavor, which also helps to manage pests and diseases that can proliferate on overripe fruit.