What are Frigo Strawberries? When and how should frigo plants be used? We provide tips on everything from planting to caring for, harvesting and storing frozen strawberry plants.
In order to be able to plan and harvest large, tasty strawberries over the entire growing season, the Frigo strawberry was developed for professional cultivation. Contrary to what the name sounds, the Frigo plants are not their own species or variety. They're just specially treated regular strawberries. Here you can find out where Frigo strawberries come from, how to grow Frigos and even how to make them yourself.
What are frigo strawberries?
Frigo strawberries are strawberry cuttings that are removed from mother plants in winter and then stored at -1 °C for up to ten months.
Frigo plants make it possible to grow strawberries very late in the year , almost independent of their natural harvest time. The idea of the Frigo strawberry comes from professional cultivation, since it offers a price advantage to be able to offer strawberries later in the year. Because German growers use frigo strawberries, supermarkets don't have to resort to imported goods in late summer and autumn.
But how does this work? In winter, strawberry plants receive a cold stimulus that encourages them to flower next year - this is called flowering induction. Naturally, the plant would sprout in the following spring, flower after four to six weeks and bear fruit after eight weeks. The harvest for the year would have been mostly complete after exhausting all the different varieties in July. The exception are the rather smaller strawberries, which the reblooming strawberry varieties throw off later in the year. It is often not worth harvesting them.
It's different with the frigo plants. These plants were taken out of the ground in winter, sorted and stored. While there are already a number of plants in the field in spring and summer, they are led to believe that it is still winter. The flowering plants lie dark and cool in the foil bag and lasthibernation. About five weeks before the naturally grown strawberries give their final crop, they are thawed and planted. Now the strawberry plants continue to develop normally: because the plants think it is spring, it takes about four weeks to flower and eight weeks to the first harvest. So if you thaw and plant Frigo strawberries in batches between early May and early July, you can harvest large, high-quality strawberries by mid-October.
Tip: There are differences between different quality levels of Frigo plants. Normal Frigos are small seedlings that are removed from the cut plants at the end of the season. Then there are so-called waiting bed plants. They were separated from their mother plants much earlier, cultivated in the waiting bed with plenty of space and fertilizer and are correspondingly larger. Waiting bed plants are also uprooted in winter and sold as larger, more expensive frigo plants the following year. They produce higher yields than normal frigo plants.
Plant Frigo Strawberries
Frigo plants are sold as leafless, bare-rooted plants. They consist only of roots and the so-called crown, i.e. the bud close to the ground for the new shoot. You can only order them online, because frigo plants are only thawed just before shipping. Below we describe how you can store Frigo strawberries, i.e. how you can make them yourself.
Tip: Because the Frigo strawberries only bear fruit when they are frozen later in the year, they will be ready for harvest the following year by the date that is typical for their variety. In the following year, new frigo plants would have to be ordered or produced for a strawberry harvest in late summer and autumn.
When to plant frigo strawberries?
In principle, you can plant Frigo strawberries all year round to harvest the same variety all year round. However, because the frigos are more expensive than normal strawberry plants, they are usually only planted from the beginning of May to the beginning of July. The early part of the year can be filled with the early to late strawberry varieties.
The right location for strawberry frigo plants
Like other strawberries, Frigo strawberries love a sunny spot without much wind. The location should not be exposed to severe frosts in winter.As an alternative to a frost-protected location, the plants can also be covered with leaves in autumn.
A perfect strawberry soil is humus-rich and loose. Sandy or clayey soils should be improved with compost or potting soil before planting. Above all, waterlogged soils - i.e. heavy clay and loam soils - cause difficulties for strawberries. It can be worthwhile to create ridges on such soils, in which the strawberries grow southwards.
Planting Instructions for Frigo Strawberries
Because Frigo strawberries are delivered bare-root, planting is a little more difficult than normal plants in pots. It is important to pay attention to the correct position of the roots and the correct height.
- Plan the strawberries to be 25 to 30 cm apart.
- For each plant you need a planting hole that is at least as deep as the roots of the plant are long.
- In poor soil, some potting soil can be put in the hole. A soil with reduced nitrogen and increased phosphate content, such as our Plantura organic tomato and vegetable soil, is recommended. It promotes the flowering and fruiting of strawberries.
- Cut off the root tips of the strawberry to encourage branching.
- Plant the strawberry so that the roots are hanging straight down and the "crown", which is the green bud of the plant, is just above the ground. Then the hole is filled up with earth.
- Spread a mostly organic fertilizer like our Plantura Organic Tomato Fertilizer between the plants and work it in lightly. Between the strawberries should be mulched with straw or other dry material. This ensures that the soil retains moisture better and you can harvest clean strawberries.
- The freshly planted strawberries are then watered vigorously.
Caring for Frigo strawberry plants: you should pay attention to this
Frigo strawberry plants are and will always be normal strawberries - the trick described above just messed up their inner clock a bit. For further care, you should consider that the bare-root Frigo strawberries initially need a lot of water in order not to go thirsty and also to be able to absorb nutrients well.
It also makes sense to water them again five weeks after planting an organic liquid fertilizer - such as our Plantura organic tomato & vegetable fertilizer. This ensures that your strawberry plants are well supplied with potassium and phosphorus to produce large and he althy fruit. Everything else about careYou can find out more about strawberries in our overview article.
Harvest Frigo Strawberries
The Frigos are harvested about 8 to 10 weeks after planting. So if you plant new Frigo strawberry plants every two weeks in spring and summer, you can harvest later.
It is important to really remove all ripe fruits, even if some of them have been eaten by insects or snails or are moldy . Because bad strawberries in the field very quickly infect other strawberries. In this way you can save the harvest, especially if there are also weather conditions that favor fungal pathogens. You can find out everything you need to know about this in our relevant article on harvesting and storing strawberries.
Storing Frigo Strawberry Plants
Can or must Frigo strawberry plants be stored? The answer to this question is a clear no. Because Frigos are "just" normal strawberries that get through the winter just like other strawberries. The leaves are cut down and removed after harvest to prevent the spread of fungal diseases. It can then be harvested again the following year. However, all strawberries on all plants will then of course be ripe at the same time, so you should be prepared to boil down and preserve the strawberries. We have summarized everything you need to know about overwintering and cutting strawberries.
Tip: You can also try making frigo strawberries yourself. To do this, plants are removed from the bed in November or December, all leaves are removed except for the bud in the center and the plant is roughly cleaned. It is then important to dry the plants as well as possible. Then freeze as many plants in a freezer bag as you plan to plant out as a set in the coming year. If you store your Frigo strawberries, do not do so below -1 °C in the freezer, so as not to damage the plants.
Strawberries should not be missing in any snack garden! But other berry and fruit trees as well as vegetables can easily be grown for direct consumption in the garden. You can find more about this in our special article on creating a snack garden for young and old.