Strawberry pierogi recipe is the latest accepted revision, reviewed on 28 November 2022. For other species of strawberry, see Fragaria.

Fragaria, collectively known as the strawberries, which are cultivated worldwide for their fruit. The strawberry is not, from a botanical point of view, a berry. The first garden strawberry was grown in Brittany, France, during the late 18th century. Prior to this, wild strawberries and cultivated selections from wild strawberry species were the common source of the fruit. The strawberry fruit was mentioned in ancient Roman literature in reference to its medicinal use.

The French began taking the strawberry from the forest to their gardens for harvest in the 14th century. Charles V, France’s king from 1364 to 1380, had 1,200 strawberry plants in his royal garden. In the early 15th century western European monks were using the wild strawberry in their illuminated manuscripts. By the 16th century, references of cultivation of the strawberry became more common. People began using it for its supposed medicinal properties and botanists began naming the different species.

In England the demand for regular strawberry farming had increased by the mid-16th century. The combination of strawberries and cream was created by Thomas Wolsey in the court of King Henry VIII. Instructions for growing and harvesting strawberries showed up in writing in 1578. By the end of the 16th century three European species had been cited: F. North America to Europe in the 17th century is an important part of history because it is one of the two species that gave rise to the modern strawberry.

The new species gradually spread through the continent and did not become completely appreciated until the end of the 18th century. The Mapuche and Huilliche Indians of Chile cultivated the female strawberry species until 1551, when the Spanish came to conquer the land. In 1765, a European explorer recorded the cultivation of F. At first introduction to Europe, the plants grew vigorously, but produced no fruit. French gardeners in Brest and Cherbourg around the mid-18th century first noticed that when F. In England, many varieties of F. Strawberries are often grouped according to their flowering habit.

Traditionally, this has consisted of a division between “June-bearing” strawberries, which bear their fruit in the early summer and “ever-bearing” strawberries, which often bear several crops of fruit throughout the season. Research published in 2001 showed that strawberries actually occur in three basic flowering habits: short-day, long-day, and day-neutral. These refer to the day-length sensitivity of the plant and the type of photoperiod that induces flower formation. Day-neutral cultivars produce flowers regardless of the photoperiod. Strawberry cultivars vary widely in size, color, flavor, shape, degree of fertility, season of ripening, liability to disease and constitution of plant. On average, a strawberry has about 200 seeds on its external membrane.

Some vary in foliage, and some vary materially in the relative development of their sexual organs. For purposes of commercial production, plants are propagated from runners and, in general, distributed as either bare root plants or plugs. Cultivation follows one of two general models—annual plasticulture, or a perennial system of matted rows or mounds. The bulk of modern commercial production uses the plasticulture system.

In this method, raised beds are formed each year, fumigated, and covered with plastic to prevent weed growth and erosion. Plants, usually obtained from northern nurseries, are planted through holes punched in this covering, and irrigation tubing is run underneath. The other major method retains plants for multiple years. This is most common in colder climates. The plants are grown in rows or on mounds.

This method requires lower investment and lower maintenance, overall. Another method uses a compost sock. Strawberries may also be propagated by seed, though this is primarily a hobby activity, and is not widely practiced commercially. A few seed-propagated cultivars have been developed for home use, and research into growing from seed commercially is ongoing.