The 10 Best Fertilizers for Strawberries (Reviews)

Even when you’re just growing strawberries on your balcony, the right fertilizer will be a game-changer.

For strawberry plants, you should concentrate on the availability and quantity of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.

10 Best Fertilizers for Strawberries

1. Down to Earth All Natural Acid Mix Fertilizer 4-3-6

This Down to Earth acid mix fertilizer is the ultimate environment-friendly option for your strawberry plants. These are way too good for growing plants faster.

This fertilizer works as a booster for your plant root growth. Even in improper weather, this makes the plant grow unhesitantly.

It contains cottonseed, phosphate, langbeinite, fishbone meal, humates, and all other rare but nutritious ingredients.

This powerful plant food requires 2-4 tbsp every time. The amount would vary depending on the plant’s growth. You should mix to the 3″ top of the soil part. You can use this fertilizer both with water and soil. But make sure you’re balancing the fertilizer amount as per its needs.

2. Espoma Organic Berry-Tone Plant Food for Berries

This fruit and berry food is the finest organic fertilizer for fresher strawberries.

Herewith this fertilizer, you’ll get an effective visible result quickly. The plants will grow much faster than ever. You can use this fertilizer as a unique therapy for your plants.

This fertilizer is easy to spread. You don’t have to follow any extra procedure to get maximum output. Besides, the price range is pretty affordable here.

The brand claims to be the ideal one for feeding berries. They come with a long-lasting and slow-release formula.

Just apply the fertilizer as per the general soil mixture ones. Detailed instructions will be written on the fertilizer packaging. You can follow that for better results. This is a ready-to-use package. So, you can open it up and mix it with the soil properly.

3. Greenway Biotech Strawberry 8-12-32 Fertilizer

Greenway Biotech strawberry fertilizer is one of the most successful fertilizers available in the market. This fertilizer ensures that your plants get a balanced combination of all the required elements.

It includes all the required elements as nitrogen(8%), phosphorus(12%), potassium(32%). This balanced element supply will make your strawberry plants bloom healthy and fresh.

Also, these fertilizers don’t include any heavy chemical ingredients. The 100% organic combination will bring no harm to your plants and fruits. The company claims to use high-quality ingredients.

Their quality is ensured by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA). This fertilizer is also SBA-certified. So, you can rely on their authentication.

You can use this fertilizer by mixing it up with the soil and water. One is called the side-dressing method, and the other is called the liquid method. You can start using this fertilizer once every two weeks. Once the growth condition passes, you may increase the frequency.

4. Triple 10 All Purpose Liquid Fertilizer

Triple 10 All-purpose liquid fertilizer is formulated for plant growth in every stage of the strawberry’s life cycle. It’s ideal for indoor and outdoor plants as well. The NPK ratio is 10-10-10. No doubt, it’s an impressive concentration of three essential nutrients; nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Applying this when your plant fights for nutrition and needs an extra boost.

It’s pretty easy to measure and mix. It comes in a bottle. A measuring device is added to this—no worry about the measuring tool.

This stuff has a high-concentration formula. You can mix up a maximum of 32 gallons of fertilizer. Mix this solution well with water and spread them on the soil around the root system. The plant absorbs this liquid quickly and works magically.

5. True Organic – Berry & Fruit Plant Food

If you think it’s time to ditch those harmful chemical fertilizers and switch to organic fertilizer only, this True Organic Berry plant food is precisely what you need. This fantastic berry fertilizer comes with a 5-4-4 formula to feed your plants with plenty of Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium.

A good ratio of Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium helps promote better growth, beautiful blossoms, strong and healthy foliage, and ultimately, an increased harvest. Plus, to boost the nutrient level, this organic fruit and berry food comes with 6% Calcium and 1% Sulfur.

This organic plant food is suitable for Strawberries, Blackberries, and Blueberries. It comes in granule form, so you can apply it easily without hassle. And the fertilizer is OMRI listed for organic use, so there are no worries about safety.

6. Indian River Organics Fish Fertilizer for Plants

If you are feeling a bit hungry and weak in the morning, a tuna sandwich might give you a boost of energy and some vitamins. But what about your hungry and weak plants outside? No worries, Indian River Organics hydrolyzed fish fertilizer is here to cheer up your plants. Feeling curious? A fertilizer made of fish?

Yes, you heard it right, ‘fish fertilizer,’ but trust me, it’s got a lot of micronutrients, amino acids, and minerals, to help your hungry plants grow healthier. You can use this fertilizer not only on your vegetables and fruit trees, but it’s also suitable for your lawn! This organic liquid fertilizer will help the grass grow strong and healthy.

This organic fish fertilizer comes in liquid form, so you can easily fertilize your plants and spread it evenly. Indian River fish fertilizer is OMRI organic listed, so don’t worry about safety. It is suitable for fruits, vegetables, flowers, lawns, and even seedlings.

7. Botanicare SWEET BERRY Mineral Supplement

Do you notice that your berries are ‘tasteless’ suddenly? Can’t figure out what’s wrong? You don’t need to, because this Sweet Carbo Berry Supplement enhances flavor and aroma as it is scientifically formulated with carbohydrates. Besides carbohydrates, it has necessary secondary elements to feed your plant better.

This mineral supplement contains beneficial natural minerals for your hungry plants. It contains nutrients that help your plants stay healthy and produce better fruits. And its unique chemical composition makes it suitable for all plant growth stages.

We have good news if you wonder whether this will work on your container plants. The SWEET BERRY Supplement is not only effective for container gardens, but also for hydroponic systems. This supplement is easy to apply, so you don’t need to get messy.

8. Jobe’s Slow Release Fertilizer Spikes

Fertilizing trees might be a troublesome job for some. You need to measure it correctly, sometimes, you need to mix it with water, and finally, the fertilizer needs to be spread evenly. If the fertilizer is not applied correctly, it will not just work ineffectively, but in some cases, it can damage your plant. That is why Jobe’s slow-release fertilizer spikes should be your top pick!

With Jobe’s fertilizer spikes, forget measuring, diluting, or spreading. Just hammer the spikes into the ground, and your job is done! These fertilizer spikes come with essential nutrients to boost the overall health of your berry fruits and citrus trees. Plus, it will help improve the roots.

The fertilizer spikes are pre-measured and slow-release, so you don’t need to apply fertilizer frequently. These spikes are OMRI listed, so it is safe for the environment. The spikes come in a re-sealable pouch, so you can store the remaining spikes after use.

9. EcoScraps for Organic Gardening Berry Plant Food

Ecoscraps for organic gardening berry plant food is the first choice for searching for something with the most straightforward application process. This fertilizer is perfect for organic gardening. This makes the soil and your plant much stronger.

Here you’ll also not get any extra dust and debris. The fertilizer is free from all other uneven particles. Also, there will be no loop added with the fertilizers for better production.

Also, the company claims to reduce landfill waste. They bring nutritious leftovers together to make the fertilizer more organic and environmentally friendly.

Ecoscraps for organic gardening berry plant is extremely easy to use. All you will be required to do is, mix the fertilizer with soil. This is as easy as using other soil fertilizers in different stages of plant growth.

10. Jobe’s Organics 09727 Berry Granular Plant Food

Jobe’s Organics berry granular fertilizer is a safer and better option for strawberry plants. This fertilizer hardly includes any toxicant elements to make the soil harmful. So, you can expect it to be safer for your dogs, cats, and children.

But they don’t make any compromise with the nutrient fact either. You’ll get all the required and beneficial elements in this fertilizer to grow healthier plants.

Besides, the company is OMRI registered. So, you can entirely rely on their authentication. This will work tremendously on all kinds of berry plants. You’ll get to see the visible growth in a short time after using this fertilizer on your plant soils.

You can use this fertilizer once every 4-6 weeks. The exact month and season will vary depending on the plant’s growth. Just follow the regular fertilizer application procedure here. You’ll get detailed instructions on the packaging of the fertilizer.

What Kind of Fertilizer Is the Best for Strawberry Plants?

The right kind of fertilizer can give you ultimate growth quickly. You should always check on the ingredients of fertilizer before purchasing one.

However, what kind of fertilizer would be best will depend on various factors.

First, of all, you must know the requirements of your plant and the soil. Only then can you expect faster and fresher growth of your strawberries.

However, strawberry plants rely primarily on nitrogen. So, you should check whether the fertilizer is holding enough nitrogen.

But all the other ingredients, such as phosphorus, ammonium nitrate, and potassium, should be balanced for better growth of your strawberry plant.

Which fertilizer you should use will depend on the soil quality. Besides, the weather and environment would also make a significant impact on choosing the perfect fertilizer. Your fertilizer would need a small amount of nitrogen in the spring for better production.

So, check on the ingredients and your plant’s needs before choosing fertilizer.

How to Choose the Best Fertilizer for Strawberries?

The best quality fertilizers will help to produce eye-catching and healthy strawberries. It’s quite tough to make the right purchase.

Variation of Strawberry: All strawberries are not the same. There are many variations of strawberries. And they have different needs for nutrients. So, depending on your strawberry variation, you should choose the fertilizer.

NPK Ratio: NPK ratio represent the volume of three essential nutrients – Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium. All these three contents help to promote fast and healthy plant growth. Generally, most packages of fertilizer display the NPK ratio as 3 numbers.

Before purchasing, it’s necessary to know about the garden soil quality and lack of soil nutrients. It will help to choose the well-balanced fertilizer with the right NPK ratio according to your plant’s needs.

Types of Fertilizers: There are liquid and granular formulations of fertilizer available in the market.

• Liquid: Liquid fertilizers are water-soluble. It’s pretty easy to apply. To get a fertilizer solution mixes it with water. Plants get fast benefits from them as liquid fertilizers are easy to absorb. It’s a great starter supplement. But rain or over-watering can wash them out quickly.
• Granular: Granular fertilizers are dry and normally come in pellets or beads form. They are slow-releases, though some fast-acted granular fertilizers are available on the market. They supply nutrients for a long time. So you don’t need to worry about applying them frequently.

Organic or Inorganic: Organic or inorganic both supply nutrients to your plant. The difference is organic fertilizers are manufactured from natural ingredients, while inorganic fertilizers are made from synthetic chemicals.

• Organic: Organic fertilizers offer your plants a micronutrient blast. It’s a slow-release fertilizer. Usually, they may have an offensive smell for their natural elements. They’re messier to apply than inorganic. Organic supplements are a little expensive but environmentally safe.

• Inorganic: Inorganic fertilizers are easy to apply and budget-friendly. It’s also easy to find because wide varieties are available in the store. Generally, it’s a fast-release formula. Some varieties of them come with slow-release formulas as well. If you over-fertilize, it can be harmful to your plants.

Slow or Quick Release: Strawberries have shallow roots, so they need a fertilizer that supplies them with nutrients over time. In this case, slow-release fertilizer can be a great choice.

User-friendly Application: Find an easy fertilizer, so you don’t need to work hard. Liquid and granular fertilizers both are easy to use. They need essential tools to apply them. Liquid fertilizers require a sprayer to spread them properly.

On the other hand, granular fertilizers need a spreader to spread them. The handheld spreader is ideal for your home garden. You can also sprinkle this dry fertilizer with your hands.

Best Organic Fertilizers for Strawberries

Strawberries love organic fertilizers. Organic fertilizers are environmentally-friendly because of their natural ingredients. There are wide varieties of organic fertilizers available on the market. You can also make organic fertilizers at home with a little effort and patience.

Compost: Compost is a great mixture that enriches soil moisture and supplies nutrients to plants. It can also help to reduce pests and various plant diseases. You can make it at home quite easily.

Collect food wastes like fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, eggshells, etc. You can add dry leaves, grasses, straws, and newspapers because they are rich in nitrogen.

For composting, keep all stuff in a place in your garden. You will need to wait with patience. Nature will decompose them over time and transform them into beneficial fertilizers.

Blood and Bone Meal: Blood and bone meal are enormously effective fertilizers for strawberries. They contain nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and calcium that promote leaf growth and a sturdy root system.

Making blood and bone meal is simple. You can make a bone meal using regular household cooking that you leave after taking your meal, such as fish, turkey, chicken, or any kind of bones. For blood meals, you need to collect some animal blood. You can collect it from a local slaughterhouse.

Generally, you have to boil left bones at a high temperature. Then crushes and turns the mixture into a fine powder.

Manure: Manure is an ideal organic fertilizer to maintain your precious strawberry plant health and the soil-fertility. It releases nutrients for a long time. It’s derived from animal feces such as cows, goats, horses, chickens, and ducks.

Don’t over-fertilize your plant. Excessive use of manure can offer you more green foliage but decrease the production of berries.

Fish Emulsion: Fish emulsion is one of the best choices to grow tasty and juicy strawberries alongside healthy and fast plant growth. You can make it at home with fish scraps, fish oil, and molasses. Molasses should have no additives.

How to Know that Your Strawberry Needs Fertilizer?

Fertilizer plays a significant role in promoting overall plant growth and getting tasty, juicy strawberries. When strawberry needs fertilizer, they show some signs for you. You need to understand what these signs mean. Let’s know the signs –

Yellow or Pale Green-colored Leaves: Your strawberry leaves may turn yellow or pale green instead of green. When it happens, they give you a signal that they need help. Enough nutrient deficiency is one of the main reasons behind yellowing. You need to supply essential nutrients through well-balanced fertilizers and also plant foods.

Not Flowering: It can be frustrating to find your plants without flowers. Despite enough green leaves and healthy growth, it occurs because of fertilizer shortage. Immediately fertilize your plants to get flower production.

No Berries: Whenever you notice a lot of attractive flowers in your favorite plant but not enough production of berries, consider applying fertilizer.

When to Fertilize Strawberry Plants?

Spring would be the perfect time for fertilizing any plant. However, you can decide any time after summer and before September. This is the ideal term to do some fertilization.

When you are fertilizing is the core of making it work at its best. The season and environment will be significant factors in the growth of suitable fruits.

You can do fertilizing when this is super summer. Besides, the rainy season will wash out all the soil nutrition before mixing it up.

Besides, spring is the time when strawberry plants require more nitrogen. That’s the reason experts suggest fertilization by the months of spring.  

The grown strawberry plants will require fertilization once every year. But the little one would require fertilization and care more than usual.

You should mix the fertilizer after one month of the plantation. But make sure you’re not mixing too much of it.

How to fertilize Strawberry Plants?

How you fertilize your strawberry plants depends on the plant’s growth and the environment.

We already know that strawberry plants mainly rely on nitrogen. Especially when it’s early spring and late fall, good fertilizing can boost growth.

But whenever you fertilize, ensure you’re taking the right amount. The growth stage of a plant is more sensitive. If you mix too much fertilizer, it might make the soil toxic for the little plant.

The basic rule here would be, to mix about 1 pound of fertilizer for each 20-foot height of the plant. This might take one month to grow after plantation.

For better and more detailed instructions, follow the directions written on your fertilizer package.

How Often to Fertilize Strawberries?

Strawberries require fertilizer to increase their developing power. Timing plays a significant role in this case. You should fertilize strawberries in early spring and late fall. Consider applying fertilizer at least once in a growing season.

After one month from the planting time of your favorite plant, apply fertilizer. When you notice that your strawberry gets matured, fertilize it again to get the best result.

Don’t fertilize too early or too late. Stop fertilizing a couple of weeks before harvesting. I would like to suggest fertilizing plants again after harvesting so that they can get back their vitality.

Do Strawberries Like Acidic Soil?

Yes, strawberries are acid-loving plants. They prefer acidic soil to bloom well and produce more berries. In many cases, you may not get proper growth and enough blooming of strawberries because of cultivating them in less acidic soil. They may even die off before harvesting time.

Before planting strawberries, testing the soil pH is a must. If the pH ranges between 5.5- 6.5, no doubt, they will grow well. But if you find the garden soil less acidic, you can add coffee grounds to increase soil acidity. On the other hand, add lime to reduce soil acidity.

Do Strawberry Plants Like Coffee Grounds?

Coffee grounds increase soil acidity and supply essential nutrients to your plant. Strawberries require nitrogen. Coffee grounds are a great source of nitrogen. It helps to grow your strawberries large and healthy. If you face a waterlogged problem in your strawberry garden, this application can also help to make a good drainage system.

Coffee grounds are good for pest and disease control. Its caffeine content may kill beneficial insects, alongside harmful pests. Properly compost your coffee grounds before applying them to avoid damaging the plant. Avoid excessive use of coffee grounds.

Tips for Growing Maximum Strawberries

Growing strawberries is simple in nearly every type of climate. There are some tricks to follow to get the best result. Let’s know.

Choosing strawberry varieties: There are different variations of strawberries available. To purchase suitable varieties, consider the climate of your growing zone, day length, planting process, time of fruiting, etc. Knowing whether you plant your strawberries indoors or outdoors is also essential. Select a strongly disease-resistant variety.

Ideal growing conditions: Strawberries require a location with full sunlight, well drainage system, and good soil condition. Test the soil first to know the soil pH range.

Proper care: Proper care is necessary to grow healthy strawberries. Supply water as it requires. If you are planting outside, water once a week. Plants grown in containers may need water daily. Fertilize them properly.

Organic fertilizers such as compost, bone meal, and fish emulsion are ideal for strawberries. Be careful about over-fertilizing and over-watering.

Removing weeds and runners: When you notice any weeds, pluck them immediately. You have to pluck the runners also to make more production of strawberries. You can do this task easily while you are plucking weeds.

Pests and disease control: Strawberries can be affected by various unwanted pests. After identifying any disease or pest, treat your favorite strawberry plant as soon as possible. Never allow them to spread. You can make mulch with straw to protect your plant from pests like slugs, snails, etc.

Final Thoughts

Proper fertilization can bring the best out of your plants. But you must know how, when, and which fertilizer you should use for a particular plant.

Here in this guide, we have discussed the most suitable fertilizers for strawberries. Additionally, we have added many relevant things so that you can choose the right fertilizer easily and grow strawberries with confidence and fun.