• So who is growing strawberries?

Posted: **Sun Oct 25, 2020 10:18 am**

Bower wrote: ↑Sun Oct 25, 2020 9:13 am @Clkeiper the wild strawberries here are more of a rounded than a pointed shape, but they are a big burst of flavor for something so small. Very tasty and more tart than sweet usually, but just too tiny to be worth the picking - nice for youngsters or birds but you won't be making a pot of jam!
I checked your link, the mock strawberry has yellow flowers and bitter taste, so definitely not. Ours are white flowered as usual.
Interesting I did have some garden escape type strawberries, which turned up in another corner of the garden (bird seeding I assume) just a few years after I gave up my patch. They had normal sized strawberries (not huge ones, just a medium sized berry) but absolutely no flavor. I wasn't really interested in eating them because they came up in the area next to our electrical pole, which was treated with IDK what chemical, so I never planted anything intended for consumption there. But there were quite a few of these volunteer strawberries so I did taste a couple. Completely bland! I just ignored them after that. IDK if it was the soil they were in or actually a genetic flaw.
I also don't know what variety I had in the original patch, they were a gift from another gardener's patch and were never the really huge luscious berries (as my parents grew in their garden) but were only a medium size, although a good strawberry flavor.
You're way ahead of me on the taste question, since you've tried so many named varieties.

I thought "oh my, these look interesting... but they weren't . I spit them out immediately. needless to say, niothing else has feasted on them either. nasty things they are.

Posted: **Sun Oct 25, 2020 3:35 pm**

[mention]Clkeiper[/mention] I don't think they grow around here, because I would have seen them for sure - we're all about the berries and there are a lot of different things in the woods, many are not edible or not worth eating but I've tasted all of them at one time or another.
We have a white berry that grows in the woods called 'Maidenhair' by my dad, that tastes like wintergreen. There's a black round berry that grows on marshes or headlands which some call "Crowberry". You can eat them but why bother, hardly a taste except for the hint of bitter skin. And Crackerberry is an orange one that grows in the woods on forest floor, really abundant! And so not worth eating at all. No flavor. There's a red one from the Starflower which is bitter and sweet iiirc my Dad called that Bittersweet as well. They are really tiny as well and wouldn't be considered as food.

And then there are lots of great berries - some rare ones are good like the Plumboy which grows in woods as well, and the wild blackberry which I got a nice few this year, wild currants, squashberries found more scattered, bakeapples in the marsh if you're lucky, and the most common ones blueberries and raspberries are really everywhere and made an important part of the diet here since long ago.

Posted: **Wed Oct 28, 2020 10:46 am**

About to (hopefully) get our 50 bare root strawberries for the Florida cool season. I say hopefully, because the supplier's original supplier already pooped out on him and he found another source, but this is supposed to be the week and as of yet we've heard nothing. Not sure which variety: he says "likely sweet sensation but also a chance the will be radiance or festival." We need to finish up doing our second garden barrel (bf is now a whiz at making this), mount and fill it with a soil mix which will probably be peat, bagged compost, a little perlite. Just hope the temperatures play nice for a few months! We might need to mount some shade cloth. - Ann

Posted: **Thu Oct 29, 2020 8:21 am**

Clkeiper wrote: ↑Sun Oct 25, 2020 8:12 am We have grown starwberries for the past 30 years. we have had
jewels... which were good
all star... which I did not like at all. color shape or flavor
seascape... meh
earliglo.. they didn't do well for us.
honeyoe... we did for quite a few years. they did well and tasted good.
and we have a small patch of everbearing Albions right now just for a few.

I'm giving All Star one more chance before pulling them up. With regards to Seascape, why "meh"? Is it flavor? Production?

Have you been growing Albions for long? How were they?

So what's your growing strategy for strawberries? Do you just let them fill the bed or do you try to get them focused on berry production by snipping runners, etc.

Posted: **Mon Nov 09, 2020 11:10 am**

Update: we did get our strawberry roots, but our barrel wasn't quite ready so we kept them in the fridge until Saturday, when we finally had the barrel filled with a nice loose compost/peat mixture, and then planted them. My first time seeing the amazing party trick of planting those scraggly brown things and then having green leaves starting to unfurl within about 36 hours.

We were advised to soak them for at least an hour before planting, and then to water them three times daily. With the misting wand on our garden hose, I may have gone for four yesterday but today it's nicely drizzly (the outer edges of Eta I guess). I can't wait to have the (mostly) microdwarf tomato barrel alongside the strawberry barrel. The micro seedlings went to cups from the seedling tray this weekend and already look pretty rarin' to go I'm growing a few Groovy Tunes from Bunny Hop, and the leaves are a startling bright chartreuse color among a tray of regular green leaves.

Posted: **Sat Feb 06, 2021 1:56 pm**

I’ve been growing strawberries for 3 years now they are so sweet and really big not shure What kind they are but I get a lot every year tons of runners and get then all summer until September I practically have to give them away and the runners I’ll try and find and old tag

They are called everbearing strawberry not shure What variety

Posted: **Sat Feb 06, 2021 5:40 pm**

Coming in late here but have grown them for at least 35 years. List of what I've tried is long but always includes Ozark Beauty as the one most reliable. Albion was one of the biggest but big is not always better for taste. Cavendish had great taste but short on production as an ever bearer. Dunlap was second year and more runners than resulting fruit. Honeoye was OK but not a favorite. Jewel was good but lost them to rabbits one winter. Seascape was a new one last year and a disappointment. Expected more than 2 or 3 per plant. Absolute best that I ever found was Galore from WalMart perhaps 30 years ago. Lost them when I had to move the bed and never found them again. Finally, have the sweetest of all, Alpines. Had white ones but apparently not frost-hardy. Red ones are trying to take over the present bed and takes forever to get a pint but worth it.

Martin

Posted: **Sun Feb 07, 2021 8:38 am**

Last year I started seeds in February for Tresca and Temptation strawberries from Baker Creek. These were transplanted into 12" pots, 3 plants per pot. They started producing in July and produced well into September. After they more or less died back from colder temperatures in the fall, I trimmed them back to the crown and I am trying to overwinter them in our attached, unheated garage. I sure hope they make it, as Baker Creek didn't have seeds for those this year and I'd love to have mature plants providing berries even sooner this year. The overwintering will get a real test this week, it was -15F this morning and every day for the next week looks to have below zero low temperatures. I know that doesn't sound like much to someone say in North Dakota or Northern Minnesota, but for southern Wisconsin a week straight of below zero lows is definitely uncommon.

Posted: **Sun Feb 07, 2021 1:56 pm**

I am currently growing two varieties:
Cardinal
Sweet Charlie
These are both June bearing.

Cardinal is great for freezing but also good for fresh eating. We eat lots of frozen fruit smoothies, so much of these go straight into the freezer.
Sweet Charlie is really sweet and probably better for fresh eating.
I formally grew an "unknown" everbearing variety that was given to me and much prefer the June bearing that I'm growing now.

Posted: **Fri Mar 12, 2021 4:40 pm**

We bought 6 packs of these 3 varieties:

Quinalt Everbearing Perennial
Ozark Beauty
Sequoia June bearing Perennial

I have a lot to learn about growing strawberries.

Posted: **Sun Mar 14, 2021 6:46 am**

AlittleSalt wrote: ↑Fri Mar 12, 2021 4:40 pm
I have a lot to learn about growing strawberries.

You will get hooked on them as the taste is superior to the ones you get in the store unless you have an upscale farm stand that source local.

I have been using row covers on mine but just realized that I need to move the row covers in the day time so bees can pollinate by berries. Uggh more work to do every day.

Posted: **Sun Mar 21, 2021 6:38 am**

I am growing Albion and then a series of alpines like yellow wonder, mignonette, etc. I also ordered 2 pineberry plugs just to try. I live in a massive strawberry producing area, and I know abion does well here. Just hoping it does ok in my containers.

Posted: **Sun Mar 21, 2021 10:09 pm**

I am thinking on trying strawberries this year for first time. Are there any experienced strawberry growers and what is the most tasty and with a lot of aroma strawberry variety?

Posted: **Wed Mar 24, 2021 9:21 am**

Barmaley wrote: ↑Sun Mar 21, 2021 10:09 pm I am thinking on trying strawberries this year for first time. Are there any experienced strawberry growers and what is the most tasty and with a lot of aroma strawberry variety?

Hopefully I'll be able to answer this question. This is my third year growing strawberries. I have had Seascape & Jewel production and they were both good for taste. I'm hoping that I'll be able to compare them with Mara Des Bois, Gariguette, Honeoye, Albion. I've heard good things about Mara Des Bois as it's the result from a French strawberry breeding program.

Posted: **Wed Mar 24, 2021 2:03 pm**

ponyexpress wrote: ↑Wed Mar 24, 2021 9:21 am
Barmaley wrote: ↑Sun Mar 21, 2021 10:09 pm I am thinking on trying strawberries this year for first time. Are there any experienced strawberry growers and what is the most tasty and with a lot of aroma strawberry variety?
Hopefully I'll be able to answer this question. This is my third year growing strawberries. I have had Seascape & Jewel production and they were both good for taste. I'm hoping that I'll be able to compare them with Mara Des Bois, Gariguette, Honeoye, Albion. I've heard good things about Mara Des Bois as it's the result from a French strawberry breeding program.

When I tried Mara des Bois, it was as close as I had tasted to an alpine yet in a strawberry technically outside the class. I know they crossed alpine into it, and it showed. I loved that variety.

Posted: **Fri Mar 26, 2021 12:57 pm**

Julianna wrote: ↑Wed Mar 24, 2021 2:03 pm When I tried Mara des Bois, it was as close as I had tasted to an alpine yet in a strawberry technically outside the class. I know they crossed alpine into it, and it showed. I loved that variety.

I'm looking forward to June and tasting them! I pulled off the straw from my plants a few days ago and they're waking up. People might think I'm crazy because I have 6 4x10 beds with strawberry plants. Partly because I have different varieties that I'm trialing. Two of my beds are overgrown with Jewel that I will rip up at the end of the season.

Posted: **Fri Mar 26, 2021 1:09 pm**

ponyexpress wrote: ↑Fri Mar 26, 2021 12:57 pm

I'm looking forward to June and tasting them! I pulled off the straw from my plants a few days ago and they're waking up. People might think I'm crazy because I have 6 4x10 beds with strawberry plants. Partly because I have different varieties that I'm trialing. Two of my beds are overgrown with Jewel that I will rip up at the end of the season.

I don't think that is crazy at all! I love strawberries and raspberries. I could have hundreds.

Posted: **Sat Mar 27, 2021 3:06 am**

I remember many many years ago working the strawberry fields at farms nearby titchfield as a youth. "First rule, you can eat as many as you like". First point of learning, second day, you don't want to eat another strawberry. Second point of learning, by the end of the week all you can smell is strawberry, I am sure I smelt of strawberry. It took many years before I could eat strawberries again but I do love them warm straight off the plant. We have an old wooden pallet made into shelves at the end of the garden with various potted strawberry plants, I think, this year, I will pay more attention to them.

Posted: **Sat Mar 27, 2021 11:14 am**

What is Alpine strawberry? Is it a variety of a different brand?

Posted: **Tue Mar 30, 2021 4:24 pm**

Barmaley wrote: ↑Sat Mar 27, 2021 11:14 am What is Alpine strawberry? Is it a variety of a different brand?

The various types of strawberry you commonly buy in the shop are the hybrid Fragaria × ananassa. There is another species often grown for food, Fragaria vesca, which is known as the Alpine or Woodland strawberry. There are a lot of different varietes of Alpine strawberry.

So who is growing strawberries?

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