Fort Laramie Strawberry grow and taste report

[meizzwang]

Our Fort Laramie strawberries were started bare root and planted in January 2025, I'm located in Northern California, close to 100 miles north of San Francisco, Zone 9. Our summer days probably average between 70F to 80F, but it does regularly get over 100F here during the late summer/early fall.
Your environment greatly influences whether or not a variety thrives in your area, and it will also affect flavor. These strawberries are growing in blasting full sun almost all day long. Our climate is probably optimal conditions for this cultivar, but I bet it could do well and produce really tasty fruit in a wide range of climates.

While many equate everbearing with day neutral, there is a difference: everbearing strawberries will produce when there are long days (the plant is technically flowering in response to short nights), whereas day neutral strawberries will flower regardless of the photoperiod (or length of night to be more accurate). Once this cultivar has been grown for a full year, I'll be able to determine which one it is: if I see flowering in late October or early spring, that'll suggest it's day neutral.

Compared to Albion Strawberries, Ft. Laramie is less sensitive to nitrogen compared to Albion: my albions produced tons of leaves but very few fruit, it's been quite frustrating. That said, I wouldn't load this plant with nitrogen, there probably is a point where it too will completely stop flowering if the N is too high. Anyways, the Albions were also planted in January 2025, around the same time as the Ft. Laramie Strawberries. Only 30-40% of the Albions are starting to flower now! In contrast, every last Ft. Laramie plant is filled with flowers/fruit, and there are multiple crowns per plant. This cultivar produces inflorescences quite readily, and several plants fruited in early May despite just getting established. Now that we're in June, the plants are producing prolifically!

Ft. Laramie produces only a few runners, so it's a bit slow to propagate. Interestingly enough, this cultivar can flower on immature, unrooted runners! Plants grow with good vigor and in my very limited experience, they have not had any disease issues yet. This cultivar is reportedly decent with its disease resistance.

The fruit are large and develop relatively quickly. Once the fruits just start to turn red, they are ready to eat in maybe 2-3 days in my climate, which is fast compared to other cultivars grown under identical conditions (so far, others need about 5 days minimum after the first signs of turning red before they begin to taste good....it takes FOREVER!!!!). The fruit are surprisingly large and the best way to describe the fragrance is that it smells fake, like artificial strawberry gum! It's been a month since I last tasted this variety but out of the 9 or so varieties so far that I'm testing, this one was eye poppingly delicious! I'll add a more detailed taste report once I sample the fruit in a day or two, they're being allowed to stay on the vine a little bit longer this time around to determine when peak ripeness occurs: I definitely picked them all a bit early last time and even so, the flavor was out of this world! The issue was that raccoons found out about the patch and were consuming all the ripe ones. I've since closed every nook and crannie with bird netting so they can no longer get in.

Anyways, here are some recent photos of the Fort Laramie Strawberries, photos taken 6/2/25:






I'll add the taste report in the next few days, to be continued......

[Whwoz]

Thanks for the fabulous report @meizzwang , one I will keep an eye out for assuming that it migrates a long way. Looking forward to your taste test, particularly in relation to Albion which is a commercial variety here down under. Taste of Albion to me is so-so as picked for market, but good if fully ripe, but not as good as the Hokowase that I grow.

What are the other varieties that you are growing?

[meizzwang]

Thanks for the fabulous report @meizzwang , one I will keep an eye out for assuming that it migrates a long way. Looking forward to your taste test, particularly in relation to Albion which is a commercial variety here down under. Taste of Albion to me is so-so as picked for market, but good if fully ripe, but not as good as the Hokowase that I grow.

What are the other varieties that you are growing?

That's really interesting that albions don't taste great in your climate. In my area, Chandler and Albion are the main commercial varieties , and while chandler is a hit or miss, Albion here is usually consistently really good.

Here's what I'm currently trialing out:
Albion
Quinault
Seascape
Mara Des Bois
Cabrillo
Monterey
Fort Laramie
Hood
Mary's Peak
Evie 2
sweet charlie
white carolina

Yeah, maybe a little overboard, but the purpose for all the variety is to see which one(s) are the best, and after that, I'll just grow those.

[Whwoz]

Albion, when picked here for commercial are picked with the base 5 mm/1/4 inch or so still white. The first time we knew for sure that we were eating Albion's was at a U pink berry farm after a couple of days rain when the berries were fully red ripe to the hull, delicious. Went back to same farm, same block of berries about a week later after pickers had been through and ripest were at normal commercial pick stage, bland by comparison.

Not familiar with the others you are growing, but have done the same, gathered up 3 or 4 plants of whatever varieties were about to compare with Hokowase but have discarded them all now. Last season 80 Hokowase plants and still only 8 kg/ 17 lb made it to the freezer. We have been known to consume the production of 64 plants, picking half alternative days, without any making it to the freezer - about a kilogram a day and when they finished the kids said don't buy any.

[meizzwang]

Fort Laramie Taste Report:

So, here's the thing: these fruit did not ripen under optimal weather. Once the fruit started to turn red, It was cloudy half the day, and the other half of the day it was sunny but the days were between 68-70F at the most (20-21C). Nevertheless, the fruit still tasted well in my opinion!

Here's a picture of the "patch" after they had been picked by both myself and my son. Plants are large and in full production mode with very few runners compared to other varieties:


For Laramie fruit. It's so hard to tell but these fruit are quite large! This is what they look at during peak ripeness:


Regular sized seascape strawberry to the left, 2 large Ft. Laramie fruit to the center and right. Notice how seascape is darker red: in my climate that variety tastes even better if you let them hang on the vine several days after they turn fully red, and they get slightly darker:


When you remove the calyx, this is what happens, you don't end up pulling out the "pith"(?), it's stuck in there. This is one useful trait to ID Fort Laramie:



Appearance: you be the judge! Look at the pictures above.

Aroma: it's been a while, but as a kid, I chewed on strawberry bubblegum and this SPOT ON smells like the artificial flavored strawberry gum!

Texture: these need to be picked right when the fruit turn solid red. At this stage, the flesh has medium firmness and is quite juicy. I tried leaving them on the vine to see if I could get them to increase sugar content but the fruit became soft and the soft, almost mushy texture made it less pleasant to eat. IT didn't seem that much sweeter either. In other words, unlike some other varieties that get darker, sweeter and better flavored by leaving them on the vine longer, Fort Laramie doesn't benefit from additional hang time on the vine.

Flavor: I didn't harvest these under ideal temperature and weather: once it's 78F consistently and sunny from sun up till sunset, I'll be able to get this fruit to ripen at it's peak potential. Simply put, these fruit didn't reach their peak flavor potential but were still very good in my opinion. Even though it was cool here, the strawberries at peak ripeness (when it turns totally red) are sweet and also have some acidity to them that makes the flavor more bold! It's NOT sour or bland tasting at this point.


So far, this variety has earned a spot in my garden and I am propagating some runners to grow out for next year. I am impressed that they still taste sweet and worth eating despite suboptimal weather: one other variety, despite being picked at peak ripeness, taste like store bought strawberries (eg. horrible) under identical conditions. Fort Laramie will be grown as annuals: the runners will be rooted and during late fall I will pull out the old plants and put in the runners.

One last thing to note: if you leave the fruit on too long, they are susceptible to botrytis under cooler, cloudy conditions.

[greenthumbomaha]

I'm traveling to my north and saw these in the garden center, in single and multi packs. Silly me, when I was a new gardener I started Fort Laraime in one of those tiered berry rings which made a nice display for the rabbits. Good to know they taste good.
I have a mature strawberry patch now, multiple varieties all mixed in so no need for a special cold hardy variety but I am tempted to return to buy one because yours look so good. What zone are you in? This year I bought Seascape, Albion which was suggested by a pro grower on the defunct tomato site, and Maria Des Boise as bare roots and a June barer for experimenting in a low tunnel but few have survived.

-Lisa

[meizzwang]

I'm traveling to my north and saw these in the garden center, in single and multi packs. Silly me, when I was a new gardener I started Fort Laraime in one of those tiered berry rings which made a nice display for the rabbits. Good to know they taste good.
I have a mature strawberry patch now, multiple varieties all mixed in so no need for a special cold hardy variety but I am tempted to return to buy one because yours look so good. What zone are you in? This year I bought Seascape, Albion which was suggested by a pro grower on the defunct tomato site, and Maria Des Boise as bare roots and a June barer for experimenting in a low tunnel but few have survived.

-Lisa

I'm located in zone 9, the coldest I've experienced here is 22F, it doesn't always freeze hard here.