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another week or so and i should be getting some of my flavorfest from my 2 4’ x 12’ rows. you guys are killing me on here!
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I just got done eating a bunch of Mara des Bois strawberries - they are so good and I don’t have any pictures cause they went straight from the plants to my face.
We really like Chandler as well and the San Andreas are pretty good and a bigger strawberry.
I am looking for a Flavorfest and Charlotte, if anyone knows of any leads that are in or ship to California.
Honeoye has been a huge disappointment and we wasted a couple of years on that one before realizing it just wasn’t very good here for some reason. Looks like a lot of places still sell it so I’m assuming it’s good somewhere?
Since Chandler, Mara des Bois and San Andreas are delicious here, I know it’s not us or our location.
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A local farm lost everything in last years drought and heat… replanted with Malwina and say its booming again.
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I got flavorfest from burpee this year. But, I think it was pretty widely available when I was looking. The few berries we let happen were yummy, but we liked the preliminary earliglow more.
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This spring I planted 4 varieties to try:
Sadly the Flavorfest i received were moldy when they arrived and never grew. (Refund was painless at least).
Of the others the preliminary few berries we’ve allowed to develope so we could taste have given a first impression:
(Possible) Seascape: i say possible because this is from a local grower that sells them labelled simply “everbearing strawberry”, but upon asking the folks that grow them they shared it was a seascape. The berrries are pretty large (the size you find in most supermarket sized berries) and they have a firm texture and taste is more or less like a (good) storebought berry. So far no issues with the plant despite the rainy spring in my humid midatlantic region, and after 2-3 months in the ground it has put out a manageable 2 runners now. Birds pecking this berry has been an issue (as typical) and we didnt care for the flavor as much when it gets overripe (deep red). But still good so far.
Tristar: these are the most recent additions this year and havent pushed out runners yet, but the couple of berries we have tried tasted really really good and whether ripe or “overripe” were both really tasty. The berries were a bit more medium in size and the texture was softer than more common mass produced berries. These are likely to be keepers if the first tastes are a good example to go by.
Mara Des Bois: these plants have provided some exceptionally tasty (though quite small) berries so far that at least give the tristar a run for its money. A con to the berries’ small size is you basically need 5+ to match the amount of fruit you get from a single seascape and thats more work to pick/de-stem. The small size also makes it a lot harder to notice when checking the berry patch and i have to move the leaves around on each plant to find the berries hiding beneath. That said, the same thing seems to apply to birds too and there have been noticeably fewer pecks at my ripe MdB than at my other berries (I assume because the birds dont see the berries as easily when flying past). These have been putting out a ton of runners too so a pro if you want to cover a strawberry bed quickly with only a few starting plants, but a con for the additional management that adds to make sure the beds dont get over crowded and the plants dont waste too much energy on runners. I’m curious to see if these produce more berries in their second year or if they are just generally light producers. But in either case the berries are good and the appearant resistance to bird pecks is a definite plus if i don’t want to go to the trouble of netting all my berry plants.
Hoping I’ll get the chance to get some flavorfest and maybe one or two other varieties to plant once the fall comes around but enjoying what i have going on so far.
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What variety are the long looking strawberries?
my flavorfest are just starting to ripen. im impressed with the flavor so far but have some gray mold starting on some of them. its been hot and muggy the last couple days after alot of rain. this spot theyre in gets all day sun and good ventilation. may be a drawback with this variety. they are growing in holes in shade cloth 6in. apart. mara had alot of gray mold issues but were more closely planted. too late to spray now. just going to have to pick as soon as theyre red.
Wow, those look overripe. Is that variety good at that color?
I’ve collected the alpines but not too big of a fan of them so far. Too small and too many runners for most of them.
I think they’re Tristan according to the flowers and shape. I have another Tristan that is almost duplicate of the plant that i got that fruit from. That plant came as unlabeled “everbearing Strawberry” but it’s from monrovia and they do or did carry Tristan so it’s probable Tristan 
my other one is from Burpee. It’s a pretty good strawberry, tops alpine for me.
Fedco description-
Fragaria × ananassa Late. Unnamed seedling × Sophie. Bred by Peter Stoppel, Germany.
Extend your picking season into late June or early July with these sweet dark glossy beauties. One of the darkest strawberries we’ve ever seen and possibly the tastiest.
Nourse description-
The latest fruiting June-bearing variety we have to offer, Malwina’s large berries have excellent flavor with high Brix readings, meaning there are more simple and complex sugars in the fruit, making for a sweeter and tastier flavor. Talk about ending the strawberry season on a sweet note! Bonus: Malwina shows resistance to mildew and tolerance to Verticillium wilt and red stele.
Cant really find a bad review of them… but they are pretty obscure and probably not many folks growing them either.
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Lydia from BerriesUnlimited gave me one in my last order 
I’m excited to try them next year or maybe I’ll stick them in the fridge for a few weeks lol… i have a drink fridge that goes down to 41 degrees only… I’m thinking of sticking them there for a week then taking them out again to force fruiting 
Any thoughts on Honeyoe, or alternatives, as a strawberry for me to plant? I live in zone 6a
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Honeyoe was our first strawberry. We gave it 3 years to taste great and finally gave up.
After trying Chandler and Mara des Bois, I want my 3 years back.
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Any strawberry suggestion for 9b/10a?
My sister-in-law lives in Live Oak, CA and really wants to grow strawberries.
they look alot like sparkle. they also turn that deep red color. even the shape is similar. sparkle is also a late fruiting junebearer and its in my top 5 favorite cultivars for taste.
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Monterey and San Andreas are from that area. Decent size too.
@Riddlemeraspberry I planted Honeyoe several years ago here in 6B southern Indiana and never did think it tasted good. It was not worth the work of weeding, watering and netting when store bought strawberries tasted better to me. I pulled it and gave up on strawberries for a few years.
I started two 4x8 raised beds last year, one with Gurney’s Whopper, which should have given me a large harvest this year, but I only got a few and they were definitely not whoppers. The birds probably got a few before I got the netting on, but I still should have gotten a larger crop than I did. The plants look very healthy, though. The other bed was planted with Charlotte, which does have a good taste and gave me a few more berries than Gurney’s Whopper and has more coming on now. However, I really want a very productive June-bearer so I can get enough at one time to make jam and freeze.
I will give the”whopper” one more June and if it does not do better, I will have to look for a better producing strawberry. Of course, it could just be me. Maybe I am not an effective strawberry grower.
Strawberries seem to be quite a labor-intensive fruit what with weeding, watering, netting, managing runners, covering in winter, etc. But I do love a good strawberry!
Sandra
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