Speaking of mulches for strawberry plants, I’ve found that clippings from pruning box hedges work quite well. Of course, they are only available to those who have such hedges; but there might be other hedges with usable clippings.
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dead pine needles would probably work well also.
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Shout out for Eversweet strawberry plants! I only have one of them that I bought at a small local shop. However, it’s still cranking out berries in the 80+ degree weather. This one little plant continues to produce a lot of reasonable sized strawberries.
I have been pretty terrible at growing strawberries. The fact that this one is growing and producing for me must mean that is pretty bomb proof.
One thing that might be a drawback to some (or if you like a more acid/balanced taste, this could be a feature) is that eversweet is more sweet-tart and not pure sugar sweet. I think it tastes good but I like acidic fruits.
I also have Tribute (which is continuing to produce, but much more slowly and the berries are TINY) and that is a super sweet, candy-like taste. I also like the taste of Tribute so this is not a complaint, more of a comparison.
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How would I find your videos?
tiktok: garden.with.mei
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I’ve been using coir chips with no issues. I like them better than straw. Straw tends to rot and lasts a single season at best.
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Wondering if Florida Pearl** is actually everbearing. The plant is getting bigger and this is my second crop this year. It came barely alive last year as a runner smaller than my pinky and struggling.
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The other time they fruited and flowered was in May. This is from my only surviving plant out of 40 that i bought last year.
Just repotted it into a 5 gallon tall nursery pot and set its runners today.
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Did you mean Florida Pearl? I can’t find anything on a Florida Rose strawberry (although there is a Blueberry apparently). Florida Pearl was bred for short day production (October-February in Florida) which is why it’s considered a Junebearing. However, its very unlikely that it was truly tested for day-neutrality before going to market (since Florida strawberry season is only during short days) so it could be everbearing. The patent itself calls it a “short-day optimizer” and never uses Junebearing or Everbearing.
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Yes, i meant pearl. i don’t know where i got rose from looking back lol. i was in a car accident the other day and guy must’ve hit me harder than i thought lol
How do charlotte do in terms of disease? I’m considering adding to my fedco order, but I saw one parent is Mara de bois and I’ve had to pull nearly all of mine because they were the most disease-laden strawberry I had this year.
So far so good on mine… only year 1 though
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No issues with me.
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I just planted 10 this summer. Seems quite disease resistant and very vigorous. Flavor takes some getting used to. Berrys get soft fast if not picked in time but they seem to taste good still if picked a little underripe .
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Good to know. What about the flavor took getting used to? I don’t love the candy-like flavored strawberries.
A couple of weeks ago I upsold myself on a larger plot at my community garden (4x12 up from a 4x8).
I was sad to leave my Albions at the old plot (planted from a sixer 3/7/26), though, because they were looking healthy and still putting out tasty berries.
So I decided not to. I tried to dig them up and transplant when I finished the move this weekend. Timing wasn’t great—today was a 100 degree day, yesterday and tomorrow mid/upper 90s. I removed all the fruits, flowers, & runners and tried to get as much of the roots as I could.
A couple aren’t looking good, one or two look pretty good, and the not-yet-rooted runners are looking like toast.
Here’s what things looked like a day after the move:
And this was this morning:
We’ll see how things turn out!
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My brief encounter with strawberries has been they are voracious weeds and as long as roots are in soil, onward they go.
I love the mesh drawers idea for covering seedlings!!! I wonder if tacked down it would thwart squirrel
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Credit goes to (I think) the alameda county master gardeners blog!
In my experience, I haven’t even needed to tack them down. You can’t really see in the picture but on the furthest out cage a broccoli seedling escaped the cage and has already been mowed down. Ground squirrel pressure is real there and late summer is always the worst as water sources dry up and food sources dwindle
I mentioned elsewhere but at my last place I had a (tree) squirrel nest right above the garden bed, mice living in the roof, a neighborhood skunk that got all the dogs riled up and I once saw chasing our cat, and plenty of raccoon evidence. I assume rats too because, well, cities. The cages worked like a charm with no bracing or tacking down.
I’ve seen people put old pots, etc on top to weigh them down and add a little booby trap action, but I’ve never needed to
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Yeah strawberries are a weed where I am. I have a 4x4 bed where I planted one or two pine berry starts 2 years ago and the entire bed is pineberry plants, and also the soil on all sides of the bed.
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I’m just finishing up my first year on the sunny side of the sunny side of the bay and established plants do seem to run wild out here. When I grew them in Oakland they’d fill their container but wouldn’t bother to run outside of it
The biggest question to be is if established plants will make the transplant, especially with a heatwave hitting while they’re still in transplant shock. The healthiest ones seem to be the ones with the best access to the drip line.
I’m only at my plot once, maybe twice a week, so my approach is “if you can’t survive on drip alone, you’re toast and I’m moving on”
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