Wow this a long thread ! I grow old North Sea. Never planned on growing strawberries but the reviews on baker creek tempted me to get some. The kids clear them out everyday when they’re fruiting. I doubled the size of the bed. I want to add some more. Don’t often see old North Sea mentioned in groups or forums so it may be a hidden gem. They have one called pantagruella coming in March I may get. I am debating an everbearing to extend my harvest but I read that the early season crop is small and the late season is even smaller in my area tend to be small (zone 7a Philadelphia). May add some alpines
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I just a few of these Puget Crimson bare roots, how are they doing for you since 2018, are the yields still pretty good and original plants still survive?
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@Oregon_Fruit_Grow that the best strawberry I like. Unfortunately I removed all mine because I need room for all my vegetable garden. Too many plants I love to plant.
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I saw Old North Sea on Rare Seeds too, and others. What does it taste like compared to more commonly sold varieties?
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I have old north sea as well as Scarlett and pantagruella from rareseeds.
I have not tried pantagruella yet, but will this year. Old north sea taste great to me, a slight Kool aid like accent. Scarlett are small musk strawberries but have the most intense strawberry flavor. I don’t know how it compares to other musks. Both old north sea and Scarlett spread like weeds, while pantagruella barely has runners after a year.
Any tips to make strawberries taste sweeter? A lot of my strawberries are somewhat tasteless no matter what variety except the Scarlett. I always get a good strawberry in the bunch, one that’s fully ripened and didn’t get too much rain I guess, but wondering if I am unique… super market strawberries are even more bland though.
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All I know is full sun, full day of sun, avoiding diseases, picking at the point of total ripeness not a bit earlier, varieties that are known for being sweet in your area, and perhaps not having watered much the last week of ripening, but rain isn’t something we can really control.
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Have you bought Frutilla Blanca from Rareseed this year?
Make sure they are fully ripe. Full sun as mentioned. Second year crop will be better. Fertilize after harvest for June bearing.
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I did get it this year. One of the three already died due to the heatwave. Been watering them everyday even though they are in ground
Good, we can compare notes next year:-) Luckily, all my 3 are still alive. I let one of them produces runners.
@scottfsmith I’m assuming this is the book you mean?
The Strawberry: History, Breeding, and Physiology Amazon.com
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If anyone (@mrsg47, @fruitgrower, @Drew51 or others) have any of the following cultivars they would consider sending me runners for, I’d be happy to pay for them and/or for shipping - whatever you’d like.
White D pineberry
Rutgers Scarlet
Gariguette
Archer
I am in SoCal Zone 10 and for me, so far, Quinault has been by far the best producing and tasting strawberry.
I also have:
Seascape: ok to good sometimes. Not as consistent as Quinault.
Mara de Bois - new planting this year based on high praise here. No berries so far. These are in pots. Very excited.
Earliglow: same - bought plants this year and will be planting soon (to the edge of a raised bed) for next year.
Albion - painted this year in pots. Had a few berries that were tiny and ok and then massive numbers of runners. I’ve taken the runners off. Hoping to get more berries this year.
Sequoia: produced some berries that were ok to good. I felt like these went soft too fast. I am considering pulling these out.
I’m also wondering when approx folks put in their yearly orders for new plants from places like Nourse?
Also - do folks usually buy new plants each year, or extend their plantings for a while? Seems like @mrsg47 was suggesting that at least MdB produces much better the 2nd year?
I’m taking away that maybe I don’t need to replace all strawberry plants each year? Or should I, to increase production? At my scale (very small), cost is not really an issue. So it’s more about what’s easier and simpler and will give me more strawberries, consistently 
Thanks for the advice!
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You shouldn’t need to buy strawberries every year unless they become diseased. It’s probably a good idea to replace the plants after two years, but you can use the runners for that.
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In VA here I can’t grow healthy strawberries. They all die no matter how much I water, spray, weed. And I’ve tried because my husband loves strawberries probably most of all fruit. I’ve tried probably a dozen varieties. Except this year, I got Mara des Bois and they have absolutely took off. We are now getting more tiny crops everyday. So Mara is a wonderful taste and is a hardy strawberry in our area.
Pineberries are also a winner
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Yes that’s the Darrow book. It’s long out of print and pdfs are available for free I think.
In any case the more recent varieties are better, Mara des Bois, Gariguette, etc. I don’t follow strawberries any more as they are too much work to grow.
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I use to be involved in strawberry breeding and research in the early 80’s. The breeding material and some of the crosses had wonderful aromas and flavors. But we were looking for disease resistance and ignored everything else. I kept one particular aromatic strawberry and grew it for several years at home. But sadly virus and diseases got it.
Earliglow fits my family’s desires without too many issues growing and starting a new bed after a couple of seasons. Although this year deer got over my fence and tore up the new planting. Taller fence is my winter project. I got to fence in sweet potatoes and strawberries as deer used to not come near the house but I currently have no dogs so that is partly why.
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Alas, I have garriguette and the newer ‘mariguette’ the latter a favorite. But I live in France and cannot send you cuttings. So sorry. they are my two favorites. Still also love Maras des Bois.
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I had Tangi back in the 1980’s and loved the flavor. Disease resistance was abysmal.
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Ah right! Nice to hear though. I will also keep a lookout for them on the sites you’ve mentioned and others have mentioned too. Appreciate all your insights on here btw. I’m learning a lot from everyone and appplying it as well. Thank you!
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At the strawberry field behind my house they plant in the fall and thin all flowers until early March. They continue to thin throughout the season for size. They are out 5 days a week. The size and quality of the strawberries are hard to beat anywhere I have been. They plant Albion and Chandler only, due to flavor, firmness, size, and disease resistance. By late July they pull their plants and till the fields, preparing for a new September planting. They grow all sorts of vegetables, tomatoes, corn, and melons all summer long to keep up with profits. Most strawberry festivals have tastings and the Albion’s usually win. Other popular varieties grown around here are Seascape and Earlyglow. We like the Albion followed by the gigantic Chandler strawberries best for flavor. We grow organic Albion and Chandler here, having more success with the Albion which are about 2/3 to 1/2 size of the farmers. However the flavor is awesome for strawberries and they don’t get sprayed with pesticides. We have tried many different varieties, but only get very small, quite soft berries from them, as well as week growth. The Albion’s are the only one we have found that does well here in Orangevale, 25 miles north east of Sacramento, by Folsom Lake. I do not have or tried the ones you are seeking out, but hard to believe they will do any better, or taste better than Albion.
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Oh good, so I’m not the only one experiencing Ozark Beauty as a june bearer… I’ve gotten multiple plants from multiple places in the last few years of Ozark Beauty and they’ve all acted the same as one crop a season. I’ve let my plant die since then but i may have one hidden somewhere