They are both pretty darn good, but Earliglo wins by a nose… At least that was what I remembered from when we planted a few years ago. At this point, with all the runners they’re mixed up and I can’t really tell which is which. Jewel was supposed to be a little later, but for me they came almost at the same time.
The MdB are the best, but I have a much smaller productive patch that isn’t mulched as has less sun so they’re more likely to rot, get slugs, etc. Most of those are just eaten right away.
Hi @PatrickMD. Below is a picture of my main bed. It is about 3 feet wide and 25 feet long, with Carmine Jewel cherries planted in the middle and some perrenial flowers mixed in. I’m getting my first year of the cherries this year with hopefully enough to do something with next year.
This is the third year for the strawberries, which were started with 25 Earliglo and 25 jewel (one row of each down the length of the bed). The soil has been amended with manure and wood chips on top. The first year they runnered like crazy and filled it all in. The Mara’s are in another area, but most of the production comes from this bed.
Thanks. Looks really nice. I hope to get the yield you have one day. I would love to be harvesting that amount every few days. I only have a small bed, but I hope to expand to get a yield closer to what you are getting.
Someone sent me some extra strawberries last year. I’m paying it forward with sending out 25 today! Besides a few others early in the year. Anyway they sent the pineberries from Nourse farms. Most were small and almost every plant died, it was late in the season, hot and dry last year. Also sent was Sonata Strawberry a dutch variety. As their pineberries were not self fertile. Well those plants were strong and healthy. They all made it. Well I got a taste of them, and wow! Very very good! Yum! A couple runners fell into the cracks of the sidewalk, I’m digging them out after they fruit, these plants are excellent!! I want every one I have!
Definitely interested to try Rutgers Scarlet and the couple others that have been highly regarded in this thread, but Earliglo/MdB/White Pineberry do a fantastic job.
I love the Mara de Bois, in my bucket gutter system they are amazingly prolific. The picture is deceiving as they look a little large because of the camera but they sure are a big berry.
The MB seems to thrive in the buckets and take the hot greenhouse conditions well. The first berries definitely worried me as the flavour seemed bland, but as the plants aged they came into their own.
So, do you have any other strawberry varieties growing, and how do they compare with the MdB? I thought that MdB didn’t produce large berries, from what I’ve read.
I just put 25 each of Earliglow and Jewel in the ground last week. Can’t wait for fresh home-grown berries next year.
I have no other berries right now. I initially grew the Mara de Bois in the ground for two years, and yes, the berries were on the small side. I dug up the plants and put them in a bucket gutter system in my greenhouse this spring just to try it out, and the plants became huge, as well as the berries.
It is dark now, when I can I will post a picture of the plants as they are now.
I have 60 in there (they are 3 rows deep) just hanging between the slats. This used to be my grow bench where I put all my cut flower seedling flats so they would drain after watering. Fortunately, the spaces between the horizontal slats is exactly the right width to hang those pails by just the lip.
So far we are eating them as they ripen, I hope to do some jam but with 5 grandkids and grown children and a husband who love to graze the berries, I don’t hold out much hope this year of getting extra berries for jam.
The MB produces through the summer but when in the ground I noticed that they got larger and juicier as the summer went on. These ones in the pails I expect to slacken off or get smaller as the summer progresses. I don’t think they can keep up at this pace all summer. These are in a high porosity potting mix and I fertilized them twice when they were little with Dyna Grow Foliage Pro.
