I am confused. I planted a whole bed of Mara des bois from Nourse in 2021 and both years since then I have been getting a bumper crop in May-Junish. Then it sends out runners like crazy but no more fruit before going dormant. Ideally I wanted a small bed of June bearers and a large one with everbearers. Any suggestions for another everbearing stawberry? Did I get the wrong variety?
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it doesnt sound like mara to me. likely you got a junebearing variety. mara starts producing here in july and continues until frost. it runners but not aggressively like the junebearers do. ive grown evie 2 everbearer here and it was a good tasting berry but not as tasty as mara. ive bought quite a bit from both nourse farms and indiana berry and so far have always got what i ordered.
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looks like maybe earliglow. maras dont have any big berries. mediums at best.
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you answered your own question.
It takes ‘work’ removing those runners to get some Everbearing to do their job successfully. Tons of energy is lost in their desire to take over.
Some cultivars send out less runners than others and require less work. I have one called Sweet Kiss that i LOVE that doesnt send out many runners at all and is a very nice plant.
I removed all of my Mara and Charlottes from a raised bed due to the overwhelming amount of work pinching runners.
There is a guy on one of these threads that grows his Maras in pots with amazing results…and how i am going to grow mine going forward. I will still have to snip runners but not chase them and untangle them and constantly fight them.
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i grow mine in beds covered with black plastic then woodchips. this way you can control the amount and where the runners root. keeps out weeds too. i too gave up on the matted bed technique. way to labor intensive.
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Thank you for the excellent advice. I was not successful beyond one season with growing strawberries in a strawberry pot as they either suffer from the heat or don’t make it past winter given lack of insulation. I will try the black weed barrier method as now my bed is uncontrollable and
is a haven for slugs. Rookie mistake I guess… haha
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These are the Mara Des Bois I harvested today. Small and flavorful, decent runners now that they are established.
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they need to ripen more Ryan. Drew51 told me they need to be fire engine red for best flavor. i made the same mistake. they taste fantastic once that ripe.
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I don’t doubt it Steve! I would leave them on longer but I’m afraid the chipmunks will find a way through my defenses if I leave them on too long. I’ll work on a better system to make it happen.
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yeah. the slugs get them here just as they get their best too.
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