i got these from Drew about 4 years ago. they have aggressively spread around my 6 honeyberries and northline serviceberry. ive gotten some berries out of them but not many. i put mounds of chic bedding in there the spring of 2024 to smother some of them and allow more air in. well they have since covered that all up and right now i have a huge crop of them. nice big berries too. the size of mara des bois. the taste is different but better than even the alpines. because this spot was planted on my old chicken run i assumed it didnt need anymore fertilizing. well it appears that these strawberries are even heavier feeders than my others. unfortunitely i didnt spray them with a fungicide so alot of them have gray mold with all the rain and now the heat we have. i need to pick them asap. next year i wont make the same mistake. if you have these strawberries and they havent produced well give them some composted manure . it makes a big difference. ill see if i can post pics later of them.
Are these an improved variety or just whatever Drew had? I have seedlings growing in my greenhouse right now, plan on transplanting out in late October and then probably putting runners or something back into the greenhouse in April. Good to know on the compost and heavy feeding.
Do you think seedlings will produce in 1 year, or will they need a few cycles?
i got some berries in the 2nd year from the starts he gave me. i dont know if they were a improved cultivar or not. maybe Drew will chime in. they have sort of a bubblegum after taste. if i get enough i might try them in a pie. the taste is different enough if you blind tasted them, you probably wouldnt immediately say they tasted like strawberries. make sure you give them lots of room as they runner like crazy.
well i went to pick the berries yesterday and most of them had mold starting on the bottom of the berries. from above they looked fine. got a couple of cups to eat with the yogurt this morning. very good. im going to include them in my fungicide sprays next year and are going to spread them around under my other plantings so they get full sun. where theyre at behind the garage, they get about 4-5 hrs. direct sunlight. maybe why they are rotting so easily.
With all the rain we lost a lot of strawberries to mold.
i just read musk straws need at least 6 hrs or more of direct sunlight to ripen properly so mine are in less than ideal conditions. why i need to spread them to places where they get more sun. they should become sweeter as well.
I think they were from Baker seeds? They fruited decent for me but maybe because I have male plants around? Not sure?
I grow them too! I planted musk strawberries first because it’s the wild strawberry I am familiar with from my childhood - I used to forage them in the forest for fun. Then I planted various alpines expecting something similar and boooooy was I disappointed lol. I’ll probably keep a few alpines that are kind of tasty but will likely get rid of the rest, either in favor of musk strawberries or will keep experimenting with the regular ones.
What was the sun requirements for them?
And how aggressive are they for a ground cover? Like if I wanted them to blanket a flower bed with gooseberries and currants would they spread quickly?
Weeding gets annoying lol.
My musk strawberries grow in half-shade and they spread extremely aggressively.
My experience is musk strawberries like sixteen hours of daylight and temperatures of about 65 degrees Fahrenheit. I grew them near street lights but I think you could interrupt the night cycle for an hour instead. In Florida, the best I have tasted were from December through February. Duchesne wrote that they are slow growers which I agree with. Healthy crowns send out around one runner a week and each runner produces a runner each week and so on for me.
Seedlings flowered the first year for me with the photoperiod and temperatures that I mentioned. I grew seedlings without artificial light extending the photo period and they didn’t flower until the second year. Musk strawberries can be pollinated by garden strawberries, Virginian, and Chilean and you do not need the males people are selling. The hermaphrodites like the one the USDA calls Capron pollinate themselves and females just fine. I believe Baker Creek renamed the one the USDA calls Capron to ‘Scarlet’. I was growing them side by side but abandoned them when I moved so I never confirmed that they are the same.