This year I lost whole population of my strawberries. It involved cyclamen mites, dry summer, oriental beetles and couple of not very smart decisions of my own. To make long story short, I need to fill 4 beds of strawberries. I am going to pull what is still struggling there and cover beds with clear plastic to the end of the summer to fry the mites, then add fresh compost and start over the next spring. I bought my plants at Nourse Farms before, but considering my mites issues I would like to try some other source. Any suggestions of reputable strawberry plants sellers?
P.S. Just checked inventory of Nourse Farms. They reduced their selection that they sell in batch of 25 to just 10 varieties. The rest 13 minimum order size is 500. This is how they explain it:
This year Nourse Farms has done the heavy lifting for our Home Garden customers. Our expert staff has hand-selected the best strawberries for your home garden needs.. For some reason I do not appreciate it. If it has economical reason - say it as is. Do not pretend to take care of me by removing my choices. .
ive grown archer, galleta and flavorfest. all were excellent. galetta was my favorite.
I had galetta, flavorfest, jewel, honeoye , and cavendish. Will probably shorten the list to 2 varieties, so I can plant just one middle row in 12X3, bed and let them spread. Two packs of 25 should cover my needs. If I do two rows, they tend to root runners just near bed frame and I do not like it.
I’ve gotten bare roots from starkbros, burpees, gurneys, scenic hill, and migardener.
Starkbros is decent
Burpees is only good on bare root. Their starter strawberries are literal 6 month old from seed.
Gurney bare root is decent too but their shipping is a nightmare since they use not real FedEx for shipping but instead, fedex contractors that like to lose things
Scenichill is a little more expensive but good quality, probably the best of them all
Migardener only has mara des bois but their bare root plants are really vigorous, at least for me.
I wait until there’s free shipping for starkbros and burpees to get anything from them.
I’ve ordered from Nourse and Hartmanns… Both sent good plants. Walmart is not a good deal, nothing survives for me even with proper care.
With a few healthy starts from members here you might have full beds next year. Flamingo made hundreds of runners for me this year. A blessing and a curse.
I tried my best with strawberries this year. May not grow again.
Best - Gurneys. Half of bare roots lived. Sent replacement for those that didn’t.
Fails - Clearance Stark’s. 2 out of 30 bare roots grew. They were clearance though. Refunded.
Never again - Sam’s, Walmart, Tractor supply. Sam’s/walmart didn’t refund even though no survivors.
Can you please tell me a little more about Flamingo?
How big are the berries? Description doesn’t show the size - can you compare the average size to a dime or quarter? Do actual taste and aroma match the description? Are berries bothered by birds much?(wanna see if netting is required). How about foliage diseases?
I think the resident chipmunk ate more than I’d like, but they are pretty healthy plants so far and taking over as a groundcover in my blueberry bed.
I don’t have a lot of experience to compare to for foliar disease, but they are pretty healthy and I haven’t sprayed yet. They are more red than pink based on this year’s crop and they were light and fluffy in texture vs most strawberries I’ve had being much denser. Good strawberry taste, medium size berries definitely average larger than a quarter.
May 10th
May 26th (2 above)
Nice!
To be honest, I’m mostly posting because I’m fed up with FedEx. There wasn’t a gripe thread active and I don’t want to start a new one. But those of you who ship things, I strongly encourage you to use someone else for a while again and let them sort themselves out without sacrificing your plants. As a buyer, I’d rather pay a couple extra dollars and have the packages show up, at my house, in one piece, while the plants are still alive.
In other news, I’m glad my search landed here, because strawberries are a happy topic. The local wildlife steals most of mine, but I enjoy adding new varieties to the various… lets pretend they are intentional guilds, lol, … around my yard. And, it is just about time for me to start watching what will be available this year. I seem to have a lot of plants survive and spread. I just need to remember to actually watch them before all the berries get nicked.
I’ve been really happy with Starkbros.
They all died since I didn’t take care of them and they replaced 75 plants on warranty
Maybe plant a border for the critters then put some in the middle for yourself?
Yeah i had no idea until gurneys issue that FedEx sometimes isn’t even FedEx!! But random low quality contractors in the shipping business with contracts with FedEx so that they can use the FedEx name. FedEx personally has not been an issue with me but FedEx contractors, hell yes
Just to add my experience today with Burpee- something is up with them this year. Last year I got an array of great plants and bareroots, shipping notices and all healthy and thrived. This year, I’ve had two bareroot orders show up entirely announced and been told both hadn’t shipped yet when I called inquiring where they were. The strawberries- Albion are beautiful. The flavorfest are total garbage: nearly all entirely black roots, a few with 75% black and a few strands of healthy roots. I was frantically trying to fill my beds and didn’t stop to think about it until the end and take pictures of what was left, but I’m pulling them tomorrow for the trash and getting replacements. The cost of doing things in a mad rush.
That middle one looks kind of fine though? White roots still
I have to add here:
Has AMAZING roots on the older varieties like Seascape.
The newer varieties aren’t as big since they are newer but overall, all still healthy.
They all look like trash to me compared to the roots that I have gotten from Nourse Farms in the past. I have ordered strawberries and raspberries from them several times and always get great roots.
ive had good luck with indiana berry also.
Look for a grow guarantee on the packaging. You will need to go through the distributor on the package to receive a refund, such as DeGroot and Van Zyverden. Never had a problem with this, however it does take time.
Maybe I purchased the bare roots from MIGardener too late, because very few of the plants survived, while most of the bare roots from Stark Bros survived.
I have ordered through them every year and am generally pleased. However, last year I received a root cutting instead of the typical broomstick bareroot plant and there was very little growth above ground all season. Hopefully that changes this year.
Indiana berry is my goto for strawberry as well.