I am by not an experienced Strawberry grower. Usually I just plant, pray, and go to the PYO farm. Two years ago I started trying to take better care and this year I have the healthiest for me plants ever. My berry totals are now great but I have enough to make Rhubarb-strawberry pie. The problem is the berries are small and not getting sweet before going past there prime or they start rotting before they turn. My CSA is reporting limited strawberries this year due to crop loss from the rain in NJ. How is everyone else’s season going?
Average season for me. Once they get going I get about 4 cups a day for 2 weeks. Today was the first day i got 4 cups or about a quart. The hardest part is it takes some time to harvest. I have to net them, and I have little plots all over. Even though they say not to fertilize before fruiting, i would if you’re getting small berries. Here is my haul for the day. Probably only 3 cups, but I’m very happy with that.The plants are loaded and most are unripe.
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It appears our Jewel plants are done, it only seemed we got about 2 good weeks of production out of them, about a cereal bowlful a day. They had good size on them and good flavor if picked when dark red.
The Earliglow’s gave us less berries, over maybe a 3 week span, some were medium sized, but most were small to very small. Really good flavor, though. Kinda disappointed in their production, but it was their first year.
Is it normal for June bearers to just produce a couple, three weeks?
There’s lots of runners this year so next year’s crop should be bigger and better.
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What I do is have early, late and mid season types, so you get berries for as long as possible. All of mine are just turning now, but the latest ones are still green and small. So I get about a month of production. For me it works, raspberries are about to start, and honeyberries started and will go on for a few more weeks. My early blackberries will start in a couple weeks. Unlike a lot of fruit the late ones are usually not that good. Some mid-late are Rutgers and Sparkle, both decent. Jewel is Mid-season. I have not found any late ones I like so far. I do have Ozark, very trt, but kinda late. Good for cooking. Nourse breaks them down by season, a good reference of some berries anyway.
So how long does one variety of your strawbs last? A couple weeks?
Our wild blackcaps are starting to ripen, the wild blackberries are just now forming, not even red yet.
I’m not home right now, but my wife said one of our gooseberries had turned a burgundy color, so not too long for the rest of them to be ready. Not a lot, but it will be our first harvest of them.
The longer you can let the gooseberries hang, the sweeter they will get. Some varieties start to dry, so you have to harvest, others last a month looking ripe. Yes about 2 weeks for strawberries. All at once for the June types. If processing makes it easy. My black raspberries are still green. I have a lot of those.
Too rainy here and afflicted by birds
Still getting some fruit
my earliglow and evie 2 are just setting fruit. not as vigourous as last year but i should get a decent amount of berries.
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It’s a good season here. I have an old heirloom everbearer that is wonderfully early (as well as late), great flavor, small to medium size berries which we’ve been enjoying for a couple weeks now; and another old variety with great flavor (Dunlap) that is just starting. These have been my main crop for over 20 yrs and well worth fussing to keep them going. But I plant current varieties now and then trying to find one or two that I like enough (and likes my garden enough) that suits me. Gone through quite a few - OK but not special. But I planted Annapolis a few years ago and it’s a good crop this year. Berries (this year anyway) very large to large, which normally I’m not too excited about, but the flavor is decent. They started last week for me. Plants are nice, not too runnery but enough to easily replace old plants. (I maintain a permanent bed so I don’t like over exuberent runners). What I really like about this variety is that it is large and firm enough to easily slice to dry, while still having reasonably good flavor (which I find many large berry varieties don’t have). So the Annapollis go into the dryer (below) and we eat the others (softer and excellent flavor) for fresh and sauce. I’d still like another variety so maybe next year I’ll try Jewell. We really like strawberries and strawberry-rhubarb sauce in particular so I have a 4’ x 32’ bed. Sue
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I’m astonished by the vigor of the Earlyglow plants, next to the other varieties. Now runnering profusely.
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