The strawberries that I grew up enjoying in the 80s, and the 90s, are still available at a U-pick place, and sometimes sold from the farm to some grocery stores. Although I know that they don’t do well in high moisture, or heavy rain, the production reduces heavily and the quality goes down a lot, in much less extreme wet/moist conditions than were I live. I wonder if they could do well in a hybridization project.
Same, i don’t like to spray as well.
you want true strawberry flavor, try sparkle. its a older cultivar that has med. berries but turn a deep red when ripe. ive grown them a few times. compared to all the others I’ve tried and grown, they are hard to beat for flavor. right up there with mara.
My mara doesn’t taste good to me though. In primarily looking for everbearing varieties that don’t just put out 2 crops per season
Good that you chimed in on this… when i mention something it gets one like. At least now folks will look into it.
its the 1st commercial berry i ever picked and tasted. dad loved it so much he stole some runners from there and started his own bed at home. kept it going for near 10yrs. we always fought to eat those berries. indiana berry still sells them. that tells you something. it’s like the heritage of the strawberries. ripens a few weeks after earliglow/ galleta.
ive only grown evie 2 besides mara as everbearing. while good it doesn’t compare to many junebearing types which are usually much sweeter. maras are excellent here but are prone to leaf diseases and weaken within a few years and need replanting. sparkle are also a solid z3 hardy so still very popular in the north into canada. maybe try planting a junebearing patch then something that fruits later like sparkle or AC sunset. my many alpines i have growing throughout the yard give me berries to graze on all summer when the others are done.
they need to stay on the plant for a week after turning red. Drew51 told me that. i was picking them too soon. once i let them hang long enough they were to die for. sparkle turns a deep dark red when ripe. that’s how you know its ready. doesnt keep long so eat a bunch and freeze or process within a few days. makes the best strawberry jam/ shortcake you’ve ever tasted.
That’s what i tell everyone too, leave it red for a week before picking.
Everyone says june bearers taste sweetest but i don’t know all these new everbearing varieties seem to outshine June bearers these days. At least in my opinion they do.
What you want are called “day neutral everbearing”. I grow Albion, Seascape, and Tristar, which all produce crops from July to November. Tristar has the best flavor, but is not as disease-resistant as the other two.
I know, everbearing is easier for others who don’t know strawberries overall so i just like to stick with that term.
I have Tristar too but it wasn’t as great as the other varieties. It’s big though
Wow what variety is pink blossoms? If I left a strawberry for a week after it turns pink even (much less red) I’d never eat a strawberry. Pill bugs, ants and birds are a menace to my berries. I’m basically not allowed to eat berries at my house. I will eventually maybe migrate them to pots like you have, since I have hundreds of runners now. But thag pink blossom is gorgeous, I’d love to add that.
They seem to do better from being picked clean with pots. My only raider was a robin for all my Colorado years. There were mice too but they never figured out that the platform had berries lol.
Berried Treasure Pink/Summer Blossom Rose
Same name, just depends on who you buy it from. They don’t produce runners, only prostate so it’s harder to make extra unfortunately.
I got them from provenwinnersdirect.com
They produce delicious berries, are everbearing, BUT! They don’t multiply much or at all…
I emailed them about white and pink recently and this was the response i got:
i bought pink seeds and i put in an order for 4 reds for next year.
My water was really salty and hard nearing the end of 2023 in Colorado despite our efforts to replace our filters more often than the recommended 6 months.
I may have a white and red one that’s still alive. Not sure, will have to go outside and check on them.
For some reason, this year, they weren’t doing too good and it looks like proven winners took out the white and pink for now.
My main focus for strawberries next year will be my mutants, Charlottes, and the Berried treasures as well. Will be trialing Monterey and all the novelty ones from burpee. After that, i think that’ll be it for my experiments
Oh! Also for another variety of pink flowers that produce well:
Roman/Apple Blossom (same name)
Has anyone tried any of the following evergreen strawberry varieties?
- Gasana
- Fort Laramie
- Quinault
Or this June-bearing variety
- Honeoye (Honeoyo)
Tarpan Everbearing also has pink flowers. I added a couple this fall, have yet to try any berries but the flowers sure are pretty
Tarpan berries are small like alpine when i grew them. I don’t remember them standing out to me but i bought another plant as an ornamental this year