Mine have been producing berries continuously since about May 28th. We had several days in the upper 90s here and they didn’t stop for me. That being said like I mentioned in my post, they’re pretty shaded so maybe thats what allowed them to continue producing.
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Good chance of this. I’ve been moving them around and even in (2nd half of day) shade, same results.
the ones in more shade under trees produced more and bigger fruit. opposites of other types of straws.
Very interesting, I haven’t been growing in full sun so I didn’t know that.
I know you mentioned before you grow several white/red cultivars of alpines. Do you notice a musky aftertaste in some but not others?
I wonder if there is something about white fruit that makes it small but abundant. I have Snowbank blackberries and each bush has hundreds of fruit, all small. I cut one way back this year to see how the size would improve with fewer fruit and they are negligibly larger.
At least in the case of these strawberries, the answer is no. All alpines are small, the red and white ones don’t really have a size difference.
There are pineberries which are essentially white “modern” strawberries but in reality they haven’t undergone nearly as much breeding and selection for size as their red cousins.
I’d imagine for white blackberries, they found a blackberry plant with the mutation that lead it to become white and then figured that would be enough of a selection difference in and of itself to be sold well by those interested. So they selected for white, not for size.
no . only sweet. pineapple crush has a slight taste of pineapple. one of my faves! some berries 1 1/2in. and 3/4in. wide. very productive. as i pick them i dump them onto a sheet pan to freeze, then into a ziplock.
Because my alpines, which are now 2 years old, produce only a few berries per plant and the berries are very seedy, we have decided to replace them with “regular” strawberries.
We do like the flavor, but you have to pick a lot of them to get even a handful for a meal.
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Although the berries are small and the yields unsatisfing for myself (maybe just the variety in my yard), my kids love them. They are dependable and not attacked by critters and in my area a 2x2 foot patch produces a few berries every few days all season long. Flavor is good and it gets my kids out to the yard. As @steveb4 says a kid sized berries for kids.
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I have several varieties of alpine. My Fraises des Boise and white soul have produced slightly larger berries in their second year. Improved Rugen remains just as small but more productive on year number two. Both my Minonette and my yellowed wonder barely pulled through last year and aren’t doing much but surviving right now. I’ve found that second year berries are getting more flavorful as well but still small. You would need several of each just to get a pint per picking. I get a handful a day if I’m lucky. I did put 50 pineberry plugs out last year as a ground cover and they took off. Had a decent harvest this year even though they are crowded. So delicious!
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they dont like heat and dont like direct sunlight. the ones in some shade are very productive and good sized. compared to our wild ones they are huge i get about a pint per bush right now every few days and have 17 bushes.
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Mine are in full sun. I guess I should put them in more shade.
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You get a pint of berries from a single bush every few days?? How large have the plants gotten for you?
about 16in. 4 years old.
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Wow, so I guess they’re extremely productive even after they get into their older age and the bunches don’t really need to be separated to keep it that way.
Mine although much less productive then @steveb4 produce the same every year despite no speartion. Also 4 years old.
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Thank you!
It could be that the variety Steve has is just that much better than the others available too… @steveb4 where did you find yours?
most came from rareseeds.com some came from the thestrawberrystore.com. yellow wonder, white soul and alexandria from rareseeds and bowlenzauber and pineapple crush from strawberrystore. very productive compared to wild alpines. huge berries. they are so productive i rarely get all the berries. i prefer the white ones for flavor and the birds leave them alone. pineapple crush is crazy productive.
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i find as they get older and bigger the middle of the plant isnt productive so its best to separate them at that point.
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