Have you tried musk strawberries? If you are going off of taste alone, I think they are hard to beat.
2 Likes
No i havenāt, although I have read some great reports from forum members about them. How strong is the musk taste from them? The slight musk taste from alpines donāt bother me at all because its very mild but its not something I look for necessarily.
Moose, do you know where I could find me some wild lowbush blueberries? The ones I know of are halfway up flat top. I would love to find me some to establish them as ground cover for my trees.
i got some of them from Drew 51. they are very good and even bigger than the alpines. i have to pick them before fully ripe as the sink bugs have found them. weird taste for a strawberry but good.
Don, i have some Brunswick lowbush growing around my highbush blues that came from Hartmanns. remind me in oct when they go dormant and i dig and send you some. they spread by rhizomes about a ft. a year.
1 Like
@steveb4 would you like one of these?
I have a larger cloner now. If you want to play with it we can trade stuff.
i thought about trying one of those. the pot growing folk swear by them. with the shipping here its probably best if i just buy one off amazon. thanks for the offer though. always game for a trade of other things.
I donāt explore much around southcentral Alaska- I donāt know where any berries are at locally. The only berry picking we do is the annual trip to that honeyberry place up in your neighborhood. Iām out in Western Alaska quite often and the blueberries are the tundra berries down at your feet. You hurt your back trying to pick them so no one is interested in trying to cultivate them.
They taste incredible. Itās hard to say which is the best strawberry, but kids love musks and everyone who tries them wants a second taste. I think musks taste better than alpine strawberries. If you like alpine strawberries you definitely need to try musk strawberries. I donāt think they taste āmuskyā at all. A black currant is musky. A musk strawberry tastes like candy- maybe cotton candy or some sweet bubble gum.
3 Likes
They taste pretty much the same to me. I really canāt tell the difference between my alpines and the musk strawberries. Maybe I donāt have the āgourmetā variety because I was expecting a little more āsomethingā from the musks. Donāt get me wrong, I love them both but theyāre just kinda similar to me.
The wild fragaria virginiana on the other hand is a taste bomb. I donāt know what musk smells like but they basically have an amplified garden strawberry aroma. An almost liqour-like smell, like a strawberry concentrate or something. I can smell them on my fingers long after picking.
4 Likes
Sounds amazing, Iāll definitely be adding some! I realized the reason I was so hesitant about musk strawberries was actually also from strawberry seed stores description, āFragaria moschata fruit has an intense musky flavor and aroma. Not everyone is fond of the flavor. Another way to describe the flavor is to say it tastes like wine with many fruity overtones.ā
1 Like
You donāt see the virginiana mentioned much either- but it has to be good since itās the parent of the modern strawberry. Iāll have to try growing some one day.
they grow wild everywhere here but very tiny fruit. they do taste awesome, but it would take you many hours of picking to fill a cereal bowl. used to pick them as a kid with the family.
My alpine x wild fragaria vesca cross. This is the first berry that Iāve ever picked from these before the birds got to them. It suckers like the wild ones do but the berry is shaped like an alpine. I hand pollinated the flower with alpine pollen. Iād like to keep the suckering trait and get more yield but weāll see how they turn out.
2 Likes
Very interesting! Keep us updated on productivity and taste.
2 Likes
one of my white alpines is a cross between a wild red vesca and a white Italian alpine. i just dont remember which one. edit: its Rodluvan. it has since spread all over my yard under my trees and other bushes.
2 Likes
Will do! What I like about strawberry seeds is that they can be planted right away and donāt require any stratification. With any luck theyāll fruit next year.
2 Likes
i have alpines from the strawberry store that i started in march that started flowering last week. bowlenzauber and pineapple crush. each has about 6 flowers with more forming. pineapple crush is supposed to have the biggest and most tasty berries of all his cultivars he sells. its the most sought after berry he grows that hes sells to local chefs.
1 Like