Anney, I don't know what strawberries he has, but they are a June bearing type. I chose to go with an everbearing type, Fort Laramie. I decided to because I don't do any type of canning or preserving so a huge crop all at once would likely be too much. A couple of smaller crops that we can eat fresh is a better situation for us. I have the same as you, a raised bed that I decided to put 25 plants into. Of course the bundles of strawberry crowns don't always have EXACTLY that many plants in it. In the end, I ended up with 30 plants in the bundle so I made my 5 X 5 rows into 5 X 6 rows. Since then, the fruit has come and gone and it has runnered. The runners have really filled up the bed and I expect the next crop to be a lot bigger.

Hi all, I planted the following fruit trees in Spring 2012 in my Southern Maryland yard and although the pollination seems to be working great, I think I need to start spraying right away for what I think is Black Spot on pears, possibly Bacterial Spot or Coryneum Blight on the apricot (I think the leaves looked scraggly from shothole and that tree dropped its leaves before the other fruit trees), and bugs (Castleton gets aphids bad every year before the lady larvae demolish them and Japanese Beetles were awful in 2013): - Apricot - Tomcot (citation rootstock) - J. Plums - Methley, Satsuma, Shiro - E. Plum - Castleton (least vigorous of the bunch, even on Myro rootstock . . .) - Plumcot - Spring Satin - E. Pears - Potomac, Blake's Pride, Seckel - A. Pears - 2, can't recall the varieties but they are from Edible Landscaping *I don't grow any apples, cherries, or peaches. I just looked at my trees tonight and although the buds are clearly visible, I don't see any green yet so I'm guessing they are in the pre-bud-break stage at the moment. And it is going to be pretty cold this week (lows in the teens and highs in the 20s) so I should have a little time until bud break. From reading a bunch of old Gardenweb threads where Scott was a major contributor (e.g., http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/1449914/my-orchard-calendar?n=16), it seems that I should: - Apply dormant oil spray very soon for bug control. - Apply copper + nuFilm17 sticker solution to all stone fruits since it is more effective against Coryneum Blight and bacterial spot than lime-sulphur spray. (Please let me know if you would recommend a different approach based on updated knowledge . . . some of the threads I was reading were three or more yrs. old.) Question #1: Would the copper + nuFilm17 sticker solution be effective on the pears against black spot as well?? General Newbie Spray Questions: Question #2: Does it matter what brand or type of dormant oil I use? I see that Home Depot lists several, including one that is just soybean oil (http://www.homedepot.com/p/Oil-Pharm-1-qt-Organic-Dormant-Oil-Concentrate-OPC00012/205499072). Question #3: Does it matter what brand of copper spray I use? Question #4: Anyone have a small sprayer they love? I need to pick one up. Thank you in advance for your input! I am making my own custom orcharding guide by printing out these threads . . . -Lind

Why was it hybridized? If, for example, it was hybridized for disease resistance you my not care if the disease is not a problem in your area. Also note that if it is an F1 hybrid one of every four plants should come back true, I think.

Similar issue here! I planted my "hula berry" plants and the Sonata next to my home last year while trying to figure where to put them permanently. They subsequently sent out tons of runners and have completely taken over the side of my home. However, only the sonata has produced any fruit. The pineberries flowered vigorously but produced no fruit. This is because the pineberries recieved no cross-pollination. I witnessed almost no pollinators around my strawberries while they were in bloom. I suspect this is the same problem you had. Your Quinaults in theory can provide cross-pollination but only if they bloom at the same time and the bees are interested in them. From what I have read, bees are not very attracted to strawberry flowers. We may have to hand pollinate or replace the "hulu berry" with a self fertile pineberry variety.