Strawberry Suggestions

12 years ago

I am planning in devoting a 4x4 raised bed to strawberrys. Which would you suggest and how many would I need? Mara Des Bois sounds interesting, Sally

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Comments (2)

blueboy1977
12 years ago
Cant really comment on varieties in your zone cause Im in zone 9. I grow Quinalt, All Star, Sequoia and Ozark Beauty here with okay results. For bigger berries space 12 inches apart so 16 plants should fit into 4x4 box. Any closer than 12 inches they start to compete for food and that results in smaller fruit.

I removed the flowers and runners off of mine the first year but most people here try to plant in Nov or so and pull up the plants after harvest in the spring. It kinda sucks devoting a bed to them year round for 2 weeks of berries. Im going to pull mine this spring and make way for tomatoes and squash.
tatton95
12 years ago
I have had great success with Albion strawberries, the berries are big, sweet and the plants are very productive. I have grown most of the strawberries sold at local nurseries like Quinalt, Fort Laramie, Sequoia, Allstar, etc. and they don't even compare. I don't know if you can find them in your local nurseries, so you may have to order them online.

The plants get quite large so I would space them about 12" apart. I remove all the runners so that they don't get too dense and so the plant is puting all its energy into the fruit.
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Beskye: If there were one everbearing variety with the "best" flavor, and we all knew about it, we would all be growing it. Often when people talk about strawberry flavor, they are really focusing on sweetness. But the varieties with the most flavor also have some acidity, and depend on a little added sugar to bring out the flavor. The sweetest varieties are usually also the softest, and the more difficult to grow because of susceptibility to gray mold and other rots. Contact Indiana Berry & Plant and ask them to send a copy of their catalog. There, you can study the differences between varieties and make a pretty well informed choice. But if you want to freeze significant amounts of strawberries and make some jam, you will choose to grow Junbearers. This will give you some real production instead of a trickle of berries throughout the season. No strawberry, everbearing or Junebearing, produces decent berries in the hottest part of the summer. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA
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Backyard gardener: I don't have Crohn's but still can't deal with seeds. My solution has been to make juice with them by freezing them in pint baggies then thawing the bag out. When it is thawed, poke a series of small holes in the bottom of the bag for the juice to drain out of and suspend the bag in a bowl with the bag off the bottom of the bowl in the fridge. Another option I'd like to try is one of those stainless steel steam extractors. What would ideal for me is a centrifuge with a screen small enough to catch the seeds. Let me know if you find one via my e-mail address, please. Oh, BTW, my rasprerries get frozen and then thawed. Then I smash them through a small collander, in a mortar and pestle like fashion, whose seive size is smaller than the seeds, that came from Wally-world. I feel for your wife, Michael
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Strawberry Suggestions

Comments (2)

blueboy1977

tatton95

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