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Strawberries - An underrated fruit?

 
Steward of piddlers
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Location: Upstate NY, Zone 5, 43 inch Avg. Rainfall
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A memory that comes to me from time to time was a school fieldtrip where I got to pick strawberries at a young age around eight years old. A lovely older woman taught me how to find the biggest strawberries by checking under the leaves. I consider it a formative moment for me towards appreciating agriculture.

Last year, on a whim, I received a handful of strawberry starts that I planted in several beds around my property. To confess, I didn't have a plan for them. I just put them where I could find a spot and essentially forgot about them. Color me surprised when they established aggressively in a shaded bed that hasn't been able to grow anything but hosta and ferns. Continuing the theme of neglect, I spread the thinnest layer of straw on top of them before winter and let them go. Wouldn't you know, I have a ton of strawberries plants greening up.

Do you grow strawberries? Do you have any tips or tricks? Share your experiences.

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Strawberries
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Timothy Norton
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I currently am having good success growing everbearing strawberries (Albion) in raised beds.

They put out a bunch of runners and spread readily. They have been resistant to diseases and overwintered nicely in USDA zone 5b. They seem to enjoy their semi-shaded bed they are in.

This year, I am focusing on producing fruit that the local wildlife won't rip through fully. I know there will be loss, I just hope to enjoy some myself! I believe my approach to this will be to establish a large patch in order to share.
 
steward
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I love growing strawberries and picking them right off the plant to pop into my mouth.

I feel strawberries are one of the most popular fruits.

I see folks coating them with chocolate or dipping them into cream cheese.

I like mine fresh out of the garden best.
 
gardener
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I love strawberries. They have been an easy groundcover for us. The only drawback has always been that they ripen when the birds have chicks so it's a fight to get to eat many.

Watching the parent/child teaching sessions with the robins was pretty cute but I would still prefer to get my actual fruit. I even tried the painted rock trick and it didn't do much.
The only thing that worked well was to do the white pineberries. They have a milder flavour but are still good. They are the only ones I moved from our old place.
A friend built a 4 section fenced area for his. They are all different ripening times and he can net over what is ready, to protect them. A lot of work, but they got a great haul. They gave me a bunch of plants that had escaped their protected zones, so I'll see if we can beat the wild eaters to some this year since I have put in a bunch around our young hazelnuts.
 
pollinator
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I think strawberries are a bit like apples, with the equivalent of “red delicious” supermarket berries giving many a distorted impression of how good they can be when grown regeneratively and eaten right off the plant.
 
Timothy Norton
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I might be missing something obvious, but why would somebody rather a june bearing strawberry variety than an everbearing? Do june bearing have an advantage?
 
Ben Zumeta
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Timothy Norton wrote:I might be missing something obvious, but why would somebody rather a june bearing strawberry variety than an everbearing? Do june bearing have an advantage?



I think the main advantage is for larger producers hiring labor for picking and processing all at once.
 
pioneer
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we have a lot of doodle bugs that love the berries ...so, I like to plant in containers so the berries hang over the edge in the air.
 
pollinator
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If one has strawberries in a pot they can bear fruit for three summers in my experience from growing them when I was a kid.  The fourth summer they were shrivelly and nasty.  But if you have a patch of them they will spread with those runners so new plants will establish every year and it will be a tangle of berries and they'll just keep regenerating each year from what I've been told because of the spread.
 
gardener
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Timothy Norton wrote:I might be missing something obvious, but why would somebody rather a june bearing strawberry variety than an everbearing? Do june bearing have an advantage?



If you want fresh eating, then you want something that produces a little over time. If you want to harvest and store them in some way, then it is often easier to harvest and freeze them all at once. It is much easier to freeze 20 quarts of strawberries in a single batch, than it is to get out your stuff for 1 quart each 20 times.

On a side note, my kids are turning into strawberry snobs  We didn't have any fresh left, and just got frozen store bought. They were complaining the store bought didn't have as much flavor and were sour. While I told them to eat them anyway... I also used it as an excuse to talk about how local food is much fresher and can be picked at the right time.
 
steward
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Timothy Norton wrote:I might be missing something obvious, but why would somebody rather a june bearing strawberry variety than an everbearing? Do june bearing have an advantage?

I agree with Matt - but not just from the bulk processing direction.

Everything likes strawberries - bugs, slugs, bunnies, deer, and in particular, Robins. The only way I'll get any is to protect them, which takes effort, but also, if there are lots of them all at once, the odds go up for me getting a decent number for myself, since many of the above mentioned strawberry lovers, tend to take one bite out of each fruit... sigh...

Also, all the everbearing varieties I tried, seemed to only last a year or two, whereas my June bearing ones have gradually moved around my property for the last 30 years. Yes, they're not huge like the modern strawberries, but they actually have flavour! Antique strawberries for the win!
 
gardener
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For some reason I have had difficulty growing strawberries. Two years ago??? I finally grew gorgeous strawberry plants that were producing well, and I didn't get 1 berry. If the Birds didn't get them the slugs did.
Last year I built a bed with a chicken wire top. I put bare-root strawberries in. So far so good, they are looking good. I have solved the bird problem.  Being a new bed hopefully I won't have a big slug problem. It may be something I have to deal with in the future. Fingers crossed we actually get to eat strawberries this year.
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Strawberry bed
Strawberry bed
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I love strawberries.  Over the years have learned many great things about strawberries. They are the only fruit that has the seeds on the outside of the fruit. They also have a unique fiber that actually removes heavy metals in the body.  Gosh and they taste so great and are so good for you that we should plant more. I am planning a new planter just for strawberries that should give me about double my normal yield and so we can enjoy those nice cool evenings having strawberry shortcake of just a bowl of mashed up strawberries with a little coconut sugar on them or pure maple syrup. Hope you all enjoy strawberries as much as I and we do. Cheers.
 
pollinator
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We have 3 nice beds of strawberries.  Last year "Our" harvest wasn't very good, but the grandkids harvest was excellent!!  ;-)
I was so wonderful to hear and watch as the 2 to 4 year olds found them.  I may have to start a couple more beds of them so we can have some ourselves.

2 years ago I started a new bed of Asparagus and Strawberries.  Am looking forward to harvesting the asparagus this year.  Wanted to last year but decided to let it get better established.  The strawberries there are huge and tasty.
 
pollinator
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I bought strawberry plants and asparagus roots this year but they haven't arrived yet (5a) I went with June bearing but am considering adding everbearing next year.

Does anyone have a reason I shouldn't mix the 2 types of strawberries together?
 
Timothy Norton
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I have two separate areas where I am growing strawberries. Over the winter, I protected the plants with straw to help them deal with the cold.

One bed, I pulled the straw mulch back while the other one I left the straw intact. The bed that I had pulled the straw back has 'woke up' faster than the other one. My non-scientific explanation to myself has to do with either the sun being able to contact the dirt warming it faster or the plants themselves. Perhaps the straw's light color reflects heat and keeps the soil cooler?
 
Dennis Barrow
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Strawberry plants are waking up !!
The really GOOD news is I will harvest my first asparagus in a few days!  Grows great with the strawberries!!
 
master pollinator
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Mmmm! First strawberry this year!

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