Strawberries

[seedcorn]

Always had June bearers. 3 years ago, I bought ever bearers. Last year, one crop. Early but I'm already disappointed in the yield. Do ever bearers really bare more than one crop?

 

[dickiebird]

Good question, I hope they do as I planted a bunch of them this spring.

THANX RICH

 

[MontyJ]

Mine bear an extended early crop over a few weeks (I'm picking them now) and then a shorter late crop. I'll find scattered berries throughout the year though. I remember when I first bought this property, I planted a small bed of everbearers and they produced scattered berries all year long with no large crops at all. I don't remember what variety they were, just something I picked up at Lowes I think.

 

[so lucky]

I had everbearing for a couple of years; always a sparse disappointing crop. This year I planted June bearing. Quite a few berries, but small, watery and not sweet. I hope that is a result of the weather, and not the variety. I think it may have been Ozark Beauty--it was something particularly for my area.

 

[Jared77]

What about planting a couple different varieties to get production at different times? It may mean a couple of beds but if they were kept small you could get a reasonable crop much longer.

http://www.uvm.edu/vtvegandberry/factsheets/strawberryvarieties.html

That will give you a list of the different varieties if that helps Seed.

 

[journey11]

On their first year (everbearers) I remove all of the spring blooms and runners to allow the plants to make good roots, then for the late crop they will bear steadily over a period of several weeks, mid-August up until first frost. The fall crop is always the best because they will stop bearing during the worst heat of summer and just work on growing. Your second year with them will be even better and they should do well for you up until 4 or 5 years of age, which is then time to replace them because they'll start to die out. If your plants are disease free, you can keep your patch going with your own runners, or buy new plants...either way. (Don't let them make too many runners per plant though...it will sap their energy. I only leave 3 or 4 per plant, just to have replacements. You can keep pruning them all off if you want to.)

Everbearers are nice if you want a steady supply of berries for a few pies and handfuls of berries to throw in your breakfast. They don't lay on huge crops like the Junebearers do, which is probably where you're seeing the difference after raising Junebearers. The Junebearers are best for folks who like to make a lot of jam and put up lots of berries for winter. You get heavy crops over a couple weeks and can process them all at once. Everbearers are slow and steady.

 

[seedcorn]

Slow and steady is exactly what I want. Not seeing the steady part at all. Don't remember the variety I planted.

 

[vfem]

Mine are just finishing up their first multi-week round. I'm only getting a couple handfuls a day now. 2 weeks ago I was getting 4 cups + a day. In July I'll get quite a few handfuls more, then another bunch for a few weeks in September. I prefer these 100 to 1 for taste, they have a strong smell and a strong flavor in comparison to the June bearers I'm used to which smell strong, but are watery in flavor at best. I have about 50 plants in 1 bed, and 30 plants in another. Long as I don't forget to sprinkle DE and oyster shell around the beds, they're ALL MINE! After a rain, I loss a few to slugs and pill bugs.

 

[journey11]

Yeah, they should be bearing now or here very soon. I'd be interested in which variety they are. Some have better disease resistance than others.

 

[MontyJ]

I went out to pick another batch after work last night only to discover the dang deer picked them for me I put some stakes around the bed and patched electric from the main garden fence to it.