Hello,
I am thinking of trying to grow strawberries this year in a pot, as described in the J/J '06 OG issue. Can anyone suggest particular varieties to grow in the Southeast (N. Carolina, zone 7), and where to buy them? I saw that Seeds of Change is selling crowns (not sure what those are), but their website says that you can't harvest until the 2nd spring. Does that mean I'll have to wait until next year for harvest? Any suggestions are appreciated!

Thanks,
Kristen
Pittsboro, NC

I'm not sure about NC, but I've had great results with Earliglow and Seqouia. I wish I knew the name of something I bought years ago that out-performed everything. Now the crowns under 6" of patio cement.

kkamerath,

Crowns are starter plants, not mature enough to produce fruits. They need to be planted to establish a good root system, stems and leaves. After this happens, they will have enough energy to concentrate on blossoming and fruiting. In fact, the first spring they are in, it's advised to pluck off any blossoms that may appear so the plants concentrate on root system development instead of fruit development. If you want established plants, find someone who needs to thin out an established patch, and dig plants with large root balls. They will still need to recover (from transplant), but to a much lesser degree.

Honeoye is incredible for me. I am in zone 5. Always buy certified virus free plants. The virus comes and they go down hill fast. I like to get my strawberry plants from a place that does virus free cloning. These guys are professionals at this.

www.noursefarms.com

I advise against getting free plants from friends.

here is how they grow.

you put in plants in early spring. they set roots and start to make more baby plants the first year. you want no fruit this first year. Then in the next spring you get too many strawberries. the original plants you put in will then be old and it would be good to dig them out. the baby plants will be big but ok and will keep putting out more plants.

You can take some tiny baby plants and make a new bed. But you really should purchase and use new virus free plants again.

You only take strawberries from this area twice or for 2 years or two springs. Then you destroy all the plants and give the soil a rest is best. before starting over on the same soil.

My opinion is to skip on everbearing. they produce nothing.

Honeoye is super for me. I grew them when they first came out and loved them. Have not tried the newer ones. but honeoye still comes super highly regarded.

I got over 500 quarts from my 100 plants in the first harvest. I was overwhelmed. They freeze great. I just put them into large bags dry and they worked fine and kept like new for years in the freezer.

We planted some everbearing, honeoye and cavendish strawberries. The honeoye were planted this last spring so we didn't get any berries off of them. The cavendish were planted the fall before last, they had some berries this last summer. The everbearing, sorry can't remember which variety I planted, either ogaliala or ozark beauty, produced some throughout the summer, most of which were eaten by the chickens. But the everbearing were much smaller than the Junebearing berries.

We had a patch of honeoye before and thought those were the best tasting berry until this last summer when we got our first taste of the cavendish. The cavendish produced huge berries and they are so sweet there is no need for sugar or anything with them. A large amount of these berries picked did not make it to the house, and I had a smile after picking!

The everbearing strawberries will expand from the crown and send out runners. To get large berries you have to keep cutting the runners off and only let the plants grow from the crown, these do not die off after a year or 2 but keep growing and producing from the crown. The everbearing we planted here do have good flavor and large berries as long as I keep the runners from growing... when I didn't get the runners clipped back the berries got much smaller, the flavor remained. But the everbearing will not get as large as the Junebearing... it depends on what your looking for in your berries, for us flavor is everything, and the size is second in consideration!

Hah! This is one of the thousand (exaggeration) new things I'm starting this year. Strawberries in a pot. Again, nice picture in the catalogue.

So now you mean to tell me I might not get any berries the first year? I'm going to start them indoors.

So help me, if I don't get a berry I'll eat the plant.

Thanks for all the good suggestions. It helps to hear people's experiences with different kinds of plants.

Sooooo, anybody have any idea whether I'll get strawberries the first year? The name on the seed packet is "Temptation" and they're everbearing.

Especially starting from seed? Doubtful.

How about Alpine strawberries? I don't know if this is a good suggestion or not,there is a thread on here from a couple years back,but (sorry) I don't know how to bring it up to show it. But if you search on here ,it's there-and there is this- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...=rss_opinion/columns I just started a flat of the yellow ones after cold treating for a month. Anyway they are the only kind of strawberries I've seen that are started at home by seed instead of runners.

quote:

Originally posted by Maltesecross:
Sooooo, anybody have any idea whether I'll get strawberries the first year? The name on the seed packet is "Temptation" and they're everbearing.

you can do a google search. Veseys has them. they are simply a named Alpine strawberry. I find them boring to grow. I have had them and felt they are a waste of time. they are not easy to grow and you will get a few in the first year.

with luck you should be able to get a few small strawberries in the first year.

they do not put out runners. some seeds will drop on the ground and new plants will come.

Regular strawberries like honeyone blow them away in my estimation.

honeyone is spelled differently. I have to look it up. but you will know it when you see it.

Thanks for responding. I've planted the ones I mentioned and I'm going to try them because I am NOT buying anything else this year, so help me...(notice the discipline, which rarely exists in my personality?)

My gardens are still forming themselves and when I create a strawberry or any kind of berry patch, I'll do some more research on them.

I don't agree fully with some of what has been said here.

I plant them and if they give me a berry I pick it. Don't worry; if they didn't have enough vigor to give me a berry, they wouldn't. Let them bloom and give you some yummies if they will.

I have both June bearers and everbearers. Both are excellent. The everbearers give some fruit in June, then after a slight rest, start poducing again and continue to do so until frost.

The last everbearers I planted were planted in the spring, and by mid july started to bloom, and gave me a good crop that first year. They produce until October.

Sorry, I can't remember the variety name.

One thing I might mention, the June bearers seem to put out more runners than the everbearing types.

Chandler!! That's the one that pumped out fruit like mini "I Love Lucy" candy machines! Peaceful Valley has them for $6/25 +s/h. http://www.groworganic.com/cgy_378.html

Some historical info http://www.southcoastfarms.com/whatwegrow.htm

Another on red versus black plastic mulch in a commercial setting
http://www.sfc.ucdavis.edu/research/strawberry.html

OK - I just read the WA Post article that dirtdigger linked. I went ahead and ordered some Musk strawberry plants. $5.50 EACH is crazy, but it is said that they're long-lived perennials. We'll see... My DH will not like this month's Visa bill - but Hey, it's SPRING!