Gourmet Strawberries

Did you know that strawberries come in a range of shapes? If you run into descriptions of a berry’s shape, use this chart to give you an idea of their shape.

Thanks to http://strawberry.ifas.ufl.edu/breeding/varieties.htm for the image.

My inbox is filling up with emails from families who are interested in growing their own strawberries. Almost every one says that they are looking for varieties that will produce large volumes of strawberries. Most mention that they also want varieties that taste great.

First, I want to congratulate these folks for making the decision to grow their own fruit. Next, I want to mention that I’m not in the “volume strawberry business”. I would love to be able to offer every variety that is available. However, I’m in the business of selling seeds and plants for gourmet strawberries, what I like to call strawberries with taste.

Don’t get me wrong. There are strawberry varieties being sold that taste great when they are allowed to ripen on the plant. I’m not a big fan of June bearing strawberries. It’s not necessarily the taste. Yes, many produce large volumes of berries. My opinion is that I’m not really interested in taking care of plants for a whole year and only being able to harvest for a couple of weeks. I like the day neutrals which will produce a spring and a fall crop. But, that’s just my preference.

I do sell a gourmet June bearing type that produces a lot of fruit called ‘Madame Moutot’. I will have more available in the spring but these sell out quickly. I will be introducing other heirloom varieties in the future. One that I hope to have available in the fall of 2011 is ‘Fairfax’.  My recommendation for buying June bearing varieties is to ask your local county extension office for their recommendations. Most states’ land grant universities publish recommendations for varieties and how to grow them. They can also test your soil for pH and nutrients. Use those resources.

The main day neutral hybrid that I carry is ‘Mara des Bois’. The fruit is generally medium sized and the plants are productive. It now has a large market share in Europe. The taste is terrific and the volume isn’t bad. You won’t get a giant crop in spring but you will get a nice crop and another in fall. The best part is the taste. Given the right nutrition this variety is very tasty.

Those would be my selections for producing a lot of fruit. But, it’s all relative. The alpines are not slouches when it comes to production. Many Americans are not aware that alpines, also known as fraises des bois, are being imported into the U.S. from overseas for a LOT of money. These European growers must know something that we don’t? The truth is that most of the literature here in the U.S. from garden writers and descriptions in garden catalogs is wrong (I have been on this high horse before so please forgive me for repeating myself). Most descriptions call the alpines cute little ornamentals that look and smell great along the sidewalk when planted about 6″ apart.

A customer recently sent an email and noted that planting any plant that you care about along the sidewalk is not a good idea. The soil along a sidewalk is not usually very rich. It’s usually packed clay. It will likely be walked on and in colder climates the plants will get a large dose of salt used to melt ice and snow. He’s exactly right. Given the space and care, alpines can be very productive. Yes, they are small, but wouldn’t you rather spend more time picking small aromatic berries with a heavenly taste that picking some giant relatively tasteless berries? The Europeans are treating their alpines like a crop. I can assure you that they are producing a lot of very tasty strawberries AND, they are making a LOT of money doing it.

I invite you to view a video I put together last year. Here’s the link:  The Strawberry Store Sells Gourmet Strawberries.

My recommendations for alpines is to check out the chart that I put together that rates the varieties. Here’s a link:
Alpine Strawberry Variety Characteristics.  For the most consistent production choose a couple of varieties. These plants flower cyclically when conditions are favorable. Planting several varieties will overlap each other in their cycles and produce fruit more consistently. Decide if you want to try yellow or white fruiting varieties. Why not try them? Grow a couple of red varieties and a novelty variety like ‘Yellow Wonder’. ‘Yellow Wonder’ is as productive as the best red varieties. I think yellow and white fruiting alpines are sweeter than the reds. And, the birds aren’t as apt to steal the yellows and whites.

Another recommendation is to not start out too big. I have received emails recently from families saying that they have these large areas set aside for next year’s strawberry patch. Unless you’re an experienced gardener, start out slowly and small. Experiment with different strawberry species, different types, different varieties. Learn to grow them. Learn how they grow in your climate, your soil, etc. Take those experiences into account for the next year’s crop. I too often learn that customers gave up after trying to do it all. Take it slow. We’ll have plants in future years for you to try. I’m planning to be around for some time, God willing.

I frequently get asked questions like this: “We have a family of 4. How many alpine strawberry plants should we plant to be able to supply our strawberry needs?”. At first blush this question seems simple. Take the strawberry needs of 4 people and divide by production per plant. Right?

Not quite. Alpines, like most gourmet types of strawberries, and are not grown and sold by the quart. We Americans want the highest yielding whatever. It is obvious with strawberries that the flavor and aroma is not a consideration. Quantity wins.

Did you ever think about why portions of French dishes are so small. Americans don’t feel like they are getting value with such meals. I’m paying what for such a small portion? If you look at the size of the portion without tasting it you probably do feel short changed. But the value in French food is the taste, the experience, not the quantity.

If you are looking only at quantity, go buy a quart of strawberries in the store. During the summer when my alpines were not producing much because of the heat, I finally gave in to the temptation to buy a quart of strawberries at my local grocery store. In fact, they were selling them two for the price of one. Wow, what a bargain. They looked great. Huge unripe berries. In the final analysis, they were not a bargain. I ended up feeding most of what I bought to my worms. Pretty expensive worm food! There was very little aroma. Just enough to get me to buy them. The taste was horrible. The crispiness of an apple. Even sugar didn’t make it much better, just tolerable. Yes, they had strawberry flavor, afterall, they have most of the genes of strawberries. I was very disappointed and felt that I wasted my money.

So, what’s the answer? I think the only choice we have as consumers is to grow our own if we are looking for food that tastes good. And more importantly, if we want to be able to control what our food is sprayed with we must grow our own.

This has become the mission of The Strawberry Store. We are bringing back heirloom varieties. Many of these varieties were pushed out of the marketplace because their yields could no longer compete with newer varieties. Some fell out of favor for other reasons such as susceptibility to pests or that they don’t ship well. If you are growing them in your backyard, why do they need to ship well?

I heard from a strawberry breeder recently that he is not interested in working with varieties that don’t have all of what they now consider desirable characterics such as shipability, size, yield, etc. It is becoming more and more clear to me that these breeders are breeding strawberries that will at some point turn the tide. More and more consumers want to grow their own for some of the reasons already mentioned. If the flavor continues to be sacrificed for size and yield, at some point people will stop buying the fruit at the store like I have. If enough people get fed up with the lack of value then breeders are going to have to start reconsidering their positions.

We hear frequently from customers that they are happy with the heirlooms. Many customers are buying and planting varieties that we are reintroducing and testing themselves for characteristics important to them. The home gardener is now becoming the breeder in a way. They are selecting varieties that give them what they cannot buy at the store. Some are even becoming amateur plant breeders. They are planting the seeds from the strawberries that they grow and selecting their own varieties. In the 1800′s, this is how new varieties were introduced. Home gardeners were the plant breeders of that day. I think in some ways plant breeding is coming full circle. More and more are unhappy with the selections being introduced by professional breeders and are making their own selections. These selections are not solely based on yield. Flavor and aroma are a part of this selection process. And, a lot of the fruit picked gets eaten right in the garden. Who needs varieties that can be shipped thousands of miles when they are not shipped even one foot - they’re eaten on the spot or within 50 feet of where they are grown. This is the reason our business exists, and is thriving.

Recently,  I received an email from a customer in Maine asking about the need to fertilize in the fall and about what needs to be done to the strawberry bed to prepare it for winter. The customer also wanted to know what would happen if late season fruit were not picked. Here are some general comments sent to this customer who grows ‘Alexandria’:

I’m glad to hear that your plants are still producing. Even frost won’t stop them. A hard frost will kill off the new blooms but fruit already set will continue to mature as weather allows. I’m in zone 7 here and have picked as late as Christmas Day.

First, I’d suggest that you get hold of winter protection info specific to your area. County Extension usually has good info. Even though their info is about hybrid garden strawberries it applies to alpines.

‘Alexandria’ are day neutral ever bearing types. They don’t need cold temps to set next year’s crop. Get them through winter and they will set a new crop.

I do not recommend fertilizing in fall. Wait until very early spring when the straw mulch has been removed. Fall fertilization can lead to new tender growth that makes the plants susceptible to winter kill. The plants will grow, mostly underground, even in winter, though very slowly.

I recommend a wheat or oats straw. Some recommend corn stalks. Even though there is a lot of corn here, I’ve never had access to any to try. I’ve tried leaves. They matt down and smother the plants. I’ve had near 100% die off when using leaves.

I use about 3-4” of straw. I apply it after a couple of hard frosts. The plants need to be preconditioned in a way, prepared for mulching. If lush green plants are mulched the leaves pack down and get moldy which leads to diseases, etc. The best time for that here is late November to mid-December depending on the season. In your area I would guess mid to late October.

In early spring, take the mulch off when the daytime temps get into the low 40’s. Even though it will still freeze at night, the plants will begin to grow. You don’t want to leave the mulch on too long, especially if it’s an extremely wet spring. The plants need to dry out a bit to reduce diseases. Add compost or fertilizer when the mulch is taken off. Work it into the soil a bit as best you can.

I like to leave an inch or two of straw around the plants and a lot between the rows. This helps to protect the fruit from dirt splashing and helps it to dry off quicker. It also holds soil moisture during the season and holds down weeds. Alpines need to be able to expand their plant size so don’t leave too much mulch on them or it will suppress their expansion and growth. If the mulch is kept loose near the old plant, new crowns will be able to find their way out. This allows the mound to expand and significantly increases production. Next spring’s crop should be huge.

You mention not being able to pick the fruit. With a single variety it shouldn’t be a problem. With multiple varieties they will cross. The cross pollination doesn’t affect the taste of the fruit but fruit left behind will not be genetically the same as the parent plant. Volunteer seedlings will sprout and eventually, after a few years, could take over. These volunteers can even be runnering types. It’s best to keep them picked as best you can if you have more than one variety or if there are wild Fragaria vesca in the area that could cross with your cultivated plants. A few fruit left behind is not a problem. Many left behind could eventually shorten the life of the planting.

One last thing. Make sure that the soil doesn’t dry out completely during winter. Very dry winters where the soil is bone dry will cause winter kill. In extreme cases the plants should be watered to bring up soil moisture.

Sorry that it’s not more straight forward with exact dates to apply mulch, etc. It’s an art rather than a science. After doing it for years I know the day it needs to be done. When heavy rain or snow and cold temps are coming, after a couple of hard frosts, it’s time. I hope that helps you.

I get a lot of questions about growing strawberries in general. Here is one of a number of great resources. It’s called the Mid-Atlantic Berry guide and includes strawberries and other types of berries. It has a wealth of information that can be used to grow other species of strawberries like alpines. Garden varieties and alpine strawberries have very similar needs in terms of nutrition and other needs. Here’s a link to this guide:

http://pubs.cas.psu.edu/freepubs/MAberryGuide.htm