Gourmet Strawberries

January 28, 2010

We Have Entered the World of Video …

Filed under: General Comments, Videos — admin @ 6:58 pm

Our first video was published this week on YouTube. We are making an effort to provide informational videos about our business and about how we do things to help you grow your gourmet strawberies. Here’s the first:

The Strawberry Store Propagation System

January 20, 2010

Let’s Talk About Musk Strawberries

Filed under: General Comments, musk strawberries — Tags: , , , — admin @ 2:13 pm

Musk strawberries are not well known in North America. Their scientific name is Fragaria moschata. They are genetically different than alpines and garden hybrids. Under normal conditions, they will not cross with either alpines, garden hybrids or virginia strawberries because they are a different species.

One very important thing you need to know about this type of strawberry is that they are NOT self-pollinating. For best fruit set plant more than one variety.

You should also know that they are June Bearing types which means that they produce one crop per year. Here in zone 7 we get real late season blooms for a second crop but have not had a second crop yet. In warmer zones I would guess that you might get another crop. This surprises me since I thought they would need a cooling period to set flowers again.

I was first introduced musks about 20 years ago. It just so happens that a large strawberry nursery in Delaware (where I now live) was offering them. I had no clue what I would get when I ordered a few plants.

I will say that initially I was turned off by musks. The plants are VERY aggressive. They just took over an area. For this reason they make a good ground cover and will fill an area quickly. The plants are also taller than your “typical” strawberry. I have seen them 16″ tall and they can get taller if grown in shade. They do need full sun to produce well. They also have the same requirements as other strawberries in terms of nutrition though I have yet to over fertilize them for fear that they will spread even faster.

And, when it comes to taste, they are not ANYTHING like any strawberry you have every tasted. I was particularly attracted to the taste initially but now I LOVE them and can’t get enough - same for my wife. In fact, she MADE me plant a bed this past fall so we would have more. They seem to freeze well though you will need a pretty big patch to have enough left over to freeze.

Back to taste. The fruit is not pretty necessarily nore is it large. Here’s a photo:

It’s a bit of an art knowing when to harvest them as well. They are not necessarily all red when ripe. You learn as you go by picking and eating. If they are soft to the touch and release easy they are ready. As you can see from the photo, not all the caps came with the berries. Some caps come off and some don’t.

Musks are VERY fragrant. The air is just full of their aroma when some are ripe. Once you have associated the aroma with this fruit you will never forget.

The taste is another thing. It’s impossible for me to describe. I’m sure a chef could describe them. Last spring I took samples of alpines and musks to a chef in PA at an excellent restaurant in Fairhill called the Fairhill Inn. Both chefs happened to be there when I brought the samples. I’m sure they could try to describe them and probably have by now. They just kept trying more fruit and the looks on their faces were priceless.

I have described the taste as a combination of strawberry, raspberry and pineapple. That’s not accurate because there are other tastes there. You just have to try them and try to describe them yourself.

For spring 2010 we will not have as many plants available as we have in the past. A lot of this is due to our concentrating on alpines and getting more involved with virginia strawberries. We do carry 3 varieties. The standards are ‘Capron’ and ‘Profumata di Tortona’. We are the only grower in North America to our knowledge that carries a third. This third variety is from Eastern Europe and is named ‘Rosea’ or ‘Rozeya’.

We hope you’ll try this type of strawberry sometime. We’d love to hear your thoughts and how you describe the taste.

January 17, 2010

Comments from Atlanta …

Filed under: Customer Comments, shipping in winter — admin @ 1:47 pm

Mike:

My plants arrived amid the blizzard of 2010 here in Atlanta so I put the box on the back stoop so that it wouldn’t completely thaw and wouldn’t be out in the 20 degree temps until I get them in the ground. I thought I might open the box a day or two ago just to make sure they were not in plastic (I have sometimes had this happen) and they were beautiful and even had a few blooms. Thank you so much. I will give them a little water and try to get them in the ground this week.

January 12, 2010

How is production effected by transplant size?

Filed under: Alpine Productivity, General Comments, Let's Talk about Size, alpine strawberries — Tags: , , , — admin @ 5:46 pm

I wanted to make a comment or two about production that one can expect from different sized transplants. A few days ago I posted pictures of starter plants and quick starts. There is a huge difference in size, right? What does this mean for production.

Obviously, if you transplanted a starter plant and a quick start on the same day there would be a big difference in production. The starter plant likely has 1-2 more months before it will produce the first flower. Sometimes, later in the spring season, starter plants are starting to flower. But, a starter plant doesn’t have enough of a base, roots, and plant size to support much fruit.

Quick Starts are usually in bloom or have bloomed already when they are shipped. By have bloomed I mean that quick starts shipped in the fall and winter were blooming the past fall. Once they start growing again they will flower fairly quickly.

So, how much production can one expect from the two sizes. I have “eyeballed” some of the trials I have conducted over the last several years and will make some VERY general observations. If both sizes are planted in the spring, the Quick Start will produce more than twice the number of fruit that the starter plant will produce. And, the size of the fruit from the Quick Start will be substantially larger.

Starter plants are an economical way to get started growing alpines. You will get fruit the first season. If you live in a northern area with a short growing season you won’t get a lot of fruit. Farther south with a longer growing season and the possibility of getting a fall crop, you will get more fruit.

Quick Starts planted in the spring will be in a position the following year to produce nearly a full crop. If planted in the fall, quick starts can produce a fairly decent crop the next spring.

I’m sorry that this is not more clear, but that’s what happens when one is generalizing. Make comments if you need further explanation.

Alpine Strawberry Productivity

Filed under: Alpine Productivity, alpine strawberries — Tags: , , — admin @ 4:51 pm

This is a large topic so it may have to be added in a couple of posts. I’ll get as far as I can today.

Let’s be clear right away. What I’m going to talk about here are non-runnering alpine strawberries. These plants are ever-bearing, but one more attribute about them, they are day-neutral. That means that they will bloom when conditions are favorable (correct temperature, moisture, nutrition, etc) irregardless of day length. They do not require a chilling period like the runnering alpine varieties.

First, let’s set aside some misconceptions. I’ve been growing and testing alpine strawberry varieties for over 20 years. There are some that believe that all red alpines are really the same variety. The varieties are actually selections that have been made through the years. They are not hybrids and are not gmo.They are open-pollinated varieties and produce true from seed although division can also be used to propagate them.

Still others believe that the yellows and whites are the same variety. I can tell you without a doubt in my mind that each variety is distinct. I have seen it in production trials. I have seen it in germination tests. Each variety that I carry is unique. Yes, they have similarities but they are NOT the same.

Second, let’s jump into productivity misconceptions. Many references online and even in print tend to say the same thing. They usually start out saying that alpines make good border plants and are cute little things that don’t produce enough fruit to warrant being in the garden. It is usually recommended by these authors that the plants are very cute along the sidewalk planted 6″ apart. They go on to paint the picture that you will be drawn to the plants by the aroma that they produce.

About the only part of this that’s true is about the aroma. It’s unmistakable once you’ve discovered where that strong aroma is coming from. You can then let your nose point you toward the alpine patch. Yes, they are partially correct in saying that they aren’t productive. They won’t produce much if they’re planted that close together. They’re kind of being set up for failure.

My thesis in entomology school was about the innate capacity of the green cloverworm, a very obscure “pest” of soybeans in the midwest. Enough about that. What I want to emphasize is the innate capacity part. What this basically means is that if you remove all the factors that negatively influence a characteristic - in this case productivity - then that’s the innate capacity.

For a number of years I’ve grown alpines in large containers including half barrels. It doesn’t take a plant long to fill a barrel. And, with the right conditions, nutrition, light, moisture, etc you’ll get a lot of fruit. I’m one of those people who has to quantify things. I finally decided about 4 years ago to take a look at the innate capacity for production of alpine strawberries. I laid out the following plan.

  • I chose a single plant each of 8 varieties that were grown from seed at about the same date - within a couple of weeks of each other
  • These plants were well over a year old when they were transplanted to a large raised bed that had been amended with mushroom soil
  • The plants were planted 18 - 20 inches apart in the bed in a single row. The row faced the morning and mid day sun with no shaddows. In the mid afternoon the bed is shaded which is great for strawberries - they don’t like the heat!
  • Bird netting was used over the row at all times. The netting was pulled back only when picking
  • The trial actually started when the plants were about two years old. They were huge plants that measured 18 or more inches in diameter.
  • For the spring only, fruit was picked every two days or so. If adverse weather was predicted the fruit was picked more often. The number of fruit picked was recorded per plant and the fruit was weighed in grams with a fairly accurate portable scale
  • since I was looking at the potential for production, no effort was made to grade the fruit. every berry was included in the counts and the weights

The results of this trial have not been published so I’ll give some general information here. ‘Alexandria’ and ‘Yellow Wonder’ were the two top producing varieties. Statistically they produced the “same” amount of fruit. These two varieties produced nearly 450 berries each and the total weight of these berries was 0.9 lb. That’s a LOT of fruit. And, this was the spring season only. Studies setup on 2009 will follow multiple plants for each of 12 varieties for multiple seasons so we’ll try to get a handle on this.

So, don’t believe it if you read that alpines are cute little, unproductive plants. Further proof of this is that fruit is being imported into the U.S. almost daily from Europe. The Europeans don’t make a fuss about it and you don’t hear much about it unless you dine at a top French restaurant. These plants, yes, some of the same varieties that I have worked with all these years, are the same ones being grown overseas and shipped here. European growers wouldn’t be wasting their time picking from unproductive plants, would they?

The next planned post - why should I plant multiple varieties of alpines? See ya then …..

January 7, 2010

Let’s Talk about Size - Container Size that is …

Filed under: General Comments, Let's Talk about Size — admin @ 4:12 pm

You probably are sick of hearing terms that you don’t understand. I hear them all the time and wonder if someone is trying to pull the wool over my eyes.

Here, I’m going to try to set the record straight on the products that I sell - at least pot size, not plug trays. Standard horticultural flats are 10″ x 20″ x 1.5″ deep. Everyone in the industry refers to them as 1020’s. There are various inserts that fit into a standard flat. The one I call a starter plant is in a 1206. This means that there are 12 paks of 6 plants that fit into the flat. That means that there are a total of 72 plant in a 1020 flat. They are fairly small as you can imagine. Just for your information, strawberry plants in this size take about 3 months to grow at near optimal conditions. The size of starter plants are shown in the picture below - the “72″ is the one on the far left (my thumb is shown to add perspective).

Strawberry Plant Containers

The plant is the middle is known as a 32. I’m no longer selling this size because I have found that they do not overwinter well under the conditions in our nursery.

Quick Starts as I call them are shown in the picture on the far right. These are what are known in the industry as 1801’s. There are 18 plants in single “pots”. They are perforated and come apart from each other like the 6 paks do. The size of each of these plants is 3.25″ square by 3.5″ tall. They are actually taller than the flat that holds them. It takes about 4 months from seeding to have a nice, well-rooted Quick Start plant. Quick Starts overwinter nicely under our conditions here in Delaware. Of course, they have to be mulched with straw.

So, the next obvious question is “how much fruit will I get from a starter plant vs a Quick Start”. The answer isn’t simple because it all depends on when you plant them and where you are. Where you are dictates how long the season will be, all assuming that they are being planted indoors instead of in pots.

Let me get into that in the next post since it’s a separate subject from container size. But, you get the drift about size. Now, you can get an inkling about why the plants are priced differently.

Alpine Hardiness in Containers

Filed under: General Comments, Winter Mulching Strawberries — admin @ 11:52 am

I have grown alpines in containers for many years and prefer to grow them that way. They are very hardy. They were originally discovered high in the Swiss Alps. Plants that are well established in large pots need minimal protection. One option is to move them into an unheated shed. What I do is put a little fence around them making the enclosure at least 6″ larger than the pots and about 6″ taller. I then fill the space around the pots and on top of them with straw. Some people wrap their plants in bubble wrap or black roofing paper. I don’t advise that because both of those materials can cause heating and a freeze thaw cycle. All they need is some protection to moderate the temperatures and cut down the ups and downs.

January 6, 2010

Shipping in Winter

Filed under: General Comments, shipping in winter — admin @ 10:10 pm

We ship strawberry plants nearly year-round. Right now it’s cold outside. We have not been above freezing for a couple of weeks. Yes, I’m talking about the daytime high not being above freezing. It’s rough out here on the frozen tundra of Delaware.

Despite the cold, I have been shipping Quick Starts. I dig them out from under the straw that covers them and break them loose from their trays. Most times they have fine roots that have penetrated through the ground cover and these roots are broken off when I’m pulling the orders.

Many of the leave are still green though frozen solid. Some leaves are yellow or dead. I don’t clean off the yellow and dead leaves under these conditions. I have found that doing so can break off the whole stem. Instead, I wrap them in newspaper and send them off, most times still frozen.

They will likely thaw out on the way depending on where they are being shipped to. My advice to those receiving them is to allow the plants to gradually adjust to their new surroundings. I would suggest no warmer than the 40’s at first. If you’re lucky enough to live where it doesn’t get that low, then your lowest temperature or coolest area.

I think it’s best to just put the plants outdoors with protection. They were covered with straw here. If you have straw, put them outdoors in a spot where the straw won’t blow away or use fencing or something to keep the straw in place. Cover them with 3-5″ of loose straw. Use the courser straw, not fine straw which can smother them. In the absence of straw, do not use wood mulch. Use pine needles instead. I don’t recommend leaves as they will pack down and smother the plants.

If you feel that you need them inside for whatever reason, put them in the coolest area and gradually warm them up over a couple of weeks like you’re simulating spring. Isolate them from other houseplants and give them as much sun as possible. Keep them moist but not soaking wet and allow them to dry out a bit before watering them again.

If possible, transplant them a few days after they have thawed out and adjusted to their new environment. I like to put Quick Starts into 6 or 8″ pots with well drained soil. This would also be a good time to clean off the yellowing and dead leaves. Don’t pull them off, snip them off with a garden shears or scissors.

Good luck. Please let me know if you have other questions about receiving plants in the winter.

Indoor vs Outdoor Planting

Filed under: General Comments, Planting Strawberries — admin @ 9:52 pm

I frequently get questions about whether it’s best to plant strawberries indoors our outdoors. If you live in a hot climate then planting indoors is a strong possibility, especially if they will grow in a temperature controlled environment. Strawberries are cool season plants. They will survive in hot temperatures with proper care, but they are best grown cool. Cool here is defined as between 50 and 75F.

Here are some considerations for growing strawberries indoors:

  • Strawberries generally don’t pollinate well indoors. Outdoors there are breezes and insects that aid pollination. Indoors they can be hand pollinated. I have found that use of an oscillating fan on low helps. Another aid is to use a device that vibrates like an electric toothbrush. Touching the toothbrush to the flower stalk daily will help.
  • Before deciding to plant strawberries indoors consider where they came from. If they were grown outdoors and you are bringing them in, you likely will be bringing in insects. Some insects survive in the “nooks and crannies” of the plant like the leaf axils. In a sense, you are unleashing them indoors. It may take time for them to build up enough numbers to cause damage but the damage shows up sometimes quicker than one can react. Many times the populations are so large and there is so much damage that it can be nearly impossible to control.
  • Plants don’t dry out quickly indoors, especially in winter. Soil that is wet for long periods of time in cool conditions is a recipe for root diseases. Most strawberries are susceptible to root rots unless the breeder has selected for resistance. Some of the garden hybrids have some resistance. Alpine strawberries have no resistance since they are open pollinated varieties that have been selected through the years.
  • If you are not equipped to isolate plants from other plants already in the home, the newly introduced strawberries may become a new favorite food of the pests you already have indoors.

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