What variety of strawberries?

A._Badger

Elsanta is one of the nastiest yet, I agree with Cootambear. For flavour, I find Alice is hard to beat.

cootambear

the thing about elsanta is that home grown are going to taste better than shop bought because they are picked when ripe so people think when they eat them they are great.

shop bought straws these days are a disgrace

i shake them when I see them and barely detect any fragrance

in fact they are a vastly inferior breed, taste and texture wise.

why buy a shadow of a strawberry, when you can plant and eat the straws you remember from your youth, or even plant better tasting varieties than that?

A._Badger

Commercially grown strawberries have an entirely different job to do. They have to ripen at the same time, they have to pick easily and travel without damage, then sit in a brightly lit, warm store until Mrs Muggins buys them. Then they have to sit in her fridge for a week.

This isn't just true for strawberries but all soft fruit. It's why we should grow our own and pick varieties chosen for flavour.

cootambear

supermarket strawbs like elsanta are bred for shelf life not flavour

they try and try to maintain flavour, but frankly the flavour of strawbs is intensely linked to the moment they are picked and eaten, and also its `shelf life`, ie a strawb that is plucked at the right time will taste 1000 times better than a strawb than is plucked a week early, bred for a life where it can happily sit on a supermarket shelf for a week.

It seems that the genes for flavour are counterposed to the genes for shelf life and hardness, (this may be evolutionary, I`m speculating)

as a kid I loved em but didnt have enough money to gorge on them, as an adult with wages I thought my time had come, yet when I tasted them I thought my taste buds had gone haywire or my memory was skewed.

I dont knock supermarket veg/fruit per se, I think its wonderful we can get oranges year round for example.

But lets make the best of the growing conditions that we have, us, and perhaps france, have the best climate for growing strawbs, they are easy to grow, so lets do it.

and edit to say, therre are 1k plus varieties out there, so the choice of flavour is yours !

cootambear

kittie wrote: »

today I had my first ever taste of gariguette, well I had 1/2 as I shared it. It has been dangling from a tall planter and I had to rescue it before the gales hit it again. It was divine!!! probably the best strawberry I have ever tasted. So thank you cootamber

I am giving up strawberries on the ground on the allotment as they are too tricky and one better reason is that strawberries in planters at home are doing so very well. I have two lots of 8 clover shaped planters, one on top of another all with a cane right down the centre wedged into a slot below. Restrained with canes too at the top so they will not blow over in the gales. Amazing what you can do with strawberry plants and I love that they grow down the sides and stay clean and slug free

Ken Muir is fantastic for plants, they are such good quality. I have now ordered autumn raspberries from them to replace the allotment strawberries, standing up to pick has a lot of appeal at my age

kittie, i had almost no runners from my Maras, what was your experience, and did you have runners from your gariguettes ?

[Deleted User]

yes mara produced quite a few runners last year, whuch are growing happily this year. So far, I have cut 3 off my 12 gariguette. None produced from mara this year

Pipkin

Well, to be fair to me it's the first time I've ever grown strawberries, and the Lidls ones seemed the natural option!:D

Ours are grown in a raised bed, not that that would impact the flavour.

I will be brave and try a new variety next year, finances allowing, but strawberry ignorant as I am they still do taste very very good to me (and all the neighbours who've had some).

[Deleted User]

I am sitting here in the snug and looking at the strawberries in planter troughs, that I moved onto the deep s facing window cills. They are thriving and at last the strawberries themselves are getting a decent chance of ripening without mould, The cills are protected by overhead solar shading and the sun is high now, so the worst of the sun doesn`t get to the plants. It was an emergency measure due to constant drowning but has worked well

So more planter changes afoot for next year. I already have 4 new balconniere troughs 70 x 18 x 21 and coreopsis plants on order for them but I am going to put the coreopsis elsewhere and I think I will get another 12 gariguette this autumn. I can see that they will be fine on the cills all year and I particularly like the fact that they will be watered/fed from the bottom via a tube.

Cootamber, I have chippings which would look nice on the top. Do you think they might be a good protective idea for the strawberries in planters?

or help me choose another variety. What about chelsea pensioner?

edit: I just found 6 baby runners on 3 second year mara, they popped up overnight. Maybe I`ll just peg down the runners and plant mara in the new planters. They were brilliant last year. Decisions decisions.

cootambear

kittie wrote: »

I am sitting here in the snug and looking at the strawberries in planter troughs, that I moved onto the deep s facing window cills. They are thriving and at last the strawberries themselves are getting a decent chance of ripening without mould, The cills are protected by overhead solar shading and the sun is high now, so the worst of the sun doesn`t get to the plants. It was an emergency measure due to constant drowning but has worked well

So more planter changes afoot for next year. I already have 4 new balconniere troughs 70 x 18 x 21 and coreopsis plants on order for them but I am going to put the coreopsis elsewhere and I think I will get another 12 gariguette this autumn. I can see that they will be fine on the cills all year and I particularly like the fact that they will be watered/fed from the bottom via a tube.

Cootamber, I have chippings which would look nice on the top. Do you think they might be a good protective idea for the strawberries in planters?

I dont know Kittie, perhaps someone else might help? what are you protecting them from, slugs, weather?

or help me choose another variety. What about chelsea pensioner?


http://www.thompson-morgan.com/fruit/fruit-plants/strawberry-plants/strawberry-darlisette/cww3507TM

http://www.meiosis.co.uk/fruit/chelsea_pensioner.htm

darlisette has a superior flavour to chelsea, though it will crop at roughly the same time as your first flush of mara. chelsea does have a good flavour though, and as it crops later, may be useful to extend the season a bit.

edit: I just found 6 baby runners on 3 second year mara, they popped up overnight. Maybe I`ll just peg down the runners and plant mara in the new planters. They were brilliant last year. Decisions decisions.

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Leif

Although the OP has now bought strawberries, I thought I'd try a selection which fruit over a longer season. I have some Cambridge Favourite, Symphony and Albion. The latter is said to have a longer season. Any that taste poor will be executed, and replaced with better ones in my gardening version of a Stalinist purge. But I think a slight compromise on flavour is worth it for an extended season.

I recall I rather liked Everest, an Autumn variety, bought from a supermarket.

cootambear wrote: »

cambridge have a good flavour, elsanta tastes like turnips

I bought several punnets of Elsanta last year and I was surprised given the bad publicity that they had very good flavour.