What variety of strawberries?

cootambear

Leif wrote: »

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.



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

home grown elsanta will always taste far better than the supermarket ones, but there are hundreds of better varieties out there.

nonetheless, I am happy that your strawbs are tasting good

davehills

Aha! A thread full of strawberry experts!!

I have a few strawberry plants in the greenhouse and I'm unsure as to what they are. I think they were part of a 'kit' that came from the 99p shop. To be honest I didn't think they'd grow and the packet has log since gone. The plants have grown really well, although they did take an awfully long time to germinate.

Anyway, one plant has a couple of strawberries on it and they are weird, smallish, pointy ones. I haven't seen strawbs like it before.

What 'breed' are these likely to be? Do I bother finding space to plant them out or should I give them away?

Leif

If they are less than a cm long, then they will be wild/alpine strawberries. I have loads of them, as they thrive in semi-shaded areas, along with Periwinkle. Some say they are lovely, but I think they taste poor. They create ground cover, but that's all. I'll dig out mine, and put in 'real' ones, or something else. They are common in the wild.

cootambear

davehills wrote: »

Aha! A thread full of strawberry experts!!

I have a few strawberry plants in the greenhouse and I'm unsure as to what they are. I think they were part of a 'kit' that came from the 99p shop. To be honest I didn't think they'd grow and the packet has log since gone. The plants have grown really well, although they did take an awfully long time to germinate.

Anyway, one plant has a couple of strawberries on it and they are weird, smallish, pointy ones. I haven't seen strawbs like it before.

What 'breed' are these likely to be? Do I bother finding space to plant them out or should I give them away?

taste em and see if you like them

if they are small pointy and from a kit they are probably alpines and they taste divine

the down side is that they are EXTREMELY poor croppers. so its up to you. if you have lots of space then use them, if not give them to the neighbours and plant a tasty variety that crops well

Amarillo

Just what I need, strawberry experts ! My Mara de Bois insist on growing runners rather than flowers at the moment, which I am taking off.

I've got Florence which are starting to fruit. Are the Mara de Bois likely to sort themselves out soon do you reckon or have I got more runner removing to do before getting there?

demystified

Leif wrote: »

If they are less than a cm long, then they will be wild/alpine strawberries. I have loads of them, as they thrive in semi-shaded areas, along with Periwinkle. Some say they are lovely, but I think they taste poor. They create ground cover, but that's all. I'll dig out mine, and put in 'real' ones, or something else. They are common in the wild.

You're probably thinking of wild strawberries, the alpines are obviously related, descended infact, but have larger fruit and don't produce runners so are easier to keep under control.

Leif

demystified wrote: »

You're probably thinking of wild strawberries, the alpines are obviously related, descended infact, but have larger fruit and don't produce runners so are easier to keep under control.

No I was saying that if they are smaller fruit, then they are either alpine or wild. I have lots of one of those, probably been in 20 years or more.

Leif

By the way, I checked up on the Albion I bought, and they get very positive comments online.

davehills

Leif wrote: »

If they are less than a cm long, then they will be wild/alpine strawberries. I have loads of them, as they thrive in semi-shaded areas, along with Periwinkle. Some say they are lovely, but I think they taste poor. They create ground cover, but that's all. I'll dig out mine, and put in 'real' ones, or something else. They are common in the wild.

Well there are only a couple as they are still in pots. A couple of green ones and a red one, which is a tad bigger than a CM. They do look like alpine ones but somehow seem a bit less spindly and bigger.

I'll stick 'em somewhere and see how they grow.

Leif

cootambear wrote: »

if they are small pointy and from a kit they are probably alpines

That's a good point.