What variety of strawberries?

[Deleted User]

my allotment strawberries aren`t thriving cootamber, not at all. I am having to scrabble on hands and knees in the mud to find 6 slug eaten offerings and I am not growing them up there again. So not worth it esp having to unhook the bird netting each and every time. Such a faff and the rain!!! It`s awful here day after sodden day

The strawberries in planters at home are much better, no slippy mud for a start and they are all hanging down. I am doing a final re-vamp next spring ie table tops in growbags on any suitable surface and sheltered window planters with self waterers

I am rediscovering a variety that I planted two years ago in buckets ie lucy. The berries are big and look nice, if they taste good then I will rescue 3 plants for the new planters, in which I will put an assortment. Me too re disappointment, I am even reduced to cutting the red bits off the outside of the allotment strawberries as there are solid white cores

cootamber, I am feeding my blueberries and have put them under a tall popup cage as the birds have been eyeing them up. I also watched a you tube video about pruning them as one bush has masses but the berries are a bit small

[Deleted User]

I picked my first `lucy` berry today, just a tad early but I was tempted and it was delicious. Very big and on a robust plant. Those plants have been badly neglected and left in 3 large black buckets since planting. Left through thick and thin and only watered when I remembered. Left in the constant pouring rain in a bucket where the soil had sunk to 2/3 full

I took one bucket at a time yesterday and lo and behold they are fairly full of big sturdy fruits, just 3 mouldy ones but they were deep down on wet manky brown leaves. 4 snails in one bucket but unmarked leaves and only one eaten fruit. So I am rescuing this variety as it has withstood quite a test. I tidyied up the buckets and located 4 well rooted runners, now de-berried and loosely marked with string. They aren`t overladen with new runners but I have pressed 3, from older plants, into the soil after removing one poor plant. Lucy is a good one

pedrothefish

I bought Elsantas from Aldi last year and they are cropping well this year, but I had some Marshmallow strawberry plants given to me about 5 years ago and they are the best big sweet tasting beauties ever. Only trouble is there is only one supplier I have seen on the net, but I shall carry on potting the runners when they start.

Farway

I have just eaten a few ripe Corona from my wall baskets, just lovely

Never had the variety before, but it was sweet as sugar

If someone tells me another variety beats the taste, then thanks, I will get some of that variety

cootambear

Farway wrote: »

I have just eaten a few ripe Corona from my wall baskets, just lovely

Never had the variety before, but it was sweet as sugar

If someone tells me another variety beats the taste, then thanks, I will get some of that variety

gariguette, mara des bois

cootambear

woes

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18490749

[Deleted User]

We ate our first ever sonata yesterday and it was so fragrant and sweet, it went far beyond expectations, better even than mara and gariguette and far better than monterey, lucy and alice. It had a lovely fragrant smell too. The berries, on a table top, are perfect and very large as they ripened. Now I have dozens hanging down, all in perfect condition and effortless picking and that is in spite of the rain. Pvc rain cover went on just two days ago and there is plenty of ventilation. I am more than very pleased as the runners were only planted at the end of april

I will still grow mara on for two more years at least and again in window cill planters but I may well end up with all sonata over time.

I am trying to preserve some strawberries for the long winter months and am finding that mushing and freezing in small pots is good as it can be added to other berries or to jellies as well as a topping of course and they make a fab compote with rhubarb

I really don`t think plot growing was worth the effort. Had a potentially very large crop but proportionately very little good fruit

cootambear

your choice kittie, but I prefer a range of strawberries as they ripen at different times, and also different weather conditions suit some types versus others, so its sort of a back up.

for instance, some types are mould resistant, which will be useful in conditions like this lousy summer. also the weather influences flavour, so that different strawbs will be more/less flavoursome in different conditions.

forward to the slug resistant strawberry, with a gm spliced gene that kills the f......s if they eat it.