Strawberry roots; what kind of yeild can I expect?

[garden5]

I saw the other day that walmart is selling bags of 10 strawberry roots for $3 ea. and was wondering what kind of first-year yield I could get if I planted a batch of 10. The two varieties are Allstar (I think) and Quinalt. I believe that one is June-bearing while the other is ever-bearing.

[kylie77]

Good question since I just bought some of those! My strawberry plants from last year don't seem to have come back. So I picked some up and wondered the same about yield.

[TZ -OH6]

I would say don't bother. It is very late in the season for buying those roots and they take a while to come out of dormancy. I bought two packs last year in early March (20 roots). I started them indoors under lights and about three came up quickly and about ten more eventually showed some growth but were barely alive. I don't even know if the strong ones ever flowered last year they were so far behind.

I ended up buying a flat of 18 nice strong plants at the local nursery at about this time and planted those to fill up the bed. They produced a half dozen berries each and then put out lots of runners. You can put them in the ground or in containers. You are supposed to pinch off the flowers to give them a better start the first year, but I wanted at least to taste some berries.

Be careful about what variety you choose. Many of the varieties out there are high producers, low flavor. Around here they sell Allstar and Seqouia which have good flavor, but there is also a lot of Honeoye for sale, which are described as having a flat, tart flavor.

[jal_ut]

My guess is the everbearers will give you a fall crop this year.
I wouldn't expect to get much from the June bearers this season. They will multiply though and give you a great harvest in June 2011.

[DoubleDogFarm]

Like Jal_ut said, you should get a crop from the Quinalt this year. The June bearing Allstar, should have the flowers removed the first year.

[garden5]

Thanks for the info, everyone !

TZ, that's good to know. I was kind of leery of the "roots-in-a-bag" concept to begin with, anyway.

So, you guys think that I will get a better first-year yield if I go with established plants rather than roots, eh? It sounds good. I'm now wondering how much they will spread. Will they totally take over my garden? Are they one of those impossible to remove types of plants.?

Thanks again.

[TZ -OH6]

They won't take over the garden because they are pretty wimpy and shallow rooted. But at the end of the first year they do put out enough runners to fill in the gaps between the original plants. I think the first year spacing is supposed to be something like 18 inches apart. You can dig the daughter plants up in the early spring and move them for better placement.

[!potatoes!]

i don't know if i'd ever refer to honeyoye being 'tart'.

[jonnydclark]

I agree with TZ-OH6 that buying good healthy plants would be the best choice. I know it is tempting but avoid letting any fruit develop the first season (unless you planted in the fall). Remove each blossom as soon as they become visible to keep the energy of the plant focused on building a root system. Any fruit allowed to ripen the first year will drastically reduce the next years production. Cut all runners as soon as they appear for the same reason. In the second season allow runners to grow roots before cutting the connection to the mother plant. This will help fill in your gaps and keep a percentage of young plants to bear fruit.

Strawberries will never overtake your garden (we could wish!). You can mow off the tops at about 4" to knock back the mature plants after a few years and let the younger ones pick up where they left off.

If you just have to pick some fresh strawberries this season find a "you pick" farm near you and you'll be able to pick gallons in a few short hours. Then you can eat, freeze or jam them to your hearts content. Where I live in North Carolina the farms are already open for picking.

[jal_ut]

Remove each blossom as soon as they become visible to keep the energy of the plant focused on building a root system.

Is this another myth? I am of the opiniion that the plant knows if it has the strength and vigor to bloom and produce fruit. If it wants to do so, I am happy to eat the fruit. I can see no detrimental effects to the plants from this practice. I planted some everbearers last year. They made a lot of new plants from runners, and also gave me several cups of nice berries. I have been growing berries for many years and have never picked off blossoms. I dare bet that both the runners and the plants I planted will give me a good crop this year.

Same goes for asparagus roots. I will harvest some the year after planting. Still, they continue to get bigger and better each year. The advice to wait 2 or 3 years for a harvest is nonsense. IMO

[TZ -OH6]

Re Honeyoye being tart:


I'm just going by flavor descriptions on websites. I have to worry when the big lists of recommended varieties actually describe flavors in such a way that I wouldn't want to eat them. Disease resistance,productivity, size, color, but not flavor are the selling points. When I bought Sequoia, I had a tough time even finding info on it because it was an older garden variety grown for flavor, and was soft and pretty much had to be eaten quickly, so like heirloom tomatoes it was displaced by bigger and "better".

[garden5]

Jal, I've always heard about both the asparagus and strawberry issues you've mentioned and I'd have to say that I agree with you. Nature always seems to know what it is doing (though we sometimes THINK we know better ) and, as you say, if the plants feel like setting fruit, then I don't think it will badly affect them.

I've heard about the "not-harvesting" of fruit from certain berry plants on the first year, but I've yet to find an actual study that tried it both ways and showed a dramatic difference the subsequent years. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that while it may benefit the plants somewhat, I don't think that there will be a dramatic difference between the two harvesting techniques.

Anyone else have any experience on this?

[DoubleDogFarm]

The removal of flowers on strawberries, I believe only pertains to June Bearing varieties. I have always harvested a good crop of strawberries, raspberries, etc from the first year of day neutrals. I planted Shuksans this year for the first time. Do I remove the flowers sound like the jury is still out on this one.

[Hispoptart]

They won't take over the garden because they are pretty wimpy and shallow rooted.

Are kidding? won't take over, straberries are weeds with a very yummy fruit, not wimpy at all, If not controlled they will take over everything, Here are some pics of our 3yr old patch, Trying to take over lawn and stone walkway. We are constantly digging them out. There was another one that is in an enclosed bed that found it's way under and into the lawn but DH dug it out and transplanted it before I thought to take a pic.

[TZ -OH6]

Correction, wimpy compare to things that put out underground stolons. like Oxalis, and things like Bermuda grass.