DoubleDogFarm
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How about an update on everyones strawberries.

Here is a photo of my Seascape strawberries. This is the second summer for this bed. If the blossoms are an indication, harvest should be good. :D

How is everyone else's strawberry beds?

[img]https://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h300/eric_wa/Double%20Dog%20Farm%20Vegetable%20Garden%20plants/DSC03391.jpg[/img]

Eric

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Aya
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Well, I have about 8 strawberry plants that are doing pretty well. A few of them have blossoms, and nearly all of them have little green strawberries growing on them : )

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soil
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mine are doing fantastic. everyone keeps asking me what crazy goodness I feed my strawberries for the leaves to be 12 inches across.

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applestar
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Earlier in the week, we harvested a cereal/soupl bowl full of first strawberries. Yesterday, we harvested a serving bowl full. These are Sweet Charley. Other commecial varieties are starting to color up and the wild strawberries have green fruits. 8)

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jal_ut
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Mine are blooming. I am trying to get the weeds out of them between showers. I had a good harvest last year, and hoping for as good this year. A little warmer weather would get them going better I think. We are looking at 3 more days of rain. Blah! Well at least the peas seem to be doing OK. :)

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Francis Barnswallow
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I have 3 strawberry plants. All are doing well and producing.........and these plants are 4 years old. :shock:

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soil
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ive been harvesting about a lb of strawberries everyday/other day for the last week and a half. this wont stop until fall :)

DoubleDogFarm
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"hows it going? I need a bowl" :lol: :P Apple, too funny.

I'm fighting the weeds also James. Grass, buttercup etc.... Will see how it goes. Maybe this fall I'll lift the plants and move. :(

Sounds good everyone.

Eric
Last edited by DoubleDogFarm on Sun May 22, 2011 5:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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jal_ut
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I am giving some thought to solarizing an area when the weather gets warmer, then moving some plants to the new spot later in the season. I started a new plot last season, but didn't get the weeds out very well. Grass and dandelions are all over it. It is worse than the old bed. Any way, there is never a shortage of new plants. They send out lots of runners.

Aorourke
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I have two upside down strawberries planters with 15 plants in each, I have 1 small green strawberry so far. However I'm in Ontario and the spring is slow to start here! Can't wait to see red strawberries!! My kids are keeping a close eye on them and I'm sure they will be snacking on them in. O time!! :)

TZ -OH6
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Mine are hiding down in the weeds but I think there are a lot developing. The slugs got most of them last year. I hope to get some for myself this year.

DeborahL
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I've eaten about 6 super sweet strawberries so far, pure sugar. I cannot believe the difference in homegrown and store bought.

wordwiz
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Eric,

I have some Red Alpine I started as seed and then transplanted last year. They are blooming/setting fruit and almost ripe. I also have TriStar (from Raintree Nursery that I transplanted just a bit over two weeks ago. A few of them are not only blooming but actually have baby berries. I know, I need to cut them off but it is sooooo hard! I'm thinking of letting one plant, that has maybe six berries on it, go, just so I can eat the first (non-Alpine) strawberry I have ever grown!

Mike

DoubleDogFarm
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[quote]I also have TriStar (from Raintree Nursery that I transplanted just a bit over two weeks ago. A few of them are not only blooming but actually have baby berries. I know, I need to cut them off but it is sooooo hard! I'm thinking of letting one plant, that has maybe six berries on it, go, just so I can eat the first (non-Alpine) strawberry I have ever grown! /quote]

No! Don't do it. Let all the Tristars bear. I've grown Tristar for many years and never removed blossoms. I do on the June bearing, never on the everbearing. My SeaScapes are a lot like Tristar and produced well last year / first year planted.

Eric

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sheeshshe
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well, I purchased 100 plants at the fedco tree sale a few weeks back. Most of them are doing well. all the seascapes look awesome. I think the honeoyes are doing well too, I believe it is the sparkles that are very slow to leaf out. there are still some that are working on getting leaves. no blossoms on anything thus far. its been nothing but rainy for a month now.

Hopefully Ill get some seascapes this year!

ruggr10
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My 50 from fedco are doing well too... good sized leaves... My freebies from Raintree are ok...out of 25, 5 have no leaves at all..maybe dead???

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sheeshshe
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what type did you get from fedco?

wordwiz
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Eric,

Works for me - I really didn't want to cut off blossoms, even though the growing instruction said to do so until about July.

Mike

DoubleDogFarm
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Nah!

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Runningtrails
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Mine were so overgrown this year that I had to thin them out. I pulled and tossed hundreds of babies. I think I will till up a larger garden, feed it will this season, and start a new bed with this year's runners. They sure to reproduce!

Mine are blooming too! They look just like the picture at the top.
I'm hoping to get enough berries this year to make 5 gallons of wine!

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hendi_alex
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Most of my plants are growing in 4 foot by 4 foot raised beds and also were over crowded and difficult to manage. We prefer to eat fresh strawberries by the hands full rather than the bowl full, so this coming year I'll make an adjustment. The plants will be allowed to grow around the perimeter of the raised bed. I'll screw a 2 x 4 to the inside of the berry plants so that the berries will have four to six inches to grow up between the sides of the bed and the new board. No runners will be allowed to take root and grow in the inner bed which will be used for veggies next year. I'm thinking that with the narrow planting area, next year the fruit will stay off of the soil and will drape over the sides of the bed and/or on the new 2 x4 barrier.

If planting strawberries in the ground, I think that I would plant them on a slight single row hill and would cover with weed guard or other barrier between hills and rows. I would only leave a few inches of soil exposed, just enough to leave room for the plants. With the weed guard covered in fresh mulch, the rows would be attractive, there would be no competition from weeds, and the next season the berries would be out of the soil and sitting on relative dry mulch.

By the way, my berries are now down to a trickle, but the ever bearing plants will continue to produce a few berries throughout the summer.

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Stella Blue
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I planted my 1st strawberry bed this spring, and they seem to be doing awesome. Honoeye and Fort Laramie. Both are starting to grow small berries, but no red just yet.

One quick question. How do you cut and transplant the runners? Please be specific as I have absolutely no idea about getting plants to root. Thank you in advance.

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hendi_alex
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If you need to fill in space in your bed, you can just place the plant at the end of the runner where you want it to take root and it will grow there. When I want to actually transplant to another location, a one gallon nursery pot filled with soil is placed right beside the parent plant, then the plant at the end of a runner is placed into the pot and is pinned down with a "U" shaped wire. In one or two weeks the runner will take root in your pot. Tug gently on the plant to test for rooting. When the runner has rooted, snip the runner from the parent. Let the plant grow at least a few weeks in the pot, and then transplant any time later when you are ready to place the new plant in the ground. I find early fall to be the best time to set the new plants in the ground.

OrganicTexasMama
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So jealous of that amazing strawberry bed!

I've got 4 Seascape in a container. They each produced a few berries (about half of which the birds got :( :( :() and now are doing NOTHING! It's gotten hot here - low 90s - and we're definitely at the end of or past a typical strawberry season here. But, I keep reading that everbearing will produce until frost - and we're *nowhere* near frost! :lol They also don't seem to have produced any runners. :?

I'm tempted to buy more plants so we can actually get enough berries to enjoy! But I'm afraid we may just be past any chance of production here. :(

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applestar
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Strawberries are pretty forgiving of part-sun exposure in *my* location. Where do you have your container strawberries situated? Maybe particularly where you are, it's too hot and they would benefit from afternoon or noon-day shade?

We harvested a full colander this morning from that Sweet Charley bed, supplemented with Tristar and Wild strawberries that are starting to ripen.
-- AFTER pre-processing snacking 8), approximately 2 quarts of perfect, unblemished berries, plus overripe or blemished berries that filled a 1 quart freezer bag after cutting off the calyx and blemishes and individually freezing them on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. I'll keep this up until I have a good supply of frozen berries, then if I have enough in addition to what we need for smoothies, I'll make some jam to can. Usually, I end up making mixed berry jam using the later harvest of mulberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries. :()
Last edited by applestar on Sun May 29, 2011 10:50 am, edited 1 time in total.

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sheeshshe
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Loving it Applestar!


OK, so mine started blossoming the other day. problem is, I'm not sure which are the seascape and which are the honeoye. well, I know which end of the bed is the seascape, but I didn't draw a line for where I changed varieties LOL! I suppose I could count out 50 and figure it out.


OK, the sparkles didn't do well at ALL. Half of them are still teeny tiny and barely leafing out and some still haven't leafed out, which makes me think they never will at this point. I wonder what went wrong. I split them with my friend and hers were doing fine she said. so IDk what is going on with them. :( I planted them all together in the same area (split the beds) so all the conditions are the same. unless for some reason a pest is eating the leaves of the sparkle and not touching the others. (a few leaves did look chomped on) but then why are they chomping on the sparkle and not the rest? perplexing situation none the less.

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gixxerific
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We getting them in but not a ton. I have them under my Weeping Willow so they don't get a whole lot of sun. They are in a way positioned there to act as a ground cover that I can eat off of. :lol:

I should say we are getting some, the ones the bugs and my dog :x don't eat. :lol:

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gixxerific
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Opps I meant to ask DDF do you replant that patch every year or put in new ones?

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SPierce
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I haven't any strawberries yet, or the birds got the ones I didn't see while I was on vacation, but I never realized strawberry plants could get so monstrous :shock:

So tall, so many blooms, I can't wait to be able to start eating them off the plants :D

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soil
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ive been eating mine daily for about a week and a half now. will be eating them until fall.

DoubleDogFarm
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Opps I meant to ask DDF do you replant that patch every year or put in new ones?
This is year two on this bed. Probably move them this Fall. I never grow in the same place more then three years. Lift and move the young plants, compost the rest.

Eric

DeborahL
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I wonder what mine really are. I got them at Walmart and the tag just said "Eversweet".
I have to say, they're the biggest and sweetest strawberries I've ever had. Not hard, not soft, just perfect.

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applestar
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8 cups = 1 GALLON of just the wild strawberries today. :()
A quart of regular varieties. :wink:

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jal_ut
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Posted: 05 30 11 Post subject:
8 cups = 1 GALLON of just the wild strawberries today.
Since when? 8 cups is two quarts is a half gallon.

Used to see strawberries in a little wooden cup that I am sure was about a pint, yet it was sold as a "cup" of berries. Now days the "cups" are plastic. My question is: What is a "cup" of strawberries really???

DoubleDogFarm
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My question is: What is a "cup" of strawberries really???
Good question James. Whole vs. sliced vs. puree. Some of those large varieties you may get three berries to the cup.

We use the pint size paper pulp containers for small fruits. They are better at absorbing the bottom liquids.

Eric

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applestar
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Did I write that? :roll:

DoubleDogFarm
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Did I write that?
Yes Erkel! :P

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applestar
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:oops: :lol:

...OK I might as well go "in for a pound" though that SERIOUSLY mixes up the measurement references since the first part of that is "In for a penny" :D ...I can't find what "erkel" means though I'm assuming it's some form and level of "silly" and yes, your elbow is quite pointy, Eric. :wink:

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sheeshshe
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Erkel.. he was on a TV show in the early 90's or late 80's. he used to always say, "did I do that?" in a dorky/geeky voice LOL! he wore suspenders that hiked his pants up halfway up his chest and high waters LOL



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