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garden:about:plants:strawberries:varieties

Strawberry varieties

Strawberries ripe from the vine to the kitchenWe planted both June-bearing and “everbearing.” But having strawberries supposedly throughout the growing season isn't that great - given the demands of harvesting and the need to consume. We found the ever-bearing varieties didn't produce well enough in later summer for preserving or canning and not enough to send to the food pantry.

All the strawberries had great flavor, at least in the first part of the season, so I wasn't concerned about taste.

Shuksan

This is about the largest harvest at one time.June bearing and the best produces of those we planted. Shuksan have a slightly tart strawberry flavor and they work equally well for freezing and making preserves. Overall, the strawberries from Shuksan plants were larger than the ever-bearing plants.

Hecker and Seaspray

The expanded strawberry bed after one and a half yearsI couldn't tell these apart once the plants from runners began bearing, though I believe I could detect the differences in the shape of the fruit.

I started with ten of these at each garden, which filled up a bed about five feet by twelve feet. By mid-summer there were lots of plants, but the trickle of fruit that required regular picking never justified in my mind the attention that it took from other late-summer garden activities to pick them. There were never enough to give away and barely enough for refrigerating and eating at home. So I have pulled up and given away the ever-bearing varieties.

Arranging the bed

I found that letting the original two rows expand toward each other and toward the edges of the bed made for difficult picking. It was difficult to see and reach for the berries in the center. So I'm going (some way or other) to enforce an aisle between two rows. I'm going to transplant the June bearing Shucksan from the center to two new rows where the ever-bearing plants used to be, both at the Fall City garden and in the strawberry beds at home.

I'll figure out how much effort it takes to maintain the aisle.

garden/about/plants/strawberries/varieties.txt · Last modified: 2020/09/27 11:41 by davidbac