FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I just picked my first alpine strawberries today. I found an old pack of seeds that had been sitting in my fridge for years.

They’ve grown pretty well, even with the heat so far. The berries are small — maybe the size of a thumbnail — but they’re absolutely wonderful. They’re incredibly perfumy and taste fantastic. They’ve got good sweetness and a pleasant acidity and a great, complex flavor.
Has anyone else grown these? Do you have any tips on getting a good yield?

They are small but can pack good flavor, certainly more than store bought ones. Next time I'm in Poland I want to pick up a few seeds from these "poziomki". I ate the wild strawberries from the woods here in IL but it's some other variety that doesn't taste good. I had a pot full of the IL ones and just kept them watered well and dumped on bone and blood meal, but cultivating them didn't improve the flavor much. I mulched the top of the container in an attempt to mimic the forest floor.

I also want to get a gooseberry bush. From what I remember the ones in europe tasted better, but it should theoretically be the same variety thats found introduced in the wild here.

I’d love to get some alpines

Got any seeds for me? I'd love to grow some. You can slip them in with my milkweed seeds. Pretty please?

Try rareseeds.com. They have a number of the alpines available as seed, I grow a white variety that is not much bothered by birds. Generally if you grow alpines in a bigger area so you can have more plants together, you get better pollination and more fruit production. However, the fruit production is not as good as commercial varieties. Home grown always tastes better.

Not trying to hijack this thread, but regarding gooseberries, I once was growing about 20 varieties. Of them, I think the best ones to try are Jewel, Hinnomaki Red and Hinnomaki Yellow. (orange, red and yellow fruit) All 3 are "table" varieties, good for eating out of hand. They are easy to start and I would be willing to trade CP's for some cuttings or maybe start a plant. Not sure if the varieties above are patented or not. Would have to check that and see what varieties I am still growing. I had to downsize a few years ago.

Bonjour

In Europe we have a multitude of varieties and species of strawberries, more than 600, those that are close to those found in nature called 'Mara des bois' here.
we never grow them from seeds but rather transplant plants from stolons or tufts.
we can find this easily in gardening in europe

there is also a strawberry white,Fragaria chiloensis, very tasty but seems quite fragile in culture, and very expensive too.

here is the peak season, and we do not hesitate

Grew Mara de bois here for a while. It is available in the states, and if I recall correctly, has male and female plants. Larger berries than the typical alpine and red. Unfortunately the males died out after a few years, leaving unproductive females, so I weeded them out.

Some alpines do not send runners, so you need to do divisions or seeds to increase them. Bird pressure here keeps me from doing any red berries.

mouthstofeed wrote:Got any seeds for me? I'd love to grow some. You can slip them in with my milkweed seeds. Pretty please?

I don’t have any left over from my ancient seed packet, but I grabbed a few off of the fruit I ate this morning that I’ll toss in with the milkweed. They’ll probably need stratification, from what I’ve read (the seed packet I bough ages ago was pre stratified).

twitcher wrote:Some alpines do not send runners, so you need to do divisions or seeds to increase them. Bird pressure here keeps me from doing any red berries.

Yeah. This is the runnerless “Mingonette” variety. I’ve got mine in pots for easy bird protection and for sun protection this summer (though it’s been cool enough so far that I’ve only noticed minor heat issues). They have divided, but the growth points don’t seem like they’d be easy to separate. Years ago I saw a packet in my local nursery and got them on a whim, but never grew them successfully until this year.

Around here, most people grow strawberries as annuals because of the summer heat, but I want to try and keep these ones alive.

twitcher wrote:Not trying to hijack this thread, but regarding gooseberries, I once was growing about 20 varieties.

What are gooseberries like? They aren’t grown at all anywhere around here (I’m guessing there’s not enough winter chill and too much summer heat), so I’ve never tried them. I’ve got an book from the UK about growing fruit that prominently featured gooseberries and currants and stuff. It cracks me up because the section on figs makes them seem quite tricky, while they’re probably the easiest fruit to grow around here.

I've grown some strawberry plants. I don't exactly know what kind, but one thing I can say is that after each year, the berries get bigger.