Allotments 4 All

I'm thinking of planting a proper strawberry bed for next year and wondered if anyone has any advice re varieties?

Me too! At the moment, all I'm growing  is Elsanta. Which ones have the best flavour? Has anyone tried  'Gariguette' or 'Cambridge late pine'?

i would be interested in this info aswell as i am planning a bed too.  is it best to have two or three varieties for succession? and where is the best place to get plants? and how many would you need for a decent crop?  questions questions.

I'm going to add a question as well. What's the latest you can plant by as mine site for my strawberry bed is like concrete at the moment....can't remeber the last fall of real rain.

I grow Royal Sovereign which I have had for over 30 years.  Taking runners every third year.  IMO they are the best tasting strawberries.  They are also prolific.  If your plants are in pots and you keep them watered you should be able to keep them growing and plant them out quite late in the year depending what sort of weather we have in September.  Best of luck.

I don't grow them but my plot neighbour grows Marshmello and I am getting sorely tempted... makes the supermarket and pick your own's Elsanta taste like sour cardboard.

moonbells

Best time to put strawbs in is in the early autumn in my opinion, they get a chance to root well before the winter sets in and also you should get a small crop the following summer. I like Maxim, which seems vigorous and has large berries and upright stems and foliage. Mind you, mine don't grow as large as some pics I saw recently from TeeGee, but they're large enough, and taste good for such a large berry.

I've planted Alice which are early and Florence which crop later. I can reccomend both if you like your strawberries juicy and sweet. I was never a fan of strawberries, but I was instantly converted after tasting my first home grown strawberry  ;D

Vaca

i grow hapil which are a medium size berry with an intense flavour. i have tried an experiment this year when i planted my permanent bed. i took flowers of half the strawberries and left the other half on. apparently i will get a bumper crop of the ones i de-flowered. we shal  have to wait and see

In Grow Your Own magazine Bob Flowerdew recommends Maxim, Gariguette and Marshmello.
I'd love to grow them but where can I find them?

Ken Muir has Maxim and Gariguette. http://www.kenmuir.co.uk/shopFrame.htm (http://www.kenmuir.co.uk/shopFrame.htm)Marshalls Seeds have Marshmello.http://www.marshalls-seeds.co.uk/rkmain.asp?PAGEID=20671&ctl_cat_Code=M11221 (http://www.marshalls-seeds.co.uk/rkmain.asp?PAGEID=20671&ctl_cat_Code=M11221)

I would very definately recommend Marshmello, beautiful taste, large strawberries and prolific with a long cropping period.  they are only available from Marshall's.

Thanks! I can't wait to grow them! ;D

We have Mae and Marshmello, both from Marshalls, and have been more than impressed with the flavours. This year we have planted Gariguette but they have not been allowed to fruit as it's their first year...looking forward to comparing them! :)

İ have Maxim which has grown this last year in a large tub and got a better crop than İ expected, the fruit was definitely large, and this coming year they are going into a permanent bed ...

I bought some certified Gariguette plants back from France this year, and they are the best fruits ever! Quite long and pointy, but fab flavour. I'm planting up the runners as fast as I can to increase my stock now.

I've been growing Chelsea Pensioner (a pretty new Ken Muir variety -- he really is the Strawb Supremo!) -- great tasting fruit, mix of medium and large size, good yield. That was cropping back at the start of June.

Now I need a late-fruiting variety to pull the season out!

And yes, for Sarah: you do really want more than one variety as most only crop for a few weeks. I have an 8 x 4 strawb bed, planted out with nearly 50 plants (all grown from 12 plants bought early last spring from Ken Muir). From that I had about 9 lb of strawbs, which I was happy with!

Quote from: triffid on July 21, 2006, 15:03:44

And yes, for Sarah: you do really want more than one variety as most only crop for a few weeks. I have an 8 x 4 strawb bed, planted out with nearly 50 plants (all grown from 12 plants bought early last spring from Ken Muir). From that I had about 9 lb of strawbs, which I was happy with!

thanks for that info triffid.
so many varieties to choose from.

Hi grawc, hi all  :)

I see that other contributors can name varieties, I don`t know what mine are except that I have two, so here`s my two-pennies worth - I`ve harvested loads of strawbs this year but I wished I`d been wiser with the spacing of the plants so its easier to get among them. You might want to allow extra space for this at the outset as it will make your life easier later. Also think about netting and put in supports when you plant. Get beer traps for slugs, and think about a source of straw asap. If part of your bed is partially shaded it will hold your crop back a week or two and spread out your harvesting time. As written earlier, plant in the autumn and don`t worry if the plants look dead for a while. So you have lots of time to prepare.
Start saving jars for all the jam you will make.

Enjoy, Col

I've now ordered Maxim, Gariguette, Marshmello and a load of manure! ;) Thanks for all the advice. :) :)

The ones I ordered in 2004? from T&M which were on special offer where nice and yummy. Unfortunately, I can't remember which ones they were.

I've got Marshmello the taste is lovely: nice & tart if you pick them slightly under-ripe (yum), mellowing to a richer smoother tang if you let them stay on the plant a bit longer. 

Since having home-grown strawbs, the supermarket offerings have paled into sad disappointing bland blobs.

Maxim = large but no taste

Symphony = late & delicious

I've brought seeds from TM called Sarian F1, has anyone tried these?

Quote from: Merry Tiller on September 23, 2006, 14:18:30
Symphony = late & delicious

I had some symphony from a Pick your own a couple of years ago and I still say they are the best strawbs I have ever tasted - and I am a berry fanatic!

QuoteI still say they are the best strawbs I have ever tasted

My wife concurs

Guess I'll need to get some symphony too then! ;) Anywhere cheaper than Ken Muir?

http://www.blackmoor.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=479 (http://www.blackmoor.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=479)

Thanks MT

We've got a strawberry bed with a dozen each of Florence and Mara des Bois.  The Florence are good but not exceptional, but I would highly recommend the Mara des Bois.  They have a very long season, and the fruit, although quite small, is delicious.

Gariguette - my favourite, Florence - late, and Mara de bois - excellent perpetual -all from Ken M.  Excellent plants.  Have had and given away so many this year, also mace delicious sorbet and jam

We have (though labels seem to have disappeared) Florence, Symphony, Pegasus, Hapil, Honeoye, Ostara, whatever T&M's strawberries that were on special offer in 2004, Eros - I think that is it.
Got more runners than fruit (almost) but that is the Northern-factor eluded to by Bob Flowerdew on GQT a couple of weeks back. I even have a flower on one of the runners (which are still attached to main plant even though I have "potted" them up).
Son wants strawberry seeds - Fresca looks quite nice in the DTBrown catalogue, but £2.05 seems rather a lot for a packet of seeds
Maybe I should collect seed from the strawberries this year and take pot luck!

hapil and Mara des Bois my favs/shades x

Symphony is a great variety well worth a try - Late season variety. Pick Mid July. Bright glossy fruits are typical to this variety. Supermarket quality fruits with excellent flavour. .
http://www.blackmoor.co.uk/index.php?cPath=204
Strawberries are best planted early Autumn.
Regards
Jon

I'm interested in Symphony too. Will the runners planted in November bear fruits next year?

Tora
Autumn Planted Strawberries will crop a light crop next Summer and then will be full cropping from then onwards.
Jon

Thanks Jon ;)

Marshmello arrived this morning! Yay! :)

Hi all,
      I have perpetual Elan,(still fruiting),and also Chelsea Pensioner (superb fruit).
       We made jam from the pensioner and found it to be outstanding.

   Pensioner - from ken muire.
   Elan - b&q
   
                 Regards,
                      Mark.

we've got three strawberry beds made this year, all marshmello, runners from our old ones,we cover one bed in march so one goes into flower early then the others are later, looking for strawbs with a longer flowering time