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voxleo

Strawberry varieties for taste above all?

voxleo
9 years ago

I had no clue that there were so many variants of strawberry. When I was younger we just thought of them as "garden strawberries" and they didn't get very large at all, but they were not terribly small either.

I recently had the most delicious tasting berry and would love to know which sort it was so that I might buy it again since the plants died when the dog chewed through the sprinkler line. The plant had a very small footprint and very dark green leaves that were close set and white flowers. It seemed that it was more likely to produce fruit than runners and not a lot, only few berries at a time per plant, and they were true red, maybe an inch-ish in size. The shape was round at the top and sort of tapering to a point at the bottom like a heart. Another variety that was very flavorful had sort of the same bottom with elongated or stretched looking tops that made it more diamond shaped,

Most of the ones I come across in stores are lighter green leaves with long stems that have a much larger footprint than these, and the fruits are usually attractive but disappointing to taste as they seem to have no flavor but water and the runners are practically unmanageable,

Does anyone know what varieties would fit the former profile so that I could seek them out, and ones that are also more akin to the latter so that I could avoid them? Unfortunately, the smaller plants all sort of look the same to me and I have to go by the name. This years garden was so frustrating I have not been able to tell which of the varieties I did buy are actually tasty, though it looks like the Loren variety might behave similarly as the ones that were so good.

I am looking for any that would fit the flavor profile of what they base the "strawberry flavor" candies like now&laters off of. (This was the first thing that came to mind when I bit into it, and it made me realize how much other fruit had been absent that actual flavor despite it being so large and pretty red in color, Don't care if it is going to last once ripe, since I am just as happy to eat them on the way back inside as later, and don't care how many there are as long as they taste more like strawberry than not like anything at all, and don't care how big they get,

I started my garden to bring back the flavor to my food that is missing from the commercial produce, so I don't mind if they don't look good enough for retail sale. Everything I have been getting is all show and no go..

Anyone have personal opinions on which ones are the best for eating right off the plant? I'd love a taste based chart or ranking which lists the various kinds by flavor intensity vs mild (or what I might call "bland") and maybe subcategories of tart vs sweet, rather than production value.

Comments (36)

  • drew51 SE MI Z5b/6a
    9 years ago

    I have not tried enough to have a firm opinion on any cultivar. I made some observations though. The better conditions produce the better fruit. Some plants when young are tart, and as they mature fruit becomes sweeter. Not true for all, but some. Some are only sweet dead ripe, others have degrees of flavor and sweetness as they ripen.

    So if you do not know conditions the plants were grown under, I would not advise to judge till they grow in known conditions. Badly grown strawberries taste like badly grown strawberries. Ideally grown taste awesome. I have yet to find a bad one. Some are better than others, but bland? No never.

    I started with many cultivars, but they are so mixed up, I could not tell what the red ones are. I also grow white pineberries and the different cultivars have different shapes, so I can tell those. Again though they must be fully ripe. I do care a little about how long they last as I harvest more than I can eat. here is a typical daily harvest.
    I have no idea anymore what the red cultivars are? They all though taste pretty good!
    {{gwi:44118}}

  • clarkinks
    9 years ago

    One variety that is highly variable based on location is Albion. We grew a half an acre of them here in Kansas prior to the drought. I will link a YouTube video that discusses them. I tried Ozark beauty, fort Laramie etc but Albion worked best for me for an ever bearing variety. They say in California the taste may not be as good. The reason I bring it up is its a berry that fills in the gaps in the season. They were good here but definitely an ever bearing and not a june bearing variety. Sparkle or sparkle supreme is another June bearing variety that is excellent and more productive than earliglow. The whites Drew is growing I have not tried but would like to. I've been out of the strawberry farming for the last several years because of the drought but will likely plant again this year. I would suggest you plant small test crops prior to a major planting. In Kansas Albion for example would be a great commercial variety but I've heard widely differing reports from terrible tasting to wonderful. I think it may have something to do with rainfall totals but I'm not sure.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Albion

  • clarkinks
    9 years ago

    You might look at what Indiana berry has to offer they are who I always get my plants through. They have a lot of information and a lot of varieties. I ordered Albion from them when I could not find them elsewhere several years ago. I will attach a link so you can see pricing. I ordered a thousand of Albion last time and there was a big price break.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Indiana berry Albion

  • clarkinks
    9 years ago

    Another company to get strawberry plants from is Nourse Farms. They are competitively priced with Indiana berry and they offer some different varieties that may work for you.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Nourse Farms

  • clarkinks
    9 years ago

    One last website I would recommend is strawberryplants.org. They have a lot of information. By the way I mentioned the easy to find strawberry plants but let me also mention one I can't find but ate a lot of as a kid which is the fairfax strawberry. It was rare at the time I ate them. All berries I've had don't hold up to it's flavor. Faifax is the parent to sparkle which is why sparkle/sparkle supreme tastes so good. Fairfax is better flavored than any modern variety.

    Here is a link that might be useful: All about strawberries

  • drew51 SE MI Z5b/6a
    9 years ago

    I will eventually start a new patch and try some more June bearing ones myself. I prefer them in the sense they bear heavy and give you a lot at once. But it is nice to have some all year. So I grow everbearing too. New cultivars seem to pop up all the time. When I look at Indiana berry and Nourse, some I have not seen. One everybearing I liked for taste is Mara Des Bois. When ripe it tastes like a good strawberry, if you let it sit another day or two it tastes like an Alpine. A very interesting cultivar. Looking at Burpees' site, man more new ones, amazing!
    What you describe dark green, etc depends sometimes on how well fed. And all of mine have runners when healthy. They tend not to run when stressed.

  • mrsg47
    9 years ago

    Hi I have been growing Alpines and 'Mara des Bois' for 13 years now. I seem to find the smaller the berry the more intense the taste. I also grow Honeyoye, which are large berries but taste very good as well. 'Mara des Bois' is my favorite as they range in size from tiny to medium and every once and while you get a very large berry. I keep my berries in separate beds so they never get 'mixed up'. Mara des Bois, is very popular as it does have a taste of a 'wild' berry in its flavor. It is IMHO the essence of strawberry to me. They make a delicious jam or quick compote. They are easy to grow! Mrs. G

  • northwoodswis4
    9 years ago

    Sparkle is good. Also Ogallala, but the Ogallala doesn't produce very well for me. If the berries are deformed, it means you need boron. I just sprinkled a bit of 20 Mule Team around VERY sparsely, and it did the trick. Northwoodswis

  • gardenerlorisc_ia
    9 years ago

    I very much like the Sparkle Supreme. I find the smaller size berries are the sweetest. The supermarket golf ball sized berries just don't have the taste I like.

  • clarkinks
    9 years ago

    Drew have you considered growing strawberries using Matted-Row or plasticulture? I'm leaning towards these methods next time. If I was in California I would use plasticulture but can't decide if I can make it work here with something like albion. Mara Des Bois is an interesting variety Drew. I checked out the reviews http://www.burpee.com/fruit-plants/strawberry-plants/strawberry-mara-des-bois-pp-8517-prod001561.html
    Do you see a lot of size variation and initial plant loss? Do they thicken up pretty fast? Albion are huge and have a good flavor here but nothing like the flavor of the June bearers I mentioned earlier. Sounds like Mara Des Bois is rated by everyone as having a great flavor so perhaps a better choice than albion for everbearing based on flavor .

    Here is a link that might be useful: plasticulture versus matted-row

  • lucky_p
    9 years ago

    This topic comes around every few years. I've got no firm experience...but recall in years past, that Sparkle and Earliglow consistently got high marks for flavor, from multiple growers.
    Others...I dunno.

  • clarkinks
    9 years ago

    MrsG my Honeyoye always tasted like they had a jello made with splenda aftertaste cornell describes as koolaid. They produced heavy, sent out lots of runners, resisted disease etc.. I just couldn't get past that slight after taste. No one ever complained if we made them into pie or jam which was their intended purpose but they really were not for fresh eating. For growth habit they were unstoppable. It was a love hate relationship that went on for years. Cornell's document says its due to my heavy soil. I like alpine.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Cornell strawberry reviews

    This post was edited by ClarkinKS on Sun, Jan 4, 15 at 16:26

  • mrsg47
    9 years ago

    Clark, thanks for the link to Cornell! Thank good I don't have clayey soil. Mrs. G I grow my Honeyoye in gutters.

  • waiting_gw
    9 years ago

    Seascape is the primary strawberry grown by small, side-of-the-road, farmers here in the Northern San Joaquin Valley. The ones that sell right at the field. Big strawberry with great flavor.

  • drew51 SE MI Z5b/6a
    9 years ago

    I use the matted-row type system for my main bed. But so many runners are produced I'm constantly removing them. I kill hundreds of plants. The area allotted for new runners is quickly filled. Overall though I can renew plants often, makes it easy.
    For Mara des bois I grow them in window box type pots. 6 inches wide, 4 feet long. Berry size is smaller than other varieties. Size varies with older plants. Young plants produce well and have a larger berry size. So after 2 years I replace plants with new runners. It's easy because I can place an established pot next to a new one and easily plant new runners in it.I like this system for day neutral because these plants are not long lived. I can keep my June bearing plants a lot longer. After say 4 years I rip out the oldest plants. New runners are all over. I tend to remove some older plants every year as to provide room the next year for runners.
    I also use a few cultivars as ground cover in my ornamental flower beds. I don't do anything to them there. Truly really wanted for weed suppression and as a ground cover. Production is low there, but that is just icing, main purpose is ground cover.

  • Scott F Smith
    9 years ago

    If you are growing only one strawberry get Mara des Bois. I tried many (Sparkle, Earliglow, etc) and it has the most flavor. It also does well all over the US. The alpine and musk strawberries have their merits but are hard to get a decent sized harvest from.

    Sadly I have been out of strawberry growing for a few years now. The deer graze them to nubs over the winter when my sprinkler motion detectors cannot operate due to cold. I only have a tiny patch by the house where they are too afraid to go.

    Scott

  • drew51 SE MI Z5b/6a
    9 years ago

    Nourse Farms has a great breakdown of June bearing by season. I would suggest at least looking what they have and how they rate them. I will be buying from them when i start new beds. These various season berries is how I do it. They do get mixed up a little, but I get an extended season.
    I don't have room for each season, so i combine them in one bed. Next time i will keep better track of each variety. I did note out of my June bearing before getting mixed up. Jewell performed well. But that is for my area. Taste was excellent.

    Out of Pineberries White D is far superior. Hard to find though. I plan on growing some runners out of the beds and bringing them back in.
    I do like Musk, but they are low producers, and require male and female plants. I will probably evenutally scrape them. Taste though is fantastic, no other strawberries taste like them. Same with Pineberries. I will keep them as White D is a very good producer with the largest berry of all of them. Some of the others are good too, and it seems each cultivar tastes a little different. Interesting berries. I may save others for that reason. I still have a couple years before I have to decide.
    Some have asked me for runners, make sure you remind me next fall. Sorry I know spring would be good, but plants are not marked. I could guess, if you want to take a chance of getting something else, Remind me near spring, and again in the fall.

    This next spring I'm going to label all plants. In 2016 I plan to restart bed. So I will remove all but a few pineberries and buy new plants.
    Also do not buy the Nourse Farms pineberry it is inferior to White D. You want White D! I can supply them.
    Here is a photo of my patch with White D. You can see each plant produces a lot of berries.
    {{gwi:109779}}

    Here is the whole bed. Left back is 3 different pineberries. right back is musk. Some overlap into both areas.
    The front is June bearing.
    {{gwi:109781}}

    Here is a close up of White D
    {{gwi:53140}}

  • djkj
    9 years ago

    There are very few varieties in our local stores. This year I am growing Ozark Beauty and Quinault. We'll see how that goes

  • drew51 SE MI Z5b/6a
    9 years ago

    Yeah you guys in Zones 9 and 10 have a whole set of different problems, and trying to suggest for you is hard as what works here probably sucks where you are, and vice versa!

  • clarkinks
    9 years ago

    I think you guys convinced me to grow some Mara des Bois but is there any recommendation on who to buy them from? I found some at Gurneys.

    Here is a link that might be useful: gurneys

  • Scott F Smith
    9 years ago

    Nourse! They are probably the best berry nursery in the US.

    Scott

  • clarkinks
    9 years ago

    Their prices are excellent also http://noursefarms.com/strawberry-plants/mara-des-bois/. Thanks Scott

  • ctnchpr
    9 years ago

    I've grown 12-15 varieties over the past 30 years, and Honeoye is my favorite.

    {{gwi:2117946}}

  • clarkinks
    9 years ago

    What is the best way to bulk buy Mara des Bois plants?

  • drew51 SE MI Z5b/6a
    9 years ago

    Well i bought four pineberry plants, and the next year I had about 50 of them. Now the 3rd year I have more than i can use, maybe 150 of them. I threw hundreds out last year.
    So i would just buy one batch from Nourse and you can propagate as many as you like.
    I have Mara Des Bois all over too. i started using the plants as ground cover in my ornamental garden, so strawberries are all over my yard at this point.

  • spartan-apple
    9 years ago

    Greetings:

    My vote is for Sparkle. While a very old variety, the flavor is
    great and it freezes extremely well. The king berry has decent size but the rest are somewhat small. Still the best!

    I am not a fan of Honey Eye. Big fruit but too firm and tasted like mud to me. Of course everyone has their own
    preference.

    Ozark Beauty bore too little for me. Tristar set a lot of fruit but 90% turn brown and harden up. I finally ripped it out.

    I have not yet tried Albion or Seascape but am intrigued by
    their descriptions.

    Does anyone grow Fairfax anymore? I recall my old fruits
    teacher always hyping it up as the most fragrant and flavorful of all the strawberries but a nightmare on how
    prolific the runner production was.

  • cousinfloyd
    9 years ago

    I'm surprised I haven't heard any mention of Chandler yet. It's basically the only variety I've grown, so I can't really compare it to anything, but I haven't yet tried anything else after 10/11 years, for whatever that's worth. It seems to be the most common variety here in NC for farmers' market growers and u-pick farms. I wonder how much variety recommendations vary according to regions, i.e. how much variation there is in regional suitability and flavor development. I'd be interested to hear about any other varieties that anyone has compared to Chandler.


  • meredith_e Z7b, Piedmont of NC, 1000' elevation
    9 years ago

    I haven't tried Chandler. My favorite here in NC is Albion, and next is Seascape. Albion grows pretty tall, though! That's fine; I just didn't expect it.


  • Fascist_Nation
    8 years ago

    Per subject line of thread: Alpines.
    zone 2-10. Full sun - full shade. Only pest issue birds. And don't believe the rhetoric that the white or yellow ones are ignored by birds <sigh>.


  • clarkinks
    8 years ago

    I did not manage to get strawberries in the ground this year. Please post some pictures and let us know how yours are doing!

  • Matthew Gandin
    8 years ago

    Here in Northern California I prefer Seascapes and Chandler varieties. I planted Quinalt as well this year, small, mushy fruit.



  • drew51 SE MI Z5b/6a
    8 years ago

    I have mostly June bearing, a good year! It's all about raspberries here now.


  • PRO
    M A Jaworski Landscape Design
    3 years ago
    last modified: 3 years ago

    In zone 4 USDA, zone 5 Canada, I grow Charlotte - a delicious, sweet, disease-resistant (tolerant of mites and of mildew) and also tolerant of cold - it grows very well in full sun. Offspring of the fabled Mara des Bois, which has an outstanding flavor.

  • Vali Stef
    2 years ago
    last modified: 2 years ago

    Meraldo is the best strawberry variety that i ever eat. My wife agrees with me. It produces all the year. Elianny also tastes excelent.