Interestingly, the critters aren't eating them either. I have a few Mara des bois in a different bed and they've been nibbled at, but this bed is pretty much untouched. Hmm....

You need to post your region when asking for this kind of advice. Too much water certainly leads to bland strawberries but the conditions you describe are what we have here in southeastern NY.

One of my customers had bland strawberries and didn't know the variety, but they were everbearing so I'm guessing one of the day neutral clones.

Mine are earli glow, I think, and they've got normal good flavor.

Hi Harvestman,
Yep - I'm in Southeastern NY.

I think the strawberries might be getting slightly better tasting, but it could just be my imagination. I haven't tried today's harvest yet. I'm wondering what other reasons, besides rain, there might be for fruit that doesn't have as much sweetness as it should.

How much sun are your berries getting?

I've noticed that if I pick my strawberries in the morning or after a good sized rain that they tasted watered down and bland. I started picking them after the evening heat sat on them for an hour or two and they tasted a lot stronger. You might try that, but if that does not help then I would get more of the Tristar and see if the Earliglo is your flavor problem.

There's nothing wrong with the flavor of Earliglo by my experience and reading. It is a highly rated variety for flavor, I believe more so than Tristar, who's primary virtue is the long harvest season.

For what it's worth, the things I'm learning that create sour strawberries are

1) back of enough sunlight

2) overcrowding

3) allowing fruit to set the first season. We're supposed to pick off the flowers so that the plant production goes into the roots

4) not properly pruning everbearing plants

What is really funny is now that I look more closely at the comments, I see that this post was from 9 years ago! I was doing a search on strawberries lacking sweetness when your post popped up. If you get notification of this comment, please reply and let me know what you found out and what you did, okay? I would love to know!!!

I tried several varieties in my previous location, and they were all tasteless and sour. Early, quickly ripening varieties (like Earliglow) were the worst. They got the most rain and the least sun. Strawberries like light soils, and mine was heavily amended sticky clay, in a raised bed.

I tried growing some strawberries here in the desert and they were absolutely delicious, very sweet (they won't live through the summer though).

Some areas are just not great for strawberries. I think it's a combination several factors like the amount of sunlight, rain and the type of soil.

ffreidl - I will love to know how they turn out! I don't know what variety ours are. I think they're supposed to be ever bearing which probably isn't ever bearing and is more like two crops? I don't really know much about them. I'm going to try to put straw around them and keep them off the ground and see if we have any better success

JoJo (Nevada 9A) yes too much rain is supposed to be a big problem. As is not enough Sun. I think we have too much shade back there for too much of the day. It's great they taste great in the desert but I wonder if there's any way to salvage the plants through the summer?

Pat, I'm going to find out soon! Strawberries are sensitive to salts (minerals in desert soils and water), so I've been getting a raised bed ready for them for planting in September. I will shade them during the hottest months and see if that works. They tasted so good, I just have to give it a try!

Pat, they came out great! They were sweet and delicious. I guess the extra sun on the deck vs in the beds made the difference. Only got a big handful though : ). I'll have to decide if it's worth the space for next year.