Alpine Strawberries

[Alan]

Though it is probably too late to start them and to get them planted for this year I have decided that a new project I am going to be working on is with Alpine or wild type strawberries, though they are smaller than conventional strawberries and usually don't put out runners they definetly have their advatages including fragrance and a stronger taste. They are also considered a gourmet delicacy and can be propogated easily from seed.

I have placed several orders for about 10 or so varieties, a few reds, but predominetly white an yellow. I remember these little strawberries from my childhood going to visit with my Grandfather in Clay County KY where they grew along trails, roadsides, and mostly around old homesites, if they taste anything like I remember then they should be exsquisite.

Of course with any luck I will do some hybridization of types and also offer seeds of those and the originals through the Hip-Gnosis seed development project in time.

Has anyone here had any experience with the cultivation of this type of strawberrie? I'm thinking of growing them in large wash tub container for a while untill I run out of room. We will see!

[plantsnobin]

Alan, years ago I grew a Pineapple strawberry from Parks. You know, back when they still had a decent reputation. They were delicious little berries, but it sure does take a lot of picking to even get a handful. I eventually lost the plants, don't remember why. They make a great edge in the perennial garden, and they bloom all summer, though not heavily at any one time. Seems like there were always a couple of ripe berries along the way. I am growing Alexander this year, they have germinated but aren't big enough to transplant yet. If you have the pineapple, I would like to buy a few. And, it isn't too late to plant them, they germinate quickly.

[Jim]

I read somewhere something like the whites and yellows will eventually revert back to red if grown close to red but that makes little sense unless they cross. I've got probably half a dozen seed packets for them and never started them this year.

[Alan]

Karen, I believe I did order several packetts of seed for something called "pineapple crush" when they arrive I will be sure to save you a couple of packetts out.

I remember reading somewhere as well that they will revert back to red, something that I sort of figured considering that I'm sure red is the dominant color and this is also why I will be growing the reds in isolation from the yellows and whites, unless of course I find out that strawberries are self pollinating, then I will just mix them together.

I just placed an order for several good sized wash tubs to grow micro-tomatoes, micro peppers, and alpine strawberries in so Isolation will not be an issue, and of course I can move the container into the greenhouses in cool weather and maybee add a couple weeks worth of fruiting time to the strawberries.

[canadamike]

Alan, they are delicious, but a pain to harvest, I had them for years then when I moved I did not grew them again, we have enough wild ones around here...You need lots of plants for a valuable harvest, and I really mean LOTS...The flavor can't be beaten, for sure, and whites are tops...

[gardenhappy]

HI ALAN,
I HAVE GROWN THE RED AND YELLOWS. The flavor can not be beat i don't think.They are great icecream making and wonderful for homemade vinagars with basil,but as already said it takes a ton!!! we grew them in the garden bags that hang and have several holes,and in wire baskets to save on space,that also keeps the ants off of them as they seem to realize how great they are too!!!!

[Alan]

Thanks for all of the great information guys, I plan on starting the seed later this week along with late cabbages, tomatoes, and some other things. I am really looking forward to playing with these wonderful little beauties, my real interest in playing with them and crossing them is along the same lines as my work with minature dwarf or micro tomatoes as well as micro peppers, for urban gardeners, the disabled, and the elderly which all love and deserve a taste of summer even if they can't have a full sized garden.

[stratcat]

Yes Alan, I had half a dozen Alpine strawberry plants 25 years ago. Great flavor!

I've been successfully growing peppers and tomatoes, including dwarves, in containers with the idea of people growing on balconies, etc.

Keep up the good work.

john

[Alan]

Thanks for the support John! Many great things are coming with the help of all of our friend here for balcony gardeners!

Looking forward to it myself!

[Alan]

Starting to get some germination now! Pray for my little seeds to do well, I have a buyer who will buy by the ounce for a good price!

[plantsnobin]

Alan, it is great that you have a buyer interested, but do keep in mind just how tiny these berries are, and that they don't fruit all at once. There will be berries of different ripeness on one plant, so harvesting isn't an all at once thing. The plants are as vigourous as the usual June bearers. I think a raised bed planting would be the way to go if you are going to try these on a commercial scale. Way raised. A terraced slope would be good so you could stand up and pick them.

[canadamike]

Funny that terrace slope thing Plant, this is actually how my small strawbery bed is organised. I have the luxury of a huge workshop and almost endless pine and white cedar.

But let me tell you one thing, these beds take a lot of dirt. Mine are only 6 inches high per ''stair'' ( they look like a staircase), and the top one was a pain to fill. One and a half foot by 8 does not seems like lots, but by the time it is filled, watered down then refilled, there is a lot of soil in it.

But if you have some wood, Alan, do it, the production per square foot is amazing. But if I had to redo it, I would only use 2 inches high staircases, and build it like I did for my herbs, a ''double staircase'' going up, then from the top layer, going down on the other side.

For strawberries, which will take some time to go to size, the advantage is weeding: by covering the top 2 inches with compost and peat moss, you eliminate weeds for the first year, giving them time to establish strongly, and the verticality helps a lot production.

This year, I have seeded a lot of thyme, my buddy, a great guy but a garden poet in the rough (very rough ) thends to rototill so enthousiasticly in the spring that for 3 years in a row he has turned down my ''I tought they were weeds'' thyme plants.

The staircase bed will take care of it...I hope

[americangardener]

Alan.. I was just wondering if anyone here would know about "Duchesnea indica" which is also called Indian Strawberry or Mock strawberry. Only reason i'm asking is cause i got some seeds for it and i'm gonna grow it.. just i don't know what the heck they are.

Since i'm still finding out about alpine strawberries, which are the one's you're growing? Are you growing the Fragaria virginiana or the Fragaria vesca?

So far all my experience with "alpine" strawberries is in eating em when i was a kid. Used to have fields and fields of em all over the place when i lived in Maine. And it sure does take alot of em to make it worthwhile. but it's alot of fun when you're a kid to go out picking em.

[plantsnobin]

Mike, I figured Alan could use the soil from the pond I know he will eventually want to build. Here's the way I see it. He builds a pond up on the hill a bit. He can raise a few fish to eat, maybe grow some water chestnuts, other aquatic edibles. The pond can provide irrigation for the plants below. He then terraces below the pond for the specialty crops that require a lot of bending. Looks like he could probably come up with some rot resistant wood, he is a very resourceful kinda guy. While he is working on the terracing, he goes ahead and builds the root cellar, for storage of crops, plus a place to raise mushrooms. Of course, at this point he might as well go ahead and build his house into the hill. Not too big, not too small. And I'm sure he will use a grey water system. Then below that he can build a new state of the art greenhouse, where the water filtration system will be housed. Chickens will also be there, on the north side. So, now we would be just about to the existing barn, which would make a great antique tool museum of sorts. In front of that could be the new visitor center/seed store.

[Alan]

Your vastly overestimating my inteligence Karen and my will to do all that work, I'm not sure how I'm going to do the strawberries yet but the idea of terraces did come up, but then I got thinking about all the free containers I get from the landscaping company I used to work for and about planting them in those and then being able to move them into one of the greenhouses where I could put grow lights down one side of the house so I could sell them for big dollars in the winter time. They are all up and growing, they are very slow germinators but I'm really excited about the prospect of growing them and providing them as a specialty to our customers and I'm sure the co-op would go crazy over them in the winter time. Time will tell though.