Strawberry Variety Review: Alpine, Mara Des Bois, Sequoia, Sweet Charlie, Sensation, Wild Woodland

[@JustinBreaux-e2t]

awesome, the sweet charlie look really good. I'm definitely adding it to my list

[@citylotgardening6171]

Great video thank you for sharing your results looking forward to more strawberry reviews 👍

[@floridavegetablegardening]

You’re welcome! I will do another review eventually. I am trying out five new varieties this season.

[@desertflower9557]

Thanks for this comparison and review.

[@floridavegetablegardening]

You’re welcome 🙂

[@nancytharp8213]

I ordered Chandler strawberry plugs from Hoss Tools to plant in green stalk planters. Enjoyed the video. Thanks for sharing 🙏 😎 🏖 🏝

[@floridavegetablegardening]

Awesome! I have high hopes for the Chandler variety. It sounds like it should taste really good. We’ll see! 🙂

[@tomaitoe]

Excellent review! I'm curious to hear your thoughts on the varieties you grew this year.

[@tomgatum4330]

I just planted few varieties of strawberries early this year and started bearing fruits...one of them is sweet Charlie...hope my sweet Charlie is valid and berries are big as yours.. thanks for sharing

[@floridavegetablegardening]

Wonderful! I hope they do well for you! 😊

[@gidget8717]

Growing up in the mountains of Virginia, in the late 1950s & 60s, we lived for the wild strawberries! (Fragaria Virginiana) Because Florida's climate and soil is so so different, I'm not sure what should be done to make them produce better down here. Too me the wild strawberries were like so many things, wild blueberries, black raspberries, blackberries, black walnuts, hickory nuts, pawpaws, persimmons and much more than I can list, they just were. Sometimes, things remind me how lucky I was to be a child then and there. 😊

[@floridavegetablegardening]

Wow! You were indeed lucky to be a child then and there 🙂. That sounds wonderful! And the mountains of Virginia are so beautiful too! If I could tolerate cold weather (but I can't) then I would want to live in the mountains of North Carolina or Virginia. I think I am going to continue experimenting with the wild varieties. I'm going to plant them as ground covers in various spots and wild woodland areas and see if they actually will start growing wild (without my intervention) in any of the places I try. If they do actually produce any berries someday, I am sure they would be delicious like the few that I did get from one of the varieties. Maybe I just need to let them go for a couple of years before they start producing. The only problem is that the wildlife will probably get most of them before I do if I don't keep the berry plants in cages. We'll see. I do like to experiment. 😊

[@gidget8717]

@@floridavegetablegardening you are right, it could be that they need to establish themselves first. Most perennial flowers usually take about 3 years to come to full maturity. The first year they sleep, the second year they creep, the third year they leap. Because they are true natives of North America maybe they take a little longer to mature. 💗

[@floridavegetablegardening]

@@gidget8717 I like that saying about the first second and third year! I’ve never heard that before, but will certainly remember it now 😊

[@saucyruben]

that strawberry you listed and around 8 wild blueberry varieties are also native to parts of central/north florida. they can be found in decent shape while foraging

[@derekperez1418]

Nice set up, looks like the only pests that can get in are slugs, earwigs, pillbugs and aphids. The fruit is safe from animals and ground rot. Do you use liquid fertilizer for those bags or compost in the soil? I appreciate you committing time and money trying these out.

[@srinivasam3638]

👍👍Thank you very much for the information 🙏🙏

[@floridavegetablegardening]

@@srinivasam3638 you’re welcome! 😊

[@kulasakulasisi6123]

Very helpful! Thank you!

[@floridavegetablegardening]

You’re Welcome! 🙂

[@karlbarks2219]

Garden strawberries are a hybrid between Chilean wild strawberries (big) and Virginia wild strawberries (sweet). "Alpine strawberries" are European wild strawberries which have a different but more intense strawberry flavor.

[@majorchance2606]

Thanks for all the helpful videos! I know I am probably to late to plant strawberries 🍓 this year, but wanted to ask when you are planting the seeds and runners? Also in the Bay area. Thanks for the info

[@floridavegetablegardening]

You’re welcome! It is pretty late in the year to get started from seed or runners but if you happened to come across some healthy bare roots or already potted strawberry plants you could still plant now and get a few harvests. But for next year - seeds I start in August, and runners I start throughout the early growing season (fall/winter) when the plants are putting out a lot of runners. I grow the majority of my strawberry plants from bare roots or plugs and I plant those in October and November, depending on when the vendors are shipping them.

[@CampingforCool41]

Alpine strawberries taste amazing imo. But it is quite different from what we are used to. I think they taste exactly like strawberry Pez candy. I also think the conditions they grow in can really change the flavor so maybe you had a different experience with them

[@kqdwills]

Very good rating system on strawberry varieties. Aside from Sweet Charlie and Sequoia, I think it would be even much greater if you started with other more popular strawberries like Jewel, Albion, Seascape, Ozark beauty, Honeoye, Earliglow, Cabot, Eversweet,.... than the wild types which wouldn't be expected to have good quality berries by almost everyone.

[@floridavegetablegardening]

Thanks. I’m trying out Albion, Festival, Chandler, Fronteras, and Medallion this season. I will do another review on those eventually. They are all bigger commercial type varieties that are supposed to be well suited to my region.

[@OsirusHandle]

afaik the alpines are mostly wild Vescas that have been selected against runners and for fruiting.

[@dieterkaraluz1859]

Are you growing them in pots in a cage? Want to start some strawberries but wonder about the squirrels. Thanks.

[@floridavegetablegardening]

Yes they are in 2 and 3 gallon grow bags in a cage I made out of 1/2 in hardware cloth. I will post another video soon of the cages. I never could have tried all of these varieties without the cages. Raccoons and/or opossums used to steal ALL of my berries as soon as they ripened and I hardly ever could beat them to it. The cages have worked perfectly and I get to eat all of my berries now. Bugs can still get to them but I have to accept that because the bees also need to be able to get to them to pollinate the flowers.

[@christinehbailey]

How many plants per pot?

[@floridavegetablegardening]

@@christinehbailey 1 plant in each 2 or 3 gallon pot. You might possibly be able to squeeze 2 into a 3 gallon pot but I haven’t tried that.

[@sarah7358]

How far south are you? I wonder if these will apply to my more tropical conditions here in South Florida.

[@floridavegetablegardening]

I’m slightly north of Tampa in zone 9b. I think it would still apply to you. Our main growing season is winter here. Even where I am in central Florida, our tropical summers are brutal and not good for strawberries. Whatever variety you choose to grow, you will be better off planting in late fall for a winter and spring harvest. I don’t know if you saw this video or not, but it may be helpful: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eWOTiJSkdrhjnrc Good luck!

[@Shivermetimbers90]

What do you do with your plants during the summer? I live in Fort Lauderdale and I’m trying to figure out if I can grow berries

[@floridavegetablegardening]

Sometimes I move them to a partially shaded area during the summer (or put shade cloth up). This year I was too busy to do anything and the weeds grew up and shaded them somewhat (but also compete for nutrients). Some plants will survive through the summer but not all of them. I think some varieties do better through summer than others. This year about half of my sweet Charlie plants lived through summer even though I completely neglected them. With the other varieties I only had a few that survived summer since I didn’t move them to a cooler shadier spot. The wild varieties usually survive, but don’t produce many berries.

[@Shivermetimbers90]

@@floridavegetablegardening awesome! I bought some bare root sweet Charlie’s, I’m going to put them in my green stalk, hoping they do well 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

[@floridavegetablegardening]

@@Shivermetimbers90 Yay! Good luck! 🙂

[@oreopaksun2512]

@@floridavegetablegardening Thank you for this info. I experimented with Chandler bareroots last fall, but though they grew well initially, something kept eating the leaves into lace, and they struggled. Now that strawberry season is OVER, they are growing like crazy, and flowering....figures. So I wanted to save the plants over the summer and see if they will grow in the fall now they are established. Fingers crossed.

[@puckingery915]

I'm no expert on Strawberries, only an enthusiast. My experience with the "wild" varieties, is either you actively cut all runners up to harvest season, or you over crowd plants and limit nutrients to force fruiting for reproduction means over runners. However, the former is ready the first year with lower yields, the latter requires a year or more to fully come into production but then produces its potential yearly. It also doesn't hurt to mimic the native soil, given unlimited space, climate, and resources a single plant can spread itself out to cover a large area of prepared favorable soils without ever producing a fruit

[@floridavegetablegardening]

Thank you for sharing this. That makes sense. I am going to attempt to grow the wild varieties again in the future in areas where they actually can be wild and I will keep these strategies in mind to see if I can get some of the plants to produce berries. In some areas I wouldn’t mind having it as just a ground cover even if they don’t produce much. Thanks again! 😊

[@puckingery915]

@@floridavegetablegardening also try hanging pots.

[@VeronicaRonniDorval2638]

👍

[@neilbennett9281]

Of course there is no such thing as Alpine mara de Bois Mara de Bois is a hybridised variety.

[@floridavegetablegardening]

Correct. I tried to make it clear that these are different varieties by listing them separately. I listed which varieties of Alpine Strawberries I grew between about 5:04-6:16. Red Alpine varieties start at about 5:04 and White Alpine varieties start at around 5:47. Mara Des Bois isn’t listed as an Alpine, it just happens to be the next variety I reviewed after the Alpine varieties.