Heirloom Strawberry Seeds, Plants and Information
I recently purchased the following book through Amazon.com. It is out of print but they carry used books from time to time. It’s a must read if you are interested in the history of strawberries.
A History of the Strawberry: From Ancient Gardens to Modern Markets by Stephen and Sagen, James Wilhelm
There is a full chapter about the Virginia strawberry. My favorite chapter is about Pine Strawberries. I sell ‘White Carolina’ which is even mentioned in this book.
I get asked this questions almost daily and sometimes more than once a day. I’m going to post a recent reply that I sent a customer when they asked if they have to worry about cross pollination between multiple varieties of alpine strawberries that they purchased and others asked if the alpines will cross pollinate with garden variety hybrids. It also applied to other species of strawberries like musks and virginia strawberries. All strawberries are in the genus Fragaria. Alpines are the species vesca; Musks are species moschata; virginia strawberries are species virginiana. Garden hybrids are species X (mean cross) ananassa.
Alpine strawberries are self pollinating aided by wind and insects. Mixed alpine varieties will cross. There is no getting around that unless each variety is isolated from the other. Isolation can be done with physical isolation (space between beds) or caging of each variety to eliminate cross pollination due to wind and insects. If one is saving seed and wants it to be true to the cultivar (variety) then isolation is a must.
The crossing doesn’t effect the flavor of the current crop of berries. What you will find in a mixed planting over time is that unpicked berries will fall to the ground and reseed. The seed from these berries is a genetic mix and may result in a varieties with new characteristics including runnering, different colored fruit, even different plant growth habits, etc. There is no way to predict what will result.
Many years ago I had a half barrel of ‘Rugen’ and a half barrel of ‘Yellow Wonder’ next to each other. In the third year I started noticing white berries in the barrel that should have had reds. It took a while to figure out what had happened. I initially thought the reds had reverted if there is such a thing. Some scientist, huh?
Usually, by the time this mixing happens the plants are overcrowded and ready for renovation. The soil is exhausted and little organic matter remains in the container. Renovation usually is done by dividing the plants and replanting into the same or other beds. The need for renovation depends largely on how well the bed was maintained. If most fruit is picked then there will be less “genetic contamination”.
As an extra point, crossing between species is not common for most species in nature. You don’t have to worry about alpines crossing with garden hybrids or wild plants of another species. Of course, there is always the chance that this would occur so it’s best to isolate from other species if you want absolutely no crossing. On the plus side, if you like to play the lottery, the cross between species could be the next million dollar variety!
My only experience is with a variety named ‘Intensity’. I love the taste. What are your experiences? Any pictures?
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Why Grow Wild or Gourmet Strawberries?
I frequently get asked questions like this: “We have a family of 4. How many alpine strawberry plants should we plant to be able to supply our strawberry needs?”. At first blush this question seems simple. Take the strawberry needs of 4 people and divide by production per plant. Right?
Not quite. Alpines, like most gourmet types of strawberries, and are not grown and sold by the quart. We Americans want the highest yielding whatever. It is obvious with strawberries that the flavor and aroma is not a consideration. Quantity wins.
Did you ever think about why portions of French dishes are so small. Americans don’t feel like they are getting value with such meals. I’m paying what for such a small portion? If you look at the size of the portion without tasting it you probably do feel short changed. But the value in French food is the taste, the experience, not the quantity.
If you are looking only at quantity, go buy a quart of strawberries in the store. During the summer when my alpines were not producing much because of the heat, I finally gave in to the temptation to buy a quart of strawberries at my local grocery store. In fact, they were selling them two for the price of one. Wow, what a bargain. They looked great. Huge unripe berries. In the final analysis, they were not a bargain. I ended up feeding most of what I bought to my worms. Pretty expensive worm food! There was very little aroma. Just enough to get me to buy them. The taste was horrible. The crispiness of an apple. Even sugar didn’t make it much better, just tolerable. Yes, they had strawberry flavor, afterall, they have most of the genes of strawberries. I was very disappointed and felt that I wasted my money.
So, what’s the answer? I think the only choice we have as consumers is to grow our own if we are looking for food that tastes good. And more importantly, if we want to be able to control what our food is sprayed with we must grow our own.
This has become the mission of The Strawberry Store. We are bringing back heirloom varieties. Many of these varieties were pushed out of the marketplace because their yields could no longer compete with newer varieties. Some fell out of favor for other reasons such as susceptibility to pests or that they don’t ship well. If you are growing them in your backyard, why do they need to ship well?
I heard from a strawberry breeder recently that he is not interested in working with varieties that don’t have all of what they now consider desirable characterics such as shipability, size, yield, etc. It is becoming more and more clear to me that these breeders are breeding strawberries that will at some point turn the tide. More and more consumers want to grow their own for some of the reasons already mentioned. If the flavor continues to be sacrificed for size and yield, at some point people will stop buying the fruit at the store like I have. If enough people get fed up with the lack of value then breeders are going to have to start reconsidering their positions.
We hear frequently from customers that they are happy with the heirlooms. Many customers are buying and planting varieties that we are reintroducing and testing themselves for characteristics important to them. The home gardener is now becoming the breeder in a way. They are selecting varieties that give them what they cannot buy at the store. Some are even becoming amateur plant breeders. They are planting the seeds from the strawberries that they grow and selecting their own varieties. In the 1800′s, this is how new varieties were introduced. Home gardeners were the plant breeders of that day. I think in some ways plant breeding is coming full circle. More and more are unhappy with the selections being introduced by professional breeders and are making their own selections. These selections are not solely based on yield. Flavor and aroma are a part of this selection process. And, a lot of the fruit picked gets eaten right in the garden. Who needs varieties that can be shipped thousands of miles when they are not shipped even one foot – they’re eaten on the spot or within 50 feet of where they are grown. This is the reason our business exists, and is thriving.