Need help on selecting Strawberry cultivar...

I posted my original question on Veggie Gardening Forum and got no response.. Then it occured to me maybe I was posting on the wrong forum.. So I'm trying my question here...

So basically here's my problem. I'm trying to decided between some varieties.. I have the Mara de Bois strawberries and the flavors good but a med-small size.. I want to get some other cultivars too. I've heard a lot about the musk strawberries (profumata di tortona and capron) and apline strawberries (rugen, mignonette, yellow, and white alpines). Does anyone have experience with these other varieties. I'd like one that's got good flavor but a med to med-large size. Or even large would be nice. Do any of these come in larger sizes??

Thanks. Lindy

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/748940/

This is probably your best bet:
http://counties.cce.cornell.edu/dutchess/section.php?id=3
It gives you access to all of Cornells experts.

I will try there too.. Thanks

I've read about alpine and musk strawberries, and everything I have read says they are small, but extremely tasty. If you find out otherwise, please let us know.

Afraid that I don't know anything about musk strawberries --- had never even heard of them, as a matter of fact, but I've been growing alpine strawberries for the past three years. They are very small, more like wild strawberries. The largest ones I've gotten have been about the size of the tip of my little finger. They do have a nice flavor and have come back faithfully each year (and produced for a long time too. I've even picked a couple in November if we hadn't had a hard freeze.) They don't send out runners, so if you want enough to do anything with them, you need to plant quite a few.

Elaine McCool

I just wanted to add to my unusual strawberries. Are the alpines sweet? Like I have mara de bois right now. And they are sweet enough that I (major sweet tooth here) don't need sugar.. So, I was wondering about the flavor and sweetness of the alpines and musk ones.

Yes, when fully ripe, the alpines are quite sweet. The only problem I've had with them is that the bugs go for them as they ripen so I've often picked them not quite as ripe as I'd like lest I lose them entirely.

Interesting. Which alpline ones do you grow??

Errrrr, you had to ask that, didn't you? Sorry, I picked the plants up three years ago at a nursery a few towns over and they were under a sign that just said "Alpine Strawberries". There may or may not have been more info on a pick inside the pots, but by this time I simply can't remember at all. Afraid that I'm one of those haphazard gardeners who doesn't label anything.

Lindy,

I started with the musk strawberries from Raintree about 10 years ago. I think they were the varieties you mentioned. Plants are very vigorous, and berries are larger than the alpines. Berry flavor is quite good, but somewhat milder than commercial varieties--sweeter and less tart than many. First berries of the season are largest and I would say about mid sized. They were resaonably productive, but the birds were always after them before they fully ripened. I have not had a patch for several years, but plants still grow and spread like weeds in my garden. I'd offer to send you some plants, but for some reason that I have not checked out, plants stopped producing berries a couple of years back for me. I have a bed of white strawberries that spread like crazy via runners that were initially purchased from Edible Landscaping. The are no longer in the catalog, but if you wrote them and asked, they might be able to hook you up - berries are alpine sized and good flavor..

krowten, if you want, we can trade some of my mara de bois ones with your white strawberries. The white ones I've seen are non-runner alpines.. And my mara de bois is like medium sized with really good strawberry flavor and really good sweetness. We can trade rooted runner if you want. Are your white ones sweet?

Lindy, if you want larger than Mara des Bois, the only option is other "regular" varieties. The musk strawberries are similar in size to MdB, maybe a bit smaller. The most perfumed large strawberry is Suwannee, the most sweet is Sparkle, and the most consistent producer with good flavor is Earliglow.

I am growing all of these now but I have basically run out of time to take care of strawberries so they are mostly a pile of weeds, alas. Most of my bed is Mara des Bois because I prefer those smaller berries to the larger less flavorful ones. The one thing I don't like about MdB is the spring crop is quite large, but is not nearly as flavorful as the everbearing (later) crops.

Scott

Scott, I guess I don't need it bigger.. But I do want some variety.. I only have MdB right now and I would like to try some other types.. That's mainly it. My MdB spring crop isn't that big cuz I usually take off some blooms to increase the size and flavor of the berries. Like this spring, I was able to get one to almost 2". Most were smaller though.. Think I will see about trying to get some musk ones then..

I am curious about Sparkle and Earliglow. Are those the ones that's available in the supermarkets?? Cuz I don't like the supermarket ones.. A lot of times, they tend to not be too sweet and have almost an earthy taste to them..