Varieties

The list of recommended varieties is frequently revised so contact your nearest agricultural office before buying. Varieties presently recommended for the home garden are:

Veestar - (early) Fruit is small to medium in size, medium red, quite soft, with good flavour. 'Veestar' is suitable fresh for dessert, for freezing, and for jam.

Annapolis - (early) Fruit is large, light to medium red and firm. Recommended as an early fresh dessert variety when resistance to red stele is required. Red stele root rot may be a problem for susceptible varieties on poorly drained soils.

Sable - (early) Fruit is large, medium red and medium firm with good flavour. 'Sable' is suitable fresh for dessert, for freezing, and for jam. It is a good choice for poorly drained soils.

Cavendish - (early mid-season) Fruit is very large (Fig. 1), medium to dark red, with good flavour. Pollination is improved if grown beside an early cultivar.

Kent - (mid-season) Fruit is large, medium red and firm. Noted for its exceptional yields.

Mira - (late mid-season) Fruit is large, light to medium red and firm. High yields can be expected, even on poorly drained soils. "Mira" exhibits a greater drought tolerance than many other varieties.

Bounty - (late) Fruit is large in early pickings but small in later ones, medium red, medium firm, very good flavour, hulls easily. Suitable for fresh dessert and freezing. A good jam variety.

Everbearing Varieties

All of the strawberry varieties described above are short-day plants, commonly known as June-bearers. These varieties initiate flower-bud formation in late summer when day-length shortens. Recently, improved types of everbearing strawberries have become available.

These types are known as day-neutral varieties because they are relatively insensitive to day-length. They form flower-buds all summer long, provided temperatures are not too high. Fruit production is concentrated in early July and September. The September crop can be advanced to August by removing flower stalks in early June, thus forfeiting the first crop.

The recommended day-neutral varieties are 'Tribute' and 'Tristar'. 'Tristar' is considered better for the home garden due to its superior flavour.

Day-neutrals produce fewer runners than June-bearers. A suggested planting system is a two-year cycle. Plant in spring of year 1 as early as soil can be worked. Space the rows 80 cm apart and the plants in the row 30 cm apart. Apply a 2 cm thick layer of straw to control weeds, conserve water, and to keep the berries clean.

Remove flowers for 6 weeks after planting to encourage runnering and to promote plant establishment. As runner plants form, insert them through the mulch into the soil to ensure rooting. Fruiting will continue into October if plants are protected from frost by a plastic row cover or cloche. Plants should be covered with a straw mulch for winter protection.

In spring of year 2 the gardener must decide whether to allow the plants to fruit in early July or to maximize the autumn crop. If the gardener also grows June-bearers, the removal of the first flush of flowers on the day-neutrals, is preferable. Fruit will then be produced from August to October.

It is important to consider that day-neutral strawberries are more demanding for nutrients than June-bearers, and supplemental fertilizer applied throughout the growing season would be beneficial. Insect pests are generally more severe on day-neutral varieties than June-bearers. Fruit size and productivity decline with repeated cropping cycles and it is recommended that a new planting be started in the spring of year 3.

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