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An update on my strawberries.  They are terrific, now that I've learned how to grow them, desppite not being in the alps.  It seems that alpine strawberries (or at least, the ones I grow) don't develop much flavor or sugar until they are very very ripe.  I was picking them when they had just turned red, or mostly red.  This was what I'd learned to do with ordinary strawberries, which taste okay when picked a little early.  I do this because if I leave a nearly ripe strawberry for a day, it won't be there when I get back.  (Chipmunks, I think.)

Anyway, I gave up on the alpine strawberries because they were so disappointing, but I didn't bother to pull out the plants, which are rather attractively edging the bed with the currants.  One day I noticed that there several strawberries just sitting there, some VERY ripe.  I picked them, and WOW!!!  They are very soft, very sweet, and have a rich, aromatic flavor, like pineapple and strawberry and mango all rolled into one tiny fruit.  The nearly ripe ones still taste pretty blah.

For whatever reason, the animals don't bother the alpine strawberries in my garden.  Maybe they haven't noticed the little fruits lurking under the leaves, or maybe they were discouraged by "blah" under-ripe fruits.  Now, every few days I peak and see if anything if fully red.  If it is, and it falls off in my hand, I eat it.  If it's just very red, I leave it on the bush.  I can't say the plants produce much volume of fruit, but what fruit they produce is well worth it - and they are still an attractive edging plant.

Ginda

On Sunday, April 20, 2003, at 01:26  PM, LONGDISTSHTR wrote:

> Ginda, I had a similar experience.  I tried to grow Alpine Strawberries in New Jersey and they were nothing like the ones in the Alps. I believe that the growing conditions, climate, etc. have a big influence on the taste of strawberries.  The strawberries I grew here which I brought with me from New Jersey don't taste like they did up there.  The commercial berries grown here are beautiful and very large but they are missing the flavor and sweetness of  the strawberries I have tasted elsewhere.
> I honestly believe that you have to get a variety for your particular locale which, regardless of variety, will produce a satisfactory berry.
> Blueberries which produced large, succulent and delicious berries in NJ just won't make it here.  I had to switch to the local rabbiteyes. The Northern bushes survive but just don't produce the same berries. I had heard this, but had to give them the old college try. Same thing with plums. I can forget the Japanese types here. They did great there.
> The most forgiving of all my fruits are the Japanese pears and persimmons. Just different insects.
> I've just about given up on re-writing the book on planting things out of certain areas for some fruits and vegetables.
> "It is what we learn after we think we know it all, that counts." B.J. Palmer, DC
> Doc Lisenby
> Zone 7/8
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