North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["S & E Hills" <ehills7408@wowway.com>]

I too have a weedless strawberry patch.  5 years ago I purchased "Yellow
wonder" alpine strawberry seed.  I raised the plants from seed and planted a
5'x4' area with them.  The first year they needed a little babying, but they
did produce fruit.  (interestingly enough only half turned out to be yellow
fruited, though).  After that first year, the plants have returned stronger
and bigger each year and being alpines they do not send out runners (but new
plants can be grown by dividing up clumps in early spring).  I keep planning
on marking the yellow (white) fruited clumps (with color coded golf tees) so
I can reduce the number of red-fruited ones and increase the number of white
fruited ones.  The plants filled in enough in the second year (and each
subsequent year) to out-compete any weeds that might encroach.  I've pulled
about 5-10 weeds total out of the bed this year, that's it.  

I get production almost constantly from spring through fall on this bed.
While the berries are smaller, their flavor definitely makes up for the
smaller size.  

If I can remember to mark out the white fruited plants this year (though now
I have red, white and pink fruiting plants) I will increase the area devoted
to them to  5'x8' (which would be the entire bed) for next year.

Scott Hills
Zone 6b Michigan

 

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