Hi
Noted that you are in zone 10 Florida / California??
care to recommend some varieties for S. Florida ??
Also where do you get the starts??
Any type that will make it through summer?? Thanks gary

garyfla:

I hail from San Diego, California and I buy 'Camarosa' bare-root strawberry plants from Peaceful Valley Farms.

Camarosa is a day-neutral, meaning that it bears fruit all year long. It needs full sun and South Florida has plenty of that for sure.

If you're worried about your plants 'making it through summer', invest in some shade cloth and shade them two hours each side of high noon.

What was I thinking?

Camarosas are June bearing. I grow them year round and have a special "tweak" that makes them bear year-round, but I am not ready to let that horse out of the barn just yet.

Hi
Not the sun that's the problem, High humidity and all the accompaning disease problems along with heavy rainfall.
Have had a couple of cultivars that will struggle through but fall way short of new plantings in production of fruit the next year.
Found it usually best to give up around late May and start with new offsets in late Nov with June bearers. Everbearing spend all the time making offsets instead of fruit. IME.
Don't mind that but the offsets are so expensive so trying to figure a way to get around that.Have trouble finding june bearers locally and mail order wants to sell me a hundred or a thousand but not ten lol. Particularly in the cultivars that do the best in this area.
Thought you might know of some suppliers?? Thanks gary

garyfla - Check out the UF extension (http://strawberry.ifas.ufl.edu/)

You can contact them about where to buy certain cultivars and also they list which are best for Florida growing.

I know that sequoia, festival and camarosa have all been commercially grown in the state of Florida. Festival was very popular this year in the Lake City/Plant City area.

--chris

look for a florida strawberry growers association. there is a north carolina one with members in both south carolina and georgia. they list all the members and indicate who sells what and in what quantities. some even sell small quantities to residential growers.

Hi
Thanks for the suggestions. Was hoping I could get starts locally. There are some commercial growers in the area. Probably a bit late now anyway heat is already setting in lol gary

I buy bare-root stock from Peaceful Valley, they're SOLD OUT unless you want to buy them by the thousands, like you said.

You might try Lowes or Home Depot. They often carry Sierra and you can buy a one-gallon container that has up to about 15 crowns, which can be separated into individual plants. If you want Camerosas, you'll have to get them early in the season. They are the first to go. I order no later than October or November.

Now an over-60 question: What does IME mean?

I just picked up some Ozark Beauty from Lowes. They also had the Sierra. Home Depot had Sierra and another kind. The crowns come in bags of 10 for $3.98 (same prices at both stores). I grabbed 20 plants, 6 for hydro and 14 for dirt.

Freemangreens
Afraid I'm over 60 and then some myself lol IME means in my experience or IMO in my opinion .Saves a lot of typing as well as arguing??
Have tried all local suppliers but all had everbeaing and wanted 3 bucks for two plants . I'm not only old I'm frugal .
Another ?? for you people. I know that strawberries are native to N. America .Anybody know where and what climate zone?? Another curiosity if true ?? Only fruiting plant in the world with seeds on the outside?? gary

garyfla:

"I know that strawberries are native to N. America .Anybody know where and what climate zone?? "

This is just a guess, but I've picked wild strawberries on the Oregon coast as well as in the state of Washington. The berries are quite small and REALLY sweet.

As far as "Only fruiting plant in the world with seeds on the outside" I'm guessing again and I'd say "probably".

The thing we call a "strawberry" is actually an 'accessory fruit' meaning the fleshy thing we eat is not the real fruit. The endosperm of the seed is the real fruit, but the attractiveness of the big red sweet accessory fruit is probably what gets the seeds distributed in nature. Again; just a guess.

Hi
My guess would be somewhere in the NE as T. Jefferson was growing them and oregon wasn't invented yet lol Another clue is they were a commercial crop in France by 1820 but obviously from the sheer number of cultivars there must be many members of the gene pool. Not sure of the scientific name nor what family they belong to. Guessing rose?? By whatever name IMO they certainly are the best of all fruits lol gary

That's a great resource. Thanks for that!