Thursday, July 4, 2013
Visit Our Other Blog
This blog has not been updated for some time. We started using another blog at the domain that was created in 2009 at Gourmet Strawberries. Please visit the site.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
I tried blogging a number of times. It seems that I always run out of time. This time I'm going to make an effort to stay at it. 
I've been growing alpine strawberries for over 20 years. Over the years I ran into many authors making the same statement about alpine strawberries being cute little unproductive ornamentals. At first these statements seemed to be true. I followed their advice and planted the plants close together - 6" apart. The yields were disappointing. Just a small handfull of fruit from a row of plants.
I even tried growing the plants in a greenhouse in vertical tubes. I won't go into the details here, but I found that they will grow in these systems but again, the yields were disappointing. By chance I planted a plant in a half barrel that had been vacated by a tomato plant.
The results were staggering. This one plant quickly filled the barrel with it's unground runners (stolons). As the plant grew, so did the yield. I tended to pick berries every time I walked by the barrel. You see, I was hooked on the taste and fragrance of this special fruit. The fragrance itself brought be to the half barrel. Anyhow, no single picking was impressive but the plant just kept producing, even some in the summer. I lived in South Jersey at that time which can get hot in the summer. The barrel happened to be under a huge tree. Now I understand that this was a huge advantage.
The plant in this half barrel produced for 5 years. Production did seem to dwindle. I started looking into a reason. With a little digging I soon realized that the soil was depleted. In fact, it was virtually all roots. That's why I needed to water nearly every day. There was no organic matter left. Fertilizer helped but it was time to divide. Long story short, I divided the plant and got nearly 100 divisions. This was perfect because I had run an ad in "Fine Gardening" and virtually all the plants were sold within short order.
My background is in research. I received a M.S. in Entomology and worked in research for a large chemical company. In 2004 I decided to try to finally answer the question that I had about production. How much could one plant actually produce? By that time I had collected over 20 varieties of alpines. By chance I had plants of several of these varieties and a large raised bed to which had been added spent mushroom compost.
I decided to plant a single plant of each of the varieties that I had in this bed. I gave them more space than they could possibly use - spacing was about 24". The next spring I picked the berries from each plant. I weighed and counted them. I did everything I could to maximize production. I even put bird netting over the plants to protect every berry.
The results of this test and others are in the process of being compiled and analized. The short story is that the most productive variety produced over 450 berries and nearly a pound of fruit for the spring season only. Two varieties had statistically similar production. The other varieties were statistically different (less production).
A couple of studies since then have taught me a lot about testing this species. Without getting into all of that I'll get to my reason to blog here. The picture above introduces the 2009 trial that is now setup. I setup a concrete block raise bed grid - what a mouthful. This bed was setup in late August 2009. Each grid has now been planted with two plants of each of 12 varieties of alpines. My next entry will provide some of the details including the varieties. Until then .....
I've been growing alpine strawberries for over 20 years. Over the years I ran into many authors making the same statement about alpine strawberries being cute little unproductive ornamentals. At first these statements seemed to be true. I followed their advice and planted the plants close together - 6" apart. The yields were disappointing. Just a small handfull of fruit from a row of plants.
I even tried growing the plants in a greenhouse in vertical tubes. I won't go into the details here, but I found that they will grow in these systems but again, the yields were disappointing. By chance I planted a plant in a half barrel that had been vacated by a tomato plant.
The results were staggering. This one plant quickly filled the barrel with it's unground runners (stolons). As the plant grew, so did the yield. I tended to pick berries every time I walked by the barrel. You see, I was hooked on the taste and fragrance of this special fruit. The fragrance itself brought be to the half barrel. Anyhow, no single picking was impressive but the plant just kept producing, even some in the summer. I lived in South Jersey at that time which can get hot in the summer. The barrel happened to be under a huge tree. Now I understand that this was a huge advantage.
The plant in this half barrel produced for 5 years. Production did seem to dwindle. I started looking into a reason. With a little digging I soon realized that the soil was depleted. In fact, it was virtually all roots. That's why I needed to water nearly every day. There was no organic matter left. Fertilizer helped but it was time to divide. Long story short, I divided the plant and got nearly 100 divisions. This was perfect because I had run an ad in "Fine Gardening" and virtually all the plants were sold within short order.
My background is in research. I received a M.S. in Entomology and worked in research for a large chemical company. In 2004 I decided to try to finally answer the question that I had about production. How much could one plant actually produce? By that time I had collected over 20 varieties of alpines. By chance I had plants of several of these varieties and a large raised bed to which had been added spent mushroom compost.
I decided to plant a single plant of each of the varieties that I had in this bed. I gave them more space than they could possibly use - spacing was about 24". The next spring I picked the berries from each plant. I weighed and counted them. I did everything I could to maximize production. I even put bird netting over the plants to protect every berry.
The results of this test and others are in the process of being compiled and analized. The short story is that the most productive variety produced over 450 berries and nearly a pound of fruit for the spring season only. Two varieties had statistically similar production. The other varieties were statistically different (less production).
A couple of studies since then have taught me a lot about testing this species. Without getting into all of that I'll get to my reason to blog here. The picture above introduces the 2009 trial that is now setup. I setup a concrete block raise bed grid - what a mouthful. This bed was setup in late August 2009. Each grid has now been planted with two plants of each of 12 varieties of alpines. My next entry will provide some of the details including the varieties. Until then .....
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Seed Germination Media
This season I sold a lot of seeds to people and there seemed to be a recurring problem with germination. It took some time and ultimately some personal experience that "solved" the dilemma. It seems that because of convenience many are choosing peat pots to germinate their strawberry seeds. I too used them. I found the Ferry Morse 24 and 12 pellet "mini greenhouses" to be very convenient for varieties that I was germinating a few seeds. Many of my new varieties I only start out with 25 or less seeds.
Several customers sent emails and described their situations but it took me awhile to put it together. In most cases a few seeds germinated and then nothing happened. Looking back on this I believe that what happens is that the grower is using a cover to retain humidity. When the first few seeds germinate they take the cover off - which is also what I do. The peat pellets wick the moisture from the tray but on the surface where the seeds are sitting the peat is drying out quickly. I think the seeds may have germinated if the humidity cover had been left on. If the covers had been left on long enough for a small root system to develop the plants may have survived.
The bottom line, proceed with caution if you're using peat pellets to germinate strawberry seeds.
Another system that I tried were "Park Starts". They are styrofoam blocks with some sort of sponge type plug. By wetting the top of the plug and keeping water in the tiny shallow tray I was able to germinate seeds with this sytem. The hitch comes in transplanting. Many did not survive the transplanting process. They just withered and died. I think the cell is too small and the sponge material too dense to allow the roots to grow properly. This is speculation on my part but I saw many seedlings withering and dying. Occassionally I could revive them if they were caught in time but it took more time than it was worth.
My greatest success was with Pro-Mix BX. Unfortunately, this formulation is not and organic mix. I don't know why Premier doesn't take out the non-organic wetting agent and replace it with an organic one. As I understand it that's one issue. The other is the fertilizer charge. This is a great mix but not organic.
I am experimenting with several types of mixes. Because peat moss is not a sustainable resourse I am not including it in my trials. I am including coir and other materials that are certified organic. By the end of 2008 I should have an organic seed mix that works as well as or better than Pro-Mix BX.
BTW - I've had a little experience with ProMix Ultimate Organic and so far am not impressed. The first negative is the price. This just is not suitable for a commercial grower like me. It's cost prohibitive. I have a couple of containers of the Ultimate Organic side-by-side with ProMix BX. I think the ProMix BX is better. The plants in the BX are larger. The difference I have seen is that the BX dries out before the Ultimate Organic.
Anyone have similar or different experiences?
Several customers sent emails and described their situations but it took me awhile to put it together. In most cases a few seeds germinated and then nothing happened. Looking back on this I believe that what happens is that the grower is using a cover to retain humidity. When the first few seeds germinate they take the cover off - which is also what I do. The peat pellets wick the moisture from the tray but on the surface where the seeds are sitting the peat is drying out quickly. I think the seeds may have germinated if the humidity cover had been left on. If the covers had been left on long enough for a small root system to develop the plants may have survived.
The bottom line, proceed with caution if you're using peat pellets to germinate strawberry seeds.
Another system that I tried were "Park Starts". They are styrofoam blocks with some sort of sponge type plug. By wetting the top of the plug and keeping water in the tiny shallow tray I was able to germinate seeds with this sytem. The hitch comes in transplanting. Many did not survive the transplanting process. They just withered and died. I think the cell is too small and the sponge material too dense to allow the roots to grow properly. This is speculation on my part but I saw many seedlings withering and dying. Occassionally I could revive them if they were caught in time but it took more time than it was worth.
My greatest success was with Pro-Mix BX. Unfortunately, this formulation is not and organic mix. I don't know why Premier doesn't take out the non-organic wetting agent and replace it with an organic one. As I understand it that's one issue. The other is the fertilizer charge. This is a great mix but not organic.
I am experimenting with several types of mixes. Because peat moss is not a sustainable resourse I am not including it in my trials. I am including coir and other materials that are certified organic. By the end of 2008 I should have an organic seed mix that works as well as or better than Pro-Mix BX.
BTW - I've had a little experience with ProMix Ultimate Organic and so far am not impressed. The first negative is the price. This just is not suitable for a commercial grower like me. It's cost prohibitive. I have a couple of containers of the Ultimate Organic side-by-side with ProMix BX. I think the ProMix BX is better. The plants in the BX are larger. The difference I have seen is that the BX dries out before the Ultimate Organic.
Anyone have similar or different experiences?
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Berry Plugs for Hydroponic Systems
I just registered the domain http://www.aerowool.com/. A couple of months ago I registered http://www.berryplugs.com/. For some time I have been growing alpine strawberry plugs and plugs of other plants. With berryplugs I hope to create a separate site where gardeners can go to find many sizes and types of berry plugs grown from seed. More on this later.
http://www.aerowool.com/ is a completely different concept. I've been interested in growing alpine strawberries and garden variety strawberris in hydroponic systems. I've done some experimenting and have received numerous emails from people asking about my experience with growing alpines in an Aerogarden(TM). I have tried the Aerogarden in a unit that I purchased well over a year ago and will outline my experience in another blog since I'm a little pressed for time right now.
A couple of months ago I decided to try to create a plug that would work in the Aerogarden and in other systems. I chose to use rockwool (hence the name aerowool). I wanted the plugs to be adaptable to several types of hydroponic systems so development is underway. I'll shortly post a picture on the blog of the prototypes which have been seeded.
More later .............
http://www.aerowool.com/ is a completely different concept. I've been interested in growing alpine strawberries and garden variety strawberris in hydroponic systems. I've done some experimenting and have received numerous emails from people asking about my experience with growing alpines in an Aerogarden(TM). I have tried the Aerogarden in a unit that I purchased well over a year ago and will outline my experience in another blog since I'm a little pressed for time right now.
A couple of months ago I decided to try to create a plug that would work in the Aerogarden and in other systems. I chose to use rockwool (hence the name aerowool). I wanted the plugs to be adaptable to several types of hydroponic systems so development is underway. I'll shortly post a picture on the blog of the prototypes which have been seeded.
More later .............
Welcome!!
Welcome to Alpine Strawberries blog. The author will many times refer to his website at www.fraisesdesbois.com. This blog will include a lot of different content. If there is a particular subject that you would like to see discussed, please send an email to mike@fraisesdesbois.com.
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