Rural Smallholdings Magazine

Smallholding berry farming is one of the most profitable ways to utilize growing space. Whether you pick the berries yourself, or establish a pick-your-own operation, there is money to be made in strawberries. If you establish a reputation for having the best tasting strawberries in the county, you’ll do even better.

When choosing strawberry plants, there are several things to consider, but one of the most important is plant type. Strawberries come in three distinct types: June bearing, everbearing, and day neutral. Here are the differences:

June bearing. These strawberry plants will produce a single flush of flours and produce one crop that is harvested over a 2 – 3 week time span. Then the crop is done for the year, and the plant puts its energy into replicating itself through runners. Subcategories divide June bearing varieties into early, mid-season, and late. You can expect the largest strawberries from June bearing plants.

Everbearing. These strawberry plants will produce two or three harvests beginning in spring and extending into autumn. Because they are always fruiting, these plants produce fewer runners. The strawberries tend to be smaller on everbearing plants if they are not fed properly.

Day Neutral. These strawberry plants don’t require long days to produce flowers, so they produce fruit regularly throughout the growing season. While day neutrals tend to produce flowers in flushes, and mature the crop of strawberries before producing another flush of flowers, there will always be ripe strawberries in the patch. As with everbearing strawberries, day neutral strawberries will shrink in size if the plants are not given the right nutrients.

To maximize your profit potential, make sure you only grow the tastiest varieties of strawberries. In the UK, features such as winter hardiness aren’t a serious issue, so look for plants that yield well. Avoid varieties that tend to produce watery fruit, as these do not freeze well.

Here are some varieties that offer superior flavor with acceptable disease resistance and freezing quality:

June bearing: Gariguette, early; Honeoye, early to mid; Tenira, mid; Chelsea Pensioner, late.

Everbearing: Mara Des Bois, Fort Laramie

Day Neutral: Tribute

The flavour of strawberries is somewhat subjective, but if you love true strawberry flavour, then the varieties above will deliver. I have had wonderful results with Honeoye as a June-bearing strawberry and Tribute as a day neutral. I think they will always be my favorites. The Tribute is such a dark strawberry that you will think you canned blackberry jam instead of strawberry. I tried a day neutral variety named “Aroma” one year. What a disappointment. No organic gardening method over the next three years ever coaxed flavour out of that strawberry, and the results with chemical fertilizers were even worse.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with new releases. Breeders are always striving to improve some aspect of the strawberries available—flavour, disease resistance, shipping quality. Your best sources are online, as few local nurseries are adventurous enough to bring in an unknown variety. Purchase a few plants and see how they do. If you find a winner, you can multiply the plants yourself, or order in bulk.

For information on how to multiply strawberry plants, see the article Multiplying Strawberry Plants for Smallholding Profits.

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Article by Denise Rutledge for Rural Smallholdings Magazine