photo by Paula Pashby

Strawberry Fairies - P. Pashby

Recently, I have been enjoying strawberries mixed into my oatmeal, a cozy meal for bringing in the current fall season. I thought about how tasty fresh home-grown strawberries could be instead of the store-bought strawberries I was using, so I set out to buy strawberry plants to eventually harvest my own to enjoy with breakfast.

I was hoping to find strawberry plants that would provide a yield soon (in October) in my local USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 9, so I did some research on which plants to purchase. I discovered that there are three main categories of strawberry plants: June-bearing, Everbearing, and Day-neutral. These distinct types of strawberry plants produce their fruit at different times of the year, depending on weather conditions.

The June-bearing strawberry plant tends to produce the largest strawberries of the three main categories and are usually quite sweet. This plant produces fruit only once per year for only a brief period, typically two to three weeks from late spring to early summer, depending on weather conditions.

Next is the Everbearing strawberry plant. Its strawberries are not as large or sweet as the June-bearing strawberries, however it has a longer growing season and can offer a consistent supply of fresh strawberries. It usually produces strawberries two to three times per year;once in summer, another in midsummer in colder climates, and then once again in late summer to early fall.

The third main type is the Day-neutral strawberry plant. It is known to produce sweet strawberries, like the June-bearing plants, but produces a smaller fruit.  What is exciting about this type of strawberry plant is that it can produce from spring until the first frost!

I set out to buy some strawberry plants at the local nurseries closest to my home and happily found three varieties of the Everbearing strawberry plants – Quinault (Fragaria x ananasa 'Quinault'), Eversweet (Fragaria x ananassa 'Eversweet'), and Albion (Fragaria x ananassa 'Albion').

One of the plants I purchased already had a few strawberries growing. I read that most strawberry plants can produce in their first year, so I am looking forward to planting them asap and enjoying some tasty, homegrown strawberries with my morning oatmeal routine.