This is a fantastic website all about strawberries.

http://strawberryplants.org/

That is a timely post for me.
I am planning to do a raised bed for strawberries, and have just ordered seeds.

Cool! I just planted strawberries in a raised bed I built for a friend this past week.

Caroline Scott, I set 46 plants in this bed, spaced 8" apart. The bed is 3ft wide and 8 ft long.
I've never grown strawberries from seeds though. Is there a particular variety you are going to grow? (Ever-curious, ain't I?)

Shoe

I ordered seeds from Swallowtail.
Mainly those which have coloured flowers:- Pikan, Tarpan, Tristan.
And also Alpine strawberries Migonette.
I have not done strawberries from seeds so this will be another learning project for me.
I like the raised bed that you did. How deep is it?
It is my understanding that strawberries do not need a deep bed.

Caroline,
I have had great success with the different Alpine seed varieties. My fave was Alexandria. Also liked Treasures, which had red, pink & white flowers with a bit bigger fruit than most Alpine varieties. Alexandria produced more fruit than Mignotte for me. You should start the seeds indoors early to mid February. My Mom has 3 Alexandria plants in her Zone 1A flowerbed that have been prolific for at least 5 years now. Alexandria is a nice 1 foot x 1 foot mound, no runners and is ever-bearing.

Most of the "large" fruit "garden" varieties are only available by plant sales, not seed. They are easy to propagate by runners.

Joanne

Caroline, that beds is about 8-9" deep. It'll have strawberries in it only until about end of June next year then will be used for other warm-weather crops

Joanne, you make me want to try some of those varieties from seeds, they sound like keepers!
Will they produce from seed the first year?

Shoe

Shoe,

Yes, all the seed varieties that I tried did produce fruit the 1st year. Plan for the crop production to start about 14 to 16 weeks after germination. The seedlings remain small to start, but really take off after 8 weeks or so. The Alpine varieties remind me of the wild strawberries that I picked in the pasture on the farm where I was raised. Most never made it home since I ate the entire bowl full on my walk home.

Thanks! Sounds like fun to me.
And yes, our wild strawberries are pretty tasty, too. We have both the wild sweet ones (white flowers) as well as the bland "mock strawberries" here (yellow flowers). I think the wild sweet ones are actually sweeter than most of the larger cultivated varieties.

Shoe (off to check strawberry seed sources)

I would just like to have strawberries which were not picked green a week ago, and shipped many miles.
Thanks for all the info. I shall come back to this thread in the new year.

Joannabanana said:Shoe,

Yes, all the seed varieties that I tried did produce fruit the 1st year. Plan for the crop production to start about 14 to 16 weeks after germination. The seedlings remain small to start, but really take off after 8 weeks or so. The Alpine varieties remind me of the wild strawberries that I picked in the pasture on the farm where I was raised. Most never made it home since I ate the entire bowl full on my walk home.

It did not take my Mom long to figure out I was NOT the one to pick raspberries. Juice running down my chin, "No Mam, the raspberries aren't ripe yet" We had red, purple and yellow bigger then my thumb.

Thanks, Joanna, for that link. I just built 2 new raised beds, with one planned for strawberries. I love the alpine strawberries for their flavor, but also enjoy the larger hybrids. My current plants have overgrown their area, and are infringing upon everything else. Can't wait to redo my beds next spring.

I didn't know that the plants (Junebearing, not Alpine) should be replaced the 4th year. I was taking out all the runners and ended up with old plants and no berries

I wrote an article for ATP on strawberries, but not sure when it will be published. That strawberry website is awesome.

I would not have known that either.
I used to have strawberries many years ago so maybe that happened to them.

I'm glad to see there is a strawberry forum because I want to order some June bearing plants. Anyone have recommendations? I already checked out burpee, and they don't currently have what I want.

Here's the article I did for ATP. I'm not sure of the recommended varieties for your area, since you guys get really hot early for June Bearing. I guess the earliest June Bearing would be the best. You may be able to find some that are Daylight neutral. June bearing is simply one large crop, not necessarily in June.
http://garden.org/ideas/view/J...

The website at the top of this thread has an awesome database to select varieties.

Thanks for the excellent link Joanne.

I just made an order from Simmons plant farm after getting some good recommendations from a few people.
But asked for an April ship date due to the long unrelenting winter this year here in Indiana .
They had good info on strawberries for hot and cold climates.
I also ordered Asparagus and raspberries , will report when they arrive

Are raspberries invasive?

No , not really although you do have to pull up unwanted runners. But easy enough to do.