Second-year Chandlers!

I know we’re supposed to remove the flowers and just let them produce once the leaves are more engorged. I’m too greedy, I let them do their thing and I don’t regret it 🤩

It took a year but they are doing a great job!

My son had a blast picking them all😋😋

Behold.

Omg I had no ideas strawberries could taste so good, I think this will have to become a yearly occurrence! Any tasty ideas on how to eat these??🍓

A few weeks ago I went strawberry picking for the first time and everyone here was so nice when I shared my pictures! Thought I’d share how I ended up enjoying these beauties 😍thanks everyone for the recommendations!

Strawberry shortcake 🍰
Strawberries and Brie and candied pecans✨
Nutella toast topped with fresh strawberries tossed in sugar and lemon juice + mint 🌱
Just plain ole strawberries! 🍓

My husband and I planted somewhere between 150-200 crowns two years ago and I have 0 regrets hehe.

13 today

Any suggestions for fertilizer or maxing out the growth this summer? Currently just good soil/compost and watering.

I’m already running a heavy potassium and calcium program to support this stage (split applications of KNO3, K2SO4, and Ca(NO3)2 on alternate days, keeping an eye on Mg to avoid antagonism). The soil is very sandy (over 80% sand), so I'm focusing on spoon-feeding nutrients and maintaining pH between 5.8 and 6.2.
Given this setup, are there any specific biostimulants, foliar sprays, or micronutrient tweaks you’d recommend to maximize sizing without compromising firmness?

TLDR: Flavor of Sequoia went from 'meh' to 'mmmm'

So this Winter February and March, I planted a bunch of bare root strawberries.  I have done this before with Ozark Beauty years before and was happy with my results.  Now, I had purchased one of those strawberry towers a few years ago, but had not had the time to set it up.  I decided not to let that happen this year and stayed up late planting my little berry plants the day I bought them.  

I know my plants struggled a bit after I planted them with surprising hot weather, and I suspect the pH not being low enough.  But they mostly held on and are now doing well for the most part. 

 I decided to try something a bit different and got some Sequoia too.  I did lose a few plant pockets and added some potted strawberries what I think were mislabeled as Eversweet but actually Berry Basket (White, Red and Pink.). So far, in this tower only the Berry Basket and Sequoia have been fruiting.  (Maybe one or two Ozark Beauty, but they are not producing much yet.) 

The Berry Basket are very small, but very tasty.  Nice aroma, sweet and flavorful. They are always great.  Not too many though, and they are quite small.   

More recently starting in June, my Sequoia have been fruiting.  I’m trying to learn the timing of when to pick them.  It seems that their berries, are a nice medium size to almost large (at minimum 4 to 6 times the volume of the Berry Basket), beautiful red, quite juicy, but little flavor or aroma.  After about a month or so of picking the berries I decided I would not keep them next year.  I would use that space for Mara Des Bois, Albion, or San Andreas.  While I appreciate having them fruiting now, as most of my others and my other tower haven’t fruited as much.  The Quinault in a separate tower have been much better tasting. 

Then something happened.  I not sure if they got the signal, but the berries are suddenly quite good!  Still super juicy – most juicy berry ever.  But now they are tasty, fragrant and I am so happy I have them. 

Anyone else have the flavor suddenly kick up the flavor and get better?  Any theories to why that might happen? 

I have a bed of day neutral, a bed of everbearing, and a bed of June bearing.

Has anyone grown all kinds and noticed a preference on fruit, or other pros and cons between the different kinds? All of these were planted as plugs in December, and I pinched flowers off the June bearing this year to focus on next year's production. Are June bearing a bigger or better fruit comparatively? Thanks!

Also, I can ask an LLM this, but I want to know people's thoughts who have experience.

Any advice is more than welcome ❤️

Picked some strawberries early this morning. I worried they would bake in the heat (35c in the shade today!).

My kids are gonna eat all of you. That's a promise.

They’re so cute!

Started the transplant in early April. Managing 10,000 plants with a localized irrigation system. The goal is to maximize yield efficiency in challenging sandy conditions

Dark red all the way through. Little more sour than I would like, was definitely wanting sweeter. Maybe more potassium? Got a feeling this was still picked too early.