Nothing is more agonizing than patiently waiting for sweet strawberries, only to be rewarded with luscious green leaves. That’s what happened to me when, on a whim, I bought what sounded like a perfect strawberry for Alaska called Sparkle. In spite of promises for “vigorous, productive plants” and that it was “a favorite of northern growers”, it only produced a handful of berries. I guess the plants did vigorously produce leaves and they must consider Washington, northern. What went wrong?

Based on response to day length, strawberries are categorized as: June bearers, everbearers or day neutrals. Sparkle is a June bearer.

June bearers flower and fruit in response to short days (or more precisely, nights that are at least 10 hours long) and do so once per season. But in Interior Alaska, our long days encourage the growth of runners. Our days are only short enough when we also have freezing temperatures and snow. Continue reading