Day Neutral Varieties

A new generation of strawberries. Entirely independent of the length of the day, so they have an enormous cropping potential and flexibility. Raised at the University of California, these new varieties will start to crop just 12 weeks after planting. Planted on 1 May you will normally start to harvest the fruits in late July and continue until the first frost. The difference between autumn fruiting varieties and these new day neutrals is as follows:

Autumn fruiting varieties produce their fruits in flushes through the autumn. Day neutral varieties also produce their fruits in flushes but when planted later in the year, either under cloches or in pots in the cold greenhouse, they will continue to fruit as long as the temperature is maintained at a minimum of 50ºF. Strawberries at Christmas and beyond is possible but your plants will benefit from a rest in January/February. It should be remembered that the flavour of day neutral strawberries is different to summer fruiting, texture is dry and flesh firm. They are, however, excellent for out of season fruits. Owing to their heavy long term cropping they should not be cropped for more than 1 year, as the yields will be much less in the second season. If the plants are grown in pots in the greenhouse, they can be planted out in the garden in spring to continue their season's cropping.

The best planting times are as follows:

• Planted April for harvesting July onwards.
• Planted May for harvesting August onwards.
• Planted June and July in pots to move into greenhouse in October for winter cropping.
• Planted late August and September in the greenhouse for late season fruits.
• Planted August, September and October in the garden for a full season's cropping the next year. Remove any fruits prior to Christmas to make large, multi-crowned plants.

Last season we grew 20 plants of the variety Fern in 3 litre pots.
Placed under cold glass in early February, they have provided us with a tasty treat every Sunday since mid-May and should continue right into December!

VARIETIES AVAILABLE

'SEASCAPE'

A new Day Neutral Strawberry which is producing much improved results over other varieties of this class. The fruits are of higher quality, the flavour is better, and the cropping is more concentrated into definite flushes, meaning there is usually sufficient to pick for most purposes. The total yield that this variety will produce during the course of 3 months is quite amazing, the plants are neat compact and with healthy dark green foliage. With it's better flavour, higher quality and improved fruiting habit, Seascape is a very welcome addition to the range of Day Neutral Strawberries and we feel, will be rather popular.

NEW - Introducing DIAMANTE from California

A strawberry just made for the small garden - pots - even windowboxes:
Because Diamante is so compact it enables a planting distance much closer than normal strawberries, especially between the rows, and it is just perfect for your patio and yes, even windowboxes. Last Spring we planted 8 Diamante in a standard 32” plastic windowbox, in standard peat based potting mix with one application of slow release fertilizer and no other special treatment aside from watering. We enjoyed a weekly pick of pleasing, quality strawberries for over 12 weeks and the crop was extended well into November by bringing the box into a greenhouse. Diamante belongs to the select group of ‘day neutral’ varieties. These differ from perpetual or Autumn fruiting varieties in that they will crop whenever the temperature rises just above the Winter-Spring norm and regardless of daylight length. This means that in the garden they will commence fruiting in May…and continue to the first frosts! The small plant size of Diamante is emphatically not at the expense of yield and the tender, thin skinned berries are blessed with a nectar sweet flavour - it is as if they have brought some of that California sunshine with them! Diamante will perform equally well in a standard strawberry bed, planted beneath dwarf fruit trees, in tubs on the patio.

SELVA

A superb variety with exceptionally large fruits. Heavy cropping and reliable with excellent, firm textured juicy fruits. Very good colour. In California yields 81b per plant have been picked in just 24 weeks during the summer!

FERN

A magnificent variety with attractive, bright red fruits. High quality berries that are perfect for dessert.