Would you want to know how much water Alpine strawberries need? I was shocked when I tried an alpine strawberry for the first time because it was so perfect.
It was the strawberry that everyone thought all strawberries should taste like. At that moment, I knew I had to get my hands on some.
Since this was a strawberry, I knew I’d never be able to buy it (it’s almost never sold in stores), so I chose to grow my own.
Alpine strawberries are not new; they grow wild in forests worldwide, and there is proof that Stone Age people ate them. They were also first tamed in ancient Persia…
People have created alpine strawberry types for at least 300 years, and eager gardeners are still fiddling with this small perennial to make the fruit’s already deliciously sweet flavors even better.
But from what I’ve seen, Alpine strawberry plants need an inch of water every week (or up to two inches every week when growing).
Now, let’s get started.
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What Are Alpine Strawberries
Alpine strawberries are a variety of wild strawberries that can be discovered throughout Asia, Europe, and North America. They are also called woodland strawberries, fraises des bois, or Fragaria vesca, their formal name.
Alpine strawberries are really sweet, tiny, and very expensive. This makes them a popular item in restaurants and bakeries, where they are used in salads, desserts, and pastries and then sold for a crazy amount of money.
For people who like to garden, mountain strawberries are easy to grow in their backyards and don’t need much care. This means that you can eat them for free whenever you want.
Alpine strawberries look much like modern strawberries, but the plants are smaller, don’t have runners, and the fruit is about the size of a fingernail.
The alpine strawberry is a type of wood strawberry called “fraise de bois” in French. It is in the rose family, Rosaceae.
These tiny plants grow wild around the edges of forests in Europe, North and South America, northern Asia and Africa, and North and South America.
This type of wood strawberry was found for the first time in the low Alps about 300 years ago.
Alpine strawberries bear fruit through the growing season, from June to October, while wood strawberries only bear fruit in the spring.
Are Alpine Strawberries Ever Bearing?
Indeed, alpine strawberry plants are ever Bering varieties that bear fruit for a considerable time. They will bear fruit in the spring and keep on running fruit until the autumn frosts.
Alpine strawberries may yield fewer fruits than other strawberry varieties, but they can still produce a good crop of fruits every week for a considerable amount of time.
Ever bearing alpine strawberry plants bear fruit in the spring and continue to do so until the first frost.
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What Are The Types Of Alpine Strawberries
1. Mignonette
This heirloom variety from France has bright red fruit with a delicious aroma on vines up to 18 inches in diameter. Great for container gardening.
2. Alexandria
Alexandria is a deep red fruit-bearing cultivar that is exceptionally productive. It might generate a few runners.
3. Crushed pineapple
This variety yields slightly pineapple-flavored, creamy golden fruit.
4. The Wonder of Yellow
Yellow miracle fruit is aromatic, highly sweet, and yellow. Varieties with yellow fruits are often less appealing to birds so that you can eat more of the fruit yourself.
Certain varieties of alpine strawberries provide fruits with yellow or creamy-white hues. Some white cultivars are Alpine White, Pineapple Crush, Alpine Yellow, and Bush White. There are runners from this final variety.
The name and color of the fruits suggest something, but I think there’s a trace of pineapple flavor blended with alpine strawberry flavor in the “Pineapple Crush” fruits. Actually, “Alpine Yellow” also seems to have a pineapple undertone.
Regardless of the differences between the white strains, I prefer the white strains over the red ones since the white fruits are bigger and don’t attract birds. And I appreciate that faint pineapple flavor, real or imagined.
How To Plant And Grow Alpine Strawberries
For many types, seeds are the only means of creating new plants. In February, the procedure begins on a warm, light windowsill. Fill a sowing container halfway with sand and a low-nutrient growing medium.
For alpine and wild strawberries, lightly cover the seeds with dirt after scattering them on the ground. Strawberries require sunshine to sprout.
Use a spray bottle to keep the wild strawberry seeds moist. It will take three or four weeks for the seeds to germinate.
After four leaves, the strawberry seedlings can be moved outside and planted in more nutrient-rich soil.
While some wild strawberry kinds bear fruit and flower the year after they are sown, others only bear fruit the following year.
Conversely, commence the sowing of alpine strawberry seeds eight to ten weeks before the projected date of the final snowfall.
The seeds are simple to plant—distribute and push them into the surface of a container filled with potting soil previously moistened—but patience is needed. Leaving the seeds unprotected and covering them with the smallest soil have worked well for us.
Don’t let the seeds get too hot; keep them evenly wet and under grow lights! Compared to tomatoes and peppers, which like tropical summer temperatures, they germinate better in slightly milder, spring-like temperatures.
Although they could take up to 21 days to sprout, seeds should germinate on average in 8 to 14 days.
After keeping your seeds evenly wet for 21 days, if they haven’t grown, it’s probably a good idea to discard that batch and try again.
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Where To Plant Alpine Strawberries
While alpine plants can tolerate full sun, they do well in locations with intense heat waves or partial shade.
They enjoy rich, fertile, and, most importantly, well-drained soil like other berries. Besides regular rainfall and occasional feeding, alpine plants only require a little extra attention.
Mulching is a fantastic way to keep roots moist and tuck in plants unless slugs or snails plague your garden.
Furthermore, A good location would be in front of a sunny perennial border or tucked in among rocks in a garden with partial shade from the afternoon sun. Plants ought to be spaced 12 to 18 inches apart for berry harvesting and readily accessible.
These plants can withstand shadow even though they prefer sunny locations—they are native forest plants.
Alpine strawberries require as little as four hours of sunlight daily to produce fruit. They are perfect ground cover plants since they can withstand shade and semi-shade.
Rich, well-draining soil yields the best fruit for alpine strawberries. Additionally, the plants thrive in planters and pots.
Runnerless variants can also be used as bed and garden path edgers. Compared to other strawberry plant varieties, runnerless variants are frequently more straightforward to care for and maintain.
Humus should be abundant in the soil. Greater yields of fruit are encouraged by slightly acidic soil.
In general, richer soil is preferable. Compared to other types, alpine strawberries require more nutrition.
Before planting, make sure the soil has been improved. To determine your soil’s nutritional composition and make any necessary amendments, use a soil test kit. The optimal pH range for soil is 5.8 to 6.2.
Avoid planting in soil that has just been used to grow potatoes, eggplant, tomatoes, and peppers. Sometimes, the soil can include unpleasant illnesses and issues like verticillium rot.
Maintaining the health of your garden can be accomplished by planting in new soil or using a basic crop rotation strategy.
How And When To Plant Alpine Strawberries
Alpine strawberries are relatively low-carry and easy to cultivate if you have the right spot. If your soil needs improvement, consider growing them in a strawberry pot, window box, hanging basket, or patio planter.
Spring is the ideal season to plant them; you may use plants from a nursery or start seedlings indoors.
1. Sow alpine strawberry seeds 6-8 weeks before the last spring frost to harvest excellent berries in your first year.
2. Avoid sowing seeds too deeply. Strawberry seeds are tiny! Because little seeds require less energy to push out of the earth, plant them on top of the dirt and lightly sprinkle them with water.
3. Maintain the moisture level of seeds. Put them under a humidity dome to prevent drying out.
4. Light is necessary for strawberry seeds to sprout. A grow lamp should be kept nearby and on for 12 to 14 hours daily.
5. Maintain warm soil.
6. Exercise patience. It can take a seed from 14 to 21 days to sprout.
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Final Thought
Now that we have established How much water do alpine strawberries need, It is fun and rewarding to grow your Alpine strawberries. They give you a taste of the wild right in your yard. They are hardy and cute, and they taste great
. You can enjoy eating them and having fun growing them. For what reason should you give them a fair go this year? No matter how big or tiny your garden is, Alpine strawberries will thrive.
We can’t wait to hear all about your strawberry-themed Alps experiences!
Alpine strawberries might be smaller and more fruitful than other strawberry plants, but that doesn’t make them less valuable in the yard.
They are stable and don’t need much care, and they can grow in harsh, shady spots. They look good enough to put in flower beds to add contrast and interest and make an excellent ground cover.
It would help to plant some alpine strawberries in your yard now since you know how easy they are to grow.