Don’t Forget About Late Season Strawberries

Posted by Gwen Watson on Sep 24, 2014

The official start to fall is right around the corner and you may be thinking about apples and pumpkins, but September is still strawberry season too! The everbearing strawberry variety produces crops from spring flowers and bloom and bear again in late summer and fall. In fact, late season strawberries are some of the juiciest strawberries you’ll ever taste!

When you think of strawberry season there’s a good chance that you think of late spring and early summer, but many local strawberry farms are growing into September and even October in some cases. June-bearing strawberries produce one big crop early in the growing season and that’s it, but everbearing strawberries produce sweet, red berries from early summer into fall. The plants send out fewer runners than June-bearing varieties which allows the plant to use energy to produce multiple berry crops.

Popular everbearing strawberry varieties include:

Tri-Stars

This smaller, late bearing variety is harvested in August and September. They were developed by two Cornell PhDs. They are tiny and delicate but are extremely delicious.

Eversweet

Doesn’t the name say it all? Eversweet strawberries bear large berries that are exceptionally sweet and flavorful. The berries ripen in abundance until frost.

Quinault

Quinault strawberries produce from late spring through fall and were developed by Washington State University. The large (up to 2 inches in diameter), soft, delicious berries are ideal for preserves or fresh eating. This variety is perfect for home gardens!

Seascape

Seascape strawberries produce one crop in spring and one crop in fall. The berries are high quality, very sweet, and round and evenly shaped. The Seascape is one of the most reliable producers in the fall. It was initially developed for the California strawberry industry and shows good disease resistance.

Tribute

The Tribute variety is a classic strawberry that bears very generous yields of medium to large dark red berries. They are known to be very aromatic. It bears from early summer to fall, depending on the climate. Tribute berries are resistant to common strawberry diseases such as red stele, powdery mildew, leaf scorch, and leaf blight which makes it a dependable choice to grow.

Albion

Albion strawberries are perfect for desserts due to their high sugar content! This is a relatively new variety from California that produces symmetrically shaped berries with firm texture and excellent flavor. It is popular with organic growers because of its resistance to disease.

Ozark Beauty

“Beauty” is right in the name! The Ozark Beauty variety produces large, well-colored, tasty strawberries. They are the perfect variety for fresh eating, canning, making strawberry jam or jelly, freezing, or in your favorite strawberry recipe!

So, if you thought that strawberry season was over- guess again! Head out to your local farm to purchase some of these delicious everbearing strawberries. Enjoy them now, or freeze them to enjoy during the winter (when strawberry season really is over)!