Agriculture Forum: Strawberry harvest is near | Business

Strawberry harvest is approaching! I do know That I am so wanting forward to it — however I’m not half as excited as my daughter Sadie, who can’t wait to eat This primary spring fruit.

Strawberries are Definitely one of our space’s most-prized fruits, However the harvest Is short-term and current berries Do not primarytain properly, so consumers Ought to load up Inside The subsequent few weeks.

Strawberry crops are perennial and have a shallow root system.

In all probcapability the most noticeable An factor of a strawberry plant or patch is its capability to increase — We will attrihowevere a lot of this new progress to the plant’s stolons or runners. Stolons are prolonged horizontal stems that develop aprolongedside the floor of the soil and propagate by producing roots and shoots On the nodes or tip. Most enterprise developers primarytain these stolons in look at as strawberry crops produce biggest in rows That are 2 ft broad.

Sorts of strawberries Might be separated into two plant varieties, based mostly on their response to The quantity of daylight per day: June bearers and everbearers. Most developers in northwest Michigan produce June bearing strawberries, which produce one crop per yr. Everbearing crops bloom when The occasions have Greater than 12 hours of daylight And might produce fruit from now till The primary frost.

Many people might not know that we develop completely different varieties of strawberries, Similar to We will choose between a Honeycrisp or a Jonagold apple.

One of our earliest varieties is the Earliglow; this strawberry is each early blooming and early to eat! This selection is a perennial favourite As a Outcome of Of fantastic, quintessentially ‘strawberry’ taste. Earliglow has berries Which Are typically smaller in measurement than completely different varieties.

Honeoye is a basic selection that many developers are A fan of Because it produces huge berries and produces properly in cool seasons. This selection May even be winter exhaustingy, An important attribute in our northern local climate.

Honeoyes are additionally notably good freezers.

Jewel, a patented selection, lives As a lot as its identify. These strawberries are huge in measurement (comparable to the tasteless however huge California strawberries we see yr-spherical Inside the shops), however in distinction to California strawberries, Jewels are scrumptious and full-tasteed.

Darchoose, Noreaster, Clancy, and Cavendish are completely different varieties You will Have The power to pattern That are developn Inside the area.

As a Outcome of strawberries Do not primarytain properly Inside their simply-picked state, consumers Want to Enconstructive to protect these delicate fruits as quickly as potential.

Freezing Is An excellent Method To primarytain strawberries. To cease An monumental clump of frozen berries, try freezing them individually on a cookie sheet. As quickly as berries are exhausting to the contact, They’re typically positioned into freezer luggage to be meaconstructived out as needed later Inside the yr.

Jam May even be An fantastic Method to protect this yr’s harvest. Both cooked or freezer jam will assist remind us of the fleeting and scrumptious strawberry season all by way of these prolonged winter months.

Make constructive to look at Collectively with your native strawberry farmer as to As quickly as They will start harvest.

Nikki Rothproperly is a Michigan State College Extension district horticulturalist and coordinator of the Northwest Michigan Horticultural Evaluation Station.