Black Strawberries

[David Hill]

Has anyone come across these?
http://www.aliexpress.com/price/indoor-garden-herbs-price.html
And before anyone says anything there also white, yellow as well as red
strawberries.
David @ a sunny part of Swansea Bay

[meow...@care2.com]

No, nor the '5pcs/bag SEVEN COLOUR Flower Seeds every Petal is one colour' - are they for real?


NT

[Janet Tweedy]

what's the trade description act like there David? I cannot for the life
of me see that the photograph of the flower with every petal a different
and distinct colour is real!!

I don't care what colour they are, if I ma growing for food Taste comes
before all else :)

--
Janet T.
Amersham

[Jake]

That multi-coloured flower looks like little bits of plastic stuck
together. No way can it be real!

The white strawberries (actually pineberries) have, though, been
available commercially for quite a few years (apparently a much older
plant that was thought to be extinct until "discovered" in the early
2000s). I've never been tempted by them as I somehow don't fancy a
strawberry that tastes of pineapple.

--
Cheers, Jake
=======================================
Hobbling along and Urgling from the East end of
Swansea Bay

[Martin Brown]

On 18/05/2013 11:27, David Hill wrote:

I am bit suspicious of the flower with every petal a different colour.

I have seen white and yellow strawberry plants offered in the UK this
year. Maybe RHS or Best4Plants or whatever they are called now.

Also here:

http://strawberryplants.org/2010/09/pineberry-pineberries/


--
Regards,
Martin Brown

[meow...@care2.com]

On Saturday, May 18, 2013 6:14:41 PM UTC+1, Martin Brown wrote:

> I am bit suspicious of the flower with every petal a different colour.

I'm not. I'm hugely suspicious!


NT

[David Hill]

Oh ye of little faith

[Martin Brown]

I did try growing black tomatoes either last year or the year before.
They tasted roughly like wet cardboard and with a texture to match.

They were not quite black either - more dirty unappetising brown :(

Yellow alpine strawberries are OK though a bit small and have the
distinct advantage that birds don't recognise them are ripe fruit.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

[nm...@cam.ac.uk]

In article <ShRlt.1749$lJ7...@newsfe01.iad>,

Martin Brown <|||newspam|||@nezumi.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>
>I did try growing black tomatoes either last year or the year before.
>They tasted roughly like wet cardboard and with a texture to match.

That is unlikely to be due to the variety as much as the continual
gloom of the last, for lack of a better word, summer.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

[Emery Davis]

On Sat, 18 May 2013 21:13:35 +0100, Martin Brown wrote:

> I did try growing black tomatoes either last year or the year before.
> They tasted roughly like wet cardboard and with a texture to match.
>
> They were not quite black either - more dirty unappetising brown

I get these from a local chap, they are fabulous and sweet, good crisp
texture. Highly sought after. Something didn't go properly I suspect.



--
Gardening in Lower Normandy

[kay]

Martin Brown;983581 Wrote:
>
>
> Yellow alpine strawberries are OK though a bit small and have the
> distinct advantage that birds don't recognise them are ripe fruit.
>

I've never had any problem with birds taking alpine strawberries. I
don't think they bother when there's so much else around which doesn't
involve dangerous ground feeding.




--
kay

[vi...@dinky.vm.bytemark.co.uk]

Martin Brown <|||newspam|||@nezumi.demon.co.uk> wrote:

> I did try growing black tomatoes either last year or the year before.
> They tasted roughly like wet cardboard and with a texture to match.
>
> They were not quite black either - more dirty unappetising brown :(

I have found the same on both counts. Black cherry were the small
ones, which were mostly tasteless, and prone to splitting.

I am trying the last of my White Wonder seeds this year. But my
attempts to grow anything but tomatoey coloured tomatoes has met with
mostly disaster. We got some ok Cream Sausage tomatoes, but then the
plants came down with blight before anything else was even fruiting.

> Yellow alpine strawberries are OK though a bit small and have the
> distinct advantage that birds don't recognise them are ripe fruit.

I don't like alpine strawberries, but the white ones seem to be a lot
nicer than the red. The red ones taste gritty. The white ones were
a lot more palatable.

I wonder if they're good for jam. White strawberry jam may go down
well with the gardening club show (as a change from my aronia berry
and redcurrant)

[vi...@dinky.vm.bytemark.co.uk]

kay <kay.c...@gardenbanter.co.uk> wrote:
> I've never had any problem with birds taking alpine strawberries. I
> don't think they bother when there's so much else around which doesn't
> involve dangerous ground feeding.

The main stealers of my pot of alpine strawberries are the little boys
who find it much more exciting to search for them than for 'real'
strawberries

[Martin Brown]

On 20/05/2013 09:06, vi...@dinky.vm.bytemark.co.uk wrote:
> Martin Brown <|||newspam|||@nezumi.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>> I did try growing black tomatoes either last year or the year before.
>> They tasted roughly like wet cardboard and with a texture to match.
>>
>> They were not quite black either - more dirty unappetising brown :(
>
> I have found the same on both counts. Black cherry were the small
> ones, which were mostly tasteless, and prone to splitting.
>
> I am trying the last of my White Wonder seeds this year. But my
> attempts to grow anything but tomatoey coloured tomatoes has met with
> mostly disaster. We got some ok Cream Sausage tomatoes, but then the
> plants came down with blight before anything else was even fruiting.

The yellow ones are quite fun for a novelty. Black was a bridge too far.
Maybe I was unlucky and they would taste OK in a sunnier year.

>
>> Yellow alpine strawberries are OK though a bit small and have the
>> distinct advantage that birds don't recognise them are ripe fruit.
>
> I don't like alpine strawberries, but the white ones seem to be a lot
> nicer than the red. The red ones taste gritty. The white ones were
> a lot more palatable.
>
> I wonder if they're good for jam. White strawberry jam may go down
> well with the gardening club show (as a change from my aronia berry
> and redcurrant)

I have to net soft fruit if I want to eat any of them. Raspberries are a
notable exception as the birds find the stems too flexible to land on.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

[echinosum]

Martin Brown;983581 Wrote:
> I did try growing black tomatoes either last year or the year before.
> They tasted roughly like wet cardboard and with a texture to match.
>
> They were not quite black either - more dirty unappetising brown :(
>

I've grown black chillies, specifically Czech Black. They aren't quite
black, but a very nice shiny dark purple/green. However they ripen to
red. Maybe in a warmer climate they would have more heat before they
turn red. After all, you can buy very hot green chillies, but chillies
I've grow (outdoors) in England have never been hot when green.




--
echinosum

[vi...@dinky.vm.bytemark.co.uk]

Martin Brown <|||newspam|||@nezumi.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> The yellow ones are quite fun for a novelty. Black was a bridge too far.

I found most of hte yellow ones tasteless and squishy.

> Maybe I was unlucky and they would taste OK in a sunnier year.

Not in my experience.

> I have to net soft fruit if I want to eat any of them. Raspberries are a
> notable exception as the birds find the stems too flexible to land on.

The only thing the birds (touch wood) tend to feast on are the redcurrants.
And only the early ones (we have 2 bushes, inheritted on the allotment, and
one fruits about a month or more earlier than the other. If it isn't netted
it is stripped bare very quickly)