254 Strawberry-Growing 



CULTURE OF THE ALPINE 



Before the introduction of the Pan-American and its 

 descendants, the Alpine strawberry was grown in North 

 America in home gardens and in greenhouses. This is a 

 form of the European wood strawberry, F. vesca. The 

 berries of the Alpine are small, conical, soft, sweet and 

 rather unattractive in color. The fruitstalks are ele- 

 vated above the leaves. As a rule, seedlings are more 

 vigorous and productive than runners, and the fruit is 

 larger, but slightly inferior in quality. Young plants 

 bear larger berries than old plants, sometimes one inch 

 in diameter. Seed is sown in late winter or early spring, 

 and the seedlings pricked out into flats. If seed is sown 

 in February or March in the greenhouse or a window-box, 

 the seedlings will bear a little fruit the following autumn, 

 but not much until the next year. The plants are set 

 twelve to eighteen inches apart each way, preferably in 

 a partially shaded place. One of the best uses for the 

 Alpine, especially the bush kind, is as an edging to beds. 

 Keep all the runners and flowers picked off until mid- 

 summer, then let the plants bear the remainder of the 

 season. The following year they will fruit more or less 

 continuously throughout the growing season, if moisture 

 conditions are equable and the soil rich ; like all ever- 

 bearers, they fruit irregularly and sparsely in dry weather 

 and require high culture. If removed in the fall to hot- 

 beds or a greenhouse, the plants will bear all winter. 



The amount of fruit produced at one time is too small 

 to make the Alpines valuable commercially. The yield 

 is larger in the cool of autumn than during the heat of 

 summer. After the second or third year the plants 

 should be destroyed and new seedlings raised. The 



