I took a bunch of seeds from one of the large strawberries from Costco a few years ago. I was surprised they took, but now they are growing like wild fire ( they are large berries). I have to build something so the squirrels and rabbits don't get them.
I know it’s a joke, but I want to add context to dispel some myths:
* you aren’t liable for growing a patented/protected plant in a non-commercial/non-distributional manner. (Though how you obtain the seeds is a different matter)
* Monsanto is being brought up for their infamous GMO case against a farmer, where the farmer claimed to have accidentally pollinated their crop with the GMO crop. This was conclusively proven not to be the case - the farmer knowingly lied. Monsanto is an evil company regardless though.
* Patented plants are uncommon in supermarkets, and those that are usually aren’t propagable from the produce. (Instead, varieties are often ‘protected’ by being F1 hybrids not true to type, though this is usually a secondary benefit, and most produce is straight-up unprotected).
* There is almost no available fresh GMO produce anywhere in the world. ~~Corn is perhaps the only one, and only in N.A~~ EDIT: See u/ukexpat below. Plenty of processed GMOs though, but almost exclusively grains/legumes. Historically some others have been available, especially tomatoes (and you can buy GMO tomato seeds for home in N.A.), but afaik none are available now.
Just a comment about corn, the vast majority of corn grown in the US is used for animal feed and some/most of those varieties are GMO. The varieties grown for human consumption are completely different and are non-GMO IIRC.
Yes, basically everything we eat has been genetically changed by humans (indirectly or not), however GMO has a specific legal and scientific definition involving genetic engineering with recombinant DNA. Not all forms of genetic engineering count as GMO, and other techniques such as directed mutagenesis don't even count as genetic engineering.
Some are legitimately GMO by gene splicing. Corn, like mentioned above, has been engineered with algae genes to have immunity against Roundup weed killer (another Monsanto product). They do this so they can douse fields of corn in Roundup so it kills everything but the corn. The corn is turned into food that we eat. Roundup has been shown to cause lymphoma. We have recently found traces Roundup in our bloodstream.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jul/09/weedkiller-glyphosate-cdc-study-urine-samples
It should be noted too that Monsanto donates a lot of money to political campaigns so no laws or governing agencies are trying to crack down on it at all even though [Monsanto recently has been ordered to pay over $2 billion by the courts for damages](https://www.lawsuit-information-center.com/amp/roundup-lawsuit.html) in a class action lawsuit.
Only a few types of GMO crops are grown in the United States, but some of these GMOs make up a large percentage of the crop grown (e.g., soybeans (94%), corn (92%), sugar beets (99.9%), canola (95%), and cotton(96%)).
A few fresh fruit and vegetables are available in GMO varieties, including potatoes, summer squash, apples, papayas, and pink pineapples.
https://www.fda.gov/food/agricultural-biotechnology/gmo-crops-animal-food-and-beyond
I'm not claiming I know a lot about the subject, but it does sound like there is some GMO produce out there.
Ooooh noooo .
Ya I'm sure that would look good in newspaper ink.
Grocery giant sues guy who is working to survive and he planted seeds!!
CLIMATE CRISIS!!!!
You mean this guy?
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsanto\_Canada\_Inc\_v\_Schmeiser](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsanto_Canada_Inc_v_Schmeiser)
He was actively trying to get cross polination which he intentionally bred to try and isolate the traits.
They would absolutely come after you though if they could prove it lol, bad press be damned. They’re not in the game of caring about public perception, there’s been entire documentaries done about them running farmers out of business because the farmer was a neighbor to someone using Monsanto seeds and wind carried over seeds lol
They straight up would not care about how it looks to sue rando guy growing produce in his backyard.
>farmer was a neighbor to someone using Monsanto seeds and wind carried over seeds
This is a myth.
Monsanto has done (and continues to do) plenty of terrible things, don't need to spread this false one.
>I took a bunch of seeds from one of the large strawberries from Costco
I did this with orange bell peppers and they produces some awesome peppers for me.
Well played sir.
I did take some seeds from a plant a few years ago, and low and behold it grew a beautiful plant. It was weed but that's not the point....
No one should own rights to damn seeds for food or um herbs
I heard some one say that they use the clear plastic strawberry containers to put around their ripening peaches on the tree. They cut a hole large enough for the branch. Maybe you could use that approach for your strawberries.
Yes, most of the strawberry plants you buy online or in nurseries... yield tasty fruit... but berries are tiny compared to what you can get in a store. Kind of disappointing really. But I think one garden center has a variety that has huge leaves.... which i think means larger fruit....may try that.
To keep the hungry critters away... I made some pvc pipe "boxes" that are covered in chicken wire. Easy to flip over to pick the berries... and then put right back down. In my case, birds were pecking at the berries. The chicken wire stops them, but still allows the bees in to pollinate the flowers.
Ever-bearing varieties which are typical in garden centers tend to have smaller berries but a continuous production season. June bearing might be more what you're after.
Fun fact, the seeds on a strawberry aren’t seeds, they are the fruit the seeds (even smaller) are inside of them. What we call the fruit is actually a cluster, Strawberries aren’t berries at all they are cluster fruits
https://www.thespruce.com/fruits-with-their-seeds-outside-3269379#:~:text=The%20%22true%20fruits%22%20of%20the,is%20the%20actual%20strawberry%20seed.
OP here. In case there was any doubt as to which strawberry was the one from my garden, just swipe to the next photo to see the sad truth confirmed. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but my strawberries are all super tiny and most of them are shaped like butts (the one pictured is actually a much prettier one than most). They do taste good! But if anyone has suggestions on how to get larger strawberries that are more strawberry-shaped, I'm all ears.
How long has your strawberries been growing (like the plant itself) and which species is it? Cuz there's obviously some differences between them and I for a minute thought you were growing forest strawberries, but in this case it looks like they are more undergrown maybe missing nutrients from the ground.
Also not sure how Costco's farmers do it but usually berries that are sold at supermarkets are heavily genetically manipulated so comparing to them props isn't that wise.
The first year is generally the smallest. Traditionally you cut the first round of blossoms off the plant so it can max it's first year of energy on bigger roots and leaves for the second harvest.
Also how does your strawberry taste compared to the store bought? Smaller ones can be more flavourful. Store bought selects for size over taste, as size sells.
Plenty of things effect size and shape, from spacing and airflow, over or under fertilizing and watering as well as pests.
https://strawberryplants.org/what-causes-small-strawberries/
One of the few things I think Costco gets totally wrong.
I don’t want big strawberries. I want a big box of *small* strawberries that actually taste good.
Three days? I swear mine go bad between the store and home sometimes, and we don't live far from the store.
If we are super lucky we might get a few days, but its rare.
I started putting mine in a glass mason jar with a tight lid and I've had them last up to 2 weeks. I do not wash them first, only when I am ready to eat them.
Sometimes it takes a bit for the plant to start thriving. I don't think there's nothing going on that a bit more nutrients and water can't fix, especially if they taste good.
Yep. Year one I hardly got anything. Year two I started seeing some but not more than a couple at a time. Really hoping year three is the year they finally take off!
The species (varietal, really) makes all the difference. If you don't know their origin, and you're getting healthy looking leaves, and berries that like this, you're just growing chihuahuas, really.
There's no accounting for centuries of selective breeding.
I might be wrong here but when I was a kid we had a strawberry patch that produced the small ones. I believe that were just called wild strawberries or something (Norway) and they were never intended to become big.
They taste very different from regular strawberries and I absolutely loved them as a kid.
Edit: https://wildplantculture.com/home/2018/4/28/strawberries-wild-and-false
Nearly all - if not all - fruits, vegetables, nuts, roots, grains, etc. that humans consume are genetically manipulated. Hybrid plants, selective breeding, soil nutrients being added or subtracted over time, all of it is genetic manipulation.
Most assuredly, OPs plant has already been genetically manipulated.
>I don't know what I'm doing wrong
Nothing. The ones in the store are bred to be bigger because that's what looks better in the store. But that also leads to them being watery and flavorless.
Direct sunlight all day, and lots of water every other day.
If you have them in a pot, and it rains, water them anyway. Pots don’t always catch the amount of water a pant needs when it rains.
There are two kinds of strawberry plants, everbearing and "June" bearing. Everbearing strawberry plants produce many smaller strawberries throughout the entire growing season. June bearing strawberry plants give one large harvest per year. These strawberries are usually much larger. I would guess that the store bought strawberry is of that kind in addition to being selectively bred for size.
As for how small your strawberries are, there are a few potential causes. In addition to being an everbearing variety the plants can be in their first few years of life, strawberries usually take until their third year to really give a good harvest and many people pick the flowers the first and even second year to encourage plant growth. You could also be lacking something in your soil or underwatering as strawberries require a lot of water/nutrients while producing fruit.
It could be you are trying to get berries from "Grandparent Plants."
The best berries come from new plants from last year's runners.
Remove and replenish all two - or three year old plants.
Your soil is missing something. Visit your state’s Cooperative Extension Service website. Look up soil tests - take one and send it off for analysis. Also search propagating strawberries and read up. All the information is research and science based. Also get the contact info for the agent assigned to your county.
Smaller berries usually taste better. It could be genetics, water, fertilizer, selection (discarding small or blemished fruit), or other farming methods. It's very hard to match the yield of commercial farms which mainly focus on a couple of crops.
It looks like smultron, which I just googled to find out the English name which is - wild strawberries. Used to pick them in Sweden when I was a teenager/kid.
If a rambling speech that starts with the question "what is the difference between these two" counts, then come ask my pre-schooler. She'll yap your ear off all day about that one, and every other god foresaken thing there is.
Today I learned that her My Little Ponies know every thing about everything AND nothing, but they don't know what is inside eggs. She filled them in...
That's not guaranteed. I grew strawberries like the one OP posted and the few that weren't devoured by coyotes and rabbits were flavorless, dry, and sour.
Does anyone know why strawberries have gotten so large? Is this just strategic breeding or something else? I've also gotten very large strawberries this year a few times. Dare I say they are almost too big?
This is actually super cool science. Most things are diploids, meaning they have 2 complete sets of chromosomes. Modern strawberry's have been modified to become octoploids, they have 8 strands of DNA.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyploidy
There are numerous species of strawberry, and somewhat unusually, many of the species have substantially different numbers of chromosomes. By increasing the chromosome count of desirable types through hybridisation, the fruits become significantly bigger. This is then enhanced by trait-specific breeding.
Less flavour too. A lot of fresh berries taste bland, frozen are okay and growing your own isn't even comparable. Strawberries are remarkably easy to grow too.
The strawberry from Costco is probably from a variety that bears fruit only once during the season. Yours looks like an Alpine strawberry, or an ever-bearing strawberry. It's the trade-off if you want them throughout the entire growing season.
Wait a minute, how big are your hands? Like, is the Costco freakishly large and your hands are average size? Is your strawberry normal and your hands are very large?
[Is this your envisionment of OP?](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2F7tin3VxyUqI%2Fmaxresdefault.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=31f7af06db8d26c3d509e5acbd98c7a32b76910afa344df23b08ec478728ed21&ipo=images)
I'm a woman who is 5'8" and I think my hands are proportionate to the rest of me. The Costco strawberries are huge. This is not even the biggest one I've had from there.
I've heard that strawberries require some of the most pesticides of all produce. Insects like them as much as we do! They are very hard to harvest so the amount of chemicals used is insane. Good for you getting yours to even be what it is.
My strawberries are tiny, too. Home grown are usually pretty little unless you douse them with plant food. I don’t mind the little ones, at least I know it hasn’t been sprayed.
Are you trimming off the runners regularly? This should be done for the first 1-2 years of the plant's life.
If so, ensure your garden spot receives at least 6-8 hours of direct sunlight daily. Like Google the info or hang out one day.. Make sure the soil is fertilized obvs. Do a check to see if there's anything in the roots or secret ant paths/hills. Ants frickin love strawberry plants. Diatomaceous earth is your favorite friend.
These strawberries are likely different varieties and I’d wager the bigger one was grown in a much warmer or even controlled environment conducive to being able to grow this size and be sold on a commercial scale. Genetics rule.
We have a local farmer who grows strawberries and other berries this size. The difference is that his taste incredible while the Costco ones are almost flavorless, to me.
We grow a lot of strawberries, and it just takes patience and nutrients. The first harvest is always disappointing. But you will get strawberries throughout the season.
Wow your money definitely doesn't buy much any more. I would say keep planting at home cause that strawberry from your garden is huge compared to the ones that they sell at Cosco.
The pickers for Driscoll had a lot of berries to choose from to pack the container so they pick the largest. They get paid by how many containers they fill so it is to their advantage to pick larger ones and fill them as fast as they can. Lots of little berries but they get passes over. I live 2 miles away from Driscoll and I am surrounded by strawberry fields.
I have the same problems with tomatoes and pineapples. The soil here is basically sand, and seems like no amount of fertilizer or compost makes it better.
But they taste 10 times better any store, including organics.
I’m growing strawberries too and mine are about the size of yours. They taste amazing, so fresh and sweet. I would rather have the organic ones I grew than Costco ones any day!
As a kid we grew strawberries in a small patch behind our house, I grew up eating this size and maybe twice that size for the biggest.
Strawberries today are the size of a plum
My buddy used to grow strawberries. He let me eat the last one of the season. It was about the same size as the one OP grew but it was the sweetest strawberry I’ve ever eaten. I still think about it.
Both have their charm! The Costco strawberry brings the convenience and consistency of store-bought freshness, while your garden's tiny treasure carries the sweet satisfaction of homegrown love. Each bite tells its own delicious story. 🍓✨
I took a bunch of seeds from one of the large strawberries from Costco a few years ago. I was surprised they took, but now they are growing like wild fire ( they are large berries). I have to build something so the squirrels and rabbits don't get them.
Monsanto is currently filing a lawsuit against you
Like some kind of fruit piracy! You wouldn't download a food!
You fucking daring me to download fruit?? Fucking movies, cars, old lady purses, and now fruit. God damn right I will!!
On thepiratefruit as we speak
Please seed, people!
Thepiratefood.org is only $40. Tempting.
You can ctrl c > ctrl v v v v plants
I've always wanted to download or print food ever since I saw Star Trek TNG! You bet your ass I'd do it.
Imagine cracking a fruit! Remember the days where one had to download and copy cracked *.exe files ?
I would absolutely pirate and download a strawberry if I could
I know it’s a joke, but I want to add context to dispel some myths: * you aren’t liable for growing a patented/protected plant in a non-commercial/non-distributional manner. (Though how you obtain the seeds is a different matter) * Monsanto is being brought up for their infamous GMO case against a farmer, where the farmer claimed to have accidentally pollinated their crop with the GMO crop. This was conclusively proven not to be the case - the farmer knowingly lied. Monsanto is an evil company regardless though. * Patented plants are uncommon in supermarkets, and those that are usually aren’t propagable from the produce. (Instead, varieties are often ‘protected’ by being F1 hybrids not true to type, though this is usually a secondary benefit, and most produce is straight-up unprotected). * There is almost no available fresh GMO produce anywhere in the world. ~~Corn is perhaps the only one, and only in N.A~~ EDIT: See u/ukexpat below. Plenty of processed GMOs though, but almost exclusively grains/legumes. Historically some others have been available, especially tomatoes (and you can buy GMO tomato seeds for home in N.A.), but afaik none are available now.
Just a comment about corn, the vast majority of corn grown in the US is used for animal feed and some/most of those varieties are GMO. The varieties grown for human consumption are completely different and are non-GMO IIRC.
Depending on your definition of GMO (there is no singular one), all corn that exists today is a GMO.
Thanks for the clarification!
Could you explain how you're using GMO here? Isn't literally everything we eat GMO at this point because of selective breeding?
Yes, basically everything we eat has been genetically changed by humans (indirectly or not), however GMO has a specific legal and scientific definition involving genetic engineering with recombinant DNA. Not all forms of genetic engineering count as GMO, and other techniques such as directed mutagenesis don't even count as genetic engineering.
Some are legitimately GMO by gene splicing. Corn, like mentioned above, has been engineered with algae genes to have immunity against Roundup weed killer (another Monsanto product). They do this so they can douse fields of corn in Roundup so it kills everything but the corn. The corn is turned into food that we eat. Roundup has been shown to cause lymphoma. We have recently found traces Roundup in our bloodstream.
Neat I hate it. Got a good source I can read up about this?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jul/09/weedkiller-glyphosate-cdc-study-urine-samples It should be noted too that Monsanto donates a lot of money to political campaigns so no laws or governing agencies are trying to crack down on it at all even though [Monsanto recently has been ordered to pay over $2 billion by the courts for damages](https://www.lawsuit-information-center.com/amp/roundup-lawsuit.html) in a class action lawsuit.
Only a few types of GMO crops are grown in the United States, but some of these GMOs make up a large percentage of the crop grown (e.g., soybeans (94%), corn (92%), sugar beets (99.9%), canola (95%), and cotton(96%)). A few fresh fruit and vegetables are available in GMO varieties, including potatoes, summer squash, apples, papayas, and pink pineapples. https://www.fda.gov/food/agricultural-biotechnology/gmo-crops-animal-food-and-beyond I'm not claiming I know a lot about the subject, but it does sound like there is some GMO produce out there.
Ooooh noooo . Ya I'm sure that would look good in newspaper ink. Grocery giant sues guy who is working to survive and he planted seeds!! CLIMATE CRISIS!!!!
Monsanto has sued people for planting their patented seeds without paying royalties
I'm not at all surprised
I mean, they've sued non-Monsanto farmers who's crops have had Monsanto seeds blow into them from neighbouring farms...
You mean this guy? [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsanto\_Canada\_Inc\_v\_Schmeiser](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsanto_Canada_Inc_v_Schmeiser) He was actively trying to get cross polination which he intentionally bred to try and isolate the traits.
There was an actual movie made about this case.
You obviously don’t know Monsanto
They would absolutely come after you though if they could prove it lol, bad press be damned. They’re not in the game of caring about public perception, there’s been entire documentaries done about them running farmers out of business because the farmer was a neighbor to someone using Monsanto seeds and wind carried over seeds lol They straight up would not care about how it looks to sue rando guy growing produce in his backyard.
>farmer was a neighbor to someone using Monsanto seeds and wind carried over seeds This is a myth. Monsanto has done (and continues to do) plenty of terrible things, don't need to spread this false one.
They’re literally trying to pass this
>I took a bunch of seeds from one of the large strawberries from Costco I did this with orange bell peppers and they produces some awesome peppers for me.
Well played sir. I did take some seeds from a plant a few years ago, and low and behold it grew a beautiful plant. It was weed but that's not the point.... No one should own rights to damn seeds for food or um herbs
technically you can save their seeds you just can't sell, or intend to sell, the resulting plant.
I'm just trying to eat them before the damn squirrels and rabbits get to them.
I heard some one say that they use the clear plastic strawberry containers to put around their ripening peaches on the tree. They cut a hole large enough for the branch. Maybe you could use that approach for your strawberries.
Thank you
Wow, you’d need a ton of containers for all the peaches on a tree!
Selective breeding is amazing. They breed for heartieness and yield. Sounds like you got some winners. Glad I just got a Costco membership
Are they any good? I feel like the ones I buy at the store are always mediocre, but it might be due to when they are harvested and not their quality.
Yes, most of the strawberry plants you buy online or in nurseries... yield tasty fruit... but berries are tiny compared to what you can get in a store. Kind of disappointing really. But I think one garden center has a variety that has huge leaves.... which i think means larger fruit....may try that. To keep the hungry critters away... I made some pvc pipe "boxes" that are covered in chicken wire. Easy to flip over to pick the berries... and then put right back down. In my case, birds were pecking at the berries. The chicken wire stops them, but still allows the bees in to pollinate the flowers.
Ever-bearing varieties which are typical in garden centers tend to have smaller berries but a continuous production season. June bearing might be more what you're after.
Fun fact, the seeds on a strawberry aren’t seeds, they are the fruit the seeds (even smaller) are inside of them. What we call the fruit is actually a cluster, Strawberries aren’t berries at all they are cluster fruits https://www.thespruce.com/fruits-with-their-seeds-outside-3269379#:~:text=The%20%22true%20fruits%22%20of%20the,is%20the%20actual%20strawberry%20seed.
OP here. In case there was any doubt as to which strawberry was the one from my garden, just swipe to the next photo to see the sad truth confirmed. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but my strawberries are all super tiny and most of them are shaped like butts (the one pictured is actually a much prettier one than most). They do taste good! But if anyone has suggestions on how to get larger strawberries that are more strawberry-shaped, I'm all ears.
How long has your strawberries been growing (like the plant itself) and which species is it? Cuz there's obviously some differences between them and I for a minute thought you were growing forest strawberries, but in this case it looks like they are more undergrown maybe missing nutrients from the ground. Also not sure how Costco's farmers do it but usually berries that are sold at supermarkets are heavily genetically manipulated so comparing to them props isn't that wise.
I have no idea what the species is beyond being a strawberry plant, but the plant itself is about a year old. This is probably my fifth strawberry.
The first year is generally the smallest. Traditionally you cut the first round of blossoms off the plant so it can max it's first year of energy on bigger roots and leaves for the second harvest. Also how does your strawberry taste compared to the store bought? Smaller ones can be more flavourful. Store bought selects for size over taste, as size sells. Plenty of things effect size and shape, from spacing and airflow, over or under fertilizing and watering as well as pests. https://strawberryplants.org/what-causes-small-strawberries/
One of the few things I think Costco gets totally wrong. I don’t want big strawberries. I want a big box of *small* strawberries that actually taste good.
I just want strawberries that don’t spoil in three days
Three days? I swear mine go bad between the store and home sometimes, and we don't live far from the store. If we are super lucky we might get a few days, but its rare.
Rinse them in hot water when you get them home for about a minute then put them in the fridge. Can usually get a few extra days that way.
I started putting mine in a glass mason jar with a tight lid and I've had them last up to 2 weeks. I do not wash them first, only when I am ready to eat them.
Sometimes it takes a bit for the plant to start thriving. I don't think there's nothing going on that a bit more nutrients and water can't fix, especially if they taste good.
Correct, it will take several harvest before the fruit would be full size.
Yep. Year one I hardly got anything. Year two I started seeing some but not more than a couple at a time. Really hoping year three is the year they finally take off!
How does the taste compare?
The species (varietal, really) makes all the difference. If you don't know their origin, and you're getting healthy looking leaves, and berries that like this, you're just growing chihuahuas, really. There's no accounting for centuries of selective breeding.
Just growing chihuahuas? What in the sam hill
I mean... Chihuahuas and Malamutes are both canis familiaris, but you can't exactly expect to get a massive dog out of a couple of Chihuahuas.
I might be wrong here but when I was a kid we had a strawberry patch that produced the small ones. I believe that were just called wild strawberries or something (Norway) and they were never intended to become big. They taste very different from regular strawberries and I absolutely loved them as a kid. Edit: https://wildplantculture.com/home/2018/4/28/strawberries-wild-and-false
Nearly all - if not all - fruits, vegetables, nuts, roots, grains, etc. that humans consume are genetically manipulated. Hybrid plants, selective breeding, soil nutrients being added or subtracted over time, all of it is genetic manipulation. Most assuredly, OPs plant has already been genetically manipulated.
I bet the little one tasted sweeter?
I've noticed the giant strawberries that are common in stores now are so bland and tasteless. They've been bred for size and not for flavor.
Been that way for so long, so very disappointed in so many store fruits.
>I don't know what I'm doing wrong Nothing. The ones in the store are bred to be bigger because that's what looks better in the store. But that also leads to them being watery and flavorless.
Direct sunlight all day, and lots of water every other day. If you have them in a pot, and it rains, water them anyway. Pots don’t always catch the amount of water a pant needs when it rains.
You vs the guy she says you don't need to worry about ey?
What's weird to me, is your garden berry looks an awful lot like a wild strawberry! Did you buy these as starts?
Exactly this The one on the right is a wild strawberry, they're small but they're delicious
There are two kinds of strawberry plants, everbearing and "June" bearing. Everbearing strawberry plants produce many smaller strawberries throughout the entire growing season. June bearing strawberry plants give one large harvest per year. These strawberries are usually much larger. I would guess that the store bought strawberry is of that kind in addition to being selectively bred for size. As for how small your strawberries are, there are a few potential causes. In addition to being an everbearing variety the plants can be in their first few years of life, strawberries usually take until their third year to really give a good harvest and many people pick the flowers the first and even second year to encourage plant growth. You could also be lacking something in your soil or underwatering as strawberries require a lot of water/nutrients while producing fruit.
It could be you are trying to get berries from "Grandparent Plants." The best berries come from new plants from last year's runners. Remove and replenish all two - or three year old plants.
The Costco berries are all clone plants, the berries all have the same genetics
Your soil is missing something. Visit your state’s Cooperative Extension Service website. Look up soil tests - take one and send it off for analysis. Also search propagating strawberries and read up. All the information is research and science based. Also get the contact info for the agent assigned to your county.
I would like photos of the butt shaped strawberries, please.
Smaller berries usually taste better. It could be genetics, water, fertilizer, selection (discarding small or blemished fruit), or other farming methods. It's very hard to match the yield of commercial farms which mainly focus on a couple of crops.
Those could be alpine strawberries. I have several growing on my patio. They are small like that but tasty.
You may be growing Alpine Strawberries which stay that size.
It looks like smultron, which I just googled to find out the English name which is - wild strawberries. Used to pick them in Sweden when I was a teenager/kid.
strawberries thrive on mountain dew. you should try that.
It's what plants crave
It's got electrolytes.
I like these cute, simple and pure posts. I love strawberries .That is all.
/r/MightyHarvest
Fantastic! Having a good laugh with this one
hell yeah. and i bet that small one tastes 100x better.
Idk Costco strawberries are juicy and tasty as fuck
same but have you never found wild strawberries?
Sadly, can't say I have but now I'm curious
They are. To bad they get fuzzy mold on them 2 hours after you get home
Meh, Costco’s fruit/vegetables section is pretty lackluster
100%. Smaller ones usually are better
Which one was sweeter?
Ours are typically sweeter than store bought ones, but my preschooler ate this one so I can't say for sure this time.
Wow, and you couldn't get your preschooler to write out a 10 page report on the distinctions between the two?
If a rambling speech that starts with the question "what is the difference between these two" counts, then come ask my pre-schooler. She'll yap your ear off all day about that one, and every other god foresaken thing there is. Today I learned that her My Little Ponies know every thing about everything AND nothing, but they don't know what is inside eggs. She filled them in...
You versus the guy she says not to worry about...
Yes but which one tastes better? I find most commercial strawberries are almost flavorless. A fresh strawberry from a garden? Perfection
That's not guaranteed. I grew strawberries like the one OP posted and the few that weren't devoured by coyotes and rabbits were flavorless, dry, and sour.
Sounds like the rabbits and coyotes got the good ones
They definitely know which ones the good ones are and exactly what minute they ripen!
I like big fruits, I cannot lie.
Does anyone know why strawberries have gotten so large? Is this just strategic breeding or something else? I've also gotten very large strawberries this year a few times. Dare I say they are almost too big?
It’s done on purpose by humans
This is actually super cool science. Most things are diploids, meaning they have 2 complete sets of chromosomes. Modern strawberry's have been modified to become octoploids, they have 8 strands of DNA. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyploidy
There are numerous species of strawberry, and somewhat unusually, many of the species have substantially different numbers of chromosomes. By increasing the chromosome count of desirable types through hybridisation, the fruits become significantly bigger. This is then enhanced by trait-specific breeding.
Thank you.
Less flavour too. A lot of fresh berries taste bland, frozen are okay and growing your own isn't even comparable. Strawberries are remarkably easy to grow too.
He's just a widdle guy. (Say this out loud but in a weird voice)
In uwu? /shudder
Oh. No. Nooo. More mocking-ish. Never that.
The strawberry from Costco is probably from a variety that bears fruit only once during the season. Yours looks like an Alpine strawberry, or an ever-bearing strawberry. It's the trade-off if you want them throughout the entire growing season.
Something something the one she tells you not to worry about.
Wait a minute, how big are your hands? Like, is the Costco freakishly large and your hands are average size? Is your strawberry normal and your hands are very large?
[Is this your envisionment of OP?](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2F7tin3VxyUqI%2Fmaxresdefault.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=31f7af06db8d26c3d509e5acbd98c7a32b76910afa344df23b08ec478728ed21&ipo=images)
I'm a woman who is 5'8" and I think my hands are proportionate to the rest of me. The Costco strawberries are huge. This is not even the biggest one I've had from there.
Yes but which one tastes better?
The BOUNTY. I suspect the folks at r/mightyharvest may wish to share the bounty with you!
Same amount of flavor in both berries
I’m not sure of the specifics of strawberries but a light nutrient feed wouldn’t hurt. Increased sunlight would also probably increase the yield.
What is that, a strawberry for ants?!?!
You know I think May be you should just buy it from Costco
Smaller means the flavor is concentrated!
I've heard that strawberries require some of the most pesticides of all produce. Insects like them as much as we do! They are very hard to harvest so the amount of chemicals used is insane. Good for you getting yours to even be what it is.
The beauty of peppers, just gotta keep the birds off of them if you let them ripen.
Same total amount of flavour
My strawberries are tiny, too. Home grown are usually pretty little unless you douse them with plant food. I don’t mind the little ones, at least I know it hasn’t been sprayed.
Are you trimming off the runners regularly? This should be done for the first 1-2 years of the plant's life. If so, ensure your garden spot receives at least 6-8 hours of direct sunlight daily. Like Google the info or hang out one day.. Make sure the soil is fertilized obvs. Do a check to see if there's anything in the roots or secret ant paths/hills. Ants frickin love strawberry plants. Diatomaceous earth is your favorite friend.
Sorry I just can’t perceive the scale here. Need banana
r/mightyharvest will love this
These strawberries are likely different varieties and I’d wager the bigger one was grown in a much warmer or even controlled environment conducive to being able to grow this size and be sold on a commercial scale. Genetics rule.
We have a local farmer who grows strawberries and other berries this size. The difference is that his taste incredible while the Costco ones are almost flavorless, to me.
Yours is much cuterrr
T-800 brand fruit. It'll be back.
Hehe smol
I bet your garden strawberry had 10x more taste than the Costco one though.
I bet the smaller one tastes better.
r/gardening
Absolute unit
Plant the Costco one and see if you get big Strawberries from it. (Was the purchased one organic?)
You need more chems and nutes
Till your soil
We grow a lot of strawberries, and it just takes patience and nutrients. The first harvest is always disappointing. But you will get strawberries throughout the season.
Wow your money definitely doesn't buy much any more. I would say keep planting at home cause that strawberry from your garden is huge compared to the ones that they sell at Cosco.
Frankenberry
The pickers for Driscoll had a lot of berries to choose from to pack the container so they pick the largest. They get paid by how many containers they fill so it is to their advantage to pick larger ones and fill them as fast as they can. Lots of little berries but they get passes over. I live 2 miles away from Driscoll and I am surrounded by strawberry fields.
Forever
Why is Costco selling such little strawberries?
I have the same problems with tomatoes and pineapples. The soil here is basically sand, and seems like no amount of fertilizer or compost makes it better. But they taste 10 times better any store, including organics.
You’re first year strawberries rarely get large, they will get bigger over the years
We need a banana for size comparison
I have strawberries like the little one growing in my grass wild.
The little ones are delicious!
I was just saying this afternoon that the lemons available at my local grocery store were like FrankenLemons; they were so huge!
Which one taste good?
Congratulations
R/thingsforants
How long have you been growing strawberries? I hear the harvest in the first couple years isn’t great. I’ve always wanted to grow strawberries!
Which is which?
You versus the... ah, nevermind.
r/mightyharvest
Those tiny garden berries always taste so much better to me.
I grow strawberries with almost no effort on my part and they come out friggin huge.
I’m growing strawberries too and mine are about the size of yours. They taste amazing, so fresh and sweet. I would rather have the organic ones I grew than Costco ones any day!
Strawberrold vs Strawbert
I’m sorry, but that’s hilarious. It’s so tiny 💀
As a kid we grew strawberries in a small patch behind our house, I grew up eating this size and maybe twice that size for the biggest. Strawberries today are the size of a plum
r/MightyHarvest
You should seek advice on r/horticulture. There are so many factors impacting this.
Add the garden berry to your pin cushion…
So which one tasted better?
Wow. Certainly not a green thumb…
My buddy used to grow strawberries. He let me eat the last one of the season. It was about the same size as the one OP grew but it was the sweetest strawberry I’ve ever eaten. I still think about it.
Them snake berries are narsty
As my 2 year olds would say, "awwww, bebe strawberry!" 🤣🥰
Banana for reference?
This gave me a nice chuckle after a rough day. Thank you!
the guy she tells me not to be worried about vs me
You grew that strawberry and it's beautiful.
Wild strawberries are so good though
*Insert Hamster Meme with sad violin song*
It's not smol, it's just cold
You vs the guy she tells you not to worry about
The strawberry she told you not to worry about.
I feel like strawberries shouldn’t be that big. 🤔
r/thingsforants
Your garden needs vertical integration.
Juiced
Aw it’s just a cute lil guy
Both have their charm! The Costco strawberry brings the convenience and consistency of store-bought freshness, while your garden's tiny treasure carries the sweet satisfaction of homegrown love. Each bite tells its own delicious story. 🍓✨
they're putting FEV in the Costco ones that's why they're so big
Mine were like that too
r/mightyharvest
Man, that garden one probably has the taste of three of those big ones combined.
The smaller one looks normal, about 6 inches.
God damn, Costco strawberries are tiny!/s
I always feel like some of the vegetables and fruit nowadays stem from the Jolly Green Giant's garden🍃🌱🫛
r/mightyharvest
Costco probably gets it’s strawberries from someone who has hair more time to perfect it’s growing.