If you planted your strawberry bed yourself, you probably know if the plants are June-bearing or everbearing varieties…unless, of course, like many of us, your mind is playing you tricks and you don’t recall (or you made the cardinal sin of not labeling or writing down your variety—hey, it happens!).
This is a common problem for people who buy or maintain a property where there is already an established strawberry patch. We don’t always have the luxury of getting a garden tour or a complete journal along with our lovely new berry beds.
The point is, sometimes you might have a strawberry patch but not know what kind of plants you have. And while we can’t tell you how to figure out what specific variety your strawberry plants are, we can at least help you figure out what type of plants you have.[feast_advanced_jump_to]
Strawberries are one of the most beloved fruits to grow in home gardens. Their sweet, juicy berries are a treat whether eaten fresh, used in desserts, or preserved in jams When planting strawberries, one of the first decisions is choosing between everbearing and June bearing varieties While both offer that delicious strawberry flavor, they differ significantly in growth habit, fruiting pattern, and other traits. This in-depth comparison of everbearing vs June bearing strawberries will help you select the right types for your needs.
Overview of June Bearing and Everbearing Strawberries
June bearing strawberries, as the name implies, produce one major flush of fruit in early to mid summer (usually June in most climates) They focus energy into forming large, abundant berries over a concentrated 2-3 week harvest window
Everbearing varieties yield lighter crops from late spring through fall. You’ll get the first small harvest around June followed by further intermittent yields over the summer and into early autumn.
While June bearers generate bigger individual fruits, everbearers provide continuity of harvest over an extended season. Now let’s explore some specific differences between the two in more detail:
Growth Habits
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Plant size: June bearing plants tend to be larger and more vigorous than everbearing. They can spread extensively via runners.
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Runners produced: June bearers produce many runners that expand the plantings, while everbearers have fewer runners.
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Leaf shape: Everbearers usually have smooth, rounded leaf edges compared to the saw-toothed leaves of June bearers.
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Flowering: June bearer flowers arise from secondary crowns for a spring harvest. Everbearers produce flowers on primary crowns for ongoing harvests.
Fruit Characteristics
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Berry size: On average, June bearing fruits are noticeably larger than everbearing varieties.
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Flavor intensity: The condensed June bearing harvest often develops more concentrated sugar and flavor than intermittent everbearing crops.
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Fruit shape: June bearers frequently have conical, pointed fruits while everbearing berries are more rounded.
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Yield per plant: Total annual yield per everbearing plant is lower than June bearers, but harvests are extended over time.
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Peak harvest seasons: June bearers peak in early summer while everbearers have a primary June harvest and secondary fall crop.
Climate Adaptability
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Hot summers: Everbearers perform poorly in hot summers, while June bearers thrive, especially when irrigated sufficiently.
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Cooler areas: Everbearing varieties fare better in zones with cooler summers, producing fruit in spring and fall.
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Winter hardiness: June bearers typically withstand winter cold better than less hardy everbearing plants.
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Sun exposure: Everbearers require more sunlight for adequate fruiting compared to June bearing plants.
Pros of June Bearing Strawberries
- Produce very large, sweet, flavorful berries over a few weeks
- Generate abundant runners that expand plantings
- Withstand cold winters well and bear well in hotter zones
- Require slightly less care as harvest period is condensed
Cons of June Bearing Strawberries
- Limited to a single early summer harvest window
- Larger plants need ample space for runners to spread
- Heavy fruit load can flatten plants, requiring support
- More concentrated care needed during harvest period
Pros of Everbearing Strawberries
- Provide smaller harvests from late spring through fall
- Compact growth suits container gardening
- Ideal for cooler northern zones with shorter summers
- Lower maintenance as harvests are more spread out
Cons of Everbearing Strawberries
- Smaller berries with milder flavor compared to June bearers
- Productivity declines during hot summer conditions
- Require rigorous pruning to maintain plant vigor
- Need more sunlight for adequate fruit production
Which Type is Best For You?
Good for June bearing:
- Preserving large harvests of berries
- Growing in hot summer climates
- Maximizing per-plant yields
- Limited space suited to vertical gardening
Good for everbearing:
- Staggered harvests over many months
- Cooler northern gardens with short summers
- Planting in containers
- Avoiding large-scale preservation
Ultimately, evaluate your specific climate, space, harvesting preferences, and intended use of the harvest when deciding between June bearing and everbearing strawberries. Select the right types to create your ideal perpetual strawberry patch!
Frequently Asked Questions
Are everbearing strawberries better than June bearing?
Everbearing strawberries are typically smaller than June bearing, and may not be as strongly flavored. However, they have the advantage of producing fruit over a longer season, which is useful for a steady supply of fresh berries into fall.
How many years will June bearing strawberries produce?
With proper care, June bearing strawberries can be productive for several years. Critical tasks are renovating immediately after harvest and providing ongoing fertilization. This maintains vigor.
What’s the difference between June berries and strawberries?
June berries are a type of strawberry. Specifically, June berries are June bearing strawberries that produce a single large flush of fruit in early summer, around June.
How to tell if strawberries are everbearing?
Everbearing strawberries produce crops in late spring, summer, and fall, with little flowering/fruiting in between. They also produce few runners and form several crowns per plant.
Plant spacing and arrangement
How the plants were spaced and arranged, and what that arrangement looks like now as an older, more established patch, can be a clue as to which type of plants the original grower planted.
If your plants are planted in a single or double row, and you can still see that row as a straight and planned-out row (similar to what a row of lettuce would look like), you are almost sure to have everbearing strawberries.
If your plants are growing in one, long, wide row (or several rows, depending on how large your planting is), and the row looks wide, flat, and completely filled in, you almost certainly have June-bearing strawberries. June-bearing strawberries are usually grown as two-foot matted rows with aisles that are about 18 inches wide in between the mats.
If the patch follows a standard arrangement, they would have started as a double row of plants spaced 12 to 18 inches apart, but then the runners would have been sent out, and the daughter plants would have rooted, and on and on until the whole two-foot wide area was filled in (in fact, if they weren’t stopped by grower maintenance, they would have continued overgrowing into the aisles and beyond).
The blossoms of everbearing and June-bearing plants don’t look different, per se, but when they are set is different.
June-bearing strawberries set their blossoms in response to shortening day length and cooler temperatures in the fall. The buds are small and tight and form close to the bottom of the plant. They can be hard to see unless you look closely—the buds won’t jump right out at you—but if your plants are June-bearing, the buds should be there, waiting. June-bearing strawberry buds lie dormant through the winter and then come to life in the spring when the days warm and lengthen.
If you inspect your plants in the fall or very early spring and you find tight, dormant buds, you have June-bearing strawberries. An autumn inspection late in the fall might be more reliable because it’s possible that a spring inspection is revealing spring-formed buds on everbearing plants. But if you find buds on dormant plants before the plants have started noteworthy spring growth, you’re likely seeing fall-set, June-bearing strawberry buds.
Everbearing strawberries are usually smaller than June-bearing strawberries. They typically grow berries in the medium range, while June-bearing tends to be in the large range. Both have sizable berries, much larger than wild strawberries. Do note that, with June bearing types especially, berry size will diminish as the patch nears the end of its harvest season.
The flavor is not a truly definitive clue as to whether your plants are ever- or June-bearing. The reason for this is that there is a wide variety of flavor and sweetness profiles among all strawberry varieties. And while June-bearing strawberries are generally accepted as being sweeter and of a higher dessert quality, everbearing strawberries are very good and can be quite sweet and flavorful, too, especially some of the newer cultivars that have been developed to enhance the flavor quality of everbearing strawberries.
Identifying the type of strawberries you have based on variety names is often unreliable. Why? Because if you weren’t told what type of strawberry plants you have, you probably weren’t told what variety they were, either.
However, if you do happen to be lucky enough to have been told the named variety, all you have to do is do a simple search to find out what type of strawberry plant you have. You should be able to find reliable information online to tell you if a specific strawberry variety is a June-bearing or an everbearing variety.
Why Does it Matter If Your Plants are June Bearing or Everbearing?
It helps to know if you have June-bearing or everbearing strawberries so that you can plan for harvests, use, and preserving. It also helps to know so you can learn how best to manage your strawberry bed. Planting and management, including fertilization, are a little different for June-bearing plants than they are for everbearing plants.
One of the biggest differences in managing beds is that June-bearing strawberry beds should be planted and spaced in a way that allows them to spread and grow into a matted row. They also require annual renovation of the bed.
Everbearing, on the other hand, will be kept as single plants in rows. They should not be renovated like June-bearing plants should.
Once you know which type of strawberries you have, you’ll know better what to expect and how to manage them.