Strawberries - Ever Bearing, Day Neutral, June Bearing

Strawberry plants are often described on the internet as ‘June bearing’, ‘everbearing’ or ‘day neutral’. Even though we usually don’t use these terms in Australia we are starting to see them more often and people sometimes ask me about them so I thought I would write a post explaining the differences.

Before I start, try to keep in mind that this distinction is not absolute, not all varieties fit neatly into any one category, some varieties switch categories depending on the growing conditions, many can send up an occasional flower throughout the growing season, also being in Australia means that internet descriptions such as ‘June bearing’ may be confusing as they will more likely crop in December.

Strawberries will not flower or fruit if the temperature is too high or too low. If your climate is too hot or dry or cold you may not actually be able to tell the difference between any of these three as the possible fruiting window may be small. If you live up in the tropics or down south will also change fruiting time drastically.

Now that is out of the way, let me explain the differences between June bearing, everbearing, and day neutral strawberries.

Various Strawberries

June Bearing Strawberries

June bearing strawberries tend to have one large crop each year, in temperate parts of Australia they normally ripen in November or December (but it varies between varieties).  Ripening in November is one of the reasons we tend not to use the term ‘June bearing strawberry’ very often here in Australia.  Different varieties will ripen earlier or later than others, but all June bearers tend to only have one large crop, then maybe an occasional flower throughout the growing season.

June bearing strawberries are often large, but the harvest doesn’t go for long, sometimes only two weeks.  For a home gardener these are not great as the strawberry season is so short. Some people grow a mix of early and late varieties to try and extend the season.


Ever Bearing Strawberries

Ever bearing strawberry is another misleading term that we tend not to hear often in Australia. It sounds as if they fruit all the time, but they don’t.  Everbearing strawberries normally have two or three large sets of fruit over the growing season.  They may also throw up the occasional flower from time to time outside of this, but usually nothing substantial.

For a home gardener these can be better than June bearing because the strawberry season comes several times a year, again growing different varieties can extend the strawberry season somewhat.


Day Neutral Strawberries

You would be excused if you confused ‘everbearing’ and ‘day neutral’ as they sound exactly the same, but they aren’t.  Some places use these two names interchangeably but they really shouldn’t as they mean different things and involve different genetics.

Day neutral strawberries normally start to flower in spring when the weather is warm enough, they continue until it gets too hot when they stop.  They then flower when the weather cools and continue until it gets too cold when they stop flowering again.  They potentially have continual crops (as long as the weather is right).

Most alpine strawberries fit into this category, and some larger garden strawberries also fit this category.  For a home gardener these are great as strawberry season is only really restricted by temperature and water.

Yellow Wonder alpine strawberry

Regina alpine strawberry - daylength neutral

Personally I don’t get too caught up in the three distinctions.  In Australia we often don’t use the terms and when we do they are often used incorrectly by people who don’t understand them or deliberately to try and mislead people.  I grow a mix of different strawberries and hope that at least one of them will be flowering when the weather is right.  You will notice on my fruit and berry harvest date page that my alpine strawberries provide a crop for many months each year.

I sometimes sell some of the alpine strawberries and other berries I grow.  If you are interested they are listed on my for sale page along with perennial vegetables, heirloom vegetable seeds, herbs, and other plants or seeds that I sell.