Strawberry Sticks/Spinach

[SimonCole]

What is the low-down on these plants?... Are they worth growing?
Do you get lots of fruit? How much space do they need? Are they low growers?

[nick the grief]

Strawbs grow about 10" high tops and sepending on the variety you'll get loads of fruit so I would say yes well worth it. Of you shop around you can pick up a bulk pusrchase of plants for £20 or so and they will be much nicer than the ones in the shops.

Spinach - depends if you like it or not

[SimonCole]

Sorry for the confusion ... I think Strawberry Sticks are a separate plant, also called Strawberry Spinach that is unrelated to strawberries.

[Nicos]

never heard of them....tell us more!

[SimonCole]

Well... I was at Ryton a few years back and they had some of this in their herb garden. It looked like a stiffer-leafed version of Garlic Mustard, weeping over, with fruit between each leaf node. The fruit tasted like wild strawberries and was shaped like a raspberry, but about a quarter the size.

[SueA]

Hi Simon, I was just reading February's 'Move To The Country' magazine (sister mag to G.Y.O.) & saw Strawberry spinach & remembered your thread on here. I'd never heard of these but they do look interesting & the article says you can eat the young leaves like spinach then leave the plants to grow to about 2ft tall & the fruits appear. You shouldn't pick them until they are very ripe, they don't look very big but might be tasty! You can buy seeds from Victoriana Nursery Gardens.Site address www.victoriana.ws

[SimonCole]

Thanks Sue, can't wait to try them out. I'll try to save some seed for other grapes.

[Shortie]

OOoo... I saw seeds for this last year (can't remember where though so thanks for the link SueA. I was thinking of giving these a go myself and then decided I already had too much new stuff to try so maybe give ti a go next year. I'd be really interested in the results!

[SueA]

Also found these on Seeds-by-Size website listed as Strawberry Sticks. They seem quite expensive if you're buying by mail order, the Victoriana site has then at £3 something plus £3.95 p&p for your order, don't know if they would do it cheaper for just one pack of seeds. The Seeds-by-Size guy sells by weight & you can get 1/10 gram for £1.84 or 1/4 gram for £3.23 plus £1 p&p.
http://www.seeds-by-size.co.uk/herbs-98.htm