Pineberry Plants – Best Tips on Growing Pineberries
If you like strawberries, have you ever tried a pineberry? Pineberries, scientifically known as Fragaria x ananassa, are strawberry cultivars with white flesh and red achenes (which are commonly believed to be seeds). As par
Back in 2010 in the UK, the pineberry earned its namesake from the pineapple as a nod to the unique flavor of this strawberry cousin. A result of cross-breeding, the pineberry plant hails from South America, where various cultivars grow wild.
What is a pineberry?
Similar to a strawberry, a pineberry is a smaller white berry with lovely red seeds. Pineberries offer hints of pineapple in their flavor profile, making them truly unique from traditional strawberries.
The red seeds are actually achenes, which are dry fruit that each contain a single seed. My eight-year-old daughter calls strawberries a seed suitcase for this reason!
Pineberry plants look very much like strawberry plants, featuring crowns you must avoid burying and leaves in similar shapes. Like strawberries, pineberries also send out runners to create daughter plants as a primary means of propagation.
Are pineberries real?
Pineberries are real. These fruits are sometimes sold at farm markets and other retailers, but often at a high price due to typical low yields of pineberry crops. The first pineberries sold commercially in the United States went to market in 2012.
The different pineberry cultivars include Natural Albino, White Carolina, White D, and White Pine.
How to Grow Pineberries
Growing pineberries isn’t much different from growing strawberries! Home gardeners can grow pineberries and may find them to be unique from traditional strawberries in taste, appearance, and size. Pineberries tend to be smaller, often under one inch when ripe.
Sometimes called pineapple strawberries, pineberries boast a unique flavor that makes them irresistible.
I received my pineberry starts from a gardener in California who kindly separated some and mailed them to me. I paid shipping and she shared her white strawberry starts!
Growing Pineberries in Pots
These are my own steps on how to grow pineberries:
- Prepare a pot with potting mix. I had 8 starts so I chose a pot that was about 12” in diameter. (The larger the better.)
- Remove bare root pineberries or white strawberry starts from packaging.
- Space out the pineberry starts so they have some room to grow.
- Gently cover the roots with soil, using caution NOT to cover the crowns. New pineberry leaves will grow from the center.
- Lightly water the pineberry starts and keep them indoors at first. You’ll likely want to harden them off to acclimate them to the outdoors much like you would traditional seedlings.
TIP: Note that you might see some yellowing as the plants become accustomed to their new environment. If the plants are very stressed, entire leaves may turn yellow. In other cases, just slight yellowing may occur. I removed leaves with a lot of yellowing.
FYI: Also note, you may or may not get pineberry fruit the first year. It largely depends on the age of the pineberry plants and how you care for them.
We allowed our white strawberries to produce daughters so we would double our crop for the next season!
Caring for Pineberry Plants: Aphids
We unfortunately suffered a bad bout of aphids this past year. They were merciless, especially on our brand new pineberry starts.
Thankfully, my daughter and I found a pretty good way to tackle them. Here are the steps we took for getting rid of aphids on strawberry plants and pineberries:
- Gently remove plants from the soil if possible, one at a time.
- Use an old toothbrush and dip it in a solution of Dawn dish soap and water.
- Gently brush the stems and undersides of the leaves of your pineberry or strawberry plants.
- Dunk the toothbrush back into the solution to rinse it off and repeat.
- Once the stems and leaves appear free from aphids, use a spray bottle to lightly saturate the soil. The Dawn should help to take care of the aphids.
- We ended up having to call in backup as this method worked well but the aphids were too widespread. We bought live ladybugs! By the next day or two, the aphids were GONE! It was amazing and the ladybug release was really fun with my girls.
Growing Pineberries
Growing pineberry plants is such a fun adventure for me and our daughters. They love strawberries and love pineapple! I am so excited for them to try a new fruit.
With any luck, our pineberries should produce fruit this year. It’s the second year growing them and last year they produced daughters or runners instead of fruiting.
Now we have quite a few more white strawberry plants! It was so exciting to actually get a crop of pineberries this summer!
Where to Buy Pineberries
I lucked into a swap where I only had to pay shipping to receive pineberry starts. Pineberries make daughters / runners just like traditional strawberries.
I have also seen pineberries near me at Stauffer’s farm stand on Route 663 in Pennsburg, PA.
I’ll be sure to report back whenever else I see them for sale. Also, hit us up in the comments on where you buy yours!
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(By the way, if you are interested in growing pineberries, you may also like to check out our post on planting strawberry seeds in pots!)
You can learn more about pineberries by reading the following resources:
- Integrated Pest Management University of Missouri
- Illinois Extension University of Illinois Urbana Champaign
If you’re also growing pineberry plants, let’s chat in the comments! Please share tips or ask any questions you might have.
Happy Gardening!
10.21.22 – Updated to replace png with jpg photos and made images full size. Improved spacing. Added resource links and where to buy section.
