Cultivar 689: Early Strawberry

## Early Strawberry

Early Strawberry is a small-fruited crabapple or applecrab type, with fruit under 5 cm in prairie sources.[S1] It is listed as an older U.S. apple, known before 1875.[S1] The sources do not name a breeder, parentage, or institution of origin.[S1]

It appears in older northern orchard recommendations and lists for hardy crabs and hybrids, plus later prairie trial literature, not as a modern release.[S2] In that context, it is treated as a long-used orchard cultivar for practical planting decisions.[S2]

Fruit descriptions are not perfectly aligned. One source gives fruit around 4.5 cm with an orange-red tone.[S1] A nursery source says small to medium fruit, greenish yellow with carmine stripes and splashes, with nearly white, soft, mellow flesh and sweet, good flavor.[S3] The same source gives early August as the season and says the crop will not keep, so it is mainly for short-term use.[S3]

Growth notes describe it as hardy and able to carry large crops.[S3] Northern sources repeatedly include it among useful crab selections.[S2] They also mention stress-related weakness in some years, such as overbearing, drought damage, and some blight in prairie conditions.[S2] It is described as less heat and drought tolerant than Hibernal.[S2] Together these points indicate good productivity potential, with uneven performance under heat and moisture stress.[S2]

Historically it was called an "old time favorite" in the Northwest, matching repeated inclusion in northern trials and recommendation lists.[S3][S2] It was also described as often planted and sometimes heavily cropped.[S2]

The strongest hardiness evidence is regional: Early Strawberry is repeatedly tied to northern U.S. and prairie trials and lists for cold-edge conditions, but no exact zone number is provided in this packet.[S2][S3][S1]

Summary source basis

• S1: Edible Apples in Prairie Canada
• S2: Fruit Culture
• S3: PERENNIALS - The Northwest Nursery Co.

This summary currently draws chiefly from Fruit Culture, with 2 additional supporting sources linked below.

Featured source descriptions

“USA prior to 1875.”
— ^[1]

“Included in the initial list of crab varieties planted.”
— ^[3]

“Blighted badly.”
— ^[3]

“Overbearing and drought killed a good many of the Early Strawberry.”
— ^[3]

Direct parent cultivars

• No direct linked parent cultivars promoted yet.

Parentage claim text

• No direct breeding_cross claim text yet.

Derived or downstream cultivar links

• No derived or downstream lineage links yet.

Source-story quotations

• Early Strawberry (unknown) USA prior to 1875 Fruit 4.5cm, orange and red.Edible Apples in Prairie Canada, p27
• EARLY STRAWBERRY-Season early August. An old time favorite, especially in the Northwest.PERENNIALS - The Northwest Nursery Co., p12
• EARLY STRAWBERRY-Season early August. An old time favorite, especially in the Northwest.PERENNIALS - The Northwest Nursery Co., p12
• EARLY STRAWBERRY-Season early August. An old time favorite, especially in the Northwest.PERENNIALS - The Northwest Nursery Co., p12

Taxonomy context: No family-tree context surfaced yet.

Related cultivars mentioned in source context