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Raspberries from seed
Old timer2
Posts: 65
in Fruit & veg
Does anyone have experience of growing strawberry plants from seed? What is the best method and when to sow. I refer to the original sized fruiting type and not the alpine breed. Any advice will be most welcome.
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As a kid (many years ago) I did grow strawberry plants from seed.
As best memory serves, it took so long for anything to happen I threw them on the compost.
As pansy suggests above, if you know anyone that grows them I'm sure they'd give you a few runners.
If you have a look here there's some info on growing from seed http://www.thompson-morgan.com/how-to-grow-strawberries
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
The topic heading is wrong, it was entered as strawberry. The reason I am hoping to grow from seed is because rooted runners from fellow strawberry growers are not sure to be virus free, however well meaning the supplier, and as I am planning to grow 30 - 40 plants I am hoping to avoid a wasted season by growing inferior plants. Thanks for your observations so far and I shall follow up your advice Pete8
I planted strawberry seeds several years ago - from the little I can remember it was around February / March time (on the windowsill) and they took about a month before anything happened. I think they don't then produce fruit until the next year.
I'm afraid I can't remember what soil they wanted - just normal seedling soil I think. They can't have required anything like a propagator as I barely had central heating,
Is there any particular variety you're wanting to grow? I only went for seeds as I was trying to find a variety closest to the tiny yet powerful berries I'd had in Norway. I suspect from what others have said for normal varieties its easiest to grow from a chunk of root.
Do Strawberries come true if grown from seed? As they are the product of hybridisation won't seed grown offspring be different from their parents? You will not have the same variety of strawberry you have now, might be better, but chances are it will be inferior.
I've purchased very good quality strawberry plants from Ken Muir http://www.kenmuir.co.uk/.
They are part of the DEFRA certification scheme http://www.fera.defra.gov.uk/plants/plantHealth/phps.cfm which, while it cannot give a cast iron guarantee that plants are disease free, does carry out inspections and laboratory testing and ensures that all possible steps are taken to avoid selling plants carrying a virus.
In my opinion this is a much better option than attempting to grow strawberries from seed.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.