has anyone had any success growing strawberries from seed? strawberries from seed,

I have several varieties of strawberries growing in my container garden, ever bearing, long stem, and wild strawberries to name a few. At present I have 27 containers, with multiple plants in each 40L pail. I am wondering if anyone has had any success growing them from seeds? as I have been saving seeds from many of the berries I am growing. I have access to a 600x scope, and an incubator as I breed organic crickets for human consumption, and the seeds appear to be viable, is there any special process to get them to germinate? I like to experiment, and I am just curious if it can be done...thanks

 

Re: has anyone had any success growing strawberries from seed? strawberries from seed

I have only grown alpine varieties from seed. You will need to winterize the seed for a month or longer before the seed will sprout. That means either you seed directly in December or you put your seed in the freezer for a month to 6 weeks and then seed.

In my experience the best sprouting variety is the white alpine strawberry.

 

Re: has anyone had any success growing strawberries from seed? strawberries from seed

happy to say that the seeds not only came up, but they flowered all throughout the summer and fall, there are even a few that are still producing strawberries and flowers this late in the year. one variety flowered but failed to produce fruit. the flowers were warped and just didn't amount to much, as you can see in the picture, they are kind of bizarre looking. the other plants did quiet well for their first year, the leaves were an incredible size sprouting up twice the size of their parent plants.( see picture, 1 day old leaf)

 

Re: has anyone had any success growing strawberries from seed? strawberries from seed

Hi, Vili,
Just want to clarify, so as not to mislead others, that putting dry seeds in a freezer does not result in "stratification" (exposure of seeds to fluctuating temperature in order to break down germination inhibitors).

Stratification is only accomplished when seeds are kept in a moist environment (e.g. moist soil or potting mix, moistened paper towel re. Deno's baggie method), and in that case, they should be chilled (e.g. ~40 degrees F), not frozen. Embryo damage is likely to occur when moistened seeds are frozen.
(These are just some of common misunderstandings about seed starting and concepts such as stratification.)