Growing Strawberries from seed

redser7

Hi - I would like a large strawberry patch in my new allotment next year. As plants can be expensive (and I don't have any now to get runners from) I am thinking about growing from seed.
Any tips? Is it difficult? What varieties would you recommend from seed? Is it too late to start now and expect fruiting plants next year?
I should have a polytunnel up and running by the end of August which should give them extra summer-like weather to develop.
Thanks a lot

lucylu

Any strawberry seed I have sown in the past was sown in December and can take up to two seasons to bear fruit.

Bare root strawberry plants are probably your best shot.. get them in April May next year..

redser7

Thanks

Sgt Pepper 64

redser7 wrote: »

Hi - I would like a large strawberry patch in my new allotment next year. As plants can be expensive (and I don't have any now to get runners from) I am thinking about growing from seed.
Any tips? Is it difficult? What varieties would you recommend from seed? Is it too late to start now and expect fruiting plants next year?
I should have a polytunnel up and running by the end of August which should give them extra summer-like weather to develop.
Thanks a lot

Look out for garden centre sales, most have one late autumn\winter.
I've got strawberry plants for 1 euro before. Most people see a fading plant and think its not good

redser7

Thanks a lot, I'll keep an eye out.
Sister has a few plants and I would like to get some runners off them. But was reading that you should cut all the foliage right down after the fruit is done. So do we cut them back, and then wait for runner to develop? Or the other way around? And would multipurpose be ok to root the runners in?
Cheers

Wyldwood

my strawberry plants are already throwing runners out so all I do is get some degradable pots or even empty loo rolls, fill with multipurpose compost, pin the runner onto the compost while still attached to the "mother" plant. When roots have formed detach the runner and plant pot and all wherever you want it.

Strawberry plants need to be replaced every few years as they get tired and don't fruit well so use above method to keep replacing them

redser7

Brilliant thanks a lot. How long would they take to root? A month?

redser7

Sorry for all the questions - but what do you do with the runners then? Plant them in the ground for over winter or keep them in pots and keep them inside somewhere? Cheers

kylith

lucylu wrote: »

Any strawberry seed I have sown in the past was sown in December and can take up to two seasons to bear fruit.

I've been advised that when growing strawbs from seed one should pick off any flowers in the first year so the plant can focus on maturing rather than wasting energy on flowers and fruit. It means a better crop the next year.

ei.sdraob

redser7 wrote: »

Sorry for all the questions - but what do you do with the runners then? Plant them in the ground for over winter or keep them in pots and keep them inside somewhere? Cheers

I left the detached runners in pots over winter, they survived ok despite a nasty cold winter. Strawberries are hardy.

redser7

Thanks everyone

Corsendonk

Just to point out that stawberries are one of those fruit plants like apples, plums etc that require a certain amount of cold hours before they fruit so keeping them nice and warm overwinter isthe worst possible thing to do.

Some of the commercial guys actually can get two harvests a year out of strawberries by placing the plants in a cold store for a week or two to simulate winter.

redser7

Thanks, I'll pop them in a cold frame for the worst weather so.

redser7

So I pinned down a few runners. There appear to be second plants developing further down some of the runners. Could these be potted too? Or is this expecting too much of the mother plant?
Would people take a crop from these new planlets the following year? Or should I nip the flowers and wait for the second season crop?

Cheers

ei.sdraob

redser7 wrote: »

So I pinned down a few runners. There appear to be second plants developing further down some of the runners. Could these be potted too? Or is this expecting too much of the mother plant?
Would people take a crop from these new planlets the following year? Or should I nip the flowers and wait for the second season crop?

Cheers

Once you put a runner in soil and it has root, chop of the end of the runner so all the power goes into making that runner that's in soil grow bigger, after few months once it seems healthy enough chop of the remaining connection from main plant and now you have a strawberry plant on its own

redser7

Perfect, thanks

magicbastarder

you should also look into growing alpine strawberries; these will grow happily from seed and are much less fussy than strawberries. the don't send out runners, which could be seen as a drawback or a bonus.

redser7

Thanks, I'll do that

Corsendonk

magicbastarder wrote: »

you should also look into growing alpine strawberries; these will grow happily from seed and are much less fussy than strawberries. the don't send out runners, which could be seen as a drawback or a bonus.

Do you get much of a crop from alpine? Grew them for a couple of years, more of a decorative plant than a fruiting plant.

magicbastarder

getting a fair crop this year, but more in a 'pick and eat on the spot' rather than harvest to get a big bowl full. that's off three plants, about three years old each. they grow very readily from their own seeds too.