Procurement Of Seeds And Cultivation Of Small-fruited Strawberries

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Ali Baba, Yellow Miracle and others …

It is quite simple to prepare the seeds of small-fruited strawberries yourself. There is now a practical need for such a procurement - trading organizations have significantly raised the price of seeds, at the same time reducing their quantity in a package. If not long ago there were 100-200 seeds in a bag, depending on the variety, now there are 10-15 seeds, or this amount is masked by a weight of 0.04 grams.

The price is rather "biting". I calculated: in order to plant a garden of five square meters with small-fruited strawberries, you need at least 4-5 bags of seeds.

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Often, gardeners express fair complaints about the quality of the seeds, especially if they were bought in stalls and from different distributors. On this I myself "burned" more than once. Seeds with very poor germination or completely non-germinating were sold in colorful bags of well-known companies.

Once I bought seeds of the varieties I was interested in - Seasons and Ali Baba. The seeds sprouted well, but when the time for fruiting came, it turned out that instead of the Seasons variety, I had two different varieties with red and yellow berries that had nothing to do with the Seasons variety. According to his description, the plants should have a mustache, which the ones that grew up in my garden did not have. The bag with the Ali Baba variety contained an admixture of some weed seeds. Although the variety turned out to be good, I do not know if it is really the variety I bought or some unknown one.

Of course, I do not think that the purchased seeds are produced by the companies whose names appear on the packages. The following case convinces me of this. There is a seed stall in a mall near my house. In the spring of this year, the seeds of four varieties of large-fruited strawberries were on sale there: the Dutch variety Gigantella-Maxim, the Danish variety - Zephyr, the American variety - Tribute, and unknown to me - Ampelny.

As you know, large-fruited strawberries are propagated by seeds by breeders when breeding new varieties, but this method is not suitable for gardeners. The seeds were in large beautiful bags, 15 pieces cost 29 rubles. A Moscow firm was listed on them. I copied her postal and e-mail addresses, and my son and I found out with the help of a computer that, indeed, there is a company at this address in Moscow that sells seeds, but there is not a single variety of any strawberry in the list of seeds it offers. Our inquiry about strawberry and strawberry seeds was answered that the company does not sell them. So branded bags in different kiosks and distributors may turn out to be fake.

Now, if I want to start a new variety, I try to buy seeds in company stores, or I take them from gardeners I know, and for the current plantings I harvest them myself.

The easiest way to harvest strawberry seeds is as follows: when washing strawberry berries, a lot of seeds fall out, so I pour the sorted berries into a large saucepan or bowl, pour water there and stir the berries. Then I choose them in another container, pour out a lot of water, filter the remaining water with the seeds through a cloth or gauze and dry in the shade.

This method has two drawbacks: if several varieties grow on the site, then each variety must be collected in a separate container; and the second drawback is that not fully ripe seeds come across, which reduces germination.

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There is another way. Several well-ripened berries are taken from the bushes that yield the best harvest and have larger berries. If the berries are large, with a razor blade they remove the seeds with a small part of the pulp, knead in a glass and spill, changing the water. Then the seeds, together with the pulp, are wrapped in a nylon cloth (part of the stocking or tights) and dried in the shade, stirring occasionally so that they do not stick together, and the pulp is crushed. When everything dries well, the pulp is easy to winnow from the seeds.

If the berries are small and it is difficult to remove the seeds, ripe berries are kneaded in a glass and washed, often changing the water. With this method, higher quality seeds are obtained, and your own clonal selection is possible.

I noticed that strawberry seeds quickly lose their germination and it is impractical to store them for more than two years.

Some tips for planting dates

On one package I read the following: "Sowing seeds from the last decade of February to the last decade of July; planting seedlings from the second decade of May to the end of August; harvesting from the first days of July to the end of September." Another package reported full germination of seeds in 3-4 weeks, and planting in a permanent place in 9-10 weeks after sowing seeds for seedlings. And on each package there is a statement that the crop can be harvested in the year of planting.

I have been dealing with small-fruited strawberries for a long time, I have tried these tips in practice and I can say the following: it is too early to sow seeds in late April - early March for our conditions. They do not germinate for a long time (up to 30 days).

Also read:

When is the best time to plant garden strawberries

If the container with seeds is placed in a warm place (under the battery), the strawberries can rise in 7-10 days, then the container with the seedlings must be placed on the windowsill. But there is not enough light, heat - too, because not every gardener can illuminate and warm up his seedlings. Plants stop growing and start growing only at the beginning - mid-April.

Seedlings can be planted in a permanent place in early June. Plants will develop well, give some flowers and small, not typical for the variety of berries. These berries, I would not count as the first harvest. Strawberries will bloom and bear fruit normally only if in winter they have been at freezing temperatures for a sufficient time. Therefore, I began to sow strawberry seeds in the third decade of April and later.

This is how it looks in this year's example.

I did the first sowing on April 26th. Seedlings appeared on May 2. I transplanted it into the seedling box on June 14th. In the first ten days of July, the seedlings were ready for planting in a permanent place. I dropped her off in the third decade of July.

I spent the next sowing on June 7, deciding to increase the area occupied by this variety - Yellow Miracle. The seeds began to sprout on June 13, on July 3 I transplanted the seedlings into a box, planning to plant them in the garden in the first decade of August. Strawberries planted during these periods manage to take root well before the cold weather, and next year they will bear fruit normally.

The seeds obtained from this year's harvest can be sown in a container with soil in July, covered with foil and placed in a greenhouse. Seedlings will sprout in 6-7 days. When 2-3 true leaves appear, the seedlings must be cut so that the distance between the plants is 5-7 cm. When they already have 5-6 true leaves, they can be planted in a permanent place. Strawberry seedlings will take root and overwinter successfully, but for insurance after the first frost, when the soil freezes, you can cover it with spruce branches.

If the seeds are sown late, and the plants have only 2-3 true leaves, you can remove all the seedlings in one lump from the container and dig in. For the winter, you can cover it with something - I covered it with an old parcel box, and then sprinkled it with leaves. The seedlings overwintered well, at the beginning of May I planted it in a permanent place, and it gave a normal harvest a little later than the one planted in the beds in the fall.