How To Germinate Strawberry Seeds

3 EASY steps to germinate strawberry seeds in Singapore :

I) Bright morning sun room in normal SG temperature (NO air-conditioning)

Cool breeze ventilated the germinating trays which were recycled from fruit packaging.

2) Don’t bury the seeds! Seeds sowed on the soil surface as shown:

3. Water from bottom-up rather than top-down.

Once the seeds are buried in soil, it may not germinate or germinate at a slower pace (more than 10 days).

Watering from the bottom lets the soil takes only the amount of water it needs and the excess water is drained away through the holes we cut at the bottom.

If you have time for only top-down watering, just make sure that the seeds are not dragged into the soil. 🙂

I have germinated different varieties of strawberries with these 3 easy steps, and they work the best.

OBSERVATIONS ON STRAWBERRIES GERMINATION

1. Types of pots used –  Cylinder shaped versus flat surface seeds germination “pots”.

Cylinder or cone-shaped pot yields different results.

For example, white strawberry varieties did not germinate in this pot but red strawberries did.

Flat surface container germination work for all strawberry seeds I tried.

I can only reason that its the uneven absorption of water as the cause.

The moisture needs to be relatively even for the soil, and thus, a flat surface container works best for germination.

2. TEMPERATURE OF MEDIUM

Some seeds instructions recommended a certain range of temperatures to germinate seeds.

For example, most white strawberry varieties instructed 16C – 21C  be maintained for successful germination.

But it did not work for me.

I had a lot of difficulties germinating Heirloom Pineapple strawberry seeds with the chilled soil in my self-watering pot above.

Finally, I gave up and returned to my 3 easy steps method, and the seeds germinated …finally!

Sometimes what works for gardeners abroad may not work for us!

We just have to try our own way and don’t give up.

3. SG SUPERMARKETS STRAWBERRIES (NOT A GOOD IDEA)

Well, the foreign experts’ consensus is in, extracting seeds from fresh supermarkets’ fruits is not a good idea.

Supermarkets’ strawberries are hybrids and they do not produce true to the parent plants because of their genetic make-up.

They did not start from seeds.

In laymen’s terms, this means it’s unlikely to fruit from hybrid seeds.

Read more on hybrid and other observations in our Tropical Strawberries post.

Correction  (data from 2017) 

Gardeners have managed to harvest from fresh Korean strawberries’ seedlings, harvest day from seeds was about 1 year.

The seedlings were frail, about 90% will not grow until maturity.

Our experience from USA strawberries had been all seedlings did not survive more than three months.

FROM OWN GROWN SEED BORNE FRUITS

In spite of this, the method on how to extract the best seeds is still valid for own grown heirloom plants.

We successfully grew second-generation strawberries from our Heirloom Pineapple Strawberries plants in September 2016.

Our fresh seeds germinate the fastest, sometimes overnight to the second day to see something sprouting.

MORE TIPS  

For better germination rate, FREEZE bought strawberry seeds overnight first, before sowing.

I prefer directly on moist soil rather than tissues or cotton because its easier to transplant them later.

Place some seeds in bowl and ziplocked in a bag to freeze.

This prevents seeds from spilling accidentally in the freezer and moisture from seeping in.

My recommendation is to try with some seeds at the first try instead of the whole pack!

That way, if they did not germinate the first round, at least there are seeds left to try again.

Regarding freezing, I have frozen seeds in various time frames before I sowed (trials: 1 month, 2 months, 3 months, overnight, 2 nights, and NO Freezing).

Those seeds that were frozen, germination time is 5 -6 days, regardless of how long they have been frozen.

Thus, I think overnight freezing in ziplock or airtight pack is enough in Singapore conditions. 5 – 6 days is still faster than most seeds packaging predictive gauge of 2 – 4 weeks.

If the seeds are not frozen, germination time can be more than 10 days or they don’t germinate.

Leftover seeds or new seeds should be ziplocked in bags and kept in the fridge or freezer as well.

Being chilled, they last longer and would be ready for sowing the next time you felt like growing fresh strawberries at home again! 🙂

Please leave a comment if you find this content useful 🙂

New methods for faster germination and steps to growing and fruiting taught in workshops.

WORKSHOPS with systematic guidance to grow from seeds in 3 hours!

FOR SALE – SEEDS, SEEDLING (HYDRO, SOIL), KITS

New 2018 RED Alpine seeds were tested and showed excellent germination of over 90% within 8 days.

Transplanting Tips at this link.

Bulk delivery to schools 🙂 – Encouraging discoveries for young keen minds!

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