I guess no one has any opinions. Let me move this post out of the way.

City boy, someone asked this question awhile back and I recall a reply to the effect of "why bother"? In other words, strawberries are a pain to grow from seed and are very easy to propagate from runners and the variety selection there is much better as well. I grew strawberries from seed myself once and I agree with it being a pain, you should start in Jan-feb in a greenhouse if you want the plants to not be dinky the first year. I eventually got some reasonable plants out of it so it can work.

Scott

But every gardening book I have ever read says that you should not restock your strawberry beds with runners from last season because they might have diseases. Personally, I don't see the difference between growing your own runners and buying runners from the nursery. But that's what they say.

It's a lot cheaper to buy 100 seeds than 100 plants. It's also a lot easier to fit them in my car!

The only strawberries I have ever considered worth the effort to grow from seed are the alpine ones. I looked into buying white fruited strawberry plants and found them for 4.95, plus shipping and a minimum order of $30.00. I continued searching and found the seed for 1.25 per 25 with shipping of 2.95.

I've now got more than 30 plants (though I did find that about 50% were red-fruited rather than just white like I had wanted. A little judicious composting and the problem was easily solved.) And they fruit the first year, unlike some strawberries from seed

~Chills

City boy, I would revise what you read to be that you should not restock your bed with runners from an old bed. From a newer bed the runners are new plants and if you pull them out when they are young they will likely be disease-free. I have propagated whole beds from a single plant without major problems. Sure its harder than buying all new plants but if you are careful it can work.

Scott

City Boy:

I generally agree with the comments of Scott and Chills, and would add the following:

Most growers of outdoor strawberry beds of significant size (significant being 10 x 10 feet or larger) order in dormant strawberry crowns from online or mailorder sources. These are sold in bundles of 25, the prices are low, and decline further with larger orders. A dormant crown planted in late March or April will be leafed out by June, and producing its own runners by July/August. You can produce strawberries the first season by removing the runners, or let them sprawl which is what most of us do to produce a larger crop the 2nd spring. Bundled, dormant crowns are much cheaper than strawberry plants from local nurseries or other sources, and will generally be more vigorous.

The "why bother" post that Scott remembers may have been one of mine, since that's the way I feel about growing strawberry plants from seed, except for a few very special types. The time you will spend nursing along tiny strawberry plants, not to mention the pots, soil, watering, sunlight, humidity, and all the other issues that go with starting from seed seems to me to be wasted when you can plant crowns that will produce the first season. From seed, you will be lucky if the plants produce the 3rd season, if at all.

The Sarian variety you have focused on is an everbearer, which may produce a trickle of berries over a longer period, but no everbearer can compete with a Junebearing strawberry for voume production. All strawberries, including everbearers, will practically cease production during the heat of summer, which in Oklahoma begins in about June if I recall correctly from my year at Norman. Strawberries that do form during the heat of summer will usually be small, often distorted, and lacking in flavor. Strawberries are a cool-weather fruit.

If you really want to grow this strawberry from seed, I will not try to talk you out of it, but plant a couple bundles of dormant crowns of a good reliable variety like Honeoye at the same time, and I am pretty sure you will see the difference.

I also agree with Scott that healthy runners from a healthy patch can easily be transplanted to make new beds, regardless of what the gardening books say.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

"If you really want to grow this strawberry from seed, I will not try to talk you out of it"

But I don't know if I want to. That's why I posted here asking for opinions. Thank you for yours.

I say plant them from seed. If you choose the why bother route, go to the store and buy berries. We learn from what we do. In the end its all about what you hope to get done here, if your planting for the fun of doing it or if your planting to sale the plants or berries. these all enter into what you will choose. The last poster started out with a lot of plants and only the best made it, and that sounded like he ended up with good tasting fruit. 50 seeds are cheap so in the end I see the value. Maybe next time he would get more plants to make it from 50 seeds. I saw a youtube of a guy who planted 4 trays with 123 plants per tray. Very tedious for sure, but he did well enough to sell berries his 1st year. I think about 1/2 or better made it to the patch. Some times its the journey not the destination that makes the trip worth it.

First the original post was 9 years ago and i doubt the user is even here. Jellyman is gone too. Scott is still around. I grow many vegetables from seed. All my tomatoes peppers etc. Strawberries no, way too hard, too much work, and the cost of soil, trays, lights, and time make growing from seed much more expensive than buying runners. I would rather save the indoor light for other plants that you can only have by growing from seed. Not so with strawberries.

I grow alpine strawberries via winter seeding (the water jug method). They grow like gangbusters. The advantage is that stratification happens naturally and you tend to get more germination and stronger plants. Most people only do this with Alpine strawberries, but I've found one person who did it successfully with Temptation. Granted, it was developed in a cross with Alpine strawberries, so that might account for the success, but it might be interesting to give it a try with Sarian.