marilyn_2010, Try posting your request on the 'discussion' side. Perhaps you'll get some response there.

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

Store at 40F for 6 weeks.

Many hybrid seeds are sold, not just strawberries. They are produced by crossing the parents, not by collecting seed from hybrids. The first crossing is known as an F1 hybrid.