Do you like strawberries? Yes, then you may have tried growing these wonderful fruits. Can You Plant a Whole Strawberry in your garden? Most probably you have tried burying a whole strawberry in the garden. It’s an obvious trial. Sometimes this technique works while sometimes not. Although, growing strawberries with runners is the best propagation method. Commercial farmers use healthy runners to grow new strawberry plants. this doesn’t mean that you cannot grow these sweet fruit plants with seeds.
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Can You Plant a Whole Strawberry?
Yes, definitely you can plant a whole strawberry. It is a natural way of propagation for this sweet fruit. Wild strawberry fruits fall to the ground and spread the seeds. The seeds get dispersed and germinate in favorable conditions.
Planting a whole strawberry is possible. But the chance of successful germination of the strawberry seeds is quite low. Due to continuous hybridization, the natural sustainability of strawberry seeds has been reduced. The difference between the size of fruit and seed is enormous. Therefore, if you plant a whole strawberry then it might rot and digest the seeds.
It is the main reason for live plant or runner selection for commercial strawberry farming.
Check out my favorite strawberry seeds on Amazon.
Can you grow a strawberry plant from a whole strawberry?
Yes, you can grow a strawberry plant from a whole strawberry. It might not be a perfect way still you can try it.
Strawberries have seeds outside their fruit body. Technically, a strawberry is not a single fruit. It is hybridized, fused form of fruit or berry.
It forms tiny seeds embedded in its outer skin like tiny gems. You simply need these seeds to grow a strawberry plant. The entire fruit flesh is of no use for gardening. In fact, the strawberry flesh can act negatively to reduce the germination rate of the seeds.
The seeds are open and in direct contact. In an ideal condition, they must germinate within the fruit once they are mature. To prevent this unnecessary germination the fruit force the seeds to remain inert chemically.
This is only one reason for low and slow germination in planting whole strawberries.
Should you plant a Whole Strawberry?
Now, this is an important question. You can indeed plant a whole strawberry in your garden but whether you should do it or not is the real point of discussion.
First of all, Planting a whole strawberry works. Therefore, if someone says this is not fake then don’t trust the words, give it a try on your own.
What do you think- should you plant a whole strawberry?- The perfect answer is no. I know they can grow but there is no need to waste a whole sweet fruit with 100s of seeds just to get 5 or 10 seedlings. It is not an efficient way of growing strawberries with seed.
Keep in mind the strawberry fruit flesh is of no use to the plant. It will rot and may attract several pests and insects. Meanwhile, it can damage the seeds due to subsequent decomposition.
The best germination rate in this is 15%. You may get 15 seedlings out of 100 potential strawberry seeds. Even this number is not achievable most of the time.
Therefore, You should adapt more profitable ways to utilize the strawberry seeds instead of burying the whole fruit.
How to extract seeds from strawberries for healthy germination?
- Slice the healthy strawberry fruits. The seeds are on the outer portion of the skin. So you need not waste the whole fruit. Cutting and dicing the fruit will also work but the fruit will be wasted.
- Dry the skin peel or strawberry pieces in full sunlight for a couple of days. It should be dried completely i.e, free from any moisture.
- Next crush the dried skin peel or pieces to remove the seeds.
- Look out for tiny seeds in this mixture and collect them for further germination.
- You can simply spread this mixture over the soil surface for germination.
Will a strawberry plant come from a buried strawberry?
Yes, strawberry plants can germinate and grow from a buried strawberries. Although the number of germinated seedlings will be less still this is possible.
If you wanna try the easiest way of growing strawberries and don’t have enough time for proper gardening. Then just follow my steps.
How to Plant a Whole Strawberry?
- Take any fully ripe or maybe stale strawberry left in your fridge. The fruits you don’t wanna eat may work for this purpose.
- Next prepare a healthy well-drained organic potting mix for your strawberries.
- Take a small 4-6 inch container. A flat germination tray will also work.
- Fill the tray with potting mix. They put a whole strawberry inside the soil mix.
- Stir and mix the soil thoroughly and sprinkle some water.
- There is no need to wear it for several days as rotting fruit will keep the soil moist.
- You can also add a pinch of any fungicide or neem cake powder over the rotting strawberry to avoid a fungal attack.
- You have to wait for 6 -8 weeks for the seeds to germinate. It may possible that no will germinate. This depends on the fruit you choose.
- A more important thing to understand is that never expect the same quality of fruit to grow like the one you have dumped. This is no possible in most cases. The strawberries grown for seeds are inferior to their hybrid parents.
- You should feel proud even if you get only 3-5 seedlings. This is a difficult way of germination. And even the bare minimum can be considered a success.
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Conclusion
You can plant a whole strawberry to grow a new plant. Still, it not a good idea to do so. You must separate the seeds first then try growing them in perfect soil conditions. Strawberry seeds require cold stratification most of the time. Therefore, it is possible that you may fail with the usual fruit dumping idea.
I always suggest, Don’t plant the whole strawberry in your garden. Instead, cut it, peel it dry it, and then try growing a new strawberry plant with seeds.
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