Monday 15 December 2014

Growing strawberry plants from seeds in Singapore

On 15 August 2014, I bought some strawberries from the supermarket in Singapore. I couldn't remember the origins of the strawberries. I'm thinking they were from Australia. I removed the seeds from the exterior of the strawberries. I took the seeds that are brown in colour and scrapped them away from the skin using a sharp knife. I tried to remove as much fleshes from the seeds as possible so that it would rot in my sowing bed. I took a used plastic sushi container and filled it with potting soil. Buried the seeds in the soil and kept the soil moist. I closed the container with a rubber band and this helped to keep the moisture inside the container. I estimated that there were about 100 seeds.

It was almost 2 months later that I saw the seeds germinated. Tiny seedlings started emerging out of the soil bed. It started with 5 seedlings, then a few days later, another 5 seedlings. After that, none appeared. I "ploughed" the sowing bed and exposed the seeds again. Watered the bed and kept it moist. A couple of weeks later, new seedlings germinated. I got another 15 seedlings. So in total I have 25 seedlings. Recently, on 12 December 2014, I noticed 3 new seedlings started to germinate. It is almost 4 months since I last sowed the seeds. My advice to you will be to be very patient when you want to grow strawberry plant from seed. It can take from two months to four months to get the seedling. So, try to sow more seeds, at least 100 seeds. My success rate is not 28%.

The seedlings need a lot of water and sunlight. The seeds germinate faster if they are exposed to sunlight. The seedlings also grow well in direct sunlight.

From November onwards, my window sill is not getting any direct sunlight. I need to bring the plants to the corridor area which is very troublesome. So, in the end, I decided to do an experiment to see whether the seedlings need sunlight. I brought 5 seedlings to my office where they can get at least 4 hours of direct sunlight. I'm trying to monitor their progress.


5 strawberry seedlings on 5 Dec 2014
Last weekend, I had forgotten to bring the container into the shelter. It was raining heavily on Saturday and the seedlings were flooded. Below is the photo of the seedlings after the flood.


Seedlings on 16 Dec 2014


Recently, I chanced upon a post from www.igardenplanting.com and gotten the permission from Dianne to share her post on my blog. It is "How To Grow Strawberries and 10 Best Strawberry Recipes".

14 comments:

  1. Hi, how are your strawberry plants growing? Im growing some and trying to learn more.

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    1. Hi Doug, the strawberry plants did not grow beyond what you had seen in my blog. They started to dry up and turn brown even when the soil was moist. I think the climate here is not suitable for it to grow into plant, but was ideal for them to germinate.

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  2. Hi, how are your strawberry plants growing? Im growing some and trying to learn more.

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    1. I am growing strawberry plants too!

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    2. Hi Weiyang, mine was not successful. They germinated into seedlings but did not grown into plants. I think the climate here is not suitable. Let me know how is your progress. Thanks.

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    3. Hi, mines are currently 3 months old having up to 8 leaves.

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    4. That's great! Mine was liked that for 2 to 3 months without growing. Do you have blog or pictures to show your progress? Thanks.

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    5. Hi,I attempted to plant strawberry seeds from strawberries that I picked the seeds from and placed them in the freezer door 2 months back.4 days ago I planted the seeds, and yesterday the first shoot sprouted and the 2nd today.so excited

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    6. Hi Jamie, Great! It is exciting to see the seedlings. Try not to move or transplant them until they are matured. I have made some mistakes by transplanting them and might have damaged the root system. By the way, NTUC Fairprice at JEM sells strawberry seeds.

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  4. You can search for my instagram @hearts_autumnleaf I have not been updating the progress lately. :)

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  5. @Weiyang. .. any recent updates on yr strawberries?

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  6. @Weiyang. .. any recent updates on yr strawberries?

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  7. The strawberries are flowering now.

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