Strawberry Seeds

[Carrots]

My son wants to grow strawberries from seeds. I have seen strawberry plants in the garden centre this summer but not seeds. Can he grow strawberries using seeds?

Also he has planted apple pips in the garden. Will they grow?

[TPeers]

Yes and yes, however.....

Strawberries are fairly simple, alpine types seem to grow best from seed from what I have heard, you can sometimes find the seed in the larger garden centres - I'll keep an eye out for you.

Apples from pips.... yes it will grow, but the plant you get may bear little relation to the fruit it came from, apples are open polinated so the pip will have gene material from two apples. Also it can take up to 15+ years for the tree to grow enough to produce fruit and you have no idea about the size of the tree the pip will produce, so even if the original apple came from a lovely dwarf tree in your garden - the pip could produce a 40ft scrappy tree and crop intermittently at best. This is why we pay so much for our trees at the nursery - some poor breeder has gone through that process, grafted likely looking saplings and done several years of work for each and every variety!

Good luck though - you might just have a perfect, early maturing, reliable cropping, masterpiece.

Terry

[Autumn]

T&M have a few selection of strawberry seeds if you check out their webiste. The seeds are very small though for handling.

[runnerbean]

Carrots, I was actually reading in a Garden Mag today at work today, where you can obtain strawberry seeds, can I get back to you tomorrow? I will supply you with an address then.

[runnerbean]

Carrots, try www.victoriananursery.co.uk