We often get questions about growing strawberries from customers who have purchased seed or plants from other suppliers. Some companies won’t answer these types of questions but we want to deliver practical information based on our experience. There’s enough misinformation out there to keep me busy full time in correcting it.
Anyhow, a customer recently contacted me about seed they had purchased for ‘Pineapple Crush’ from another supplier. After several weeks there was no sign of life in the seeds. We typically see the first signs of germination in 6-8 days. Here is how their question was answered:
…. I think one thing that makes a difference is that we are germinating and growing strawberry plants all the time, nearly year round. I usually know if there’s a germination problem because I’m doing it almost every week.
The differences in seeds (between suppliers) is not just seed quality but also how they are cared for during processing and storage and of course, their age. We turn over a lot of seed here so they don’t have much time to get old. We freeze seed as soon as it is harvested or received and keep them frozen until we package and ship them.
We don’t package thousands of packages ahead of time either. Their longest exposure to the elements is while in transit.
Harvest method also makes a difference. We don’t allow the seed to dry on the plant, we use the “blender method” and “float off” the junk and nonviable seeds.
FYI, I have found that seed that is slow to germinate most times does NOT produce vibrant plants. The resulting plants seem to lag in growth and are relatively ho-hum in fruit production.