Not all hobby gardeners favor propagating strawberries through offshoots. Sowing has just as good a chance of success. The focus here is on skillful pricking. You can find out how to master this sensitive procedure perfectly here.
How do I prick strawberries correctly?
Strawberries are pricked out by carefully removing the germinating seedlings from the seed tray and placed in separate pots with pricking soil. Prick out the plants when they have 4-5 leaves, loosen the substrate around them and carefully lift them out before planting them in prepared holes in the pots.
Exemplary sowing creates vital seedlings
So that you are dealing with the best starting material when planting strawberries, the qualified sowing process plays a central role. If you take the following aspects into account, the tiny seeds will transform into powerful seedlings.
- In the first half of March, fill a seed tray (€35.00 on Amazon) with nutrient-poor substrate
- soak the seeds, mix with bird sand and sow
- sieve thinly with substrate or vermiculite, press down and spray
- Cover the seed container with cling film or place it in a greenhouse
- the ideal germination temperature hovers around 18 degrees Celsius in a partially shaded place
The time until germination depends on the strawberry variety you choose. Experience has shown that the tender seeds come to life within 2-6 weeks. Until then, keep the seeds and soil slightly moist and ventilate the cover daily.
Separate strawberries with a steady hand
After germination, the seed container becomes crowded within a short period of time. At the latest when your pupils present 4-5 leaves, pricking is on the agenda. Here's how to do it:
- Small pots half-filled with commercial potting soil or a mixture of peat with 25 percent humus
- press a small depression in the earth with a pricking stick
- loosen the substrate around the strawberry seedling in order to lift it out without pulling
- For larger seedlings, a teaspoon is sufficient, for extra tender plants, a pricking rod or tweezers
- plant in the pot, fill with soil and water
Experienced hobby gardeners take the explosiveness out of the process by not sowing the seeds in a seed tray. Instead, small potties are used in this first phase. This has the advantage that only the weakest specimens are sorted out later.
Tips & Tricks
Clever hobby gardeners create an incentive for the strawberry seedlings to root even more diligently. At the bottom of the cultivation container, spread a thin layer of ripe compost under the lean substrate. To get to this set table, the little plants try even harder. The result is a particularly strong root system.