Hello everyone, my name is Josh, and I am from northwest TN. My wife and I are just now wanting to get into growing fruit. I had a question about planting strawberry sprouts/seeds; could I still get by with planting them even though it’s this late in the year? I thought about starting them in a pot that I could take back and forth from inside to outside, but wasn’t sure if that would even be practical at this time. Sorry for the newbie questions, and I am sure I will have many more haha. Thanks for any advice and glad to meet you all :).
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If you get crowns (small plants with roots) i would say you could plant and get established…i would pribably pinch off flowers and forgoe cropping until next year
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I’ve planted young Alpine, musk and F. virginiana seedlings in early summer in 6b Kentucky. By “young” I mean several months old. They did fine, but they needed good mulch and regular irrigation. I would not plant out new sprouts in the heat of summer; better to let them grow out a bit and harden them off before planting, even if it takes until fall.
As for starting them from seed right now, you’ll absolutely need to do it in pots—and probably indoors, as moisture and temperature will need to be carefully controlled. Strawberry seeds prefer a temp of somewhere around 65-75F for germination; at temps much above this germination is poor. They also need light to germinate, and so must be surface sown. I usually cover them with plastic or a propagation dome (lifted daily to allow in fresh air) to keep them from drying out during germination (which, on average, takes about two weeks, though some seeds will pop up earlier and some much later). Germination is also improved by at least a few weeks of exposure to freezing temps. I store my seed in the freezer, so this is not a problem. If you’ve not freeze stratified your seed yet, it might be a better idea to wait until winter to start germinating. January-February is a good time to start strawberry seed indoors.
Good luck.
In my experience strawberry plants are hard to kill. I start a new bed each year in sept or early oct. Its usually still hot here in AL then. I dig up the young ones on runners and replant. I take mimimal care to keep roots in tact and they always do fine as long as i keep them watered well for a few days. You could buy a few potted ones and plant in ground. By next spring you’ll have a bunch of plants if you fert and water to encourage the runners. Good luck.
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Your best be is to find potted strawberries in nurseries/or local garden centers. You can plant the pots any time of the year. Do not buy too many - they will give you runners at the second half of the summer, make sure the plants you planted have enough space around them to accommodate runners. Runners will establish on their own if there is space and good soil. You may find crowns online, but they will not be of the best quality - it is too late for them, they have to be planted in early spring and were kept too long in storage. Also it could be too hot for them to establish in the ground, you will have to shade them and keep soil evenly moist. Good luck!