Does anybody know of good places to purchase strawberry seeds? Im interested in maximum diversity to create a “Pre-Grex” mix.
My new place was previously in organic strawberry production, and we already have a decent diversity of varieties growing in the area. I have already collected seeds from everything that Ive been able to get my hands on locally. Now id like to really get the genetic variability added in to maximize potential for creating a strong Grex from upcoming seasons.
Creating a strawberry landrace seems to be falling into my lap so far. It is exciting, and maybe this could be a great way to give back to the GTS community eventually.
Yeah, wouldn’t it be cool to have a strawberry grex eventually?
Especially if a number of us develop populations that are less fragile in seedling stage, and therefore more likely to grow to maturity when direct sown. That would be awesome.
Strawberry genetics are a bit complicated. I expect you’re most interested in the octoploid Fragaria × ananassa that is best known for garden strawberries, whereas most sources for seed are going to be for diploid species such as the alpine and woodland varieties (F. vesca). The hybrid of these is a bit disappointing and has fertility issues, so not something you’re after (though labs that can do embryo rescue, ploidy analysis, and gene parity restoration are working in it).
Since F. ananassa is exclusively propagated asexually for fruit production, all of the common varieties are going to be F1 hybrids, with no seed available to grow them, so nothing to sell or purchase–much like true potato seeds. F2 is easily obtained by saving seeds from the fruit, but will largely yield less desirable fruit from the parent, so won’t ever be commercially offered. But since what you’re after is the genetic diversity, that shouldn’t be a problem.
Just save seeds from any variety you want to add to your grex. Or cross a couple varieties you like and add seeds from that cross (with 8 copies of each gene, bottlenecking is not a huge problem here). Researchers regularly create gene pools this way by intentional crossing to get a selection field (I wish I could get a hold of their lines, but they’re usually restricted).
Before you start, though I would consider bearing patterns. If you intend to create an open-pollinated grex, you may run into problems if you mix short-day, long-day, and day-neutral varieties. The mix will remain perpetually segregated because pollinators won’t be available outside of their own type. If you hand cross them, you may produce a lot offspring that don’t yield well, or only yield at awkward times of year. If you really want to turn june-bearing varieties into everbearing, or vice versa, I would make that a separate project, and recommend maintaining your grexes as all one type. But, it will be your grex, so up to you what you want to do with it.
I guess I would also mention that I’ve been working on a couple Japanese strawberry lines, with the primary goal of increasing brix (primarily sugar content) in domestic varieties. I’ve seen brix averages as high as 16.5 in conditions where my controls Eclair averaged 8.4 and Mara de Bois averaged 9.6.
Producing a selection grex was required early on, so I may be able to dig up some seed from that–it would have to be grown out and multiplied again, though. My health hasn’t been great since Covid, so I haven’t been working on it lately (or on this board much). These are strict short-day varieties, though I’ve done a little work to broaden their bloom period, and they should overlap with June-bearing in some climates.
High brix is a terrific goal! That’s exactly what I want from my strawberries, too.
It’s very true that day neutral / everbearing and short day / June-bearing would be very different in goals. I suspect most gardeners would rather have everbearing. I certainly would!
The downside of high brix is that acid levels and flavor levels need to be higher as well, or else the fruit is perceived as bland. And acid/fructose perception and expectations vary by individual, as well as culturally, so there isn’t a single standard to target, though American fruit juice companies and winemakers have charts they follow. I’m starting with actual sweetness, rather than perceived sweetness, so I’m using brix meters to establish my lines. Flavor will be more important when I start backcrossing into other varieties. So I’m a long way from completing this project. But if you’re just trying to get your sugar levels up in a grex, it may be a useful contribution now.
Note that everbearing refers to plants that produce two small crops per year–one in the spring and one in the fall. Usually the fruit yield of June-bearing varieties exceeds that of both crops of everbearing varieties put together. Day neutral varieties are better in this regard, but there are fewer varieties available. I’d refer to this article for explanation: What are the differences between the different types of strawberries? | Yard and Garden
I have a neighbor who told me her Quinalt everbearing strawberries produce way more fruit over the course of the summer than any June-bearing strawberries ever have. So which type produces more may vary according to climate.
Her strawberries fruit continually from early May through early October. There aren’t two separate crops – it’s a steady stream of handfuls of strawberries all summer, every day.
It’s probably worth adding that her strawberries are planted in very rich soil that is well-irrigated and frequently amended with new loads of manure from her horse.
I’m certainly not going to argue with someone’s success or the particular fit of a plant to one’s particular garden. Long may she enjoy good harvests and happy eating.
In general, though, WSU, who bred Quinalt, doesn’t recommend it anymore because
The total fruit production in controlled trials across the country does not equal the fruit production in June-bearing varieties.
In some climates there is a trickle of berries outside of the two major production periods, but is not high enough to justify the labor and handling costs of commercial harvesting.
New Day Neutral varieties not only bear more fruit, but do so more consistently, and in more places.
Obviously, gardeners and small markets are where everbearing varieties have thrived–places where even small harvests are useful, and out-of-spring-season berries are welcome. With the coming of day neutral berries, I wouldn’t spend any time on them myself, since these new ones will do better for most people.
Everbearing varieties may be of continued interest in cool climate and mild summer areas, but much of the country can’t get much yield out of them. As always–I’m not trying to shut down any particular variety or type of project, just point out challenges and limitations that may apply. Where I live sweet cherries grow and produce effortlessly (if you can figure out what to do about the wasps that infest them). Most of the country can’t get much fruit from the Bing cherry variety I have in my backyard, but that doesn’t mean I’m not glad it was bred anyway.
Cool, that’s very useful to know! It does sound like day neutral is a highly desirable trait. I assumed, before you started talking about this, that day neutral and everbearing were kind of the same thing. It sounds like they’re essentially an upgrade, and it sounds like I should keep an eye out for day neutral varieties!
I’ve had many disasters, but I’ve managed to get my sweet strawberry project back in order. I’ve propagated two new hybrid selections for trial, against seven origin lines, and my Mara de Bois control. I’m in the middle of preparing beds for next spring’s trials, and if all goes well, I’ll be making lots of new crosses in 2026 (caveat, all has not been going well for the past five years, but we keep doing what we can). I’ve also got several wide cross trials going, and I’m trying to get the plants ready for selection in the spring.
I would like to produce 1) sweet strawberry varieties with good production all season, 2) stable seed lines for growing sweet strawberries from seed, and 3) the broadest possible grex for finding desirable qualities from sweet strawberry lines.
Oooh, that’s so incredibly exciting! I have managed to get strawberry seeds to sprout before; I just have yet to manage to keep the fragile little seedlings alive. Hopefully I’ll start to manage it soon!
I love those plants with the red runners in the last picture. Those are gorgeous. Have they fruited yet for you?
It does take a lot of patience with the little seedlings. Not too difficult, really, if you keep them moist, but they are unbelievably small and delicate in the beginning. In the second picture the back two pots were about to be transplanted, so you can see I let them get pretty big first.
The last picture is the new selection I made earlier this year and have been propagating for proper head to head trials in the spring. If it has the required traits, I’ll give it a name beyond the tracking number it has now.
Yeah, it’s the “keeping them moist” part that keeps being a challenge for me. I can do that just fine with deep mulch, but I can’t do much to mulch teensy tiny fragile seedlings, so . . . it’s difficult!
How long does it tend to take you to get a seedling big enough that it can survive a week or two without watering?
Nothing on my property goes a week or two without watering.
I have water tables and water reservoirs and drip feed, but during growing season everything else gets watered regularly. It’s just too hot and dry. I water anywhere from once a week in the beginning of the season to once a day in the heat of summer.
The first picture above is of seedlings at 3 weeks. The second is 4 weeks later. At that point they got transplanted into larger pots which probably didn’t need water very often at first, but by 3 months they were ready to harden off and plant out for growing.
Both of these plants are 3 months old, but the one on the left got more light on the germination shelves, so take all the of these time tables loosely. The time will vary considerably based on light level and temperature.
I grow all of my strawberry seedlings on wicking tables which continuously water, so I don’t know very well how much water they use. I mist the strawberry seedlings at least daily until they are well rooted, because they germinate best with light, so barely covered with media, and that seems to be when they are most sensitive. They look pretty solid after that first week…though still tiny.
Wow! No wonder you’re able to keep them alive so well! Thank you for going to all that work. I’m sure you’re going to create some amazing strawberry varieties.
I’ve been thinking for awhile that Fragaria virginiana may be a good choice for me to lean into breeding; it’s supposed to be very drought tolerant, which makes me think it may be a better choice for my climate and habits as a gardener.
I’m also wondering if I could direct sow strawberries (of any species) and get them to in fall and then live and grow through through the winter, thereby shifting their tiny fragile seedling stage to the time of the year when we have loads of water. If I can manage to get a strawberry population adapted to do that way, it might be a good way to grow strawberries from seed in a way that fits my usual lazy-at-watering strategy!
I’m a little too, uh, well, forgetful to be watering things more often than once a week . . . or maybe twice a week, if I am really wanting to baby things . . . so everything I grow winds up sort of being selected for drought tolerance by default.
This might be a great way to learn about seed-to-seed strawberries. F. virginiana has a lot in common with the garden strawberry, having the same ploidy (8x) and being one of the parents, but probably less finicky, being adapted to much of the country. I’ve never grown it (though I’ve picked fruit from it in the wild), so I can’t offer much advice. I wonder if anyone has already done any work on improving the species.
I lived in Provo for a while, 30 years ago. I remember it being slightly wetter than here, easier to grow some things in, but with shorter days and oddities of high elevation. I think you’re properly in a “high desert” semi-arid climate, and I’m in a “low desert” only a few hundred feet above sea level. Average rainfall here is 7 inches per year, and I think around 20 there. So similar, and yet, probably very different in non-obvious ways. I never got used to those mountains stealing my morning sunshine.
“High desert” semi-arid sounds like a great description of Provo. Elevation of 4,500 feet, average rainfall of 18 inches, almost all of it from October through March (except for one rainy week in August). Zone 7b in my neighborhood; zone 7a in some others. It’s a fantastic place for growing anything that wants wet winters and dry summers. (Garlic is so easy that it’s like a cheat code!) Rather challenging for the reverse.
How has the elevation made a difference for you? I’ve never been quite clear on how elevation affects growing conditions, although I’m certain it does.
Higher elevation tends to make things drier and colder. That is, plants dry out faster (separate from their water supply) because of the thinner air, and the seasons are shorter and cooler. I never got a good handle on the practical impact because I only lived there a few years, and all of the other places I’ve grown plants have been near sea level. Humidity was often much higher there than here, but could really drop, too. I don’t know the climatic cause of that.
We’re 7b here, officially, but the low humidity and some odd topography mean we get rapid and unexpected temperature swings, and freak cold dips or extreme heat are not unusual. I live next to a river delta, and this is the most moderate spot, but drier air blowing in from around can change things quickly in our river basin–or a pressure system can develop that holds things stagnant for weeks.
Oh, interesting! So does that mean that thinner air from high elevation tends to make water loss from transpiration worse? If so, that would be a useful detail to keep in mind.
Humidity here in Provo is usually 0%, which I strongly prefer (I can breathe!), but it can sometimes get as high as 40% during the winter. I think it’s even gotten as high as 60% a few times on the occasional warm, soggy winter day. Thank goodness those days are so rare. Me no likey!
I didn’t especially like the 100% humidity when I lived in Hong Kong either, obviously . . .
Higher elevation usually mean greater water loss, less CO2, and more UV radiation, in addition to cooler temperatures. Plants get smaller, thicker, and grow more slowly in response. But these are all generalities.
I’ve lived in a desert most of my life, so I’m also dry air adapted. I did live on the Olympic Peninsula for a few years, which was wonderful. I’d love to move back there, but my wife worries about having less sunshine…
Hopefully I’ll start to manage it soon!
I’m sure you’re going to create some amazing strawberry varieties.
