Growing strawberry from seeds - beginning

In the tropical island of Singapore, nobody will think that it is possible to grow strawberry. However, there are a few people who liked to venture into things that are deemed impossible. Nothing is impossible unless you tried and tested it out.

Doing a Google search, you will find someone or people in Singapore that had grown strawberry successfully from seeds. Yes, the seeds that you extracted from the surface of the strawberry fruit. Strawberry is one of the rare fruits that has seeds grown on the outside of the fruit. You actually eat the seeds together with the fresh of the fruit.

Extracting the seeds is quite easy. You just need a tweezer to remove the seeds from the surface one at a time. I used a toothpick to poke the fresh and remove the seed. It is quite time consuming and you need to be patient. It took me some times to extract about 30 seeds and I needed to take many seeds as the germination rate was quite low.

After I had extracted the seeds, I would try to remove as much fresh as possible by rubbing the seeds with a paper towel. This was because that the fresh on the seeds might rot and become moldy. I used normal potting soil mix that were readily available in the local nursery. I scattered the seeds onto the soil and then covered with a thin layer. The soil was kept moist and away from direct sunlight.

After 3 to 4 weeks, the seeds will germinate and you can see many little leaflets appearing from the soil. When you water the seedlings, try to pour the water away from the seedlings. The seedlings are very fragile and may be washed away when the water is poured directly above them. I pour the water from the edges of the pot. At this stage, the seedlings are not strong enough to be placed under direct sunlight. Keep them in bright area but not under direct sunlight. This is because the leaflets will be burned and the growth will be limited.

I have grown some seedlings in May and in early June, I have many seedlings and I try to resist the temptation to transfer the seedlings to bigger pot and also to separate them from each other. This is because at this stage, the seedlings are fragile and their root systems are not mature yet. When you try to separate them or remove from the seedling pot, the roots will be injured or damaged. I read in the internet that it is better to wait for a couple of months before repotting.

Strawberry Seedlings