Wednesday 17 April 2013

Alpine Strawberries - pricking-out

Only three of the Alpine Strawberry plants I grew from seed last Autumn survived the Winter.


These ones are ready for planting out now, but three plants aren't going to give me much of a crop, so I sowed another batch on 3rd March. They have come on quite quickly, and last weekend I judged that they were ready for pricking-out (transferring to individual pots).


Using a little piece of bamboo as a dibber, I transferred another nine little seedlings to pots of their own.




That still left me with six more if I need them. The trouble is, I don't think I will have any space for them anywhere in the garden.


My plan is to grow most of these in one of my wooden wine-boxes, which means that they will be mobile and I will be able to move them to a place where I can more easily protect them when the fruit ripens.


13 comments:

  1. How cute. I have some in my front yard. They are very pretty strawberry plants.

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  2. Only sowed ours last week. Still waiting for them to germinate. Yours seem to be doing well though.

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  3. Love the bottom photo Mark, I tried alpine strawberries on the plot but found the taste not quite as sweet as I hoped.

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  4. I sowed some a couple of weeks back, still far too tiny to prick out yet.

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  5. Have you tried growing them in Strawberry Pots - tall pots that have holes in the sides to insert the plants. You can grow more plants in less space. I haven't tried them myself, but they seem to be popular here in the USA.
    We seem to have missed Spring altogether. Winter (with freezing temperatures) stayed with us until the end of March, and now we are into hot weather (85F - 29C today). My lettuce just sat there all through March, then suddenly Lettuce glut! I planted my Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans this week. Plan to set out tomatoes and peppers as soon as I get a place prepared for them. I was lazy over the winter, and let weeds and grass take over. Got all that to dig out.
    Happy Gardening!
    Lea
    Lea's Menagerie
    Southeastern USA

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  6. I grew these from seed last year, they are quite easy, especially the Woodland Strawberry. This year the plants are looking bigger and better so hopefully with a year's worth of growth under their belts they will give me some fruit this year.

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  7. such pretty leaf shapes in the first photo - I used to have some once not sure why they disappeared - story of my life.

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  8. I saw alpine strawberries seeds first time this year ( my country is 20 years behind with seeds) but I was to scared to buy them cause they were expensive and I didn't know if they would work. Do they have that taste like the wild ones? And are there seeds for all season strawberries? I've been buying seedlings any every time they tell me "ooh yes they will have fruits all summer" and nothing :(

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    1. Hi Leanan; This is my first time growing Alpine strawberries too, so I'll let you know how things go. I don't think I have seen seeds for "ordinary" Strawberries, but I expect you can get them. The seedlings I bought last year did quite well.

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  9. I keep seeing strawberry plants in the plant shops and I'm very tempted to buy some but I keep talking myself out of it. Hope your alpines do well.

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  10. I hope the newly sown seeds grow well as we've been busy digging up the old plants. You are right though you do need plenty of plants to get a useable harvest. Maybe grown in pots and fed with give you a bigger crop!

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  11. The ones you sowed in autumn have come on well. Hope the others grow well too.

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