A Detailed Introduction to the Latest Strawberry Propagation Methods

Strawberry is a perennial herbaceous plant with strong adaptability, a short growth cycle, early fruiting, quick results, and wide cultivation. Its propagation methods mainly include runner propagation, division propagation, tissue culture propagation, and seed propagation. Let's take a look together below!

Strawberry Seed Propagation Method

Strawberry seed propagation has low production efficiency and is generally not used, but it can be tried for home potted growing.

Strawberry Division Propagation Method

Strawberry division propagation is also called old plant propagation. This propagation method is suitable for strawberry nurseries that need renewal and relocation, or for strawberry varieties that do not readily produce runners. The method uses the new stem branches produced on the mother plant for propagation. During the growing period, in addition to producing large numbers of runners, strawberry new stems can also produce several new stem branches, and adventitious roots can form at their bases. After fruit harvest, when they have grown 3--5 compound leaves and have more fibrous roots, break off the new stem branches from the mother plant together with the root system, and a complete daughter plant is obtained.

Strawberry Runner Propagation Method

Runner propagation is the most commonly used method in strawberry production. The seedlings growing from runners are called runner plants after being separated from the mother plant. This is asexual propagation, and this propagation method has four major advantages.

1. High propagation coefficient: one mother plant can produce 150-290 runner plants, of which rooted plants account for 50%-80%, and each hectare of strawberry can produce 225000-375000 high-quality runner plants in one year.

2. It is easy to maintain variety characteristics and fruit quality.

3. Material collection is convenient: seedlings can be collected from production fields, and a mother plant garden can also be established for seedling collection.

4. The seedlings have strong vitality and bear fruit early. If planted in autumn of the same year, they can bear fruit in spring and summer of the following year.

Strawberry Tissue Culture Propagation Method

Strawberry seedlings bred by traditional propagation methods have disadvantages such as slow growth, taking up much space, being susceptible to virus infection, easily causing degeneration, and affecting yield and fruit quality. However, using tissue culture to propagate and cultivate strong seedlings can effectively solve these disadvantages:

1. Fast propagation speed: thousands to hundreds of thousands of seedlings can be obtained from one meristem within one year, with great development potential.

2. Market varieties can be rapidly updated: according to market needs, varieties can be updated once within 2-3 years, while conventional production requires 4-5 years.

3. Flexible production: as long as a tissue culture operation workshop, that is, an expanded culture laboratory, is established, production can be carried out year-round. Plants can also be kept in cold storage until autumn or the following spring.

4. A large proportion of healthy plants and obvious yield-increasing effect: the meristem in the shoot tip tissue itself is virus-free, and the entire operation is carried out in a sterile environment. Cultured virus-free seedlings grow faster than ordinary non-virus-free seedlings, have a higher fruit-setting rate, an extended fruiting period, and significantly increased fruit weight, with an average yield increase of 30%-50%.