How Do Strawberries Reproduce? A Detailed Explanation of Strawberry Propagation Methods

Strawberries are perennial herbaceous plants with strong adaptability, a short growth cycle, early fruiting, and quick results. They are widely cultivated, and their main propagation methods 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 cultivation.

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 new stem branches produced on the mother plant for propagation. During the growing period, in addition to producing a large number of runners, strawberry new stems can also produce several new stem branches, and adventitious roots can develop at their bases. After fruit harvest, when 3-5 compound leaves have grown and there are relatively many fibrous roots, twist off the new stem branches from the mother plant together with the root system to obtain a complete daughter plant.

Strawberry Runner Propagation Method

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

1. High propagation coefficient: one mother plant can produce 150-290 runner seedlings, of which rooted seedlings account for 50%-80%. Each hectare of strawberries can produce 225,000-375,000 high-quality runner seedlings per year.

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

3. Materials are easy to obtain: seedlings can be collected from production fields, or a mother plant garden can 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 plantlets propagated and cultivated by traditional methods have disadvantages such as slow growth, occupying more land, being susceptible to virus infection, being prone to 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: one meristem can produce several thousand to several hundred thousand plantlets within one year, with great development potential.

2. Market varieties can be quickly updated: according to market demand, a variety can be updated once within 2-3 years, while conventional production requires 4-5 years.

3. Flexible production: as long as a tissue culture workshop is established, that is, an expanded culture laboratory, production can be carried out year-round, and 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 effects: 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%.

How Do Strawberries Reproduce? Characteristics and Methods of Strawberry Division Propagation

Image: Strawberry division propagation method

[Common Questions]How do strawberries reproduce?

[Expert Answer]Among strawberry propagation methods, conventional seedling raising and tissue culture are effective ways to rapidly propagate strawberries, but these propagation methods are not suitable for ordinary growers. Relatively speaking, the division propagation method is more suitable. The characteristics and methods of strawberry division propagation are introduced as follows:

I. Characteristics of Division Propagation

Strawberry division propagation does not require setting up a special seedling nursery, nor does it require removing excess runners or pressing soil on runner nodes, which can save labor and reduce seedling costs. Compared with runner seedling propagation, division propagation has a low coefficient. Generally, a 3-year-old mother plant can only produce 8-14 qualified strawberry seedlings per plant, and the quality of the seedlings is not as good as runner seedlings. In addition, this kind of division seedling often has separation wounds and is easily infected by soil-borne pathogens and becomes diseased. At present, in production, unless seedlings are urgently needed, this method is generally not used to propagate seedlings.

Image: Characteristics of the strawberry division propagation method

II. Methods of Division Propagation

Division propagation is divided into two types: rhizome division and new stem division.

1. Rhizome division

After fruit harvest, promptly strengthen management of the mother plant, apply fertilizer, water, weed, and loosen the soil at the appropriate time to encourage new stem branches to emerge from the axillary buds of new stems. When a certain number of new leaves have emerged above ground on the mother plant and new roots are growing in the underground root system, dig out the old roots, cut off the lower black adventitious roots and aged rhizomes, and separate the new rhizomes one by one. These rhizomes have 5-8 robust leaves and should have 4-5 vigorous yellowish adventitious roots below. The separated rhizomes can be directly planted in the production garden. After planting, water promptly and strengthen strawberry cultivation management to promote growth. They can bear fruit normally the following year.

Image: Strawberry runner

2. New stem division

In addition to the above division methods, mother plant new stem seedlings can also be cultivated to bear fruit. The method is: after fruit harvest, dig out the plants that fruited in the first year with a soil ball and replant them in a leveled furrow. The furrow is 70 cm wide and can hold 2 rows, with a row spacing of 30 cm. Dig a hole every 50 cm within the row, and plant two seedlings per hole. After one month, runners emerge from the mother plant. When each plant has 2-3 runners, pinch off the stem tips to promote thickening of the new stem seedlings on the mother plant. Removing runners should be repeated. With 2-year-old seedlings planted in this way, each hole can produce at least 4-6 new stem seedlings by division. The inflorescences borne on the new stems, plus the inflorescences on the runners around the new stem seedlings, are more than 1/3 more than those from simply planting runners, and the yield is also significantly increased. It also saves seedling land and labor. After fruit harvest, remove the 3-year-old strawberry seedlings; the 2-year-old seedlings that have fruited for one year can still be used.

[Editor's Summary]Division propagation is also called rhizome propagation or clump division propagation. This method is suitable for two situations: first, strawberry gardens that need renewal and relocation, where all plants are dug out and planted after division; second, certain strawberry varieties that do not readily produce runners. The above has introduced the characteristics and methods of strawberry division propagation for everyone, and we hope it will be helpful!

Home Propagation Methods for Strawberries

Seed propagation

Strawberry is a plant with very small seeds. Each seed is embedded in the surface of the fruit and can be seen. It is small and tender and very easily damaged.

When taking the seeds, use a blade to scrape off the seeds together with the fruit skin, then place them in gauze, wrap them well, rub and wash them in water, then squeeze the water out, and afterward place them on paper to dry in the sun. After drying, rub them again to remove the fruit skin attached to the seeds.

Finally, the seeds and fruit skin can be separated and then planted.

Although seed propagation is convenient and simple, its productivity is very low, and the quality of the strawberries grown is not high either.

Runner Division Propagation Method

Because strawberries produce a large number of runners during the growing period, the daughter plants produced on the runners can be used for propagation and seedling cultivation.

First, prepare mother plants. It is necessary to select robust runner seedlings without pests or diseases for propagation preparation.

Collect and select potting soil for planting. It is necessary to choose soil that is fertile, not prone to compaction, and convenient for drainage and irrigation. After choosing the potting soil, apply fertilizer, using decomposed barnyard manure.

Next, planting is carried out in spring. When planting, cover the soil reasonably, not too thickly, and also pay attention to placing the side where the rhizome curves and protrudes facing the inner side of the furrow.

Management after planting

After planting, water thoroughly immediately. Afterward, watering can be based on weather conditions: water less when there is more rain, and water more during drought. During this period, do not apply additional fertilizer; it is only necessary to ensure sufficient base fertilizer.

Prevention and control of pests and diseases

During the planting and growing period, pests and diseases such as cutworms or white grubs are prone to occur. Pay attention to timely prevention and control. You can use 1.5% organic phosphorus mixed powder 2.5 kg, mix with about 20 kg of fine soil, and spread it evenly.

Strawberry diseases include gray mold, root rot, etc. At this time, use an equal-amount 250-fold Bordeaux mixture.