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14 of 14 found the following review helpful:
 Quick GerminationFeb 15, 2011
By Neil Thompson
The back of the package says to be patient and allow a few weeks for germination, but it's hardly been a week and I've already got quite a few poking their leaves out. I've had trouble getting strawberry seeds to germinate before, but I guess not this time. I'll have to plant the other half of the package now. There are plenty of seeds to go around, it doesn't look like a lot, but I filled 72 plugs with 2-3 seeds each and have lots of extra.
Details on my setup: I'm using 9-packs with peat seed-starter in a tray with a plastic cover, with 3-5 hours direct sunlight and a 120 watt gro-light on 8-8 daily. I couldn't tell you if that's the ideal setup for these, but it did the trick. One thing I've noted is that in many of the plugs which have germinated, both (or all three) seeds germinated at the same time. It seems to happen more often than random chance would suggest, and as far as I can tell there are no differences in water. My best guess is that they're particular about the depth they're planted at. When I was planting the seeds, I tapped down the top of the soil a small bit, dropped the seeds onto that surface, and sprinkled just a little more soil on top of that, which I also tapped a little. The package says to plant at 1/8", which doesn't imply a very big margin of error. All these germinating seeds seem to be within a couple days of each other, but the difference between the amount of soil I put over the seeds in one plug vs the next was VERY small. All these doubles and triples makes me think that it does matter to these more than some other plants, even if the others are coming along. In summary, DON'T BURY THESE SEEDS. They germinated VERY well under the directed 1/8" (or less), but this much variation over little differences in covering makes me think they wouldn't be happy under a lot of soil.
EDIT: 6 days later, all my plugs have healthy seedlings, and enough had doubles and triples for me to transplant the smaller ones into 6-packs. I now have 102 seedlings under the lights, and only used about half the seeds provided. A very, very good result for the price! I'll update again when I transplant them to bigger pots or to the outdoors.
9 of 9 found the following review helpful:
Great!Jun 16, 2010
By Cassandra Mistiq
"CCCMistiq"
Most if not all of the seeds came up. After getting poor results with seeds from other places, I planted all the seeds in 9 different pots and was amazed when seemingly all of them grew! If I had known they would come up this well I would have saved some for later and avoided having to thin the seedlings as much (I always regret having to kill off plants due to using too many seeds -- especially since each pot looks like a thickly populated chia pet). Next time I want to plant strawberries I definitely plan on getting these seeds and using as few as possible in each pot (strawberry seeds are tiny, I'll aim for 3-5, but if I get 10 or so there are so many that it won't be a disaster)!
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
100% germination rate so farApr 01, 2010
By Wix
I have 2 aerogardens I am using to cultivate these beautiful berry plants. Germination took place between 3-10 days in the Aerogarden and the plants are doing very well. The nicest one so far I planted in an Aerogarden 3 at the end of January. It has since been transplanted to soil and is about 8 inches tall, 4 inches wide at the base with large, healthy leaves which spread out over a foot in diameter and it has produced one blossom already. There are 5 others I planted just last week and they are all sprouted, the biggest one being about 1 inch tall already with 2 sets of leaves. In all I have 9 plants from this seed packet and am pleased. They seem hardy enough and have been happy with just the regular herb aerogarden nutrients. One has even bounced back from having its roots torn during transplantation from my AG6 to the 3.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
The Longest Road Traveled Leads to the Sweetest RewardsApr 10, 2012
By I. J. Barker
"absent-minded consumer"
....which, although corny and cliched, works as a perfect metaphor for these seeds. They literally take about a month to grow. Because of that, you'll need to start these about two months in advance if you want to get them big and healthy enough for transplants. Keep the soil warm, and don't bother burying the seeds--as a previous reviewer noted, the margin of error with these seeds is so slim that you'd likely be better off not entombing them in soil they can never breach. I emailed the resident horticulturist for Renee's Garden, who gave me a few nuggets of advice towards assuring a successful harvest:
"They can go outside as soon as they are large enough to handle - 4 or 5 leaves probably. By that time I imagine you won't have hard frosts any more - you don't say where you garden. You may want to transplant them into transitional pots if you are in a very cold winter climate so they get some more size. You will need to fertilize them with dilute liquid fertilizer after about a month.
Beth"
Alpine strawberries are, from what I've read so far, a fairly short-lived perennial at about 4-5 years (par for the course for strawberries). Unlike June-bearing plants, the alpine variety does not produce many runners, allowing it to keep compact and contained within an area. Mind you, the fruits are small but intensely flavorful, so they'll make a nice snack, although they probably won't be as satisfying as the full sized ones. Expect an update later this summer and pictures some time in the more proximate future.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Mixed results, but okay germinationJun 28, 2011
By Dick L.
After reading the other reviews, I wasn't sure what to expect, but I planted 48 seeds (8 in each of 6 small containers), using the shallow planting technique described by reviewer Neil Thompson. The containers are under fluorescent lights (one shop white, one grow lite) and kept in a humid environment.
Results:
11 days: 5 seedlings
16 days: 11
28 days: 13 (this was three weeks ago; nothing more since then, for 27%-- not stellar, but usable)
Those that came up have, except one in which the seed leaves got trapped in the seed shell (not counted above), been healthy and have their first true leaves.
Since one of the 6 pots had 0/8 germination, I tried an experiment, dropping 6 seeds into shallow knife cuts in the soil and not covering with soil (although in subsequent watering, they got covered). Of these, 2 germinated in 10 days, and a total of four after 17 days, for 66%. Clearly a better approach for me than covering and tamping.
The next hurdle will be transplanting to one per container to grow them out to a size that I can set them out in their permanent outdoors location.
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