Alpine Strawberry Propagation Experiments

I decided to propagate some more alpine strawberries a couple of weeks ago and thought I'd try an experiment.  I had already tried sowing some of the seeds from last year's fruit but nothing came of them so I thought I'd try to pick out some of the little runners that the alpine strawberry throws out.  They are nowhere near as long as the ones on normal strawberries so it can be a bit awkward to pin them down into some soil in order for them to root well before being detached from the mother plant.  So I cut off some of the off shoots and order to see if I could get them to root using other methods.  I put two into pots to see what would happen.  This happened.  Oops.  They just went down hill and today they look like they're dead I'm afraid.  When I cut off the shoots there were tiny little beginnings of roots but there obviously just wasn't enough.  I gave them loads of water and left them in the shade but it was obviously just too hard for them to get water to replace that which had been loast through transpiration. 
The same day however I decided to put two other shoots in water to see would they root that way.  I've seen my mother do this loads of times with geraniums and seen as the alpine strawberry seems like it tries to root in mid air while still on the plant I reasoned that it would probably do quite well in water.  I wrote the date on the jar so that I would see how long it took for a reasonable set of roots to grow.
Below is a picture of one of the runners, or off shoots, that I cut off.  When I put this in the water there was only a tiny dot of a root appearing. The little photo was taken one day after I started this experiment and the root had already doubled in size.  This gave me confidence to just wait and see what happened.  One of the cuttings had no roots at all and so nothing happened for about 4 days and then suddenly two little roots started coming out.  Every day I'd look at the cuttings and be amazed at how quickly the roots were forming.  10 days after I put them in the water this is what they look like(below).  I presume that the one on the left is ready to plant by now but I might just give it a few more days to be sure about it.  I've never done this before so I'm not really sure when you're supposed to actually plant them, but I'm guessing that the more roots there are the better the young plant will get on when it goes into soil. 
I find it fascinating that plants can root in just water and seem to be quite happy.  I wonder how they manage to find nutrients with which to build roots.  I know they'll still be getting sugars through photosynthesis but is this enough?  Surely it needs other stuff from the soil. Well, anyway, they seem fine so I'll plant them out in a few days and do the same with some more cuttings.  I love alpine strawberries and I want to make sure I have a good supply of nice healthy ones every year.
Doing experiments like these are really important I think because you begin to realise that things might happen that surprise you.  I'm hoping to get into the habit of just trying things out without caring whether they are successful or not.  Even if my experiments are not always succesful I will still learn something about what not to do.  So I suppose in a way all of these types of experiments will be a success in some way. 
I also have an exeriment on the go with some tiny redcurrant cuttings.  I've no idea what they will do but I'll let you know.




 

Comments

[Ruth]

Most of the weight of plants is water, and most of the rest is carbon from the air. They can live on air and water for a while, same as you could live on sugar and water. You wouldn't feel great, but provided you had enough sugar, it would be ages before you started to wilt!

[Nabeela]

I just wanted to let you know that your blog inspired me to go out any buy some herbs to grown in pots too :)
I've grown herbs before in pots but this time I'm giving each herb a pot of it's own. I also planted a cherry tomato plant and a bell pepper plant in pots. I'm looking forward to see if this works or not.Thank you for documenting your experiments....it helps boosts lagging confidence :)

[Rowan]

its my understanding that the roots produced in water and those used in soil are actually somewhat different, and that even if the plant roots in water it still needs to build new ones when in the dirt. Hence waiting until there are lots of water-roots might be counter-productive as the plant has to start dirt-roots from the begining anyways - though they may help the plant get enough water once planted into soil? (this is mostly speculation based on what ive been told about rooting plants)

[Maria]

Well that makes sense Rowan...I also just read that you should change the water regularly to ensure a good supply of dissolved oxygen...

[fwuffydragon]

Best way to propagate the little strawberry runners is to pot them up and leave them attached to the "mother plant". Once they have set out roots into their new compost you can cut them off.

[fwuffydragon]

Best way to propagate the little strawberry runners is to pot them up and leave them attached to the "mother plant". Once they have set out roots into their new compost you can cut them off.

[Minhas]

I have not seen anybody talking of success in seed propagation of strawberry. Is there anybody who has succeeded? I am interested to know.

[any]

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[Anna]

I have planted alpine strawberries from seed and they have grown to have first and second true leaves. I'm looking forwards to when they are big enough to fruit. They grow really slowly though, so it might be a while. I think they require light to germinate so if they were covered by much more than a light dusting of seed growing mix they wouldn't have germinated.