Plant Strawberries Indoors
Plant strawberries indoors in any season to keep them away from the cold and to give yourself a year-round supply of fresh, tasty fruit. Here is the easy process to follow.
Contents
Steps
Obtaining Strawberry Seeds
- Choose a fresh strawberry (or two). Make sure it is not too squishy and are ripe.
- Push the toothpick end gently underneath one of the seeds on the skin of the strawberry. Quickly flick your wrist to get the seed out. You need to use a flicking motion because strawberry seeds move fast, and if you try to push it out, you'll just dig a hole in your strawberry.
- Keep flicking seeds off and putting them on your plate. Collect as many as you think you'll need but a good amount is around 20-30 seeds, to ensure that at least one takes.
Planting the Strawberry Seeds
- Fill a cup, jar or other container with soil suitable for growing strawberries.
- Dip the toothpick in water. It should be damp, not dripping wet. Take the tip of the toothpick and poke a couple of your seeds, they should stick onto the toothpick without falling off.
- Once about five to seven seeds have stuck to the toothpick, hold the toothpick over the soil-filled cup. Flick the top of the toothpick (not the seeds) with your middle or forefinger. The strawberry seeds should fall off and scatter into the cup.
- Do not push the seeds down.
- Repeat several times until all of the seeds are in the soil-filled cup (or container).
Helping the Seeds to Grow
- Fill a cup of water a third of the way. Add two thirds hydrogen peroxide.
- Stir the mixture. Dip the toothpick in this solution. Then drip some of the solution over the seeds. This will help them grow, as hydrogen peroxide is a natural oxidizer.
- Note: You do not need to do this every day––every other day is fine until the seeds have sprouted, then once a week is all you need.
- Water the soil gently. Don't overdo the watering or the seeds will drown and can turn moldy. Keep the soil moist but not wet, watering about once or twice a week.
- Place the jar in a warm place where there is enough sunlight for the seeds to sprout.
- Wait until the seeds sprout. In a few days, the seeds should have sprouted. If enough plants take, you can transplant them after a few weeks, into separate pots.
- Keep tending to the strawberries. When the plants grow large enough, fruit will form and the plant should be sprouting some yummy strawberries for you to eat.
Tips
- A strawberry can be planted any time of the year indoors, but not any time of year outdoors. As long as you have a warm, sunny place to put your growing seeds, your plant will grow fine!
- If you live in a rainy place, such as Washington, Oregon, or anywhere in the Pacific Northwest, don't even try to replant your strawberry plant outside; it will quickly drown, and all of your hard work will go to waste. Just keep your strawberry plant inside. This also keeps pesky bugs off it (unless there are some indoors thanks to other indoor plants).
- Make a hole under the cup so water can get in and out.
- There are three types of strawberries, June bearing, Ever-bearing and Day Neutral.
Warnings
- Do not plant strawberries using soils that tomatoes, potatoes, peppers or eggplant have been grown in recently; these areas may be infected with verticillium rot.
Things You'll Need
- 1 medium or large sized strawberry
- 1 toothpick
- Hydrogen peroxide
- 2 cups (one filled with water, one filled with soil for your strawberries to live in!)
- 1 paper plate
Related Articles
- Germinate Orange Seeds
- Grow Strawberries
- Grow a Square Watermelon
- Grow an Apple Tree from a Seed
- Grow Strawberries from the Seed
