Strawberry Propagation - Kimberly Delgado and Dominique Tjondro by Hyo Kim

Basic Facts

ebotanyexplorer — 2014-07-23 18:27:21 UTC

The strawberry is a part of the genus Fragaria, and a part of the family Rosaceae. The genus is derived from fragars, which means fragrant.

Some interesting facts on strawberries include:

Strawberries survive in a range of conditions and will grow happily in most places around the world.
Strawberries have lots of vitamin C.
Strawberry plants decline in quality and production after a few years so are typically replanted.
Strawberries are picked with part of the stem still attached.
Unlike some other fruits, they don’t continue to ripen after being picked.
Source: http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/sciencefacts/food/strawberries.html

How To Grow Strawberries

ebotanyexplorer — 2014-07-23 18:27:45 UTC

The first step to growing strawberries is to have fertile, well-drained soil. It should be full of compost and well rotted manures. Especially if this is your first time growing strawberries, strawberry plants require good soil nutrition to grow fast and healthy because they are heavy feeders. Strawberries should be grown by the matted row system to get the best results. It is very important not to plant strawberries in a specific place if peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, or eggplant were grown there previously. The reason for this is that these vegetables are capable of creating fungus problems, which may affect the strawberries. The strawberry plants should be planted approximately 18 inches apart in rows about three and one-half feet apart. The roots should be spread out and placed vertically in the ground. This will allow room for all the strawberry plants to grow properly. Beginning strawberry plants grow from a central crown, and therefore it should be at soil level; not exceeding soil level or being too deep that water can wash over it during severe weathers.

Source(s): “Around the Garden" by Joan Lee Faust

“Plan of Culture for Best Results" by Wesley P. Judkins

Our Experience

ebotanyexplorer — 2014-07-23 18:28:02 UTC

We decided to grow strawberries. We planted them in three different ways. We first tried cutting the runners off of a strawberry plant. The plant itself was not doing so well when we got it, but we wanted to try anyway. We took five pots and filled them with soil. We placed the runners into the pot and watered them. The second method we tried was a little odd. We cut off the tips of strawberries and planted those into four smaller pots. In more of these smaller pots, we tried hand picking seeds from these strawberries, which was very difficult, and placing two to four seeds into each compartment. For our experiment, we wanted to find out if temperature has an effect on strawberry growth. We hypothesized that the cold water would help the strawberries grow the best and the hot water would affect the plants very negatively. Over the days, we saw a very interesting change in our plants.

Picture of Our Strawberry Runners

ebotanyexplorer — 2014-07-23 18:28:15 UTC

Results

ebotanyexplorer — 2014-07-23 18:28:42 UTC

Sadly, our runners died, and the alternative methods were not that successful either, except for the tips which bore little baby plants. This is a table of our runners over the course of five days. We determined that they did not grow because they were in shock when we transplanted them into small pots.

Beauty and Health

ebotanyexplorer — 2014-07-24 17:12:14 UTC

-Boiling strawberry leaves can be used for taking away the pain of wounds.

-Extracting the essence in strawberry leaves strengthens the gums and holds the teeth.

-Eating ripe strawberries hydrates the body and reduces heat in the body.

-Leaves can be used in lotion for mouth sores.

Different parts of the strawberry can be used for different parts of the body:

-liquid for internal organs

-roots for the eyes and face

-berries for the stomach and spleen.

-distilled berries for the skin

Picture of Our Strawberry Tips and Seeds

ebotanyexplorer — 2014-07-24 18:01:11 UTC

ebotanyexplorer — 2014-07-24 18:04:12 UTC