Texas Gardening: Alpine Strawberrys, 1 by KirkH

KirkH wrote:
Last Christmas I purchased a pack of Alpine Strawberry seeds and planted them in seed pots under my grow light. I followed the instructions exactly, as I have heard that they are very hard to germinate. I used seed mix and carefully laid the seeds on top (they were very small) and then gently sprinkled a little sand on them to keep them touching the mix as they germinated. In all, I planted about 70 seeds. Of those, 16 germinated & when I moved them to the garden 14 survived (almost perfect for the 4X4 Square Foot Garden grid I had set up for them). From what I understand they do not have runners and next year I should be able to split two of the plants apart to complete the grid of 16.

This week I can see the first couple of flowers, if you look carefullly you can see one of them in the pic.

I have a wire mesh tunnel hooked onto a wood base covered with 50% shade cloth & bird net on each end. This should protect them from birds and the hot Texas sun, they are located in the center of the garden with full sun all day long.

They seem to be doing great, I hope that they are as good as advertised. Has anyone else grown these in Central Texas?

Kirk