The question of whether a strawberry grows “true to seed” is a common one for gardeners hoping to save seeds from their fruit. To “grow true to seed” means that a plant grown from a seed will be identical to its parent plant, exhibiting the same size, flavor, and resistance traits. For the common, large strawberries found in grocery stores and most gardens, the answer is generally no. The seeds from these commercial varieties will produce plants, but the resulting fruit is highly unlikely to match the quality of the parent berry.
The Genetic Complexity of Commercial Strawberries
The primary reason commercial strawberries do not grow true to seed lies in their complicated genetic makeup. The common garden strawberry, Fragaria x ananassa, is a hybrid species created nearly 300 years ago from the cross of two different wild American species. The “x” in its name signifies its hybrid origin.
Adding to this complexity, the cultivated strawberry is an octoploid, meaning it carries eight sets of chromosomes in its cells. Most organisms are diploid, possessing only two sets. This high number of chromosome sets creates vast genetic variation.
When the plant reproduces sexually via seed, the eight chromosome sets shuffle and combine randomly. Each seed contains a unique and unpredictable combination of ancestral traits. This genetic lottery makes it almost impossible for the offspring to perfectly replicate the highly selected traits of the parent plant.
The Unpredictable Results of Planting Hybrid Seeds
If a gardener plants the tiny seeds, called achenes, from a commercial hybrid strawberry, the outcome is highly uncertain. The resulting plants will likely revert to a less desirable combination of ancestral traits. The fruit produced is often small, less flavorful, or possesses a tougher texture than the parent berry.
These seedlings frequently lack the vigor and disease resistance bred into modern commercial varieties. Growing a plant from seed may result in a sparse yield of poor-quality fruit, or the plant may even be sterile. This high degree of variability means the effort does not reliably translate into a dependable harvest for the home gardener.
Runners The Preferred Method of Propagation
Since growing from seed is unreliable for hybrid strawberries, commercial farmers and home gardeners rely on vegetative propagation. This process uses specialized structures called runners, or stolons, which are a form of asexual reproduction. Runners are horizontal stems that grow along the soil surface, producing a new plantlet at their tip.
Each plantlet formed on a runner is a perfect genetic clone of the parent plant. This guarantees identical fruit quality and characteristics, ensuring the new plant possesses the same desirable traits, such as large fruit size, high yield, and disease resistance.
To propagate new plants, the gardener can peg the plantlet into a small pot while it is still attached to the mother plant. Once the new plant establishes a strong root system (typically four to six weeks), the connecting stem can be severed. This process creates numerous new, genetically identical plants, which commercial growers use to maintain crop consistency and quality.
The Exception Alpine and Wild Varieties
An exception to the propagation rule involves Alpine and wild varieties. The wild woodland strawberry, Fragaria vesca, and its cultivated form, the Alpine strawberry, are genetically distinct from commercial hybrids. These varieties are diploid, possessing the typical two sets of chromosomes, which results in a stable genetic structure.
Due to this genetic stability, Alpine and wild strawberries reliably grow true to seed. A seed collected from an Alpine strawberry will produce a plant with characteristics very similar to its parent. These varieties are often grown from seed because many Alpine types produce very few runners, or none at all.
The fruit from these types is significantly smaller than the commercial hybrid, but it is prized for its intense, aromatic flavor. For gardeners who want to grow strawberries from seed, these true-to-type varieties are the correct choice.