[Andrey_BY]

Every year we grow Alpine strawberries from seed and they are doing fine in our garden but require to change old plants after 4 years due to better crop from young plants.

We start them from seeds at home in January-February or at greenhouse in late March-early April (in warm springs). Both ways go perfect, but I need to tell you our special methd of starting seeds in not to big wide pots with well-airated soil (sand 4/10+peat 2/10 +humus 4/10).

Place these small strawberry seeds just to cover the well-mixed soil. Then cover them with 5 cm of snow and hide the pot with a PVC. Put the pot to a cool (0 + 5 C) place (balcony/greenhouse/fridge) for 3-5 days for a quick stratification. Then let the seeds sprout at about +20 +25 C with a good everyday watering. Small seedlings with 2 leaves are to be transplant into single pots and maintaing t at +14 +16 C. Set up outdoor or in large pots when they get 6-7 leaves...

But I prefer wild strawberries most of all for their excellent smell and taste. Our forests are full of them in summer, but their fruit size is very small...