If only one word is allowed to describe this plant’s characteristic, it would be “pale”.
Everything from leaves to stems is a lighter shade compared to the red Alpine strawberries varieties.
It is known by other names, such as “Pineapple” Baron or ” Fraises des Bois” and highly sought by chefs for its sweetness.
Our seeds were sowed on February 17 2019 at 4.50 pm.
The first sprout was spotted on the 21st using this germination method, thus about 4 days.
The seeds did not germinate evenly.
Some took as long as 10 days.
More seeds germinated on February 24th.
True leaf showed on the 28th and the seedlings remained upright and steady.
We grew in both soil and liquid (non circulating hydroponic, Kratky method) base to observe how they compare.
LIQUID BASED PLANTS (KRATKY, with hydro nutrients)
From the germinating tray, young seedlings were transplanted to individual setting on March 7 2019.
These seedlings are very small and thin, thus more care was taken during their transplant.
Kratky plants tend to start slower but grew better as they aged compared to soil-based plants.
Once their roots extended out of its holding collar, more visible spurts in growth were observed in the hydro plants.
Like their soil-based cousins at the 3rd month, hydro leaves began to brown at the edge.
No pests were present and such leaves were pruned away.
In both hydro and soil based plants, the leaves were observed to be less green and thinner compared to red strawberries’ varieties.
This seem to be the characteristics of white strawberries in general.
More spurt in height of plants from the third month in liquid base.
First flower on some plants from third month.
This variety is not difficult to grow in liquid-based medium.
The vivid red stems are present the older they grew.
SOIL BASED PLANTS
They started off easily until its third month, where they began to lag behind its hydro cousins.
Similar to all white varieties, growing them in the soil can be tricky.
The crown tends to be more susceptible to rot and needs a less moist medium, thus do not water often.
TIP – Crown area should not remain moist all the time, will rot.
On closer examination of soil-based plants, it was observed there was not much roots development when the soil stays moist and loose.
Soil-based plants continued to lag behind liquid-based plants.
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