I suspect the reason is that most strawberries are so easy to propogate from runners, and most commercial varieties are hybrids. Growers get quicker, more consistent results when they start with plants rather than seeds.

"Growers get quicker, more consistent results when they start with plants rather than seeds."

But isn't that true for all plants?

Besides, it's still a lot cheaper to buy 100 seeds than it is to buy 100 plants.

It's been a long time since I grew strawberries from seeds, but I remember starting them in January and not getting any strawberries at all until midsummer, with most plants not producing significant fruit until the next year. That's a lot of time in a heated environment at the start and a long wait for a crop, and that's with alpine strawberries (Alexandria)that come true from seed. (And that's not counting any fertilizer or pest control during that long pre-productive period, somethat that a commercial grower can't ignore.)

I think most commercial varieties don't come true, so it's sort of like growing hybrid tea roses from seed -- a long time to see results and you don't know whether you'll like what you get.

If I get the drift of the linked article, it seems that you can't just cross two varieties and get a consistent or predictable result. Because a lot of the genetic interaction is unpredictable -- not a simple adding of best traits or simple dominance, but what they call 'epistatic.' If I read correctly, they say that the way to get desirable strawberry plants is to make crosses, grow them out, and then establish the good ones as asexually-propogated new strains:

'The important factor to stress when epistasis is important, and when the material can be vegetatively propagated, is the need to identify superior genotypes immediately and maintain them in the population by asexual reproduction.'

But frankly, whenever a scientific paper -- like this one -- starts using the Greek alphabet, I figure I'm in over my head and I'd appreciate someone else chiming in.

Here is a link that might be useful: Strawberry genetics

About, "it's a lot cheaper to buy 100 seeds than 100 plants", this may be true, but you are not going to yield 100 plants from 100 seeds. (Especially true with strawberries.)
My mom is moving and asked me to "look after" two strawberry plants until she has figured out where to move them to. I now have 12 plants after 1 season. (And no special effort whatsoever.)
I like propagating from seed as much as the next gardener, but it might not be the way to go with this plant?

But you know what? Every gardening book I have ever read says that you shouldn't restock your strawberry beds with runners from last season, because they might have diseases. They all tell me to buy all new strawberries.

Personally, I don't see the difference between growing my own runners, and buying runners from the nursery. But that's what they tell me.

"But isn't that true for all plants?"

well it's especially true for any plant that grows from runners, because it is a super fast way to propogate. seeds and cuttings take much longer whereas runners are very easy and fast.

"But you know what? Every gardening book I have ever read says that you shouldn't restock your strawberry beds with runners from last season, because they might have diseases. They all tell me to buy all new strawberries."

that is the recommendation but Ive never followed it. Each year I start some fresh runners from my plants and grow them on in pots in a separate area. At the end of the season I pull out the oldest plants and replace them with the fresh plants and I do this on a rotating basis so that at any given time I have 1st, 2nd and 3rd year plants growing. Ive never needed to go out and buy fresh runners and to be honest unless you feel the plants are diseased then I dont see the need to do it, but it's really up to you.

TG

Hello,
Last year I started strawberries from seed by winter sowing outdoors. I tried several other things such as grasses and Rosa rugosa. The strawberries and the rugosa were my successes. I bought the pack at WalMart, I believe it was Plantation Seeds (which is local, and sells only to wholesalers). I like to collect edible landscape plants and like different types of the same thing, so I went looking. I traded for some White Alpine Strawberry seeds this year. They are not easy to find, and are sometimes called yellow. In any case, through searching, I have found a source for 3 types of seed strawberries. The prices are reasonable too. The link is below.
Robin

Here is a link that might be useful: Pine Tree Garden Seeds, Maine

i found some in my car the other day!!! yup it was great and my friend found some in her folds lol!! :D