Hand Pollinating Indoor Strawberries & Pineberries

When growing indoor strawberries or pineberries you will need to hand pollinate them. In essence you will take over the responsibilities of the bees, wind and other elements that would normally pollinate your berries. Don't be frightened off it's really not very hard and as long as you don't have a ton of indoor plants not too time consuming.  Below is a picture of the basic knowledge you will need to pollinate your new flower buds.

 

I use a small makeup brush to gently brush pollen from the stamen to the pistil. Make sure to cover the whole pistil so that you don't end up with a partially pollinated berry.  At the bottom of this blog I've placed a video showing you how : )

 This is what Strawberry Blooms look like that are ready to be pollinated.

 The below picture and the picture to your left is what Strawberry Blooms look like after pollination takes place. 

The white petals start to die away leaving the stamen, pistil and sepal (the green leaves surrounding the yellow pistil)

This is a Strawberry Bloom that was never pollinated and the flower just died.

Here are two Pineberry Blooms that are ready to be pollinated.

Here is a Pineberry Bloom once pollination has taken place. Same thing as the Strawberry the white petals started to die away leaving the sepal, stamen and pistil.

 

This picture to your left and the picture below are deformed strawberries from insufficient pollination. These deformities can also be caused by lack of nutrition which can easily happen in a potted Strawberry plant. Make sure to Fertilize your potted blooming strawberry plants regularly.

Below is the YouTube Video I did showing how to Pollinate Blooms : )

Here are some websites I found helpful:

http://www.wsd1.org/argyle/environmental/outdoorclassroom/entries/2007/2/21_hand_pollination_of_strawberry_blossoms.html

http://strawberryplants.org/2010/12/deformed-strawberries/

http://n0va59.blogspot.com/2011/06/my-first-strawberry-blooms-have-arrived.html