Turning 1 Strawberry Plant into Millions

Why Buying Plants Keeps Getting Riskier

Outsourcing seedlings might seem simpler. But it leaves you open to a set of problems that get worse as demand rises.

1. You’re Bleeding Margin

R5 per plant adds up fast. And with annual price hikes, your margins shrink before planting even begins.

2. Unpredictable Supply Chains

Seedlings can arrive late. Or too early. Or with uneven quality. Local suppliers don’t always deliver on time either.

3. You’re Not in Control

When you depend on outside nurseries, your season hinges on someone else making the rules and getting it right. Whether it's cost, timing, the calibre of plants or losing your supply to a war of increasing demand, your business is in many ways in someone else’s hands.

And with local demand for strawberries on the rise, that risk is only growing. You might be doing everything right, but you’re still exposed.

Why Growers are Building their Own Nurseries

Yes, it’s a cost decision. But it’s also a control decision.

When you own your propagation, you control:

• Plant quality
• Delivery timing
• Your margins
• Your risk

No more relying on delayed shipments or inconsistent quality. No more paying whatever the market dictates. You get your seedlings, your way, on your schedule.

The Propagation Process from 1 Plant to Millions

Strawberry propagation takes time, planning, and a steady hand. It’s not something you guess your way through. We’ve mapped out the journey from a tissue culture to millions of seedlings.  We’ve kept the language simple, but don’t mistake that for simple work.  Each step has to be done in the right way, at the right time. 

Step 1. Tissue Cultures

You’ll be cloning your strawberry off one plant, so genetics are super important. It starts in a bio-secure lab. We take tissue cultures from a licensed variety and grow them in clean, climate-controlled conditions. This becomes the foundation of your strawberry’s genetic vault. If it’s clean, virus and mutation-free, the whole pipeline should be too.

Step 2. Pre-Nucleus Phase

Clones are moved into sterile perlite containers inside a greenhouse nursery. Over two seasons, we track their performance. We watch for vigour, shape, and how they handle local conditions in field trials. Only the few strongest go forward.

Step 3. Nucleus Phase

These top plants are cloned again. Each one produces around 500 to 600 daughters per year for the foundational nursery. This phase runs for four years before plants are replenished. It’s the heartbeat of the whole system. You need consistency here, or everything downstream suffers.

Step 4. Foundation Nursery

From the nucleus daughters, we select the best foundation plants and move them into a separate nursery block. Each multiplies +- 160 times, making thousands of clean, strong mother plants. All of this still happens under protected cover to keep the plants disease free.

Step 5. Cooling and Rooting Prep

We remove the leaves from the mother plants, so only the roots remain. The roots are chilled between July and September - a short break to sync them for the correct time of year to grow. And freezing the best genetics so they are good to go for the following year. 

Step 6. Mother Nursery

After chilling, the plants move to hanging gutters. Here, they focus on runner production, not fruit. Warm days and long daylight hours kick things into gear. Each mother plant produces about 125 daughters from the runners. This is where the big numbers happen. But it’s also where things can go wrong fast. That’s why we’re hands-on during this stage. Light, airflow, irrigation — it all matters.

Step 7. Rooting Nursery

The new daughter plants are clipped off and planted into seedling trays under the hanging mother plants. They root under the gutters for about a month. The timing is tight. You want strong seedlings ready for March field planting.

Step 8. Field Planting

The daughter plants are planted outdoors in late summer. They grow fast, flower early, and start fruiting as autumn rolls in. That timing gives you a strong winter crop when prices are usually high.

Why it Works

This process works because each stage builds on the last. Done right, it gives you high-quality seedlings, at the right time, in the right volumes. Skip a step or rush it, and you’ll see it in your harvest.

That’s why we don’t just hand over a blueprint. Our agronomists work with your team, train your staff, and help you get the timing right.

Talk to Us and We’ll Show You the Numbers

Now that we’ve scratched the surface of the complexities of strawberry farming, we’d love to talk to you about putting this into practice on your farm. 

We’ll help you understand what’s realistic, what’s possible, and what kind of return you could expect based on your farm and goals. And then we’ll help you turn your vision into reality. 

Curious? Get in touch on +27 21 987 6980 or info@vegtech.co.za.