Aquaponics - Strawberry cross breeding

Cross breeding things is one of those things I know nothing about.

There are a great many others, but cross breeding is the one I make vague reference to in this post.

I have some strawberry plants that set pink flowers.

This surprised me a little because I didn't know they existed. But that's no big deal, as that's my standard level of understand I have of almost every species in the universe.

This picture doesn't really do them justice, but the better photo I took of this plant makes my eyes hurt.

The point I'm making here is that they are pink.

I also have a variety that has white flowers.

Really white flowers.

So white you cant photograph them on the auto setting of my camera, because my camera keeps looking deeper to see what it is I want it to capture.

White.

But exactly half way between those two plants in the grow bed, I find I now have pink flowers.

Light pink flowers.

This plant is one of the runners from one of my original plants with white flowers.

Now it's just as likely that this is just a lack of iron or something, as it is that some kind of cross breeding is going on, but that's not the point.

For one thing, I think to cross breed something you need it to flower, and then cross pollinate with a different variety. This means the flower wouldn't be pink yet. But it is a descendant of my first strawberry plant. This could mean it cross pollinated last season.

Or something.

So, and this bit is the point, I have no idea about this cross pollination business. And that means I need to find out.

So I'll find out.

If it's interesting, I'll let you know.