On August 6 the last of this year's strawberry seed was in the trays at Igatpuri, and the work shifted to raising the seedlings: checking the EC and moisture of the growing media, the temperature and humidity inside the house, and adjusting the feed accordingly. One tray label caught our eye — sown by Lakshmi, who shares her name with the goddess of abundance.
On September 14 our SAKURA and HARUHI seedlings left the nursery trays and went into their growing positions — the stacked white vertical pots inside our partner HiMedia's greenhouse in Igatpuri. One small plant per pot, a drip emitter at its base, and rows of pots waiting for the season to begin.
On June 30 we walked the seedling trays at our Igatpuri nursery, checking how the strawberry seeds sown at the end of May had germinated. The honest answer: fewer came up than we wanted. So we did what a method demands — looked for the causes, and worked out how to raise the pace for the sowings ahead.
On May 12–13 our team trained inside a working Japanese strawberry farm in Shizuoka, guided by its owner, Mr. Suzuki. Two days of real work — cultivation, farm management, quality control and grading — and a clearer checklist of what it takes to implement Japanese-standard strawberry growing in India.
Most strawberry plants in India start life as a clone — a runner cut from last season's mother plant, carrying whatever it caught along the way. Ours start as seed. Inside the nursery at our grower partner's polyhouse, on the first day of sowing, where every ICHIGO berry of the coming season actually begins.
Calyx, colour, firmness, Brix, smell. A 30-second discipline at the receiving table that catches the difference between a punnet you can plate and one you have to throw.
Japanese strawberries have a reputation — and a price — that usually means an airfreighted gift box. ICHIGO grows the same Japanese cultivars in India, on a domestic cold chain. Here's what 'Japanese strawberry' really means, and how to get them here.
Two growers on the same hillside, the same acre, the same effort — and very different returns. The variable that decides it isn't usually labour or luck. It's the variety, and the cold chain behind it.
Most premium strawberries in India are imported, or grown once and hoped for. Ours are grown to a method — Japanese cultivars, vertical soil-free towers, a polyhouse that holds its climate, and a pick window measured in hours. A walk through our own field, from first flower to the box on your dock.
A premium berry is a provenance story before it's a flavour. ICHIGO grows Japanese cultivars on real, named ground in India — Kaprada in Gujarat, Ambegaon near Pune — across two climates, on living soil, under Japanese supervision. Here's the map, and why each place was chosen.
Most foodservice strawberries reach the kitchen through a mandi chain built for volume, not for plating. ICHIGO is a single-source supplier of Japanese cultivars grown in Maharashtra — consistent Brix, calyx-up firmness, and a cold chain that holds. Here's how sourcing actually works.
Mandi rates start near ₹180/kg and premium imported berries run past ₹2,000/kg — but the price on the invoice isn't the price you pay. Here's how strawberry pricing works in India, and the cost number that actually matters to a kitchen.
India's strawberry fields are dominated by Winter Dawn, Camarosa and Nabila — varieties bred for yield and transport. Japanese cultivars are bred for the plate. Here's what SAKURA and HARUHI do differently, and when to put each one on the pass.
India's strawberry season is short: a peak from December to February and a thin tail to April. That's a problem if your menu runs all year. Here's the real calendar — and the supply strategies that keep berries on the pass off-season.
The strawberry you know is younger than the steam engine. It began with five plants smuggled out of Chile in 1714 — and the cultivars that define it today were bred on three continents. A field guide to where strawberries come from, and where Japan fits.
A strawberry is one of the hardest things in farming to teach a robot to pick. The best field robots take 20 seconds per berry and still miss a quarter of the ripe fruit. Here's why — and what it reveals about what really goes into a good punnet.
A misshapen strawberry isn't a sick plant — it's an unfinished pollination job. Each 'seed' on the surface is a separate fruit that must be fertilised one by one, and a bee is what gets that done. Here's how an insect quietly decides the shape, size and shelf life of your berry.
Most Indian strawberries grow in open soil. Ours grow off the ground, under cover, in a polyhouse near Pune we call Vertigrow. Here's what protected and soilless cultivation actually buys — and an honest look at where the hype runs ahead of the evidence.
ICHIGO doesn't airfreight berries from Japan. It plants Japanese cultivars in Maharashtra — Miyoshi & Co's SAKURA and HARUHI varieties — under Japanese agricultural supervision. Here's what that actually means on the plate.
