Grow Your Own Magazine

my strawberries are in a pot, all new plants this year. they seem to be doing fine, the first (1!) fruit is almost ready.
what do I do about the runners though? when do I cut them off, and how, and then do I put them in little pots in the coldframe, or plant them straight out?

If you dont want any more plants just cut them off.

If you do, then peg the runners (where the plantlet is forming) into small pots of soil or compost and wait for them to root. You will find that each runner tries to carry on past the first plantlet and make two or three more. You are best to cut the runner off after the first plantlet and root just that one. Also as your plants are 1st year plants you will be wise to restrict each plant to two runners max and preferably just the one. Next year you can take more if required to build up stock.

After a few years the plants will start to produce less fruit and become rmore prone to disease so its good practice to grub them out after their third or fourth season and plant new ones ( or those propogated from runners) but in a new part of the garden or allotment. You should aim to have as long a gap as possible before replanting strawberries where they have grown before.

I take one runner off each 1st year plant and two off each 2nd and third year plant as required. They always make good gifts if you have any spare, but as my good wife says "you can't have too many onions or strawberries".

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Kindest regards, David.

http://pigletsplots.blogspot.com/
updated - Sunday 19th at 2100hrs

thanks for that. because they are in a pot (strawberry tower type thing), some of the 1st runners are not at peggable height, if you see what I mean. is it ok then to use the 2nd or 3rd ones?

FVV. Get some small pots and make a hole just below the rim. Unbend a paper clip to act as a hook and hang the pot on the side of the Strawberry tower at the correct height to accommodate the first runner. This way you can root up as many runners as you wish. View it a little like a strawberry Xmas tree, with pots rather than glass balls if that helps you visualise what I am writing.

ok, christmas tree it is then!! thanks jax.

This probably seems a silly question, but I'm new to all this! When you say 'peg' the runners, what do you mean? We've got some runners on the strawberries that were on our allotment when we took it on late last year, so what do I do with them?

I don't peg my strawberry runners. I just let them root in the ground. Then after the fruiting is finished and the runners have had chance to grow a bit I cut them off the main plant, dig them up and re plant the runners in their new bed.
Other people peg them down and grow the runners in pots but someone who grows them that way can explain it better than me.

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Hi Michelle, and welcome

There's no such thing as a silly question! 'Pegging' your runners basically means pinning them next to the soil so that the form roots where they touch. My first year of strawbs so not done it myself but I've been told to pin them down with a piece of wire in a U Bendy type shape. Maybe a hairpin with the bend made bigger, or a cut up coat hanger would do the trick? As I say, this will my first year too so maybe another grape will have a better idea for both of us?

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Shortie

"There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children; one of these is roots, the other wings" - Hodding Carter

Thanks, hairpins seem like a good idea - got lots of those lying around that I don't use anymore! I was also going to ask about moving them, but Lesley Jay has answered that one already - we've started a new strawberry patch with alpines grown from seed, so later on I will move the plants from runners to be next to the others.

Michelle try to keep the new runners in their own bed next to this years strawberries. The reason is that strawberry plants last for 3 years (but I squeeze 4 years out of mine). So if you have the room for 3 beds or 1 bed separated into 3, you have this years strawberry plants in bed 1. This years runners go into bed 2. Next years runners go into bed 3. Then the following year the strawberry plants in bed 1 are thrown away and the runners from that year are planted which still gives you 3 beds.

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I was wondering how on earth I could propogate runners off Strawberries in hanging baskets as I've no space for a bed.
Brilliant! Thankyou.