Grow Your Own Magazine

My strawberry plants have gone crazy they have about 50 runners and many rooting what shall I do HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Soobeth would suggest if you can pot the runners on (two from each plant) into little pots of good compost and keep them to increase your strawberry bed next year. Usually you only keep strawberry plants for about four years before replacing them. If you keep some runners you can probably get rid of some of your old plants this year, and then the other half next year. Just a thought!

Some of the bigger plants you could lift & put them into pots & if you have a grenhouse move them into there after CHrismas for an early crop.

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ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

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Thanks i would also like t know how to post them as i have a relative who would like some

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lift them when they are rooted & wash of as much of the soil as you can & then put them into some sarnie bags to keep the moisture in & then you'll nedd to put them into a small box & pack a bit of newspaper or bubblewrap around them just to be safe. Write live plants on the box as wel just to be sure

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ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

http://grief-encounters.blogspot.com/

re strawberry plants: I lopped off all the foliage as I was informed i should & it has all grown back again - do I leave it like this or do they need chopping back again?

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I've always lopped mine off after fruiting and then only removed dead / diseased leaves after that - seems to work OK but am willing to be proved wrong by more experianced grapes.

The reason you cut the leaves off is they may carry disease they have picked up over the year, they new growth is clean & not so dense so the cold can get to the crowns to help with the production of flowers - well thats what I was told when I was a kiddy wink.

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ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

http://grief-encounters.blogspot.com/

Ahhh - that makes sense! Many thankd ntg & Alison

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How can a woman be expected to be happy with a man who insists on treating her as if she were a perfectly normal human being.”

What about planting out the potted up runners. Mine have been potted up for a good month or more now and look healthy with new growth so i assume they have rooted. How do you know when to sperate from the main plant and plant them out?

If they're producing good growth on their own sounds like they've routed OK, I usually give them a very gentle tug to check they're roots are good then cut them free from the main plant. Depending on where you plant your stawberries you can either plant them out straight away, or better, keep them potted up until next spring - I usually nurture mine in the greenhouse / cold frame so that they're a bit ahead of the outside ones. Don't know if this is what anybody else does but seems to work for me!

Thanks Alison. My main plants were in grow bags this year but I have nowcleared some room in the garden for them. Do you think it would be better to replant them now, before winter or leave them in the grow bags until spring?

Not 100% sure MissyMoo but would go for planting out as it's quite a good time of year to plant out at the moment as the ground is nice and warm and the plants would have time to establish themselves before any frosts etc. You could look to give them a bit of protection if the weather gets really bad but they shouldn't need it. If you want to give them a head start next spring you can rig up a cloche or something to get them moving but make sure you remove it when they flower otherwise the flowers won't be fertilised. I've got mine in a huge stawberry pot which I heave into the green house for a few months but it nearly kills me every year so may not bother this year!

Why has every one turned this into a strawberry worries thread.

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I also have very wild strawberry runners. Im getting runners off the runners! Just had an idea - if I bring a couple of these indoors is it possible to get a small early crop if kept warm, watered and in the light?

I've started tubs of strawberries off in the greenhouse and got a very early crop in the past but you do have to remember to fertilise with a paint brush as the bees won't be there to do your work.

Ooops Alison, I never thought of that! Doh can't you tell I'm new.
How do I do that?

Thanks

Sam

Just get a clean smallish paintbrush and take the pollen from one flower to another, it's pretty easy, you've just got to remember when the flowers are open.

Thanks, good job you mentioned it. I take it there are no male/female plants to complicate things, just pollen from one flower to another?

I think so Supersam, am pretty sure you just need to disturb the pollen and that any of the flowers can form a fruit but other people may be able to confirm for sure. I just know that lightly brushing the open flowers seems to work so I always do it, can't remember who told me but suppose somebody must have!

Strawberry plants don't have male and female flowers, the main ones that have are courgettes, cucumbers, melons. You can either use a paintbrush, or just tap the flowers gently. If they're outside you don't need to do anything, the wind and insects will do it for you.

Runners don't just form one plant, they keep going with plants forming at intervals all along the runner. I usually just leave one or two and then cut the runner. Same goes if the plant is producing too many runners, just cut them off with scissors or secateurs. I grow mine on the lottie, so just peg the runners down with wire "hairpins" where they're making new plants. Pots dry out too quickly.

However this year I planted 3 strawberry plants in a sort of Grecian Urn (plastic) and stood it outside the back door. Loads of lovely strawbs which never made it to the kitchen (straight from plant to mouth) and no slug or bird damage. Don't know the variety (they were a gizzit from a neighbour) so I've rooted runners from them into a small trough stood on a bucket next to the urn.

if they are wild strawbs it dosent matter if they runners havent rooted. you cannot kill them! i have a trough full of wild strawbs and i had a spare shady patch in the garden so i cut all the runners off at whatever stage they were at and planted them. not one has died!

Sooo What About My Runners I Have Waited Nearly 4+ Months 4 Advice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Hi! Please look at my 'brilliant' site about dolls houses and miniatures! I can always use new members, not matter how much you visit or not! Also, the more members I get the more things I can put on, so go on, do me a favor and at least look!
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Hi Soobeth, maybe you missed the posts, but if you look back to your opening post and follow on from there I think you'll see yor answers. God luck with the strawberries.