Strawberry runners - what to do

I have a few strawberry plants in a little raised bed. They have recently been sending out these long shoots which are trying to root somehwere. I gather that these are new strawberry plants which I can use to replace old ones with, is that right? Anyway, I'd like to "catch" the runners, but as it's a raised bed, there isn't anywhere for them to root to, the long bits are haning over the edge over the lawn, looking forlorn.

Picture of the strawberry patch in May:


My question is: how do you catch the runners? Can you just chop them off and put them in a pot with compost? Or should I place pots of compost strategically around my little strawberry enclosure and hope they'll root in there? Also, when do you chop off the umbilical cord between mother plant and baby plant (sorry, not very technical :o). And how many individual new plants does each runner create? One? Or several?

 

OK, here's a picture of what I mean!





(And before you say it: yes I know my grass needs cutting!)

 

Hi Rosie,

What you can do is what I do to layer plants.


You fill a small pot with compost and using a hairpin push the stem just before the "new" plant into it. water in and leave it until it has rooted, then just snip it off the parent plant.

I don`t know how long it will take with runners from strawbs, but sure someone else will.

 

Rosie - your grass needs cutting :D

 

Rosie your grass needs cutting
Smiffy made me say it

 

And if he told you to put yer `and in a fire-would yer do that too?

What about jumpin` off a cliff eh?

 

Rosie your grass needs cuting..................Im afraid of the Nut !

 

thats coz yer a wussy yorkshirian!!

Scared of a bird from Cheshire, but you can sleep at night knowing good solid Lancastrians guard one of the gates. Not sure about those in Derbyshire though.

 

Your lawn looks fine, Rosie. Just do what lollipop says. Surround the bed with small pots of compost and pin the runners in until they root. Next year you'll have ten times as many strawb plants. Then you can share them out among all your grape friends

 

Rosie, I've done this with mine for the past 2 years and now have loads! Just get a u shaped piece of metal like a small hook and push the plant into the soil (pots in your case) using the pin to hold it down, I usually do this just before a leaf on the runner, they seem to root best from here. Mine seem to root in about 2 weeks but you can leave them longer, some of mine severed themselves! I've begun just putting a stone on the runner to push it onto the soil as a little experiment, we'll see if it works the same!

p.s. you need to cut your grass!! :D

 

Will you all shut up about the grass! I had my first Greenthumb visit this week, and I was not supposed to cut it for another 3 days afterwards, and not for a couple of days before, something to do with the weed killer they apply. So that's why it's a little long. Plus it's rained a lot and it's never been dry enough to cut - are those enough excuses?

Will follow your advice re. the runners though. Last question: once I have them nicely rooted in pots, where do I overwinter them? Can they just sit in their pots on the patio or will the frosts kill them off? I never remember my parents doing anything to protect the strawberry plants in the winter, but I might be wrong.

 

Hi Rosie,

I have never lost a strawberry to the frosts yet-the sneaky birds and my kids swiping them before me, but not to frosts.

 

I just leave them out in a bed, they overwinter fine. They do look a bit sad but they always come back strong later. With regard to the birds, i've grown eslanta and cambridge favourites and both have been so huge the birds cant carry them!!

p.s. Have you cut that grass yet?! :D

 

Watch them sneaky slugs though, we have a fight who gets the strawberries first every year. (More often than not the slugs win):rolleyes: 02

 

I'm from bolton too rosie! Never had a problem propagating with the strawb runners. I use a small stone weight to put on the runners though.
John