Strawberry harvesting & runners question?
 

Hi everyone, I'm a complete gardening novice & I planted two baskets of strawberries in the greenhouse this year, three plants per basket. They are doing great, we've already had some ripe berries & there are plenty of new flowers coming through. When harvesting the ripe strawberries, I just take the berry itself, leaving the remainder of the flower on top, should I cut this off with the berry?

There are now what I assume are runners growing from each basket, maybe ten between the two. One of my uni tutors mentioned that these can be turned into new plants but how? Do I take them off yet? How do I make them root? And will they survive the winter? (I assume these would be next years plants)

Here is a photo of what I think are runners, any advice welcome, as I said I'm a complete novice!

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/n...k/IMG_0651.jpg

Strawberry harvesting & runners question?
 

HI

Freedom_Spark wrote:
Hi everyone, I'm a complete gardening novice & I planted two baskets of
strawberries in the greenhouse this year, three plants per basket. They
are doing great, we've already had some ripe berries & there are plenty
of new flowers coming through. When harvesting the ripe strawberries, I
just take the berry itself, leaving the remainder of the flower on top,
should I cut this off with the berry?

Your choice - we tend to nip the stalk off and then remove the greenery
once we've washed them, inside the house.... -


There are now what I assume are runners growing from each basket, maybe
ten between the two. One of my uni tutors mentioned that these can be
turned into new plants but how? Do I take them off yet? How do I make
them root? And will they survive the winter? (I assume these would be
next years plants)

Here is a photo of what I think are runners, any advice welcome, as I
said I'm a complete novice!

It's a bit more difficult as you have the baskets up in the air - but
what you need to do is to secure these new shoots by pegging them down
into small flower pots full of compost. (Maybe make up a u-shaped piece
of wire to keep the shoots in contact with the compost. Maybe you could
put up a little shelf and train a row of runners along a row of
flowerpots...?

Keep an eye on the runners - and keep the compost moist - you'll see
roots growing from the nodes where the leaves are. Once the roots are
well enough developed (probably at the end of the summer) you can snip
through the stalks to separate the new plants, and pot them up into
larger pots to over-winter.

As it gets cooler they'll die back, but should survive to grow on again
next year...

We started out with 20 strawberry plants in our tunnel 2 years ago -
we now have probably 80 of them and they're all fruiting at once !

Almost sick of the sight of strawberries !

You can ussually get 2 - 3 seasons from each plant - so don;t thow away
the ones that yuo have growing at the moment. Give them some new compost
next year and they'll fruit again for you.

Hope this helps
Adrian

Strawberry harvesting & runners question?
 

On 18 June, 19:04, Freedom_Spark Freedom_Spark.
wrote:
Hi everyone, I'm a complete gardening novice & I planted two baskets of
strawberries in the greenhouse this year, three plants per basket. They
are doing great, we've already had some ripe berries & there are plenty
of new flowers coming through. When harvesting the ripe strawberries, I
just take the berry itself, leaving the remainder of the flower on top,
should I cut this off with the berry?

There are now what I assume are runners growing from each basket, maybe
ten between the two. One of my uni tutors mentioned that these can be
turned into new plants but how? Do I take them off yet? How do I make
them root? And will they survive the winter? (I assume these would be
next years plants)

Here is a photo of what I think are runners, any advice welcome, as I
said I'm a complete novice!

It's a runner. Don't use more than 2 runners per plant.You need to pin
down the runner (use a hairpin) onto a full pot of damp soil at the
point just behind that small formed leaf. Trim off the extension just
beyond the leaf. After at least a month the maiden plant should have
sufficiently rooted. Remove the hairpin. Give the plant a gentle tug
just to make sure.Then cut off the maiden from the runner and remove
the runner from the parent plant.Make sure the soil is kept damp
throughout this time. In early October plant the maiden out, keeping
its root ball intact.

Thanks very much for the advice! I hope I've understood correctly, the roots come out of the tops of the runners? Should I pin them down into the pots right away? Thanks again for being so helpful.

Sarah

Strawberry harvesting & runners question?
 

HI Sarah

Freedom_Spark wrote:

snip


Thanks very much for the advice! I hope I've understood correctly, the
roots come out of the tops of the runners? Should I pin them down into
the pots right away? Thanks again for being so helpful.

Does no harm to pin them down right away.
No - the roots will come out of the _bottom_ of the little sections
where the leaves are.....

...and you jusy have to wait until the roots are properly established and
the plantlets are self-sufficient before you cut them off from the parent.

You can get several little plants off each long shoot, if you wish..

If you have the plants in the ground then the runners will do this all
for themselves - which is a good thing or a bad thing - depending on how
many extra plants you wanted ! g

Have fun !
Adrian

Strawberry harvesting & runners question?
 

On 19 June, 17:56, Freedom_Spark Freedom_Spark.
wrote:

Thanks very much for the advice! I hope I've understood correctly, the
roots come out of the tops of the runners? Should I pin them down into
the pots right away? Thanks again for being so helpful.

No. It roots underneath the runner where the leaf joins it The bottom
runner is at the stage where it needs to be pinned down now. The upper
one can also be pinned down, but cut of the extension beyond the
little "bract", or you will end up with a second maiden on the same
runner, which you should not allow.

I think I've got it now! I'll pin them down as soon as possible so the roots can begin to establish. Thanks again for the informative replies. Much appreciated.

Sarah