strawberry plants in pots - what do I do with the runners?

[florenceuk]

Novice fruit grower here. DS and I are growing 2 strawberry plants, one to a large pot each, plus a few in a longer tub. They have produced lots of runners - should we cut them off? Will they stop the plant fruiting? If we make a new little strawberry plant from one, do we need to protect it over the winter for next year? For that matter, I've got no idea what to do with the existing strawberry plants once they stop fruiting - can I keep them for next year?

I'm in the same position as you - spotted one runner this morning. I think if you peg it down into another pot, it will develop roots, then you cut it off the parent plant and overwinter it under glass or indoors. I don't know if the parent plant can be kept for next year.

But I'm a beginner too, so would be interested to know what experts say. TFM - are you out there?

Hi

Yes Tanee, thats exactly what you do. Stick the runner into the ground or a pot and it will produce another strawberry plant

Oh yes, and you can keep them, Strawberry plants have about a 3year cycle. The first year the crop of fruit will be small, the years after you will get more but after the following year the plant will have lost it's ooomph! Thats where your runners come in, if they have taken properly you won;t have to buy new plants. HTH

What tanee said would work, but the runner will keep taking nutrients from the parent plant and you'll have fewer / smaller fruits.
Better option is to cut off the runner quite close to the parent plant (3 or 4 inches, not too close or it's a potential infection site for the parent plant). Then trim the stem on the runner until it's about an inch long and stick the baby plant into a plant pot / the ground / whatever you've got handy. Unless it's very hot or dry weather it will grow. If it's sunny, spray or mist water over it as often as you can.

You can keep the parent plants for a couple of years, until the fruits start getting small and icky. After it has stopped fruiting, cut all the leaves off. There will be quite a lot of regrowth before winter, but cleaning up the plant after harvest stops most diseases being carried over into the next year. Give it plenty of fertiliser and water, and you should get a good crop next year. In general, one year old plants give a good yield of big fruits, and in subsequent years, the fruit size gets a bit smaller.

(my fav strawb variety is called Florence)

TFM - thank you, my Guru!

thanks! I don't actually have anywhere to keep them over winter - will they survive if I don't have a greenhouse and just leave them outside?

You could keep them on a window sill perhaps? or cover them with fleece.

They will be fine if you leave them outside! There are thousands of acres of strawberries grwon in the IK, right up to about inverness, and practically all of them are outside. If they don't get enough cold in the winter, then they won't grow properly next year.

thanks! I reckon we've got about 10 runners at the moment which I am going to nip off when I get home.

Yes, it's reckoned they fruit better after being hardened off by a good frost.

Also, re the runners, they do advise not to let them crop the first year, just nip off the flowers before they open. The next yesr you will be fine to let them grow

Hope I get more than one runner then! Thanks to both our experts