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Plant up strawberry runners
Help yourself to free new plants with Martin Fish
Strawberries are one of the easiest and fastest-cropping fruits you can grow. If you buy plants in spring, you will get a crop during the first summer.
They are also easy to propagate. Left alone in the garden, they naturally produce runners that root on contact with moist soil. After just one growing season, the strawberry bed will become a mass of new plants.
Ideally, runners should be removed from plants to allow the ‘parents’ to grow larger and build up strength for next year. But if you want to grow a few extra plants, leave some runners on to develop.
The normal cropping life of a strawberry plant is around four years. After that they start to deteriorate and you should replace them with new certified plants. These are guaranteed free of viruses and other diseases and are vigorous growers.
If you do want to grow a few new plants for yourself, only take runners of healthy plants, preferably from ones that
were planted within the past year as certified stock.
Never propagate from old plants that are more than two years old or if they have mottled or distorted foliage
Step 1
A simple way to produce a few
new plants is to peg down runners into small pots of compost. Use a length of bent wire to keep each runner in contact with the compost. They will root in a few weeks and can be cut from the parent plant. Click on image to enlarge
Step 2
You can also wait until the runners are fully formed. Then, as they naturally start to produce small roots, cut the plantlets off the main plant and insert them into cell trays or small pots of compost. Keep them moist and misted with water in a shady spot for a couple of weeks to allow the roots to develop. Click on image to enlarge
