How to Remove Strawberry Runners and Plant Them

When planting strawberry plants, there are several things that areimportant to produce a great crop. One of the most important tasks ismanaging runners and removing them from your strawberry plant.

Managing Strawberry Runners

• Most strawberries produce runners, which are simply a type of stem that runacross the top of the soil and forms roots at certain points called nodes,forming a new plant.
• Strawberry plants generally take a year to produce a good volume of fruit, soremoving runners is a way to encourage the plant to put its energy intogrowing fruit earlier, rather than producing new plants.
• However, if you want to see the number of strawberry plants grow, you canallow some of the runners to form roots and transplant them to increase thenumber of plants you have.
• The initial (mother) plants begin losing their vitality after a few years, soallowing several runners to grow (daughter plants) each year keeps yourbeds fresh for longer.
• Removing runners is as simple as cutting them off the at the base of theplant with sharp snips or scissors when they appear. Ensure it is a clean cutand not ripped out, as this may do damage to the plant.

If you take a look at the end of the runner, you may be able tosee little roots already beginning to grow. To get these to root,simply peg down the plantlet into the ground using a U-shapedclip or piece of garden wire bent into shape will work perfectly.The plantlet should be in firm contact with the soil.

Helpful Hints

For best results, grow each new collective of strawberries in acompletely fresh bed, enriched with Intelligro Organic Compost.

Fact

Strawberries will become less productive over a period of time, so youneed to grow more plants from runners every three to four years to ensure continual great harvests.

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