Yes, I tried a Google search, but a couple of things weren't clear.
Right now, it is mid-summer in this part of the world. I have seven strawberry plants, with good pollination, plenty of green fruits at the moment, and a small but steady supply of yummy fruits.
I looked up the idea of harvesting strawberry seeds, and it seems that people prefer to put the fruit in a blender(?) This was a surprise for me. I had
*thought* that the seeds were those small green bits all over the outside of the fruit(?) So I had thought about using tweezers to pull those off. But maybe that was mistaken?
The other option is to use runners. I have some hanging stems (coming out from the middle), with a few leaves plus flowers and fruits. But I don't see any starting of roots on these.
Do the runners need to slouch down and get in contact with some soil before they put out roots?
Also, could anybody explain how to deal with new plants (from runners) over the winter? Keep them inside maybe?
Hi All, what you need to do is to peg down the runner with a length of stout wire shaped like a inverted U . then the runner will form roots, and you can then sever it from the main plant. if you need to move the new plant you can peg it down in to a pot of soil, then when you sever it from the main plant you can replant it in to a new place. hope this helps you.
il Tue, 25 Jan 2005 15:30:42 -0000, "r m watkin" ha scritto:
Not only that, I've heard that strawberry plants aren't so good the next year, so it's recommended to replace them with the runner plants. possibly someone knows more about that.
Let me say I am not an authority on Strawberries or any thing else, for that matter. But I have spent most of my 70 years on a farm. I have posted several time to this forum the last several days, partly because few people (in this part of the world) are interested in gardening at this time.
First off, from your posting, I assume you are from Australia and raising berries in a bucket. If so, I doubt this will help you, but it is an experience I had.
Many years ago I bought some very large California Strawberries, and I though how clever it would be to plant some of the seeds. I laid a few of the berries in an Aluminum pie pan and put them in the window of my shop. After several days, they had dried and you could easily rake the seeds from the berry.
To make this story shorter, I planted the seeds,then set out the plants and they produced a very small inferior berry(not at all like the berries from which the seed came.). This should answer your question why they propagate by using the runners.
Another example of this is you can plant the seed of a Red Delicious Apple and the tree will not bear Red Delicious Apples, but an inferior fruit.
Now about the runners. If you are raising your fruit in a bucket, I can't help you, for I have never tried that.
Basically, there are two types of Strawberries, what we call June berries(which bear in early spring) and ever-bearing. The ever-bearing, "flush" or put on several crops during a growing season.
Now the action of these berries as I recall is this. First they will bloom, then set fruit, and then and only then start putting on runners. Just let these runners go (if they are June berries) and they will find the ground and set root. In the fall, go in and cut and dig the ones you want for replacement sets(replace any berry vine over 3 years old).
Ever-bearing, you have to keep these runners cut back, or they won't produce very many berries on subsequent crops. But if you need more plants just let some of your field set runners, and treat them the same as June berries. I had a small patch of ever-bearing and I used a small lawn mower to keep the runners cutback out of the middles of the row.
Didn't mean to write a book Have a good day, Rogerx.
I don't know that much about strawberries. What I do know is that somehow I got a volunteer in the sunniest plot in the garden, so I figured, why not see what happens. The first year I had already planted squash there when the volunteer showed up, so mostly it hid under the squash leaves and hung out, and didn't do much.
After I cleared out the squash at the end of the season, it sent out a bunch of runners, which started more strawberry plants. I did absolutely nothing other than weed around the plot. I got a nice crop of strawberries early that summer. All of those plants sent out more runners, and made more plants.
Now I have a strawberry patch. I've done zero except weed it occasionally. This is my kind of gardening.
Let the runners touch the ground and they will root. Removing early fruit is supposed to encourage runner development. The new plants should overwinter fine. As plants get older, fruit production decreases, so removing older plants(>3 yrs - look for long "trunks") can help maintain the bed.
Hi All, you should replace your strawberry plants after 3 years, as they will not bear enough fruit to make them worth while keeping. hope this helps you.
While this may be advisable in some instances, or for some species of berry plants, it is by no means universally true. My Mum has had a very productive bed of strawberry plants growing for almost 30 years! They are about as productive today as they were a year after they were planted. Annual fertilising, good mulching, pruning off the runners, and choosing the right plants for the soil and climate would seem to be the key. Perhaps a disease-resistant species is crucial for long-term cropping?
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