robust labelling system?

Curiously, pencil lasts quite well.

Agreed that the garden centre white markers are inadequate for your job.

OR.... If the buckets are in a static position for the year then you could do a spreadsheet / word type document on the computer detailing each bucket and its position. This could then be easily updated as required.

I like that idea! Easy to change label on a given pot.

I grow new plants from the stolons (the correct name for runners).

I fill a pot with compost and use an elastic band to hold the plantlet through the compost through the holes in bottom of the pot.

DO NOT CUT OFF from the mother plant yet, water and wait at least 2 weeks for the plantlet to take root. If the pot is smallishm you will see some new roots coming out of the bottom of the pot.

Then and only then cut the stolon off at both ends (between mother plant and new established "baby" strawberry plant.

Once the mother plant is more than 3 years old, bin it it will no longer be a good cropper.

Then the new strawberry plant then gets transplanted into one of my black buckets thats just been vacated by a departed geriatric plant.....

I like that idea.... :-)

Two holes and coloured cord in each. Ten colours and you have 100 combinations.

Cord: black, brown, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, grey, white.

Many cheap coloured tie wraps/cable ties are not UV stable and will become brittle within a season.

I have used a variety of substantial cable ties to hold a couple of my (square) compost bin sides together and have to replace them on a regular basis. The main fixings on my bins snap out when getting towards fully loaded and I drilled holes and used cable ties instead. For around

I label polypropolene boxes and there isn't a problem.

Bill

Mine don't ever fall off. If fact you can't get the bloody things off sometimes.

Bill

Yes I've had that.

Bill

but I need to indicate how old the strawberry plant is as I discard after 3 years......

The idea is that with 45 buckets, 15 are 1st year, 15 are 2nd year and

S.

Showing touching faith/gullibility, I used B&Q's garden tywraps on the assumption that they'd be OK in sunlight. Lasted about 3 years and fell off, so not fit for purpose. I wanted something quite wide, adjustable and removable. Apart from being f'useless long-term they were ideal.

Double sided velcro?

Depends whether you use the normal, nylon or polyester labels. When applied as cable flags, the normal stuff falls off in a few weeks in data centres, then blows around inside the racks, it does last better when stuck on a flat surface, so now I make sure to use the nylon or polyester ones.

Thanks, that's useful. As I said, I have been lazy, so I have beds full of both old and new plants. This weekend I have cleared things a bit, sorted the plants into 'old and matted' and 'younger - maybe from stolons', and replanted the latter, with some new compost.

I keep meaning to do the 'nurture in a small pot, then separate' exercise you suggest, but never seem to get around to it. Maybe this year...

J^n

If you are growing outside, they need feeding with a strawberry fertilser weekly, if grown in a greenhouse, feed TWICE weekly.

Always try and keep the strawberries OFF the soil. a bed of straw or similar helps with that.

I normally harvest my new plantlets from the stolons once the fruiting season has finished which is usually July.

Then before winter, you literally mow your strawberry bed with a lawn mower or cut off in pots/buckets with secateurs.

(The current years foliage always dies off and turns brown, the pruning is to protect the crown from any disease starting in the dying off leaves)