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Planting Strawberry Runners

I have six strawberry plants, only two of which are producing fruit. The others have been producing runners, which I decided to plant today.

It was totally spur of the moment, without any research first. Basically what I did was snip them from the mother plants, dig small holes in the ground, and plant them. I thought this would work because the runners naturally seek out the ground to root themselves anyway, so why not plant them where I want them to take root? It never occurred to me that they may need to remain attached to the main plant until their roots are established, though, so we'll see how they do...

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was just googling this to find out what to do with my runners. How did it turn out?? Thanks!

Jeanne Elle said...

Thanks for asking! Sadly, they died. It may have something to do with the heat we've been having, though. It's been pretty brutal, and I was only watering every second day. My bad...

Anonymous said...

I use yogurt cups with a hole in the bottom & potting soil. Wait for runners to show roots, then bury the roots 1/4" deep. Cut a paperclip into U's and use them to hold the runner in position. Wait at least 2 weeks before cutting them. Each runner will develop 2-3 daughter plants located every foot or so. Each year I allocate 20 of my healthiest plants and let the runners grow to yield over 500 new plants per month. Each plant will generate 8 or more runners with up to 3 daughter nodes each.

Jeanne Elle said...

Anonymous - thanks!!! I'm going to try that. It makes sense to leave them attached to the mother plant while they're establishing themselves in the soil. Awesome!!