Don’t let strawberries run away with you

Strawberries are still busily putting out runners and if you’re growing them in a bed it won’t be long before they completely take over. The runners put out little roots and if they have access to soil they will soon make themselves at home permanently. This is great if you want to increase your strawberry patch but you’ll still want to keep things under control as they can easily become rather rampant.

Unwanted runners:

Use a pair of secateurs to cut off any runners that you don’t want. It feels a bit brutal as you may have the desire to let the poor things grow, but if you don’t have the space then it is better to cut them off and pop them in the compost.

Wanted runners:

If you do want them to grow on, then either let them take root in the soil, or pop the runner into a small plant pot filled with compost. Once the runner has set its roots down firmly you can separate it from the parent plant by simply cutting the stem that connects the two. You can grow them on in their pots, transferring them to a larger pot once they get  bit bigger, or plant them out in situ over the next few weeks.

Don’t forget that you can aways pot on a few runners and give them to friends and neighbours…nearly everybody loves homegrown strawberries!


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