As strawberry season hits the UK we thought we’d share this little strawberry secret with you…. you can cleverly grow on new strawberry plants from the runners that you’ll spot on your existing plants to get an even bigger crop next year.
A strawberry runner is a shoot that comes off the main plant and starts forming a mini plant. It looks like this:
The mini plant will start to put down roots. They will most likely not be able to get the roots down properly as most people wisely put a layer of straw around the plants, or grow them in grow bags or pots, so the mini plants won’t be able to access much soil. But if you get a small pot (the kind that you buy plug plants in from garden centres will be fine) then you can fill the pot with fresh compost and plant the mini plant. Don’t cut it from the mother plant for 2-3 weeks though as it needs the extra support until it’s fully rooted.
With a little TLC (i.e. watering) your mini plant will become a fully fledged strawberry plant next year and you’ll get a crop from the mother plant AND the mini plant. You’ll get more than one runner from each mother plant, so you can really make quite a big difference to your strawberry patch by doing this.
You don’t have to do this though – if you don’t have the space or don’t want too many plants, simply cut the runners off as they appear and continue to look after the mother plant with watering and feeding and it will crop again for 2-3 years anyway.