Strawberry help needed please.

For the first time this year I bought some strawberry plants, mainly because I was given one of those strawberry planters. I only bought 6 plants (Cambridge Favourite) and as each produced but one fruit, I'm guessing they were quite young plants and thus hope for a better crop next year.

I know strawberry plants have a relatively short 'cropping' life and so have been pegging down the offshoots to increase the number of plants but .... because the parent plants are in the aforementioned planter, I've been pegging the offshoots into 3" plastic pots. Many of these little plants have now rooted and are ready to be severed from their 'mum'.

I think I know what to do with the parent plants, but am not sure about the newer ones. Having detached them from the main plant, would it be best to pop them - in their pots - in a cold frame (or unheated greenhouse) over winter?

Just as a BTW - our garden is still in the 'making' process so I've no idea as yet, where any permanent, suitably large, position might be found for them.

I'd be grateful for some advice.

 

Hiya,

You can plant the babies outside where you want them to grow next year now-infact I find if they go in before September they tend to do very very well ( at least for me). They are perfectly hardy and can stay outside all winter without a problem. Don't let them be overshadowed too much and keep your eye on them for watering-they can dry out quickly-but wait for signs of them wilting before you water-they can be over-watered too.

Out of interest how many runners have you harvested? With luck you should still be taking runners for a few more weeks yet.

The parent plants will do better next year.

 

Thank you very much for that.

As for planting them in the ground that's my main problem, I'm not sure where they will be able to go because, as it's still a relatively new garden, we haven't actually got anywhere they can go at the minute - I'm guessing they'll need quite a bit of space?

At the minute I've got about 11 or 12 which are rooted ('the books' seem to advise not taking any more than 5 from each plant) and, because the parent plants are in the planter, the pots with the offshoots in are currently balanced on a variety of 'things' to bring them up to the right height - bricks, tins, bits of wood! (actually it looks a bit of a mess, but for the sake of future fruit that's a small price to pay!). There are lots more runners ready to be pinned down, which is why I queried what to do with the already rooted ones.