Strawberries

[Farmer_Gyles]

yesterday i was offered loads of strawberry runners - i've put about 20 in the ground on the allotment and about 20 in pots at home - do i need to do anything else with them?
should i remove the runners between them all?
what about covering them with straw for the winter? when does that need to be done?

[andrewo]

If the plants have rooted, or have roots, then remove any runners in between. I have never covered the crowns with straw and I am further North than you! Straw is used in summers when the fruit sets to keep them off the ground and away from slugs. Give them a potash feed too.

[sewer rat]

If your runners are producing plantlets when you remove them then free the plantlets and place them in clean yoghurt pots with clean water - they will root into the water, then you pot them up and you will get even more strarwberry plants.
The plants you have in pots can be planted out at any time and could be kept in a greenhouse / cold frame or just left outside over the winter and planted up in the spring.
I have a couple of hundred in pots sitting outside in pots, sheltered from the worst of the weather by the tunnel on one side and a pallet windbreak on the other. They won't be getting planted out til next spring.