strawberries taking over-what do i do?

[lottie-newbie]

Hi folks.

complete beginner here so please bear with me if I hit stupid mode.

I planted some strawberry plants last year and they seem to take over the plot by the end of the season- mind you I only got half a dozen fruits from them! Am I supposed to do something with all the little plants that branch off? Havent been to see lately but also are there things I am supposed to do now or do they all die off in the winter and I have to plant new ones again.

[Nicos]

Hi there- and welcome to the Vine!

Not a silly question at all!

Strawberries do best in their 2nd and 3rd years- and then will be less productive.That being the case most people replace them after their 3rd or 4th year.
All those babies should have roots by now- and can be moved to create a new bed which will be one year younger.
If you do this each year you'll never need to buy replacement plants- and will have loads spare to pass on to other people.

I made the mistake of letting the babies grow where they were- and now I've no idea which ones are 4 or 5 years old!!!( until they don't fruit!!)

All strawberry plants die back for the winter- and tend to have just a few leaves left in the middle. Any leaves which are dead- or red -should be carefully cut off as these can harbour mould.

[Two_Sheds]

Just as Nicos said ... you need to thin them out. If they are left crowded, your crop will be smaller. They need about 12" apart each way

[lottie-newbie]

hey thanks for that! great so I will have a constant supply of strawberry plants. Easy when you know how

[crichmond]

If you want to stop them invading the plot, you could build a raised bed and plant them in that then just snip any plant back that tries to get out of the raised bed.

[andrewo]

That's great news that they sent out so many runners, as Nicos says, snip those runners off now and plant them in a new row. Mark the rows, so you know when you planted them (you do forget). Then any runners you get from the two rows will make a third row and you can then have a three year turn around (for four have four rows). What you do is after the third year get rid of the oldest strawberries and plant a new rows with the runners...does that make sense? Doing this way means that you will get a steady crop each year.

[di]

Just to affirm....so not a silly question!!!It's actually answered a lot of queries I've had regarding strawberries...Cheers!x

[nilling]

It costs the plant energy to produce runners - I'd rather they produce fruit first.

Snip off any runners as soon as they show. There will be plenty of time at the end of the season for the plants to produce their runners. I use wire bent into a U shape to hold the runner in place so it can take root. When it's established you can then snip the runner and move it.

[TonyF]

Agree with all of the above. And is also depends on what type of strawberries you're growing, if they're the larger cultivated types, replace for sure, I do mine in year 4, from runners of plants I'm sure will produce.

If they're the alpine types - which are now grown and cultivated rather than the original wild strawberries - I just let mine look after themselves, they form a complete mat in the bed and every autumn/spring I gently use a small hand rake to get rid of the dead material. They also seem to know when they've stopped fruiting by dying off and then they just disappear with the rest of the raked rubbish.