Strawberry cuttings in greenhouse - mildew!

[buzzingtalk]

Help! I made around 15 cuttings from my 4 lovely strawb plants this summer from the runners - all of them are very healthy and vigourus, but I'm having some problems...

I keep hearing conflicting advice as to what to do with them over winter - they are all in pots (small) and I have no ground to plant them into so they must stay in pots. Originally I heard they should be protected from frost etc, and there was a very cold night recently (not quite a frost) so I moved them all into my small plastic greenhouse thing, and came back from work 2 days later and some of them had powdery mildew I took affected ones out, and then heard they were OK outside - but left a few in the GH with the door folded up (theres only 8 tiny ones in there) and came back from work today and some more have mildew gah.

So 2 questions today:

1. Are small, potted strawberry cuttings going to be OK outside? There isn't a lot of sunshine now its winter (the whole back of my house is sheltered by other buildings and the sun can't seem to get through much, but in summer its quite sunny) but they will be next to a wall that seems to stay a bit warm, and will be sheltered from wind. What about if we have really heavy rain, will they 'drown' in their small pots? (I read this somewhere on here)

2. Why are they getting mildew in the greenhouse? Nothing else I had in there got it. I heard it might be a circulation problem but I left the door open at all times...it is in a very sheltered area though so can't imagine there being a breeze as such!

[FB.]

Strawberries are extremely hardy. Almost all of last years runners survived being in barrels on my patio all through the deep freeze last winter.
They had to endure weeks of minor frosts (-5'C), with the occasional deep frost thrown in (-10'C).

Pot-grown plants of all kinds are not normally recommended to be put outside because, if they have been kept in a greenhouse all season, they are not hardened-off enough to survive frosts. In afew *really cold* areas, deep frosts might damage or kill potted plants.
Plants that have been kept outside all year long will be fully hardy.

The cause of your problems is probably due to the humid environment in the greenhouse. Mildews love humidity. Some varieties are more prone to mildews than others.

[buzzingtalk]

They have been outdoors all summer, apart from the last few weeks a few have been in the greenhouse with the door rolled right open. Sounds like they will be fine outdoors though! I might just take the plastic casing off the greenhouse as I don't really have much room for all these pots on the floor haha! Thanks fi your help

[Two_Sheds]

I might just take the plastic casing off the greenhouse

yes, do that. You should keep an eye out for condensation in your greenhouse - I've had to unzip mine this week too

[buzzingtalk]

I guess that will make it more stable in a way, as it won't be fighting the wind I might put a bag of stones/compost on the bottom to secure it for winter

Overwintering plants are gonna have to go indoors, somehow.

[Two_Sheds]

I might put a bag of stones/compost on the bottom to secure it

Good idea, it needs something. I find they don't last more than a year or two here on the Windy Coast.
I'm so pleased to finally have a proper grownup greenhouse (just need to seal those gaps now)