Can you divide strawberries?

[broadway]

Hi Folks,

Just moving my strawberry bed and some are coming up in massive clumps, can I divide them?

[chris]

I have done before, but it was by accident - I gave up the plot they were on before I saw any results. They didn't die by the time I had left the plot though.

edit: to clarify I took it you already know about the runners.

[Matt94]

by massive clumps do you mean lots of strawbs close together or 1 big one, if its one big one no you cant divide it, if its lots of small plants use your hands to gently tease them apart. strawberry send off runners every rear to produce more plants, i think in your case, they where never transplanted.

hope that helped,
matt

[donnakebab]

I have done it myself in the past but I wouldn't bother if the plants are more than 2 or 3 years old. If you want more plants it's best to propagate from the runners as strawberry plants need to be replaced after 3 or 4 years to maintain/ improve productivity.

[broadway]

I have done before, but it was by accident - I gave up the plot they were on before I saw any results. They didn't die by the time I had left the plot though.

edit: to clarify I took it you already know about the runners.

Yup know the runner malarky thanks Chris

by massive clumps do you mean lots of strawbs close together or 1 big one, if its one big one no you cant divide it, if its lots of small plants use your hands to gently tease them apart. strawberry send off runners every rear to produce more plants, i think in your case, they where never transplanted.

hope that helped,
matt

Not 100% sure Matt!

I have done it myself in the past but I wouldn't bother if the plants are more than 2 or 3 years old. If you want more plants it's best to propagate from the runners as strawberry plants need to be replaced after 3 or 4 years to maintain/ improve productivity.

Hi DK, only a year old so want to give them a new home

[Aberdeenplotter]

If they are only a year old, then separate them all out and plant individually. I have mine2ft apart and the rows two foot apart as well.

If you can identify the original plants, keep them together because they will cease to be productive in another couple of years and then need to be thrown out whereas the younger plants will last a year beyond that time.

[FB.]

Strawberries seem to vary, depending on which variety.
A few varieties tend to divide mostly at the crowns, but don't produce many runners. Others produce lots of runners but aren't so easy to divide at the crown.

If, when you lift them, they can be split into several rooted pieces then I don't see why not to split them. I recently did that with my alpines (admittedly not "maincrop" strawberries), but also have done it when I had some "Florence", which don't produce many runners but tend to divide at the crown like alpines.

[Llamas]

I ruthlessly divided my clumps this winter. They'd not only sent out dozens of runners everywhere but were getting a bit big for the bed they were in. I used the teasing apart method and gave them more space inbetween plants, something which I'd advise doing, espcially if you're growing two rows as the dense foliage can make finding ripe berries more difficult and increase your chances of nasty fungi-related problems. If you've got some pots and a greenhouse or cold frame, you can used any extra divisions too. It's nice to have a few potted plants to bring inside to encourage earlier flowering and fruit set (make sure the bees can find them) to extend the season.

[Jardiniere]

Nothing to add to whats been said ...just wanted to say Hello Broadway..... C.O.Y.S.