More Strawberries -Zero $$$

A How To..... blog

We are starting a series of How To.... blogs. The first was about refrigerator pickles. This one will be about propagating your strawberry plants to expand your strawberry bed for next year's crop.

The best part about this technique - it won't cost you an arm and a leg for new plants next Spring.

All you need are a pair of clippers and some bobby pins. Bob found the large hair pins for $1 at Dollar General. There are 30 in the packet. You can make your own pins with some flexible wire or use old bobby pins.

If you raise strawberries, you know that the plants put out runners. One of the old-time techniques was to straighten out the runner and place a small stone over the stem of the runner about 12" from the mother plant. The runner will set down roots, you can clip the runner from the mother plant and now you have a new strawberry plant.

The downside to this technique is overcrowding of your strawberry bed. That invites diseases, mildew, and even gives habitat for small animals to munch on your strawberries. (Why do they only take one bite of each berry?)

Bob's technique will allow you to propagate the runner and then, once the roots are set, transplant it to a new bed without damage.

He takes equal parts sandy loam soil and well composted manure, mixing them in equal parts in a small flower pot. We had these pots left over from our seed starting. . You can use what you have, just disinfect them first.

After the pot is filled with the mix, he submerges it in a bucket of water, making sure all the soil is saturated. He removes the pot from the water and sprinkles a light dusting of soil on the top.

Once he has identified a strawberry runner he wants to propagate he takes a bobby pin, opens it up slightly and secures the runner into the potted soil. You can see in the third picture that the runner is pressed into the soil by the hair pin. The runner is left attached to the mother plant until the runner is firmly rooted into the pot. The pot is placed alongside the mother plant and watered regularly.

We use black landscaping plastic on our strawberry beds. There are a few spots where a strawberry plant was placed in the Spring, but it died. You can use those holes or areas and secure a runner to fill in these spots in your established bed. In the final picture are some pots, filled with runners.

When the runner has established roots - usually a few weeks - you can clip the runner from the mother plant and transplant it into your new bed. Keep the new plants well watered and fertilized. Cover with straw for the Winter (northern USA).

To prevent spreading mildew, diseases, insect eggs between your garden beds, be sure to disinfect your equipment regularly in a mild bleach solution, TSP solution, rubbing alcohol or other technique. Just hosing them down isn't enough. Submerge them in the disinfectant for at least 3 minutes, then allow to air dry. If using the TSP (1 part to 9 parts water) rinse then air dry.

For more information about gardening, check out the Ohio State Extension publishing website. Most other state extension services have similar websites with geographically specific information. The OSU site is:

We are getting tomatoes, green beans, onions, and garlic right now. Also have some small Alpine strawberries still producing. They have lots of seeds and aren't great for eating or jam. I use them for making shrub (a fruit/vinegar syrup) or sprinkle a few on top a salad.

How is your garden doing?

Have a great Summer!

Bob and Polly