In this tip:
- Introduction
- A)# Growing a runner in a flower pot
- B)# Big grown runners in flower pots
- C)# Planting out (bottomless flower pot with cut side wall)
- D)# Planting out (general)
- E)# Strawberry plants grown bigger
- F)# Winter and spring
- G)# Which runners to be used
- H) Storage of flower pots
- I) Strawberry growing tips on the internet
- J)# Wikihow
How to grow big strawberry plants from your own runners.
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In this tip I describe how to “plant” strawberry runners in bottomless plastic flowerpots. They grow into big strawberry plants with large root balls.
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Introduction
Many gardeners let strawberry runners grow in flower pots. Later on, the strawberry plants are taken out of the pots and planted in the garden.
You better grow the runners in bottomless plastic flower pots. In these pots, each runner grows into a big strawberry plant with a big, deep root ball.
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Tip when putting runners in pots:
Very useful: put a plastic strip around the mother plant to hold the leaves together (see white/orange arrow);
- With a strip around, the leaves of the mother plant aren’t in the way when putting a runner in (on) a flower pot in the soil. And useful when watering the plant and runners.
- When using the strips, the runners aren’t growing under the leaves of the mother plant. So the runners grow better (faster, bigger).
- (The strip may be around the mother plant until the big runner plants are replanted).
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Procedure:
Use a bulb planter to make a planting hole in the soil.
Put a flower pot in the planting hole.
Fix the runner; lead the stolon through a slot in the flower pot.
After replanting, water the mother plants and the runners often, so the runners will grow fast.
Three kinds of flower pots have been tested:
- Flower pots without bottom part and closed side wall
- Flower pots without bottom part and cut side wall
- Flower pots with bottom part (normal flower pots)
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A)# Growing a runner in a flower pot
- Use the first offshoot, counted from the mother plant.
- Use sharp scissors to cut away the next runner.
- Small runners don’t have roots yet.
- Lay the runner plant aside.
- Use a bulb planter to make a round hole in the soil. Wiggle the planter (in open position) in the earth to make the hole wider.
- Take the bulb planter out of the soil (in closed position).
- In the soil there is a round hole to put a flower pot in.
- In the bulb planter is garden earth.
Put a flower pot in the hole, fill it with manured garden earth and lay (put) the runner plant on the earth in the pot.
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General method (at all types of flower pots):
- My experience: you can have more big runners (from the same stolon) growing in flower pots. And you can have “many” big runners of 1 mother plant grow in flower pots.
- Lay a runner plant without roots loose on the soil in the flower pot. Don’t dig in the plant. Don’t scatter garden earth on the plant.
- At a runner plant with roots; put the roots in a mall hole in the soil in the pot. Scatter garden earth around on the roots.
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I tested 3 types of flower pots, see chapter A1), A2) and A3) below.
A1) Bottomless flower pot with closed side wall
In a bottomless flower pot, the root ball can grow very big and very deep.
The top diameter of this pot is about 10 centimeters (4 inch). Cut away the bottom. Cut a slot in the upper edge (used to lead the stolon of the runner).
- Put the bottomless flower pot in the hole in the soil.
- Turn the slot in the flower pot towards the mother plant (here to the right).
Fill the flower pot in the soil (the hole in the soil) with garden earth and manure or compost; the runner needs nutrients to grow bigger. Filling can be done as follows:
- Empty the bulb planter on the garden soil. Alternately shovel garden earth and manure (or compost) in the flower pot until full. This is very easy to do.
or
- Empty the bulb planter on the garden soil. Shovel (much) manure or compost in the flower pot. Then shovel garden earth in the pot until full. That goes well too.
Both procedures work well and result in big strawberry plants with big root balls.
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- Press on the earth in the flower pot (loose earth dries out faster). Press with the bottom of the bulb planter, this tool is nearby.
- Put more garden earth in the pot and press on. Repeat until the pot is full.
- Bend the strip above the slot aside and lead the stolon of the runner through this slot.
- Lay the runner on the earth in the flower pot.
- When needed turn the flower pot to have the plant “in the middle and upright”.
- Water the plant and soil in the flower pot.
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- From now on, water the runner plants and mother plants often.
- Let the runners grow big.
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- Later on, when replanting, cut the side wall of the flower pot to remove the plant from the flower pot. Put the strawberry plant in the soil.
- You end up with a bottomless flower pot with cut side wall. Can this flower pot be used to put in a runner plant next time?
- Yes, you can. See the next chapter.
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A2) Bottomless flower pot with with cut side wall
In a bottomless flower pot with cut side wall, the root ball can also get very large and deep.
But such a flower pot is a little harder to put in the hole in the soil.
At left a “normal” flower pot. At right a bottomless flower pot with cut side wall. The cut in the side wall is opposite to the slot in the upper edge.
- Press a “normal” flower pot this deep in the hole in the garden soil.
- (if not working, take the flower pot out, wiggle the bulb planter in the hole to make it bigger, put the flower pot in the hole again)
- Take out the normal flower pot.
- Put a bottomless flower pot with cut side wall in the hole until the top edge reaches the garden soil.
- The cut side wall may have a a small overlap (be a little double).
- Turn the slot in the flower pot towards the mother plant.
Fill the flower pot in the soil (the hole in the soil) with garden earth and manure (or garden earth and compost), press on the earth in the flower pot and lay the runner on. Water the plant.
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Bigger flower pot:
When there are no well fitting “cut open” flower pots, you can use a bigger cut open flower pot. There is a bigger overlap at the cut side (see green/blue arrow). That’s okay.
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A3) Normal flower pot
I also tested a normal flower pot with slot.
Put the flower pot in the hole in the garden soil. Fill the flower pot in the soil with garden earth and manure (or garden earth and compost), press on the earth in the flower pot and lay the runner on. Water the plant.
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B)# Big grown runners in flower pots
In August (mid to late summer) the strawberry runners are big enough to plant out. Below there are photos of big strawberry plants in the 3 types of pots.
B1) Bottomless flower pot with closed side wall
A big grown runner plant in a bottomless flower pot.
The side wall of the flower pot has been cut and the plant has been taken out.
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B2) Bottomless flower pot with cut side wall
A big grown runner plant in a bottom less flower pot with cut side wall.
The strawberry plant has been taken out of the flower pot.
(this is an old model flower pot, with the cut side wall near the slot. A cut side opposite the slot is much more useful).
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B3) Normal flower pot
A big grown runner plant in a normal flower pot.
The strawberry plant has been taken out of the pot.
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B4) Three types of flower pots, which one is the best?
- A bottomless flower pot is the best one. A strawberry plant with deep roots grows in it. Such a plant does not dry out so easy, that’s useful when gardening in sandy soil.
It doesn’t matter if the side wall has been cut, yes or no. I use flower pots with cut sides only.
- In a flower pot with bottom part the runner plant gets less roots. That’s not useful in sandy soil. And it’s hard to get the plant out of the flower pot.
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C)# Planting out (bottomless pot with cut side wall)
When using a bottomless flower pot with cut side, planting out big strawberry runners is very easy;
- Dig a deep hole in the soil, deep enough for the root ball.
- Put the flower pot with plant in the hole.
- Use your hands to shove garden earth below and around the flower pot with root ball.
- Take care that the top of the soil in the pot is at about the same level as the garden soil.
- Fill the space around the flowerpot with garden earth.
- Wiggle and carefully pull the flower pot out of the garden soil while the plant stays in the soil.
- Meanwhile, when needed, use a hand to keep the plant in the soil.
- Press on the soil around the plant.
- Take care that the plant is at the right depth in the soil.
- The top of the root ball is approximately at the same level as the garden soil.
- When needed, push or pull the plant higher or lower. Or remove or add some garden earth.
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Taking the plant out first:
You can also take the strawberry plant with big root ball out of the bottomless flower pot first and then replant in the soil, as follows:
- Take the plant with root ball out of the bottomless pot.
- (or remove the pot from the root ball).
- Make a planting hole in the garden soil.
- Put manure or compost in the planting hole.
- Put the plant with root ball in the planting hole.
- Put manure or compost and garden earth in the space around the root ball.
Both procedures work just as well.
But at a plant with a smaller root ball, you better put the plant with flower pot in the planting hole, so less earth falls from the root ball. Then continue according to the procedure as described in chapter C)#, 2nd photo.
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D)# Planting out (general)
Planting out strawberry plants can be done as follows:
- Loosen the soil of the new strawberry bed.
- Dig up the soil withe a spade. Or use a fork.
- Use a string or elastic band to plant out in a straight line.
- Again and again make a big hole in the soil using a garden trowel scoop or hand.
- Scatter manure or compost in the planting hole.
- Put each strawberry plant in a planting hole as described at C)#.
Useful when making 2 rows of strawberry plants next to each other:
- Distance between the 2 rows is 30 centimeters (1 ft).
- Each plant in one row is in the middle between 2 plants of the other row.
- Next year, put 1 broad tunnel of iron mesh over the 2 rows of strawberry plants against birds eating. See tip 23) .
- After planting, water the soil and the strawberry plants.
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E)# Strawberry plants grown bigger
A few recently replanted big runner plants.
August 17 (late summer); my runner plants, grown in bottomless flower pots.
August 17 (late summer); runner plants of an allotment colleague. These runners have been grown and replanted “normally”, so not in flower pots.
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F)# Winter and spring
During winter, strawberry plants need no protection against cold; plants need cold (frost) to grow flowers and fruits in the next season.
In spring, it can happen that a strawberry plant has “disappeared” (near arrow).
Make a planting hole at the position of the disappeared strawberry plant. You can use replanting tubes to do that.
Take a spare strawberry plant from the ground (near white/red arrow). You can use replanting tubes.
Put the spare plant in the planting hole. You can use replanting tubes.
Pour water on and round the replanted spare strawberry plant to flush garden earth around the root ball.
In March (early spring), you can put straw on the soil between the plants. Against cold, useful when watering (water sinks towards the roots) and against fast drying out of the soil.
Straw helps against rot fruits later. With straw, no mud splashes on the fruits during heavy rains. Fruits with mud on rot sooner.
You can put metal wire netting over the plants, see tip 23) . And put perforated plastic foil on. The foil makes the plants growing faster and flowers appearing earlier.
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G)# Which runners to be used
To have big strawberry plants with many big fruits next year, you need big runners. Grow them as follows:
- Take runners from healthy mother plants, big plants with many fruits.
- Use the first and second runner stem (stolon) from these plants.
- At some big strawberry plants, let more (3 to 5) runners or colons grow big.
- Cut away each next runner stem from the mother plant.
- Use the procedure as described in this post.
- Plant the biggest strawberry plants in the garden soil.
- You can keep mother plants in the garden for one more year. Check if this fits in your crop rotation system. Next year, you will harvest more and smaller strawberries at these “old” mother strawberry plants.
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H)# Storage of flower pots
When the bottomless flower pots are not used, you can make a pile of pots on an “uncut” flower pot.
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I)# Strawberry growing tips on the internet
On the internet there are many sites about growing strawberries. For example:
http://www.almanac.com/plant/strawberries
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J)# Wikihow
In wikihow, I wrote an article about this. Click at Wikihow4
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