Saturday, August 11, 2012

Potting Up Strawberries


We've had a pretty successful strawberry crop so far this summer and even more are ripening now. And with successful strawberry plants come runners!  Our strawberry runners are going crazy, they are outrunning us all.  For the most part I've been clipping them off or ignoring them, but our Hood strawberries were so amazingly delicious that last week I decided to pot up some of the runners and increase the number of plants we have so I could plant some in the backyard for next year.


It's an easy task that I can do with or without the kids.  I just put some good potting soil in a pot, gently push the runner into the potting soil right where the roots are starting, cover the roots with more soil and water in nicely.  Some people pot the runners up while leaving them attached to the parent plant.  Once their own roots are well established (a week or two) you then clip them off the parent plant and they are ready to be on their own.  I've also heard you can clip the runner first and pot it up all by itself.  I was curious so I tried both ways.


So far all the ones I clipped off of the parent plants first and then potted up on their own have withered up and died.


All of the ones I left attached to the parent plants are looking great.  When I have time to pot up more, this is the way I will do it.

Jasper and Lily got the hang of potting up super fast and no sooner had I potted up a few strawberry plants, when I look over at them and they had potted up some goofballs!





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