Question for those that grow strawberries...

[Jonathon Spafford]

Well, I have all these strawberry plants that I planted earlier in the spring and they're all in pots on the porch. Anyway, they have all these vines growing out of them in all different directions and I don't know what to do with them. I have already put two of the vines in new pots and they are growing new plants. My first question is when do I cut the vine attaching the new shoot to the main plant? My second question is should I cut the extra vines back so that their aren't a bunch of these shoots drawing from the main plant?

I was also wonder what I should do with these plants in the winter? Just bring 'em inside the garage or what? It can get really cold over here and I don't want these to die!

[Bonnie Campbell]

I'm no expert, but I clip the starts off and just push them into the dirt to root. Always take more than you think you'll need because all won't make it. Once the starts have established a set of good leaves they can be cut off the mother plant.

Unless you get a good amount of freezing Gorge winds, I would think you could just leave the plants outside. Since they're in pots put them on the most protected side of the house. I had strawberries in Clatskanie and I just left them out. They always seemed to survive. But, if not sure, and you've got the room, you could garage them. If you've a low evergreen you could group the pots under it for the winter too.

[David G Baker]

I am not sure where the name "strawberry" came from but my Grandmother always covered her plants with a thick covering of "straw". She lived in lower Michigan and the Winters there can be pretty fierce at times. Her plants survived and produced a bunch of berries. I do not know about how they hold up in containers in freezing temperatures.

[Leigh Costello]

As far as my memory serves - some days I remember more than others - you can "root" the viney starts and create more plants. I have had a very successful strawberry patch for years. I let Mother Nature do the "rooting" for me. I will sometimes re-position a start without any trouble. I bury my strawberry plants in lots of chopped up leaves in the fall. When spring rolls around the leaves have composted and I get berries the size of golf balls. Good luck with your pots and all!

[Joe Pelonio]

Most strawberries slow down after a few years, the runners root easily and can be used to replace the older ones. I grow mine in a 4" PVC pipe, with more in the base pot. Here it gets colder than where you are, and my strawberries all made it through last winter out in the open even down to
13F. The leaves turned yellow and by January were looking dead but they all came back when it warmed up. We've already been down to 38 and there are still green ones on them (the pic was from August)

[Jonathon Spafford]

That is a pretty cool strawberry plant, but how do you grow them in a pvc pipe like that?? .... it is hard to tell from the picture.

[Jonathon Spafford]

Anyway, thanks so much for the advice everybody... it is really helpful! I have clipped back my strawberry vines and will probably cover them with some sort of mulch before winter.

[Joe Pelonio]

That is a pretty cool strawberry plant, but how do you grow them in a pvc pipe like that?? .... it is hard to tell from the picture.

Good luck with the overwintering. I noticed this morning that I'm starting to get yellow leaves now so they are probably done for this season.

I used a hole saw made for door lock sets to cut the holes all up and down and around on the pipe. I then covered each hole with masking tape, and fed some 1/4" drip tubing through it. Then I placed it in a large clay pot, had my son hold it with a level on it while filling the pipe and pot with soil.

Starting at the bottom I planted each one by pulling off the masking tape, trying to keep too much soil from falling out, then using sphagnum moss to plug the hole except for the plant stem. On the top I put one more plant.

When done I planted more plants into the pot below, and placed a drip system sprinkler head at the top that when on, sprays into the soil at the top of the pipe. The water seeps through and hits all of them in about 5 minutes.

[Leigh Costello]

Joe,
What a nice thing to share. I am going to try this, since the ground gets farther and farther away each spring.

[Jonathon Spafford]

Hey Joe....

Thanks for the info... I'm going to have to try that next spring and see how that works!

[mark page]

According to my LOML and MIL who always have prize gardens on the farm and run their own use greenhouses, strawberries to be done right are a lot of work and need a little more room than normal plants. They state to grow them in rows wide enough for your garden tiller to have clearance. When the new runners start putting on, the runners are then guided to the center of the tilled row on each side. Then after they are established, the mother row is tilled under. They state this is done each year and that producing plants this year will not produce large berries or none at all the following year. This also keeps them in rows that can be walked about without stepping into a mass of plants. It gets very cold here in the midwest and they don't do anything special to winter them. I'm no expert but believe them as they grow strawberries the size of golf balls. I don't have the time or inclination to grow strawberries this way myself, so I just mooch off of them, lol.