Lucy the Puggle Dog and I have been hard at work in the garden today pulling up strawberry runners and sprucing up the pallet gardens in the backyard.
So far this year we’ve grown lettuce, beans, strawberries, chard, zucchini, celery and spinach in the pallet garden. Lettuce has done the best.
The strawberry runners had overtaken one of the pallet gardens so we went ahead and pulled up all the Swiss chard for the chickens.
Originally I was planning on re-planting it alongside the chicken run, but once we got the chard down there the chickens saw it and started flipping out, so we just fed it to them.
Happy chickens lay happy eggs, right? 😉
If you have never planted strawberry runners before, it’s supper easy. Just dig around the plant and gently pull it up. 
Try and take a little of the soil it was grown in with you. When you replant the runner, make sure the soil is level with the strawberry crown {dark green part above the roots} and give it a quick drink of water.
It’s been my experience that the runners will play dead for a week or two, then they’ll magically come back to life once the get settled into their new location.
Trust me, it won’t take long for the roots to take hold and grow. By next summer this pallet will be full of green leaves and fresh strawberries.
How about you? Are your strawberry beds a mess? Do you just pull up the runners and toss them, or create new beds for them for next year?
~Mavis wants to know.
Sheila Washburn says
My strawberries are new this year, so I just wove those newbies back to fill in.
Sarah says
I love the runners! What is not to love about free strawberry plants! Mine are in wine barrels around our patio. I let the plant send out one runner (cut the rest off) and I let it root in a separate smaller container. Than after it has rooted I replant it in wine barrels. And the process continues.
Rochelle says
My strawberries are new too this year. I just planted them in August in pots that I have suspended over our pond. The bottoms if the pots are submerged about 2 inches to create self watering pots that never need fertilizer. I am super excited about it. I haven’t had to water them yet, despite 100+ degree weather.
Paul says
I have a ton of runners that I have been either planting in with parent plants or planting in pots, letting them root and then cutting from the mother plant. I have so many more to do. Hopefully it isn’t too late since Oct 1st is usually our first frost. I’ll probably try to root them and then just bring them indoors.
Lisa says
I cleaned up my strawberry beds a few weeks ago. I have June bearers. Earlier in the season I set small pots of soil to root the runners I wanted. I cut off most of them. I have about a dozen daughter plants this year, which is enough for me right now!
One suggestion… cut of the strawberries forming on the runners. They are draining energy from the new baby daughter plants. You want them to put that energy into roots and crown growth for next year. It’s actually best not to let the runner plants produce any berries the first year. At least this is the “rule” for June bearers!
It would be so nice to have another crop right now. I’ll have to look into Tri-Star for another bed. I have earwig and sow bug problems with my strawberries. Even with Sluggo-Plus!
Jamie says
Mavis,
What type of strawberries are those? What seeds do you use or where do you get your plants. I bought mine from a farmer at my farmers market who told be that it was “ever bearing” but it only produced one small crop this spring. It is giving off runners like crazy and has filled 2 large beds now but they are not flowering or producing. Any advice?
Thanks,
Jamie
Mavis Butterfield says
Tri-Star strawberries. I’ve been growing them for the last 20 years and they are my favorite. 🙂