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How to propagate strawberries from runners
- BBC Gardeners' World Magazine
Published: Friday, 11 August 2023 at 11:17 am
Boosting your stock of strawberries couldn't be easier. Find out how to do it using strawberry runners, with advice from Monty Don
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As soon as your strawberries have finished fruiting, it's a good time to raise some new plants from their abundant runners – the long stems emerging from the main plant – to give you new strawberry plants for free. Monty Don guides you through this simple process in this short video clip, showing you how to select the best runners and then plant them in individual pots. You can then use them to create a new strawberry bed or strawberry planter, to ensure a plentiful crop in future years.
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It's also a good time to clear away all the straw or matting to discourage slugs and snails from nibbling at the plants. Do this now and you can look forward to more plants and a bumper harvest next summer.
Find out how to propagate strawberries from runners, below.
Step 1
Using the staple to fix the runner in place
Choose a healthy runner which has produced one or more leaves, and remove any stems emerging from the new leaves, while keeping it still attached to the parent plant. Fill pots with multi-purpose compost. Place the strawberry runner on the surface and hold it in place using a u-shaped staple or a piece of wire.
Step 2
Potted strawberry runner with parent plant
Keep the compost moist at all times. Don't snip off the stem linking the new plant to its parent – keep this until the new plant has developed strong roots.
Step 3
Repotting the strawberry plant
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As soon as the plants are strongly rooted, snip off the stem connecting it to the parent plant, and plant in into a larger pot, or out into prepared ground.
Help the rooting process
To help rooting, use a soil mix of three parts compost to one part sand.
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