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Strawberries

sueporter312002sueporter312002 Posts: 61
in Fruit & veg
I've read that is the time to put new strawberry plants in fresh compost ready for next year, but what do I do with my strawberry plants in my hanging baskets that i have now, they have stopped producing fruit & have tubers which I have been removing during the time fruit appeared, do I keep them as the are & store away till next year? 

Posts

  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    Strawberries don't produce tubers. They have runners. Those are for propagating new plants. :)
    There's no need to do anything with the ones you have, unless you've had them for several years, in which case you'd peg down the runners to make new plants to replace the original ones, and discard those.
    Ideally, it's best to do that after the 2nd year, to give the runners time to be productive, while the originals have a third year of fruiting. 
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • sueporter312002sueporter312002 Posts: 61
    Fairygirl said:
    Strawberries don't produce tubers. They have runners. Those are for propagating new plants. :)
    There's no need to do anything with the ones you have, unless you've had them for several years, in which case you'd peg down the runners to make new plants to replace the original ones, and discard those.
    Ideally, it's best to do that after the 2nd year, to give the runners time to be productive, while the originals have a third year of fruiting. 
    Thanks for the info, so just to be clear, I just leave the plants in my hanging baskets & remove runners, they are new plants this year. I put them in hangers as no ground space.
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    If the plants you already have are still quite young, just cut off the runners if you don't want more plants. If you do, you can peg them down into pots attached to your baskets, or bags of some kind, until they root, and then cut them off and grow them on.  

    The ones you have will need a bit of new compost to keep them going over winter time,  to refresh the medium they're in, and then some more [probably] in spring with some slow release food or whatever you're normally using to feed them.
    They'll always need more attention when in a container of any kind  :)

    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,385
    edited July 2020
    They will be fine left in the baskets over the winter.  Because all of the nutrients in the compost will have been used up by now, you'll need to regularly feed them with liquid feed next spring, as soon as you see fresh growth start.  Alternatively, you could replace the compost in the baskets at that point.
    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    @BobTheGardener- we're following each other round the forum.... ;)
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,385
    Fairygirl said:
    @BobTheGardener- we're following each other round the forum.... ;)

    Bound to happen when we both use the 'recent discussions' page as 'home'. :D
    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
     :D 
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • Allotment BoyAllotment Boy Posts: 6,774
    The only other thing to do will be to take off any dead (brown & dry) leaves that are present as they just get in the way of the new ones & emerging fruit next year.
    AB Still learning

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