This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
Strawberries - safe to pot up?
Morning all,
My strawberry bed is now slowing down and I've got copious pots of delicious jam ready to see me through the winter months!
Given the plants are taking up a valuable space in the garden (raised bed 1.5m x 3m long) how 'safe' is it to pot them up in some good compost to take up less space and overwinter? Will I weaken the plants and make them less productive next year?
I plan to throw away some of the older, less productive plants anyway and plant up some of the runners so my gut feel is that this should work OK - some of the most productive plants were from runners last year.
Would appreciate thoughts / guidance from some of the more experienced members on the forum - thanks in advance!
0
Posts
You would be better just keeping the runners that are potted up. But plants are best replanted in autumn rather than in spring
Thanks Fleurisa - so if I have enough runners to pot up then I can simply replant them in the autumn and just compost the old plants?
That leaves the bed free to grow salads / courgette etc until that time.
Sounds like a plan (not just need to find the time to do it all...what a pain it is having to work...!)
Yes, I'd do that
Your idea will cut your yield dramatically. But you can root the runners straight into pots by pegging them down into the pots. Then they are all ready to plant out in the Autumn, and you can cut off and remove the old plants as soon as the new plants have adequate roots of their own.
The biggest issue I have, Welshonion, is remembering how old they are! I think I need a better way of planting / labelling to identify first, second and third year plants.
Main objective really is to try and free up a large bed that current has (broadly) dormant strawberry plants in it. I guess it's a trade off between getting another crop out of this space this year vs affecting the yield of the strawberry plants next year?