On Sunday, March 21, 2021 at 10:54:55 PM UTC, SH wrote:
On 21/03/2021 10:40, jkn wrote:
On Saturday, March 20, 2021 at 8:27:40 PM UTC, SH wrote:
On 20/03/2021 20:26, SH wrote:
Right...

I grow strawberries in a greenhouse. I use 14 litre builders buckets
with drainage holes drilled into the bottom.

I have 45 said buckets in a greenhouse with an automatic fertigation
system.

Last year I had Elsanta strawberries.

This year I now have 4 varieties, Honoeye, Cambridge gold and Florence
as well as the aforementioned Elsanta as some crop earlier and some crop
later to widen out the harvest season.

Now I also grow new strawberry plants every year from the stolons from
the current plants.
I throw strawberry plants in the compost bin after 3 years (fruit yield
is poor thereafter so all strawberry plants are always 3 years old or
younger.)

Separate to your query, but since you seem to know your strawberries...

I have a couple of strawberry beds and have been a bit lax about cutting
off runners etc. I am about to tidy things up; is it worth clearing out the
older plants and letting the new ones formed from runners grow on; or should
I clear the whole lot out?

Thanks for your advice
J^n

I grow new plants from the stolons (the correct name for runners).

I fill a pot with compost and use an elastic band to hold the plantlet
through the compost through the holes in bottom of the pot.

DO NOT CUT OFF from the mother plant yet, water and wait at least 2
weeks for the plantlet to take root. If the pot is smallishm you will
see some new roots coming out of the bottom of the pot.

Then and only then cut the stolon off at both ends (between mother plant
and new established "baby" strawberry plant.

Once the mother plant is more than 3 years old, bin it it will no longer
be a good cropper.

Then the new strawberry plant then gets transplanted into one of my
black buckets thats just been vacated by a departed geriatric plant.....

Thanks, that's useful. As I said, I have been lazy, so I have beds full of
both old and new plants. This weekend I have cleared things a bit,
sorted the plants into 'old and matted' and 'younger - maybe from stolons',
and replanted the latter, with some new compost.

I keep meaning to do the 'nurture in a small pot, then separate' exercise you
suggest, but never seem to get around to it. Maybe this year...

J^n