Plant strawberries and root their runners

When to do it

Use Strawberry’s recorded window for planting seedlings or plugs. Rooting runners is a supplementary technique performed when healthy plants produce them; it does not create another calendar planting window.

What you need

• Healthy strawberry plants
• Small pots and pegs
• Trowel and water

How to do it

1. Use healthy stock and a draining sunny bed or container. Set each crown at the surface with roots covered; neither bury the crown nor leave roots exposed.
2. Space for the variety’s mature spread, commonly around 30–45 cm. Water to settle.
3. To make a runner plant, choose a vigorous daughter plant from a healthy parent. Peg its rooting node onto moist mix in a small pot while leaving it attached.
4. Keep moist until roots hold the daughter firmly. Cut the connecting runner only after it has rooted, then establish it in its final position.
5. Remove surplus runners if fruit production is the priority. For other offsets, separate only when they have their own roots and a growing point, using species-specific guidance.

What success looks like

• The crown remains clear and the daughter plant supports itself.

Watch out for

• Severing an unrooted runner.
• Propagating visibly diseased stock.

Plant guides using this technique

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