Strawberry Cuttings

On Saturday I was taking care of our little strawberry patch. I know you are meant to put straw under the plants to keep the fruit off the floor to stop them going rotten. Now we don't have straw, but we do have some hay which is used for Patch the guinea pig. And seeing as Patch likes the cut off tops of strawberries, I think it's only fair that some of her hay is used for the purpose of getting better strawberries. She'll reap the rewards - eventually!

So while I was putting a bed of hay down under the plants I noticed a few runners stretching across the patch. Now these are only young plants so I don't want them putting lots of energy into producing runners so I started to cut them off. I discovered that they had started to try and put down roots in several places. As an experiment I collected up the tiny little rooted plants and put them in pots more as an experiment than anything else. There were four in total at various stages - some not much more than a leaf or two and one only had little stubs rather than real roots. If they work then all well and good but I'm not really expecting much. Saying that, it's been a couple of days and they have not died yet!

Tiny little strawberry cuttings - see how they grow

I think the best way to take cuttings from strawberry plants is to let the runner grow and place pots full of compost along it at the points where it wants to root down. Then gently peg the runner down into the pot so that it grows in the pot. Once it's nicely established the new 'sister' plant can be severed from the 'mother' plant. I'll try this later in the year.