If you grow strawberries, chances are your plants will produce runners - shoots that eventually grow leaves and create additional strawberry plants. (Technically, they are known as "stolons.") These runners are both a good thing and a bad thing. They are bad because they eventually over-crowd your strawberry plants, making them much less productive. They are good because they are an easy way to get new strawberry plants.How to Get Rid of Strawberry Runners
If you don't want new strawberry plants - and don't know anyone else who wants them, either - you'll want to pinch or cut back runners as soon as they appear. This will keep your existing strawberry plants healthy and productive.
How to Use Strawberry Runners for New Plants
If you want new strawberry plants from your runners, there are two methods you may wish to try. The first, and easiest for novice gardeners, is to wait for the runners to grow new plants with at least three leaves. Then cut the runner (the stem that connects the baby plant with the mother plant) off and dig up the baby plant. Replant it wherever you like.
The second method is also easy: Before the runner produces leaves, place a four inch pot filled with good, wet potting soil beneath the runner. Press some of the runner down into the potting soil. Make sure this piece of runner is covered with soil, then place a small rock on top to keep the runner in place. Make sure the soil in the pot stays moist. After a few weeks, the runner should have rooted in the potting soil; remove the rock. When there are at least three leaves on the baby plant, cut off the runner stem. Plant the new strawberry plant wherever you like.
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