Fall strawberry transplants

I believe it’s best practice to plant and transplant perennials in the fall. The spring gets too hot to fast here in NC and stresses the plants. In early fall I’ll collect runners from my strawberries and place them in a shallow container of water. There are noticeable roots in a few days and ready to pot up in about two weeks. At that point I wait until I see new growth before planting out.
The traditional method involves placing the runners in a pot and waiting for roots before removing from the mother plant. With this, I’ve had little success. Inevitably, the soil drys out while I’m not pay attention and it takes much longer.

Today I planted the rest of the strawberries that I'd rooted from runners.

1. To solve the "forget to keep them watered" problem, I use a shallow tray (about 2" deep)
2. I use the fairly small pots I can salvage from people's recycle bin - 3" square ones are great - filled with decent dirt/compost mix.
3. The tray I use will hold 5 or 6 of those pots and I look for a position where that many runners will easily reach.
4. I collect flat, smooth stones, which I use to hold the "umbilical cord" just beside the baby plant's new leaves, positioning them so the root buds will be in contact with the soil - this rock method has *really* worked for me. Not only does the rock hold the baby securely, it acts as a mulch to decrease evaporation.
5. Pouring an inch or two of water in the tray is quick and easy to do, and it's easy to see if the water is gone and they need more.
6. When I think it's well rooted - or I simply remember to, I take my knife and cut the runner off.

When I went to transplant today, most of the babies had roots showing out the bottom of the pot. Three of the 10 babies, actually had babies off them, of which 2 are likely to survive, and one is a maybe.

Yes, I agree with Scott - many plants like this are best transplanted in the fall, but we've had crazy weather, and I had 2 rescue apple trees that were a higher priority. The first apple tree went in late November, has decent fencing around it, and 2 Black currents, some oregano, walking onion, parsley and a compost hole as companions. The far side of the compost hole from the tree is where I just planted these last baby strawberries. They're still in the fenced area, which is essential as deer like to eat the leaves, and I've lost plants that way in the past. It will take a while for the tree to get large enough to shade the berries and I find strawberries like to move every 5 years or so anyway.

The second apple tree finally went in about 3 weeks ago. I needed to remove a lot of invasive English Ivy, build up a dry-stack rock wall, and fill in behind the wall with soil and rock. That tree also got some strawberries, but only about 6 as I had to put them closer in to keep them protected from the deer.

To some extent, I'm prepared to consider these berry plants ground cover and not worry if I don't get many berries. To get serious berries, I really need a way to also protect from the birds! If I see one producing well, I may try to do so, but I've got a raised bed with strawberries in that I can easily net which is my priority. However, I've also got some bamboo culms I needed to harvest, and if I can figure out how to make a mesh cover using that resource, that would be cool!

Protecting strawberries from birds:  I have not actually tried this, but I do find it very logical.

Small rocks, painted red, scattered amongst the plants,  birds get fed up pecking at rocks and give up.

Lorinne Anderson wrote:Protecting strawberries from birds:  I have not actually tried this, but I do find it very logical.

Small rocks, painted red, scattered amongst the plants,  birds get fed up pecking at rocks and give up.

I have tried this and it works up to a point. It works for about 1-2 weeks and then they wise up. Put the rocks out when the strawberries come into flower so they have a couple of weeks to learn that strawberries are hard and inedible.

Sounds like you have a lot of goodness going on Jay.
Birds and slugs have been my issues in the past. Slugs ceased being a problem with the construction of my tiny garden pond last April. Turns out that frogs and toads like slugs a lot! 🐸
I picked up my bird solution at a thrift store. Pictured is one level of a fruit/veggie hanger. Each unit has three cages of a different size. I have six small cages. When doing different projects I have to cut chicken wire and other mesh. All of it gets pieced together into an up-cycled bird deterrent. Neither birds or slugs are very interested until the fruit approaches ripeness. I just move the small cages around as needed.

That's a great idea, Scott! I think I can find a way to make something like that, and I know I've got some used chicken wire that could be upcycled that way - thanks!

My strawberries all died off last year around late fall, I had them in ceramic pots. I didn't really know how to keep them alive. I think they died from lack of water. Before they died I had successfully staked down runners into three new pots using a twist tie to keep the runner near the soil. It was the not knowing how to keep them going after that the tripped me up.

Strawberries are already on the market again here now, so I decided to grab some seeds from the sides of one. I'm going to try growing from seed soon.

I was also hoping to establish some as a groundcover around the bases of some of my raised beds, to see if they could compete with the dandelions, sow thistle and mugwort... Hah, probably not...

Be sure to keep some sow thistle going to make fertilizer tea with. It has a decent amount of phosphorus and magnesium to help young plants along. I never harvest it all because I want some to reseed. The tea also has that “robust aroma” similar to comfrey. 😂

I planted 3 strawberries two years ago and now they crawl and take over 50 square feet including a path. Do I need to remove some older plants or transplant younger ones to rejuvenate the patch?  I sometimes just walk on them like ground cover.

L. Johnson wrote:My strawberries all died off last year around late fall, I had them in ceramic pots. I didn't really know how to keep them alive. I think they died from lack of water. Before they died I had successfully staked down runners into three new pots using a twist tie to keep the runner near the soil. It was the not knowing how to keep them going after that the tripped me up.

Strawberries have surprisingly deep roots, so they need fairly deep pots. I prefer my pots to have reservoirs in the bottom or to sit in reservoir that's at least 2" deep. The "sitting in" doesn't work if you overwater and end up growing mosquitos!

Strawberries are already on the market again here now, so I decided to grab some seeds from the sides of one. I'm going to try growing from seed soon.

It can be done, as my friend did it, but it's not easy. It's why I'm so careful about trying to start some babies every year. Strawberries tend to drop in production after a few years, but the runners reset the clock and the plants I've got are from ancestors that were here 25 years ago. The modern ones they sell here seem to crap out after 2 years, are only available in the spring (which as Scott stated, is the wrong time of year in many climates to plant them - they need to settle well for several months before the growing season starts) and have had the "runner tendency" bred out of them so that they "behave" and so that people have to keep buying them.

I was also hoping to establish some as a groundcover around the bases of some of my raised beds, to see if they could compete with the dandelions, sow thistle and mugwort... Hah, probably not...

I add dandelions to my bone broth and chickens will eat them. Thistles are pretty nutritious but require sieving after the blender treatment but I don't know if that's an edible variety. Mugwort is supposed to calm nerves and boost energy - I'll have to look for some.

IOW - sometimes the weeds have more nutritional punch than the veggies we grow. I'm learning to chop and drop and find uses for many of my weeds, or just let them be if they aren't out-competing the plants they're with. I just wish Himalayan Blackberry wasn't so nasty - the berries are highly nutritious and can be used in lots of ways, but *no* one at my house wants to get stuck with picking them!

May Lotito wrote:I planted 3 strawberries two years ago and now they crawl and take over 50 square feet including a path. Do I need to remove some older plants or transplant younger ones to rejuvenate the patch?  I sometimes just walk on them like ground cover.

I would remove them from the oldest patch after about 5 years so you don't get disease moving in. If they're travelling, I'd let them choose their new home for now, but you may have to collect some of the runners in the future to move them to new homes.

They tolerate a certain amount of walking on, but I always feel guilty if I step on a "nearly ripe" berry, so having some area to put your feet may be useful. In my climate, they  tend to need a little supplemental water when the fruit is growing, but if the soil is decent, they don't need any where near as much as the commercial growers use - they're going to ginormous whereas I'm going for flavor.