How to Propagate Strawberries

Few garden plants are as easy to propagate as strawberries. And you can multiply them for free. If you have strawberry plants and want more there are three basic methods to do it, but one stands out as ideal for home gardeners.

Strawberries are easy to propagate

The first method of propagating strawberries is by division. Many strawberry plants will develop additional crowns at the base of the plant. These crowns can be separated into new plants. When done carefully and properly, a mature strawberry plant can be grown from each of these lateral crowns, but often the mother plant is compromised and dies in the process. Division requires expertise and precision, yet only produces a few new plants for each mother plant.

The second method is to grow strawberries from seed. Each strawberry fruit is covered with seeds and those seeds have the potential to become new plants. Like with most viable garden seeds, proper soil, proper water, and proper light will produce a plant. This is a great way to grow many plants if you have the necessary germinating and growing space and equipment. The biggest concern is that most strawberries in gardens today are hybrids and that means the seeds from those plants will not grow true to the parent; new plants from seed may be dramatically different than the plant you're trying to copy. While propagating from seed with heirloom strawberries is an option, it's not the best one.

The easiest, most familiar, and best propagation method for home gardeners is to grow new plants from runners. Horizontal stems appear from the base of mature strawberry plants and new plants will grow from the nodes at the tips of these runners, or stolons. Roots grow from the nodes when they rest on soil.

A strawberry runner

A single parent plant can provide many offspring in just a few years and each new plant is genetically identical to the original plant. Many gardeners call them daughter plants (see my blog "Should I Call You Mother, Daughter, or Sister?" link below).

When left alone, runners will develop into plants at varying distances from the main strawberry plant depending on the length of the runner and where it contacts soil. Gardeners have great control in this natural process by directing the runners or by potting them. I do both.

If I have a bare spot where I want a new strawberry plant and a runner is headed in that direction, I'll spend a few days keeping it above the soil, on mulch, and when it gets to a spot I'm happy with I'll let the tip rest. To ensure it stays where I want it, I'll use a small metal garden staple to hold it in place.

Staple holding the tip of runner

This is a very easy way to expand a strawberry bed, but it has limits because the runners will only extend a limited distance from the mother plant. To fill in spaces far from the mother or to create a completely new strawberry bed, I recommend potting up the runners.

The runners are flexible and easy to direct into a small pot filled with quality garden or potting soil. I reuse small plastic pots from nurseries. I've used yogurt containers with great success; just punch a few holes in the bottom of yogurt cups for drainage.

Fill the pot with soil, place the runner on top, and hold it in place. I make small staples from stiff wire to do this because they stay in place very well; I find that many commercial garden staples are too long for small pots and it's cheaper to make your own. You can also use a small stone, sticks, or anything else that will hold the runner in contact with the soil.

Staple holding runner in pot

Do not cut the runner. Leave it connected to the mother plant. Water the small plant regularly, along with the rest of the strawberry bed. After a few weeks, roots will fill the pot and the new plant is ready to transplant. At this point, trace the runner to the base of the mother and cut it. You can trim the runner from the young plant too or just leave it to dry and break off later.

Remove the plant and soil from the pot and transplant as you would any other garden plant. Have your hole ready, place it gently, and backfill it with soil.

Rots develop quickly in a pot

When planting a mature strawberry plant it's very important that the crown stay above soil level. Burying the crown can lead to rotting that will kill the plant. Transplanting these new plants is a little more forgiving because they're still developing the crown. Just place the soil level of the pot at the same level as the soil in the bed and you should be good.

New plant should be level in the bed

Many strawberry varieties will send out multiple runners from a parent plant. Some will only send out a few. You can grow plants from every runner, but the mother plant is spending a lot of energy to get the little plants growing so helping to direct that energy to just a few plants is better for the new plants and the mother. After you've selected which runners will become plants, prune off the others.

Along the same line, individual runners will continue to grow even when the first node has begun to grow roots and sprout a young plant. It's normal for a single runner to produce three or four plants. For the best and strongest growth it's a good idea to prune off the tip of the runner once you have an initial node growing in a pot.

That being said, I will often pot up multiple plants from a single runner if it is healthy, sturdy, and obviously growing well. The new plants at the different nodes will grow at different rates so be sure both the initial plant and the last one in line are growing well before you separate them from the mother and transplant them.

Two plants from one runner

With propagation, a few strawberry plants can quickly fill in a small garden bed in a single season. By controlling how and where the mother plants send their runners you can ensure each plant has the best chance for survival and production.

 Link to "Should I Call You Mother, Daughter, or Sister?"

Few garden plants are as easy to propagate as strawberries. And you can multiply them for free. If you have strawberry plants and want more there are three basic methods to do it, but one stands out as ideal for home gardeners.

Strawberries are easy to propagate

The first method of propagating strawberries is by division. Many strawberry plants will develop additional crowns at the base of the plant. These crowns can be separated into new plants. When done carefully and properly, a mature strawberry plant can be grown from each of these lateral crowns, but often the mother plant is compromised and dies in the process. Division requires expertise and precision, yet only produces a few new plants for each mother plant.

The second method is to grow strawberries from seed. Each strawberry fruit is covered with seeds and those seeds have the potential to become new plants. Like with most viable garden seeds, proper soil, proper water, and proper light will produce a plant. This is a great way to grow many plants if you have the necessary germinating and growing space and equipment. The biggest concern is that most strawberries in gardens today are hybrids and that means the seeds from those plants will not grow true to the parent; new plants from seed may be dramatically different than the plant you're trying to copy. While propagating from seed with heirloom strawberries is an option, it's not the best one.

The easiest, most familiar, and best propagation method for home gardeners is to grow new plants from runners. Horizontal stems appear from the base of mature strawberry plants and new plants will grow from the nodes at the tips of these runners, or stolons. Roots grow from the nodes when they rest on soil.

A strawberry runner

A single parent plant can provide many offspring in just a few years and each new plant is genetically identical to the original plant. Many gardeners call them daughter plants (see my blog "Should I Call You Mother, Daughter, or Sister?" link below).

When left alone, runners will develop into plants at varying distances from the main strawberry plant depending on the length of the runner and where it contacts soil. Gardeners have great control in this natural process by directing the runners or by potting them. I do both.

If I have a bare spot where I want a new strawberry plant and a runner is headed in that direction, I'll spend a few days keeping it above the soil, on mulch, and when it gets to a spot I'm happy with I'll let the tip rest. To ensure it stays where I want it, I'll use a small metal garden staple to hold it in place.

Staple holding the tip of runner

This is a very easy way to expand a strawberry bed, but it has limits because the runners will only extend a limited distance from the mother plant. To fill in spaces far from the mother or to create a completely new strawberry bed, I recommend potting up the runners.

The runners are flexible and easy to direct into a small pot filled with quality garden or potting soil. I reuse small plastic pots from nurseries. I've used yogurt containers with great success; just punch a few holes in the bottom of yogurt cups for drainage.

Fill the pot with soil, place the runner on top, and hold it in place. I make small staples from stiff wire to do this because they stay in place very well; I find that many commercial garden staples are too long for small pots and it's cheaper to make your own. You can also use a small stone, sticks, or anything else that will hold the runner in contact with the soil.

Staple holding runner in pot

Do not cut the runner. Leave it connected to the mother plant. Water the small plant regularly, along with the rest of the strawberry bed. After a few weeks, roots will fill the pot and the new plant is ready to transplant. At this point, trace the runner to the base of the mother and cut it. You can trim the runner from the young plant too or just leave it to dry and break off later.

Remove the plant and soil from the pot and transplant as you would any other garden plant. Have your hole ready, place it gently, and backfill it with soil.

Rots develop quickly in a pot

When planting a mature strawberry plant it's very important that the crown stay above soil level. Burying the crown can lead to rotting that will kill the plant. Transplanting these new plants is a little more forgiving because they're still developing the crown. Just place the soil level of the pot at the same level as the soil in the bed and you should be good.

New plant should be level in the bed

Many strawberry varieties will send out multiple runners from a parent plant. Some will only send out a few. You can grow plants from every runner, but the mother plant is spending a lot of energy to get the little plants growing so helping to direct that energy to just a few plants is better for the new plants and the mother. After you've selected which runners will become plants, prune off the others.

Along the same line, individual runners will continue to grow even when the first node has begun to grow roots and sprout a young plant. It's normal for a single runner to produce three or four plants. For the best and strongest growth it's a good idea to prune off the tip of the runner once you have an initial node growing in a pot.

That being said, I will often pot up multiple plants from a single runner if it is healthy, sturdy, and obviously growing well. The new plants at the different nodes will grow at different rates so be sure both the initial plant and the last one in line are growing well before you separate them from the mother and transplant them.

Two plants from one runner

With propagation, a few strawberry plants can quickly fill in a small garden bed in a single season. By controlling how and where the mother plants send their runners you can ensure each plant has the best chance for survival and production.

 Link to "Should I Call You Mother, Daughter, or Sister?"

Should I Call You Mother, Daughter, or Sister?

Strawberries are a great plant for most gardeners. As long as you put them in well-drained soil in a sunny location, you'll have delicious red fruit for many years. Choose the right variety and they're hardy; they'll tolerate drought and they'll survive a harsh winter. One of the few issues they create is when they decide to propagate.

Runners seeking a new spot

A single strawberry plant becomes a mother as it sends out runners in all directions. Each runner can root and produce a daughter plant. Some runners have multiple nodes that can root and may produce two or three daughters. These offspring can quickly fill in a large garden bed. If you like order and symmetry, the tangle of runners and resulting daughters can wreak havoc with your world. If you like many new plants that don't cost a nickel, you'll be in heaven.

Don't feel like you're at the mercy of nature and disorder when the runners start spreading. Like most good daughters, you can train them to behave. Move them in the direction of a bare piece of soil and you can target where they'll root. You might need to use a garden staple to get them to stay put, but you be the boss. If a plant starts sending out more runners than you have space for, prune off the ones you don't want. If a runner has multiple baby plants on it, you can cut the runner just past the first one so the mother's energy will be directed to that one; it will root a little faster and become stronger than if you leave multiple daughters on the same runner.

To avoid overcrowding, you don't want more than five or six plants per square foot. That's about one plant every six inches. With control and attention you can create a patchwork of plants that will fill in a nice grid in your planting bed. Trained daughters can create new rows on either side of the mothers.

A mother plant will produce fruit up to four years, though the quantity and size of fruit will diminish during the last couple years. I like to propagate my strawberries using a three-year cycle. During the first year I pinch off most of the new flowers so it develops into a strong plant; berries will deplete food reserves and delay new runner production later in the season. Strong plants will produce more strawberries than ones that are allowed to fruit early. During the second year I let the mothers provide an abundance of fruit and trim off most of the runners. During the third year I harvest more fruit, let some daughters root, and at the end of the season I remove the mother plants. Daughters from other plants are trained into the now-vacant row.

Using a three-year cycle ensures you always have a third of your bed developing into strong plants while two-thirds are producing many, large strawberries. Fail to follow this or a similar process and you'll have an overgrown bed of old plants that won't produce very much. If you have the space, you can use this method to have three beds of strawberries, of three different ages. Transplant rooted daughters into the empty bed after you remove the oldest plants. It can be a lot of effort, but it maximizes the fruit production.

I used to live near strawberry farms in California and it seemed they followed a similar process but in an accelerated timeframe. The cultivars they used produced multiple harvests. After the second or third harvest, in the same year, they would remove many of the plants and root new ones. The concept is that strawberry plants produce smaller fruit with each subsequent harvest. It works the same in your garden.

It's the time of year when our vegetable and fruit gardens decline and we look to our next season. If you don't have strawberries in your garden think about adding them next year. Right now you can pick out the location and visualize it being filled with big, plump berries in the years ahead. One 4' by 8' bed is all you need for substantial yields. Twenty-five to fifty plants will provide enough berries for a family of four to enjoy. If you start with as few as 10 plants, you can easily triple that number by the end of the year. That's a better return than you can find in any stock market. I call that a great investment.

Strawberries are a great plant for most gardeners. As long as you put them in well-drained soil in a sunny location, you'll have delicious red fruit for many years. Choose the right variety and they're hardy; they'll tolerate drought and they'll survive a harsh winter. One of the few issues they create is when they decide to propagate.

Runners seeking a new spot

A single strawberry plant becomes a mother as it sends out runners in all directions. Each runner can root and produce a daughter plant. Some runners have multiple nodes that can root and may produce two or three daughters. These offspring can quickly fill in a large garden bed. If you like order and symmetry, the tangle of runners and resulting daughters can wreak havoc with your world. If you like many new plants that don't cost a nickel, you'll be in heaven.

Don't feel like you're at the mercy of nature and disorder when the runners start spreading. Like most good daughters, you can train them to behave. Move them in the direction of a bare piece of soil and you can target where they'll root. You might need to use a garden staple to get them to stay put, but you be the boss. If a plant starts sending out more runners than you have space for, prune off the ones you don't want. If a runner has multiple baby plants on it, you can cut the runner just past the first one so the mother's energy will be directed to that one; it will root a little faster and become stronger than if you leave multiple daughters on the same runner.

To avoid overcrowding, you don't want more than five or six plants per square foot. That's about one plant every six inches. With control and attention you can create a patchwork of plants that will fill in a nice grid in your planting bed. Trained daughters can create new rows on either side of the mothers.

A mother plant will produce fruit up to four years, though the quantity and size of fruit will diminish during the last couple years. I like to propagate my strawberries using a three-year cycle. During the first year I pinch off most of the new flowers so it develops into a strong plant; berries will deplete food reserves and delay new runner production later in the season. Strong plants will produce more strawberries than ones that are allowed to fruit early. During the second year I let the mothers provide an abundance of fruit and trim off most of the runners. During the third year I harvest more fruit, let some daughters root, and at the end of the season I remove the mother plants. Daughters from other plants are trained into the now-vacant row.

Using a three-year cycle ensures you always have a third of your bed developing into strong plants while two-thirds are producing many, large strawberries. Fail to follow this or a similar process and you'll have an overgrown bed of old plants that won't produce very much. If you have the space, you can use this method to have three beds of strawberries, of three different ages. Transplant rooted daughters into the empty bed after you remove the oldest plants. It can be a lot of effort, but it maximizes the fruit production.

I used to live near strawberry farms in California and it seemed they followed a similar process but in an accelerated timeframe. The cultivars they used produced multiple harvests. After the second or third harvest, in the same year, they would remove many of the plants and root new ones. The concept is that strawberry plants produce smaller fruit with each subsequent harvest. It works the same in your garden.

It's the time of year when our vegetable and fruit gardens decline and we look to our next season. If you don't have strawberries in your garden think about adding them next year. Right now you can pick out the location and visualize it being filled with big, plump berries in the years ahead. One 4' by 8' bed is all you need for substantial yields. Twenty-five to fifty plants will provide enough berries for a family of four to enjoy. If you start with as few as 10 plants, you can easily triple that number by the end of the year. That's a better return than you can find in any stock market. I call that a great investment.

It's All Peachy

It's that time of year. Colorado's Palisade peaches are arriving in stores and often on sale. Many of us wait for the opportunity to enjoy local produce, especially when it's a delicious peach. My daughter called last night and announced she's the recipient of 40 pounds of peaches. So what do you do when you have more fruit than you could possibly eat in one sitting? There are many answers to that question.

Canning, jellying, jamming, freezing, and drying are all options to try. My daughter is planning on canning and freezing most of her peaches (and hopefully sharing some with me). This week I juiced about 10 pounds of peaches to make jelly. Then I took the leftover pulp and made fruit leather in the dehydrator. How hard was that? Not at all. The juicing was a piece of cake. I have a steam juicer that converts pounds of cut fruit into cups of crystal-clear juice. You can also simmer fruit and water together for an hour or so and strain the slurry through a jelly bag to achieve the same result. The leftover slurry is spread on a dehydrator tray and dried for about six hours. Cut it into bite-size pieces and it's a great snack.

One pound of peaches provides about one cup of juice to make jelly. Three pounds of peaches makes about three cups of juice. Add that and pectin to five cups of sugar and you'll make five half-pint jars of jelly.

When canning, it takes about one pound of peaches to fill one pint jar. That same basic relationship between weight and volume is pretty constant for most fruit. Forty pounds of fruit will give you 20 quart jars to enjoy throughout the year. When it comes to peaches, that's a lot of golden deliciousness.

If you've never canned or made jam or jelly and are worried about starting now, just freeze your produce. You can cut peaches into slices or halves and freeze them in a bag or plastic container filled with water. You'll want to add one teaspoon of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) to each quart of water to keep the fruit from darkening. Better yet, freeze them in a syrup solution of 30%-40% sugar. Later you can thaw them and pop right on top of your favorite vanilla ice cream or mix them in with your morning oatmeal.

If you're ready to take the plunge and want to can or jelly, there are many resources at your fingertips. I recommend getting a copy of the "Ball Blue Book". It's a book about home preserving that's published by the Ball company; the same one that sells canning jars and lids. It's sold at many stores and all over the internet and should become part of your library. Easy to follow directions will guide you through every step of the process.

There are many videos and recipes online too, but I caution you against many of them if you're just starting out. Preserving food is a serious topic. It's easy and fun, but if you don't do it right you can introduce deadly bacteria and toxins to you and your family. Only use recipes and procedures that are approved by the USDA. State Extension offices offer great assistance in this area too. You can find online fact sheets from Colorado State University here.

I hope this has you thinking about the benefits of home preservation. I love making dozens of jars of pickles, jams, and jellies and giving them out to friends and family at Christmas. Even if you only do it for yourself, you'll love cracking open a jar of delicious peach jelly in January and spreading it on a piece of toast as you look out over your frozen garden. It helps keep the spirit of gardening in your heart.

Enjoy.

It's that time of year. Colorado's Palisade peaches are arriving in stores and often on sale. Many of us wait for the opportunity to enjoy local produce, especially when it's a delicious peach. My daughter called last night and announced she's the recipient of 40 pounds of peaches. So what do you do when you have more fruit than you could possibly eat in one sitting? There are many answers to that question.

Canning, jellying, jamming, freezing, and drying are all options to try. My daughter is planning on canning and freezing most of her peaches (and hopefully sharing some with me). This week I juiced about 10 pounds of peaches to make jelly. Then I took the leftover pulp and made fruit leather in the dehydrator. How hard was that? Not at all. The juicing was a piece of cake. I have a steam juicer that converts pounds of cut fruit into cups of crystal-clear juice. You can also simmer fruit and water together for an hour or so and strain the slurry through a jelly bag to achieve the same result. The leftover slurry is spread on a dehydrator tray and dried for about six hours. Cut it into bite-size pieces and it's a great snack.

One pound of peaches provides about one cup of juice to make jelly. Three pounds of peaches makes about three cups of juice. Add that and pectin to five cups of sugar and you'll make five half-pint jars of jelly.

When canning, it takes about one pound of peaches to fill one pint jar. That same basic relationship between weight and volume is pretty constant for most fruit. Forty pounds of fruit will give you 20 quart jars to enjoy throughout the year. When it comes to peaches, that's a lot of golden deliciousness.

If you've never canned or made jam or jelly and are worried about starting now, just freeze your produce. You can cut peaches into slices or halves and freeze them in a bag or plastic container filled with water. You'll want to add one teaspoon of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) to each quart of water to keep the fruit from darkening. Better yet, freeze them in a syrup solution of 30%-40% sugar. Later you can thaw them and pop right on top of your favorite vanilla ice cream or mix them in with your morning oatmeal.

If you're ready to take the plunge and want to can or jelly, there are many resources at your fingertips. I recommend getting a copy of the "Ball Blue Book". It's a book about home preserving that's published by the Ball company; the same one that sells canning jars and lids. It's sold at many stores and all over the internet and should become part of your library. Easy to follow directions will guide you through every step of the process.

There are many videos and recipes online too, but I caution you against many of them if you're just starting out. Preserving food is a serious topic. It's easy and fun, but if you don't do it right you can introduce deadly bacteria and toxins to you and your family. Only use recipes and procedures that are approved by the USDA. State Extension offices offer great assistance in this area too. You can find online fact sheets from Colorado State University here.

I hope this has you thinking about the benefits of home preservation. I love making dozens of jars of pickles, jams, and jellies and giving them out to friends and family at Christmas. Even if you only do it for yourself, you'll love cracking open a jar of delicious peach jelly in January and spreading it on a piece of toast as you look out over your frozen garden. It helps keep the spirit of gardening in your heart.

Enjoy.