Propagating Strawberries from Runners

Clipping Strawberry Runner into Pot of Compost

The strawberry plant doesn’t last forever and after 3 or 4 years should really be replaced. Happily it’s very easy to get free replacements for your strawberry plants

The strawberry will reproduce from seed but it also puts out runners, which trail across the soil and then put down roots and turn into new plants.

Normally we clip off these runners as soon as they start to grow so that the plant will put its energies into the berries we grow them for. When propagating strawberries we change tack and allow one or two runners to develop.

We want the runners to root and produce new strawberry plants. Rather than let the runners produce a new plant wherever it happens to be, we want to start off into a pot which we can then move to where we want and grow on for the next season.

The problem is that the runner blows around and off the pot so to hold it into place I make a little clip from a wire coat-hanger. I’ve also heard you can buy a bag of traditional hairclips from the chemist to do the same job. Live and learn!