Strawberry plants

My neighbor has a strawberry patch and has generously offered plants for my strawberry pots. When would be a good time to dig some up and transfer?

My guess is that after they fruit this year and they set runners, you can dig up the rooted runners (get a decent amount of soil), clip them from the mama plants and just get them in the ground ASAP. Water well and give them a decent side dressing of fertilizer mid- to late-summer, and you should have berries next spring...

Thanx Terry.

I just caught you said strawberry pots. Will they overwinter in 5b? (I've never done strawberries in pots, but I was thinking you treat them as an annual if you do...I'm out of my league on that one - hopefully someone else will come along and give you better advice!)

I thought that I could use the strawberry plants in my pot for this year. Not sure if I dig the plants up if they will survive in the pot.

It's my first year with Strawberries, and I don't have much room in my garden, I've heard they have a passion to take over most to all of a garden. So I'm trying to pot them in a container, to minimize to my advantage. So here is a web-site and some instuctions I'm following from my local nurseries advise, minus their prices, strawberry pots with the plants already in them, a fortune and some, so I took their advise and with the web-sites advise, I'm going to give it a go. At my local Wal-Mart, they have 3-4 varieties of strawberries, the same packaging and varieties, as Home-Depot, and My nurseries(Most to all of the nurseries by me, have them in larger containers, and they run about $2-3 bucks a pop, ouch). And that is for 1 plant, compared to a few at the Wal-Mart. Good luck, and if anyone can tell me what variety is the best for Jersey, I know some are ever-bearing, and some come later on in June and so forth. If someone could fill in the gaps that would be great, and is it too late to sow some seeds, I have about 5-6 weeks, possibly 7 for a container, until I put most of my veggies in the garden? Have a great day , Danny PS - You can get the container, which you'll see on the web-site at Wal-Mart for about $ 12 bucks, but if you can do it another way, please let me know.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/victorygarden/knowhow/pp/strawberries/

I never put mine in strawberry pots because the pots will freeze and crack in the winter time. Make raised beds, put them in the tire planters that TC from KY tells about in his posts on the subject, put them in pots that won't freeze and crack, but don't put in clay pots unless you plan to bring them into a greenhouse or transplant them in the fall. I transplant mine anytime I so choose as they are tough and can stand a lot. Just don't let them dry out until they have gotten established or you will lose them.

This is interesting. I bought and planted 4-5 strawberries this winter. There are now about a dozen plants. I didn't realize that strawberries are not annuals. I figured after they gave fruit they would die.

Since I'm the only one in the house who eats strawberries, I've been eating them right off the vine. Now I need to make a decision, what to do about them. They are in the ground growing around my daylilies, geraniums, phlox' and ruellias, as well as around my tomato and pepper plants. They don't appear to be doing any damage, and they do make good ground cover. What do you experts think?

Molly

Molly, I am not an expert but I use them as groundcover all the time. I have lots of them in my rose beds. I don't eat the ones in the rose beds, however. We have to spray the roses for blackspot and I don't want to eat berries that have been raised in the same vicinity. I let the birds eat those and they just love them. They get all the grapes that we are too lazy to pick also> We are spoiling the little buggers badly.

That sounds great Elena. And I haven't had cause to treat anything in that part of the garden with chemicals.

About 15 feet over a grassy area from this raised bed, I have
my birdbath garden that has cannas, fountain grass, callas, daylilies, clumpong iris and even some garlic. I found last week my cannas had 5 leaf rollers on them. I pulled them all off and poisoned them away from the garden. I bought some powder to put on the plants but haven't done that yet. How far away from food plants do you have to be to safely use those powders?

Thanks,
Molly

Molly, strawberry plants are not annuals, but some people (including some commercial growers) treat them as annuals, and re-plant each year. Most home gardeners create a permanent bed for them, and then go through some contortions to maintain its health (renovation/removal of older plants, etc.)

Celia, are you using the plants for purely decoration this year? If so, you can still pot them up, but you probably won't get much - if any- flowers and fruit on them over the summer (they will grow and trail nicely).

But if you're wanting fruit, then you should aim for next spring, and look for a more permanent home for them, whether it's in some sort of bed/tier system, or a spot in your yard or vegetable garden.

They actually make quite attractive edging plants for ornamental beds. (I used them to edge two large beds of roses and perennials at our last home. The blackspot spraying on the bushes didn't occur until well after the fruit and come and gone, so it worked out well ;o)

Terry, I do have a small (for now anyway) strawberry patch. But last spring I purchased some plants and potted them up in a strawberry pot. I did harvest about 2 fruits per day. Just enough for me. LOL I was just wondering about the already established plants my neighbor will donate to me. I'm gonna go ahead and try it. It will be for decorative use primarily. Thanx a bunch!

Concerning the chemicals, I don't like to have them around my edible plants at all. I know that Sevin is ok after a few days but that is the only exception I make. I feel that chemicals can stay in the ground long after we use them and that the plants will draw them up when they are getting the water and nutrients from the soil. I just prefer to stay away from that problem and not eat anything that is growing or has grown where I have to spray. I have found no other way to keep the blackspot down in my rose beds. Home remedies just don't work in my climate. My strawberries are blooming right now and my roses need spraying immediately so that is the poor spray timing I have for that area.

Thanks, Elena, I think I will just wait on the dust, It wasn't Sevin, it was the other one, a little cheaper. I've been watching those canna leaves and I havent seen anymore rollers come back.

Thank you Terry, using them as ground cover is a great idea. They do have attractive leaves. I will keep them as long as they don't kill off any of my other things.

:^)
Molly

Elena, we just need to help you make the switch away from those "high maintenance" HT's, and get you into OGR's - I've used a baking soda solution with fairly good results on OGRs.

HT's and I parted ways a looooong time ago - I'd plant them and they'd bite the dust within a year or two, no matter how much I hovered over them, spraying and pampering them ;o)

Molly, just pull out any that you don't want. Simple solution!

Terry, I truly need to shovel prune all of those roses that take so much of my time and effort. They are still awesome when they bloom though. My goodness, I'd hate to tell anyone how many dollars I spent ordering all of those from high-end growers! Someone would truly do me a favor

OGR's are wonderful and I will welcome any additions that my friends want to send me. LOL! I have a few that I have gotten from folks who were "taking pity" on me. I am not buying any roses now other than David Austins and they aren't nearly as high maint. as the hybrid teas.

I have a small garden, and I bring some of my container veggies and plants in every year. I have a lot of space and warmth, to go with a grow-light that works great for my Chiltepin Pepper plants, so for me the container method, I hope works well. It's just my wife and I, so I hope to grow enough to feed two. Keep the info coming, it's great. Danny