More strawberry runners

[davholla]

I planted strawberries in a plastic strawberry "barrel" in Feb/March and had a few strawberries but I guess that is to be expected for the first year.  Is that right the first crop is poor ?

Anyway even the runners are now producing runners.  Should I use these ?

Is there a way next year to get more fruit and less runners ?

Also can I plant strawberries between other plants for obvious reasons I am running out of space.

Also am I right in thinking that strawberries barrels need a lot of water.

[davholla]

[antipodes]

Hmmm this my my first year with strawbs too but I can make some observations
I had quite a good crop even though it was the first year! I had bastard trenched the ground beforehand, maybe that explains it? (buried organic waste under the new beds). When runners appear if you want fruit, chop them off!!! Or just keep a couple as runner producers and chop the fruit off those as the flowers appear!
I would say that you could plant strawberries with other things, but they do get quite big so make sure they have enough room.
As mine are in the ground, I don't know about watering pots but I know they like water and feeding when fruiting. didn't have to water ANYTHING this year. except when sowing seeds....
What type of strawberry are you growing?

[davholla]

I forgot to feed them but next year I will.

Do strawberries really take up a lot of space ?  My plants are quite small.

[kt.]

My 24 plants have tons of runners and large leaves. I have made over 30 runner plants to make another bed and give some to my brother-in-law to start a bed. The excess will be cut and trimmed along with the leaves in 4 weeks. If I had the room I could run off another 50 or so more plants.