Allotments 4 All

Hi all,

I completely missed the boat with strawberries this year.

But when I saw some in garden centres there were loads with runners on them.

If I bought some and put them in my strawberry jars now, do you think I would get viable runners fo next year?  This way for a small but fruitless cost this year, I may get double or treble the plants ready for next year.

Does this sound a good move?

Chappy.

not sure what you mean by strawberry jars but yes buy them with runners on and pot them up still attached to the parent plant and when rooted you can cut them free and plant up

Mine are a bit like this but taller with more holes.

http://www.internetgardener.co.uk/ProductDetail/236/Strawberry-Jar-wall-Pot.aspx

I bought a couple of jars last year and filled thwm with plants, but last years all died over winter due to neglect on my part.

I'll buy some and leave them in pots and then plant the jars up ready for next year with all the runner plants I get.

I'll mak sure I look after them over the winter this time.

right I see what you mean now - a strawberry planter - trouble is they dry out quickly and often don't hold enough space for compost and root growth, bigger the better though, good luck  :)

That looks a bit small for strawberries, but there must be things that would grow in them!

I prefer mine in a raised bed. They have room to spread but aren't so hard to keep weeded or watered.

My jars/Pots/planter ;o) have about 13 holes in them and did work the first year around.

They do dry up though and it's hard to get water to the bottom without it pouring out fo the holes.

But I saw a tip to fix that which was to take a piece of plastic piping the height of the pot and drill holes in to all the way around and down.

Then you place this vertically in the centre of the jar before filling with soil, then you water into the pipe and it spills out into the pot all the way down.

I don't have anough ground space to do them in soil so will have another go with the jars.

Just been up a local garden centre and they have the following varieties available...

Fragoo Deep Rose (Nice pink flowers, but never come across this one in shops before)
Pegasus (P)
Sophie
Symphony
Hapil

Has anybody tried any of these?

Not bothered about whether they are early,lates or wahetever, just want great taste.

Any opinions?

 Hi chappy,  :D
                         I have grown pegasus, & would not recommend it. They fruit ok but are dissapointing on the taste front.
                                                           Adrian.
                                             

I tried a strawberry planter and never managed to get the watering right. My daughter also gave up on the same thing.
I planted them in a raised bed in the polytunnel and it worked well.
Plants with runners will be a good buy.

Thanks Adrian.

I noticed the Pegasus is bred to be deisease tollerant, to the taste probablt suffers as a result.

I'm thinking of going for 2 early plants and 2 later ones and then see how many runners I get off each for a good cropping period next year.

Fingers crossed.

It seems:

Hapil is a mid season cropper.
Symphony is a late cropper.
Sophie is a very late cropper.

Shame they havene't got Honeoye for the early for the clean sweep. :)

To be honest the plants they had didn't have many runners on them and weren't very big, so I may shop around yet.

Thanks again.