Propagating Strawberry Plants

Propagating plants = create or grow more!  More is good in the world of gardening, no?

I bought two small strawberry plants this year.  I quickly realized I wanted more.  However, I didn't want to keep buying the plants.  I researched and discovered I could easily get more plants for free (essentially).   I would have to propagate the runners!

What are the runners?  The runners are long tendrils that will shoot out and away from the mother plant.  They are searching for soil to plop themselves down into and establish new roots.  After awhile, this plant will have well established roots and can be snipped away from the mother. (until it is snipped, it is getting its energy and nutrients from the mother plant which it is attached to)

I have my strawberries in hanging baskets, so for me, it wasn't as simple as letting the runners grow long enough to find the soil.  They'd NEVER find the soil from the height at which they were hanging.  I remedied this by attaching little biodegradable pots to the sides of the hanging baskets. I then guided the runners to these pots and pinned them in place over the soil with little pieces of floral wire, which has been bent into a U shape.  After a few weeks, the little runners will begin creating sets of leaves and nice, deep roots. At about 4-5 weeks you should be able to snip the runner away from the mother plant and repot somewhere else.

These are my strawberry runners that have been pinned into the biodegradable pots. You can even see that they are putting out their own runners!  I did end up snipping those extra runners away so the baby plants could focus their energy on their own needs (roots especially!).  They didn't need to be mommy plants just yet :-)

These are 3 out of 6 baby strawberry plants that are going to be going into this new hanging basket

After a couple of good, heavy rain showers I started to notice the breakdown of the biodegradable pots.  I know this would be a "DUH!" for most people. This is my first time, though, and it just didn't cross my mind.  I thought, "Oh, this will be great!  I will only need to plop them into their new pot and not worry about removing them from here and disturbing the young roots!"   What I ended up doing is carefully removing the biodegradable pot and gently placing them into these red plastic cup and then reattaching these new cups to the mother plants hanging basket.  Make sure if you use a plastic cup that you also drill some small holes for drainage. 

I checked the roots as I removed each plant.  As you can see, they are very nice and well established!  This will make for an easier transition to its new container.  

Here are the three babies in their new hanging basket.  The plant towards the right side did experience some transplant shock but after a couple of days it perked right back up and is doing fabulously well now!  These were transplanted back in the beginning of July.  They are big, bushy, and thriving now!

Rain Water Collection

Though my garden is a simple and small container garden, my husband and I felt it would be wise to try and collect natural rain water to water the garden with.  Not only would it help to save money by not running the hose, but my understanding is that the rain water is actually better for the plants. There isn't chlorine and other added chemicals which can, in the long run, make for a less healthy plant.

I started by sticking some extra 5 gallon buckets at the base of a couple rain spouts. HAHAHA!  This was hilarious because after one small rain they would be beyond overflowing. We realized we needed something bigger.  My husband did some searching and followed several instructions for creating a rain collector out of a garbage bin.

We bought a cheap, fairly large garbage can.  It is 38 gallons, I believe.  Then, we took a roll of window screen and attached it around the top (lid off) with staples. Next, we cut a little section out of the lid so the gutter would fit down into it.  Finally, we attached a spout at the base to be able to drain out the water.

The screen is to keep bugs from getting down and into the water and drowing.  The water will be clean of buggies when we pour it out. As for the spout, it is just high enough to attach a garden hose.  However, we have plans to lift the whole bin up either on a built stand of wood or with cinder blocks.

While it is 38 gallons, this baby filled up with ONE good rain!  And it is only catching the water from half of my roof. I would love to have a second one because, well, DOUBLE THE RAIN WATER!  For now this works, though, because I only have a small container garden.  As I expand in coming years, I will expand on this as well.