Last June I planted 13 bare root jewel strawberry plants here in Maryland, zone 6/7 . I didn’t know then that 1)they are a June-bearing variety; or 2)strawberry plants don’t fruit much the first year. So I learned. Cool. Then the rest of the summer, fall, and winter happened, and in spring I moved some of the runner babies to make sure every crown had room for itself to make berries this year, and to pinch off berries from the transplants in their new bed, knowing they’ll make berries next year, and I gave away at least 2 dozen bare root crowns to friends. And this year the original plants and their remaining babies that had enough space made deliciousness for a few weeks in May, yum! And I learned about strawberry funguses, ew, and that I should have cut off all but the crowns in late fall and avoided the old foliage rot. Oops. So I went through the beds and meticulously removed dead and dying plant parts, and put straw down over the old hardwood mulch. And when fruiting season was over, I kept pulling off the plant parts that started dying. Now it’s only July and omg There.Are.So.Many.Runners and daughters and granddaughters and great and great-great granddaughter plants. There are places where 4 crowns are growing all in the same spot.
So here’s my question(s):
How and when do I thin these plants? When is a daughter plant ready to be separated from the mother? Do I have to just get ruthless and rip some out and throw them away because they’re too crowded but not mature enough to make it yet? Heck, lots of these babies haven’t even rooted in the ground, but are sending their own runners even further out anyway. I have room for some of them if I move them — and would love to have more berries than I’d ever imagined next year! — but do I need to thin if the plants are healthy now? If transplanted now, will they root and live?
by DirectCicada6438