hapil strawberry

[Kabij]

My hapil strawberry plant is growing nicely, it's getting bushy and is producing a moderate amount of lovely plump tasy fruit. However, it has developed some very long spindly stalks (approximately 18 - 24 inches) which just lay on the ground. These stalks look healthy, they're nice and green and have some leaves on the tips.

Is this normal for this variety or is it a sign of something being wrong? Should I take these stalks off or stake them or just leave them?

Any suggestions?

[tigerella]

Sounds like your plant is putting runners out. You can lop them off if you want to keep energy going into making the fruits or keep the runner attatched to the plant but push the leafy bit into a pot of compost (or stake them into the soil) and let it root for a month or so before cutting the runner from the mother plant. Then you have more strawberry plants!

[Kabij]

Oooh, how exciting. I have other varieties of strawberry also fruiting nicely so I think I'll have a go with the pots of compost and hopefully get even more strawberries next year.

[tigerella]

You can never have enough strawbs...good luck with the babies

[Kabij]

Closer inspection revealed loads of runners on all my strawbs, not just the hapil's. I've potted 2 of the best looking ones from each plant and took the rest off. My question is now, what do I do with them once they've rooted? Is it too late to expect any fruit from them? Do I plant them anyway, put them in my greenhouse over winter or what?

[tigerella]

I think it's ok to treat them just as your other strawbs, however, they won't fruit until next year now.