strawberry runners

i have been propergating  strawberry runners for many years now. the last 2 years have produced smaller and smaller amounts of produce.

 the original  strawberry plants were first grown over 40 years ago? Should i now consider planting more modern strawberry plants.?

If you have gone 40 years without buying in new plants and have continuously grown afresh from runners then you have done well.

It probably is time to start again-just remember that you will need the new coinage-not the old pounds,shillings and pence and allow for quite a bit of inflation.

Crikey !!!!    Well done original strawberry plant !!

I started off with six plants and now have two big beds - have just made lots of jam yesterday. Hope they keep going as long as yours.

Does anyone know how would I go about planting on runners if my strawberrys are in a basket?

I see that as a problem which can only be resolved by taking it down placing it on a large pot to support it then feed the runners into small potsof compost around it where the leaf joint is -sound a bit fiddly- unless any one has a better idea?

 many thanks for your advice folks.

i have decided to buy new set of  strawberry plants..

I can recommend Ken Muir's for strawberry plants. They aren't cheap..but they are good. I finally caved in and renewed my plants a couple of years ago, Last year we had over 60lb of fruit from three smallish beds. I got strawberry rash, ia te so many!

I have 12 plants and this year I have had a crop that wouldn't fill a desert bowl ,is it the weather or something I'm doing wrong ?

mjtclayton wrote (see)

I have 12 plants and this year I have had a crop that wouldn't fill a desert bowl ,is it the weather or something I'm doing wrong ?

Are they new plants this year?

For the new strawberry grower i can recommend an alpine strawberry called Tarpan  it will grow anywhere..  flowers are very pretty and long lasting....sends out a million runners and the fruit is very sweet and tasty...The fruits may not grow as big as other varieties but it makes up for this in the taste..Im currently growing them in beds..in hanging baskets..in pots on the ground..even on the muck heap lol   propergating is so easy i leave the plantlets on the runners until they have around four leaves  then simply pick them off and plant them in pots and ive never had one fail yet

I have a trival question for you all, on radio 2 the other I heard a gentlemen phone in and ask "if strawberry plants are cultivated from runners what are the seeds for and is it possible to grow plants from the seeds?"

But I missed the experts answer, can anyone here answer the question?

Many years ago I grew a variety called sweetheart from seed-but as I remember they were pretty ropey.

It is probably because they self-propagate with runners so easily that that is the simplest route-you can buy seeds but it could take 18 months to get a fruiting plant.

thx sotongeoff. 10 monty don points for you.

I found a video on this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3cEljuKJ64