It’s been almost 4 weeks and time to separate the young runnered strawberry plants from their parents. Each plant in its 4 inch pot is cut free from its runner, weeded and its wiggly-wire staple removed. If I wait longer to remove the staple, it can become ingrown in the roots and will tear roots if forced out.
The 50 new plants are placed on trays and elevated off the ground to keep the Strawberry Root Weevils confused, hopefully. They’re kept in a handy spot in full sun where I can keep an eye on them for their watering needs.
They can grow in their pots another couple of weeks at the most and then need to be transplanted into their new bed a good distance from the old bed --- so the weevils don't find them right away. I have a potato bed saved for them that should be harvested and cleared out soon.
The old strawberry bed is immediately pulled and cleaned of all roots, runners and foliage. I find the old root crowns don’t compost hardly at all in my slow, four-year compost box and with weevils about I’m glad to set them all out for my curbside compostables weekly pickup.
My old strawberry bed was located right next to this year’s onion bed and the onions are almost ready to lift so that will give me two fine fresh beds for my chicken run with my two hens. They will fertilize those two beds for some of next year’s potatoes.
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