cateyanne:

I'm no expert on potted strawberries but will try to get things started. As I understand things there are several types of strawberries. Some, the day neutral, are better for pots than others, like the June bearing. You probably have the later. These need to renew plants every yr. Perhaps you could manage to renew plants in pots by rooting a few runners and removing the older plants each yr.

Overwintering them may be difficult. Not sure they will be hardy in pots unless you can keep the pots from freezing solid. Inside an unheated building or under insulation, maybe mulch, they might over winter.

You might need a different variety to go the pot route. I'm planning on three day neutrals in pots this winter in my greenhouse. Day neutrals would be annuals for you, I think, and not sure how they would perform in the East.

The Fruitnut

Thanks Fruitnut,
I do believe I have some June bearing and some everbearing. problem is they are all mixed up now and I can't tell the difference.
I guess I'm in need of alternatives for planting in the ground, but would still like to avoid buying new plants every year. I don't have a greenhouse and really not a lot of space to bring them in besides a garage and a basement. Maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree and this just isn't possible in my area?

cateyanne:

There is nothing impossible about what your are proposing. It's just a question of how much trouble you are willing to go to to achieve your objective. Agree with Fruitnut that everbearer/dayneutral varities are best for hanging baskets, since basket grown strawberries are essentially pets, not heavy berry producers. It's better to have basket plants putz along producing small amounts of berries over a longer period than a 3-week production burst in spring. Strawberry plants can become quite large, and 3 plants or so would be plenty for an 18 inch basket.

However, dayneutrals are no different from Junebearers in the sense that they should be frequently renewed from new runners to keep up vigor and production. When plants are 2 years old or more, they are in steep decline. You can read the history of a strawberry plant by examining the crown, the length of which is determined by the number of leaves it has produced in its lifetime. Long crowns mean old, weak plants, and old roots as well.

It is not a good thing to mix Junebearers and everbearers together to the point you don't know which is which. You will have to do something about that.

Everyone who grows strawberries in a reasonably fertile bed situation ends up with too many plants if all the runners are allowed to root. That is why strawberry beds should be heavily thinned each spring to allow the plants to stand at least 8 inches apart. Plants with long, older crowns are removed first, in favor of vigorous new runners that grew in the previous season. Maintaining a strawberry bed is a process of constant renewal. Most of us who thin strawberries in spring simply throw the older plants out. Nowhere is it written that you must find a home for each and every strawberry plant. Most of the time you end up throwing out some new runners too, since if you leave plants too crowded, the sun will not kiss the berries and they will be small and less numerous.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

thanks jellyman, that clears things up a bit. I'm a real strawberry lover and spend a lot of money buying them at the market each year, so I'm thinking I should probably find the space to dedicate to the berries in ground.