I bought a couple of packs of 6 strawberry plants last year (I remember I bought one from B&Q, the other maybe from Homebase). I watered them well and stuck them 3 plants in a one long planter with multi-purpose plant feed pellets.
I forgot to make a note of the variety name (they were the very first thing I bought and I didn't know it was the start of a new obsession at the time!) Anyway in no time at all they became very dense and a healthy looking deep green and were prolific fruiters, producing some of the biggest and sweetest strawbs I had ever eaten.
I thought it would be a shame to just bin the plants at the end of the season so I looked into overwintering online. I also produced a large number of infant plants from runners over the summer which did not fruit.
Overwintering sounded a little complex at first but turned out to be quite simple! Firstly in the autumn, well after the fruiting period I trimmed back all remaining runners that the plants had sent out. As all my plants were in pots I had to 'mulch' them, as far as I could tell, this simply means pad them out with a generous helping of straw.
Next I packed them in closely in my garage (you will need space for this) against the wall that was connected to the house (for a little extra warmth). I left them there all winter, watering a little every 3 days or so. I had no idea if it would work, having never attempted it before.
All the leaves on the regular strawberries eventually turned brown whereas some on the pineberry and white alphines stayed green. My wife thought the normal strawbs had died and I was starting to think the same but after pruning some of the brown leaves away and moving the mulch, I could see some new green shoots poking through!
Hopefully they will continue to grow and I'll be able to enjoy them again in a few months! Give it a go! You'll save money not buying new plants and feel a bit more involved in the whole grow-your-own process.
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