I removed all the runners (the shoots you’re seeing), and al the smaller plants leaving only the largest plants with about 12-18 inches between each plant. The mature plants can produce well for 3-5 years, at which point I will let the runners grow and replace the older plants (after next summer for me). Did you buy the plant like that? When I bought mine I divided it right away into 10 plants, and removed the flowers the first year to force them to grow bigger roots first.

Here’s what I would recommend. Separate your runners. If they have roots already I would cut them from the mother and give them their own space. Next summer they will produce for you and don’t worry about removing the flowers. For the main mother plant: divide it as soon as it stops producing this summer.

Is yours a June bearing or ever bearing variety?

Same! I deleted my 10 year account. Kinda not even sad. It was going downhill for a while now. But hey I just created my own instance for gardeners called thegarden.land so now I have a new home to grow roots and thrive!

Okay great I was hoping that’s the case. I have just Rainer strawberries which are June bearers

Really? I don’t get that. I go to the ‘communities’ button at the top, where they are sorted by population, so it’s easy to find some good ones right away. If I want to search something specific I type it in the search bar and there it is. Is it not that way for you? That seems easy to me

I'm doing a much better job than I did last year. First- I have thinned out the plants to leave only the largest mature plants with plenty of space in between. I water only in the morning so that the surface is dry by night time when slugs come. I have also laid bark mulch (straw would be good too I think) which helps with slugs. Then finally I got some cheap bird netting from Amazon. So far we have only seen two berries with slug bites. Last year at least half had damage. If you or anyone else knows much about this I am trying to find out something: I want to cultivate the runners which will grow after the berries. Next summer, can I harvest from those runners or do I need to remove the flowers and wait until two summers from now to harvest berries from those runners?

GEOSTOOOOORRRMMMMMMMMM

I love it. You totally had that coming

Hey come on over to !woodworking@lemmy.ca we would love to see some of your work there

What I like about this place is that it has good vibes. Nice people, in a small community, happy to be together. So you can tell them I said that lol. IDK. People are coming. This place is growing by the minute. I don't know anything about making a viral marketing campaign but it couldn't hurt to tell people directly what you like about it here and then ask them to try.

Do you really think you could fold it to the size of a pill though? I think that would be a hard pill to swallow.

Let's get some content!

Nice article with gorgeous pictures. Also some strange poetry!