How to Manage Pests

Planting strawberries

Strawberry plants can be obtained from local nurseries. Replace your plantings with new plants from a nursery every 2 to 3 years.

You can start new plants from your existing strawberries by letting runners set daughter plants into clean soil in late summer. Be sure to start daughter plants only from healthy mother plants and remove all parts of the mother plants after the daughters are started. Dig up these new plants in October, shake the soil from their roots, remove all but two healthy leaves, and place them in thin plastic sandwich bags. Hold them in a refrigerator for 10 to 15 days, then plant them into clean, prepared beds.

When planting, make sure to spread the roots out before firming the soil around the plant. Keep the growing point above the soil line. Space plants about 12 inches apart in each row with rows about 12 inches apart in two-row beds, and stagger the plants in the two rows to give them maximum growing room. In single-row beds, space plants about 10 inches apart.