We are thinning one of our three strawberry plant rows Saturday and will have a large number of next-generation plants available to a good home. As you know, these plants have flourished the past two years and given us the best strawberry crops we have ever had. When we thin the row, we will have a large number of “daughter” plants, which will exceed our row space to re-plant them.

If you have room in your garden, please take some home with you. They must be picked up Saturday, though, since they won’t keep after being carefully uprooted. We will place the plants temporarily in buckets of water. If you bring plastic bags, you can select the ones you want and take them home in the bag.

A quick horticultural overview:

Runners (Stolons): The creeping stems that shoot out from the main plant to find space and start a new clone.
Daughter Plants: The baby clones that form at the tips of these runners and grow their own tiny root nodes.
Independence: Once the daughter plant touches the soil and grows a strong root system, you can cut the connecting stem to let it live on its own

By the way, we will have a large group of volunteers coming Saturday from the Summit Church. Thinning the strawberry row will be one of their assigned tasks. See you Saturday, and don’t forget your plastic bags!