It’s been a great year for strawberries – and you can plant now for a bumper 2026

It has been an epic year for fruit. My strawberry patch – which had been mediocre at best until this season – flourished in those extremely sunny spring days. Not only did we pick more fruit, but the strawberries were larger and sweeter than those of previous years. And even when the fruit had dwindled, the runners – the new plants emerging from the parent plant – just kept coming. They’ve stretched out from their original site, romped into the path and rooted into a neighbour’s bed.

Strawberry plants will produce fruit for a good three to four years and then start to slow down, so when you’ve reached this point it’s a good idea to replant your patch. You can do this with newly bought plants (a wise choice if yours are showing signs of disease or vulnerability) or by relocating the new runners that have appeared this season.

It’s always advisable to move your strawberry patch to a new location if possible to avoid the possibility of disease buildup or the risk of replant disease. This insufficiently understood problem describes how new plants can struggle to grow in soil that previously hosted plants of the same kind. Choose a sunny spot (although strawberries will tolerate some shade) and mulch generously with compost as they like fertile soil that drains well. Having said that, my runners are rooting happily into the fairly dense clay of the veg patch’s paths, so I suspect they’re more formidable than we realise.

It’s easy to identify a strawberry plant that’s ready to transplant if you follow the tentacle-like stems to where they’ve touched the ground and a new cluster of jagged-edged leaves is growing. Using a fork, gently ease the plant out of the ground and install it into its new location. Plants can also be potted up into containers filled with compost and placed somewhere sheltered to wait to move to their new home. In fact, strawberries grow well in large containers and benefit from the ripe fruit being kept off the ground as they are susceptible to rot when left in contact with moist soil. Choose the sturdiest, healthiest plants to transplant and dispense with any that show signs of ailing, like deformities or black spots on their leaves.

Strawberry plants are fairly cold-hardy – apart from their flowers and fruit, of course – so doing this job in November is no problem where I live in the south of England. But if the ground where you are has frozen hard, consider putting this job off until early spring. If the winter weather takes a harsh turn, I’ll likely mulch my new strawberry patch with straw to protect the plants as they find their feet. And I’ll be crossing my fingers for a sunny start to next season and another bumper year for strawberries.