Strawberries are not Widgets

This is the time of year when strawberry growers seem to engage in the “grand plant snaffle,” where growers who haven’t secured their orders with their propagators scramble for plant supply that might (or might not!) be available, depending on how the propagation season has gone for the runner growers.

Strawberries are not widgets, and fruit growers of course understand that the production of a punnet of good quality fruit started with investments and plans months before.  The “production switch” doesn’t simply get toggled on and off.  So, too, is the case with strawberry plants. 

One propagator likened growing bare root runner plants to baking a loaf of bread in a temperamental oven—it will rise, but how much and at what speed depends on the conditions in the kitchen.  In a good strawberry runner growing year, motherplants are set into fumigated field soil in October, sunlight is plentiful, temperatures are warm, and rain falls just at the right times to stimulate plentiful roots but not prevent weeding operations.  Growers are aiming for rows to fill in by just the right time in the late summer so that runners have enough time to size crowns but don’t overcrowd one another—very much a moving target, and growers don’t have control over all the variables.

For outdoor bare-root plant producers, the decision of how many motherplants to put in the ground is made based on plant orders, which they aim to collect around July.  At this point they have already produced the “grandmothers” on speculation in their “Elite motherstock” beds, as they multiply the material for two seasons before selling plants to fruit growers.  October is the one time they have an opportunity to adjust their runner bed planting plan before plants are harvested the following May.  If they have an order for 100,000 plants, that represents about 1700m2.  After fumigating, planting, weeding (frequently!), spraying and irrigating the motherplants in that area for 8 months, they then face the mammoth task of harvesting.

It’s heartbreaking to have done all that work and not have a purchaser for the plants, so propagators don’t tend to produce “on speculation.”  However, wise propagators do aim to produce a bit above their orders, so they can compensate for a year when growing conditions haven’t been so favourable.  If there are extra plants above the orders taken the previous winter, it’s luck of the season. 

It's this “luck of the season” that might tempt strawberry fruit growers to play the waiting game, not put in sufficient orders with their propagators and hope that come harvest someone has extra…..

This a recipe for disappointment!  And we’ve heard about many fruit growers facing this disappointment not because it’s been a poor runner growing year (it hasn’t), but because they didn’t secure their orders on time.

Plug growers have two points in their production cycle where they can adjust their final plant numbers.  Firstly, they order tissue culture mother plants around January for delivery in June/July.  Secondly, when they separate the runners growing in a “hanging curtain” from the motherplants and place them in plugs to root, they only root plantlets for which they have orders.

We have heard from several propagators that fruit growers have been enquiring about buying plugs in April, just two months after the excess runners were discarded; having not had orders for the finished plugs they were not rooted.  That situation is painful for both the propagators and for the fruit growers, with value for both having gone to waste.

In short, fruit growers are urged to order in advance from their propagators, providing security for both parties and avoiding disappointment.   

• For bare root plants, order in July 2025 for plant delivery in May/June 2026.
• For plug plants, orders should have been placed in January/February 2025 for deliveries Jan-June 2026. 

Note: for growers looking to access the new varieties as bare root plants (like Valiant), even earlier orders should be secured so

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