Runner formation on strawberry plants in autumn and winter

Summary The present experiments with runner plants of the strawberry variety Deutsch Evern are part of an investigation carried out to determine the conditions under which runners are produced in autumn and winter. This information is necessary to produce runners on mother plants of strawberry selections which are tested for viruses during these seasons.In this paper the influence of increasing the light intensity during the day or the intensity of the additional light, or both, on runner production under a 16 hr day was studied at 17°, 20° and 23°C.It was found that at 20° and 23°C more runners were produced by increasing the light intensity during the day or the intensity of the additional light, or both. But increasing the light intensity produced the best results at 23°C. At that temperature there was a decline in runner production in December and January, if only the light intensity during the day or the intensity of the additional light had been increased. This was hardly the case when both light intensities had been increased.