My alpine strawberries are behaving strangely

[oggy]

First off, let me start by saying I have been growing alpine strawberries inside of my home under a grow light all winter.
These plants have never been outside, and I really have no plans on putting them outside at all.

My room mates kittens made their way into my box and broke a bunch of stems a few weeks ago. I decided to let the plants go like that for a bit and see what happens.
Today I finally decided to remove any unhealthy leaves.

I noticed two things today while clipping off damaged leaves. First, all of the plants don't have very many leaves that can hold themselves up. I cut off all the leaves that were falling over and away from the plant because they would fall into other plants and get tangled up.
What can I do to prevent this? How can I help my strawberry plants hold themselves up? Did I do anything wrong by clipping off the leaves that couldn't stand up on their own? Two of the plants has been producing fruit, would this stunt any growth?

Secondly, in the last pot that I pulled out to trim up I noticed that the plant had produced 3 "runners". This is weird because this type of plant is not supposed to produce runners. What's up with that?

[valley]

Greetings, These strawberries grow wild at our mountain ranch. What you described is natural for them. They seldom have a chance to grow from seed but spread as you have seen. The fruit is small but very tasty. I'm happy for you. I see you have them in a pot, the like room. Good luck, enjoy them.

Richard

[oggy]

Hello, my strawberry plants were grown from seeds.
This particular type was supposed to be the kind that doesn't produce runners, so I'm a bit confused by that, haha.

[applestar]

Are you using a fan so the plant grows stronger? The plants look a little weak.

Also, am I remembering right -- were you the one that was using lights that are kind of purple? (High K number?). When plants are grown from seeds to mature blooming and fruiting, you need to remember that their light needs change. That may be part of the problem. Remember that outside, the sun's rays have been getting stronger and harsher, and the temperature has been getting higher. My in-the-sun patio thermometer has been registering 130 and 140°F max.

[valley]

oggy, We're coming to get your strawberry plant or plants, so we don't hear any more about them " behaving strangely."
That is unless you can be happy with them acting as they should.

Richard

[oggy]

Are you using a fan so the plant grows stronger? The plants look a little weak.

Also, am I remembering right -- were you the one that was using lights that are kind of purple? (High K number?). When plants are grown from seeds to mature blooming and fruiting, you need to remember that their light needs change. That may be part of the problem. Remember that outside, the sun's rays have been getting stronger and harsher, and the temperature has been getting higher. My in-the-sun patio thermometer has been registering 130 and 140°F max.

No, that wasn't me. My grow light is a powerful full spectrum bulb. I can provide a link if you're interested in it.
Also, I had a smaller, but strong fan running under them for a few months but haven't run it since up potting these particular plants.
Will having the fan on strengthen my plants up now when they start new growth and will it also affect the current growth?

oggy, We're coming to get your strawberry plant or plants, so we don't hear any more about them " behaving strangely."
That is unless you can be happy with them acting as they should.

Richard

I have 6 plants growing inside and maybe 24 outside now because I didn't know what to do with all them when I started them from seeds.
This is my first year growing anything, so it was a big surprise to see one of my 30 strawberry plants doing something unexpected.
I won't lie, it was a pleasant surprise to see this happening.

[applestar]

The breeze from the fan is like resistance training for the plants. So yes they will get stronger. As you might imagine, oscillating fan is even better than fan blowing with constant wind pressure -- you could vary the wind strength though, or put the fan on a multi-setting timer and turn it on and off several times per day.

If it's one out of 30, it could be stray seed (you may also get different kind of fruits) or maybe accidental cross from pollen brought by bees could happen with strawberries too,

[valley]

oggy, When you get fruit from these strawberry plants, you'll find they are very tasty. I've had very few, the plants grow up at the mountain place but the bird watch over them. I got one a while back, just happened to see it under a leaf, very nice.

Richard

[applestar]

The ones I have are wild strawberries native to eastern U. S. Fragaria virginiana and not the runnerless Alpine. I used to have Alpine strawberries ages ago in a nice row of mounded clumps along the front walk from the driveway to the front door, but one day MIL came to visit and "weeded" the garden without telling us....

My kids LOVE the wild strawberries. After the "first berry" they get smaller, but still packs a lot of flavor.

The little berries are the wild strawberries

[oggy]

So far, only two of my indoor plants have flowered. I think one of them is growing berries because the flowers have fallen off and started growing larger.
The outdoor plants haven't flowered at all and are just growing thick.

I am very excited about the strawberries, I have heard they they pack an intense flavor!