Way too much water. Are you using a growing medium or is this aeroponic or NTF or what?

I water mine once or tops, twice a week with EC 2.0 home-brewed nutrient using "static technique".

If you leave your plants wet, they'll look fine for about three weeks then die over night. They don't like their feet wet.

I use a moisture sensor to gauge when it's time to water. Sometimes they "look" dry, but the roots are moist and the last thing you want to do is add more water.

Pull the "crowns" above the planting medium level and keep them as dry as possible. Do not top water or "sprinkle" and whatever you do, don't water them in the evening. Strawberries are susceptible to a number of fungal growths all of which contribute to "crown rot" which will kill your plants.

The red leaves will soon be brown. The next stage is the compost pile! Cut them off and pray for new growth. As new leaves are added, they look like tiny oriental fans and as they mature, they fan out into what looks more like a leaf.

The "stems" you mentioned are probably former runners; just clip them off. When the plant matures, it'll send off new ones and the ends will develop what are called "stolons". These will send down roots and become a brand new plant with the same genetics as the mother plant. This is one way strawberries are propagated. There are several other ways as well.

I'm including a link to an article entitled "Growing Strawberries". The growing method is static technique and the strawberries are grown in 100% perlite. There are other, more concise articles on the same site.

If you have any specific questions, ask them here so everyone else can benefit from them.

Here is a link that might be useful: Growing Strawberries

Well it definetly looks as though I left out some pertinent info. My medium is hydroton, the plants are in a net pot with a home made drip ring. The crown shouldn't get wet with the way I have them sitting in the net pot. In response to your post the leaves aren't red just the stems, which are slowly turning red from white. The leaves are exactly as you describe,little oriental fans, each crown has 1 stem coming out of it with a leaf on it and if I am understanding you right this is actually refered to as a runner and the stolon must form a leaf? I am gonna have to get a camera and post some pics so you can see, i'm not very good at describing things and a pic is worth a thousand words. Thanks for the help and stay tuned for pictures of the strawberry plants and maybe one of my newly sprouted bhut jolokia.

Here is a link to pics of the strawberries. I couldn't post pictures to save my life!

Here is a link that might be useful: My setup so far

Anybody?

Here's a link to a new page describing strawberry "Symptoms & Cures" which may be helpful in identifying what is happening with your plants.

As for the pictures you posted, try to take clearer pics. My old camera made things blurry when I got close up. I bought a new one at Target for about $110 (Nikon) and it'll go in to only about an inch away and is clear as a bell.

Here is a link that might be useful: Strawberry Symptoms & Cures

When I look at this picture:

freemangreens knows a lot more about growing strawberries than I do, but it doesn't look to me like you're too far off. I think the red stem is normal at least for some varieties but I could be wrong on that.

Strawberries are hungry plants, akin to tomatoes on what they can thrive under. Smaller plants eat less, but they can probably take a bit more food than you'd think compared to other things you've grown.

Just remember that strawberries don't like wet feet. More people kill plants by overwatering than underwatering.

The very young leaves will develop long stems and often these stems are pink at first, then turn red or white with a streak of red or pink. This is normal.

When the LEAVES turn red, that's trouble. I keep a pair of scissors in my greenhouse and twice a week snip off red leaves.

Hey, red leaves happen, it's okay. I'd have to look on my own chart to diagnose the red leaves, but it's my guess that it's a lack of nitrogen. I see it often when I transplant crowns that I've divided from older stock.

I feel that by snipping them off, it's just one thing less the plant has to deal with as the red ones die anyway! I've never lost an entire plant because I snipped off one or more red leaves. In fact, it seems to somehow "jump-start" the plant again. That's probably due to less baggage.

Thanks for all the replies everybody. So far the crowns seem to be staying dry and I started to put hydrogen peroxide in the tank and man they really seem to like it. In a couple of days I think I will put a airstone in there since constantly putting peroxide in there seems to be a unnecessary expense. All of my other plants are really taking off unfortunately I am now working overtime so I am trying to balance everything, i.e. not killing plants. I am gonna order a 2 400 watt hps lights and get the ceramic metal halide lamps for them as I think everything will be ready to go into the final system alot sooner than I thought. I am gonna try to take some more unblurry pics and I will put them in a new thread, I love seeing other peoples grows so I'm gonna try to return the favor. Also it may be a bit off topic but I looked into real time pricing with the power company and I am thinking that is definetly the way to go. They put a special meter on your house which will cost an additional 3 bucks per month and you pay the rate at that hour which you use electricity. So it looks as the lights are gonna be on at night since it appears as though it is cheaper at night. Heres a link to my power companys website if anybodys iterested: http://www.thewattspot.com/rtsavings.php

If you've found a way to keep the lights on cheaper, great! Be aware that plants have a definite "photo period", which means lights on 24/7 is NOT a good thing. Plants need light for sure, just not round the clock. They need some dark time too.

If your electric company markets cheaper electricity in the wee hours of the morning (true for many commercial applications), it might be a good time to use lights to grow stuff. All it would take is a little changing the plants' internal "clocks" so they would still get a 12-hour photo period, just not in real time! The plants would adapt to their new hours; I'm sure of it.

I feel that by snipping them off, it's just one thing less the plant has to deal with as the red ones die anyway! I've never lost an entire plant because I snipped off one or more red leaves. In fact, it seems to somehow "jump-start" the plant again. That's probably due to less baggage.

This is a fact. Any part of a plant that does not contribute to the growth or health of the plant is better off being pruned off. Pruning has long been known to improve vigor and vitality in plants. When you prune off dying leaves you prevent the plant from wasting resources trying to revive them. This can also shock the plant slightly, but plants are well designed to being able to adapt when a few leaves get nibbled off.

Often a little trimming actually encourages more rapid growth, since plants in the area of herbivores need to grow much more quickly if they expect to survive. If you can't grow faster than you're eaten, you die.

Oh, and I've completely flipped around a plant's light cycle before. It can freak them out a little, but they adapt soon enough. I recommend extending darkness rather than light. A long period of darkness seems to make them more receptive of a new light cycle.