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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.