Baby Strawberry Plants

Please Help:
Received delivery of baby strawberry plants. 50 of them waiting indoors, heeled into MM. It is 30 degrees outside. Not sure what to do. It is going to warm up quickly again to 50's and 60's. But in 48 hours suppose to be a night time freeze again. So I'm not planting these youngins yet? Or should I plant and cover?

If they're heeled in, you can probably keep them for a bit. I wouldn't keep them in a heated room, but perhaps a garage. I left a bundle heeled in outside for a month, through freezes and frosts, with no problem.

What does "heeled in" mean ???

heeled in is when you dig a small hole or trench, and just "stick" the plant roots in and cover them temporarily.
Can be done with bundled plants (like strawberry starts) or with shrubs and small trees.
Some people use sawdust that's been wetted down well, particularly nursery centers with bare root plants.

Thanks a bunch curio! I knew bushes and trees could be heeled in but in a mild panic thats all I could think of doing. Had a hard time with the instructions. It said to keep the bare rubber-banded soil-less plants in the refrigerator vegetable crisper up to three weeks. My whatever instincts wanted to give them nutritious MMix asap.

I would think the refrigerator would work better to keep them dormant until they can be planted. You don't want them to start growing before planted and then get transplant shock from the move.

Thanks Quiltbea. My inexperience really shows, lol. The babies are in mmix. Took them out of the sunny warm room where they already started to pick up their heads. In the fridge they looked worse than dormant they appeared dead. I guess that was normal! For now they are still in m mix but in the cool garage. Hope to put them in their new permanent box in a few days.

Hey llama momma! This is bloom #1 on my second year strawberries! They are in a tabletop of sorts made from the bottom half of an old child's plastic pool table. (The type that had a hinged top so you could store the accessories under the top part in the basin below.) I think they are Ozark Beauty. I'm so excited thought I'd share!

Oh wow, that is beautiful !
Can I ask, I would like to do strawberries, are they ok in a few squares or should they be in a separate box of their own?

Kbb964 - Thanks! It's just a cell phone pic but I thought it was pretty.

I've seen people put them in squares and I know they do well in SFG. I've seen dedicated beds, pyramids, tabletops, posts, and berms. Search Josh's strawberry pyramid - it looks so cool! The reason I chose to put them in the pool table was that I already had the pool table (and it was headed for the junkyard) and since they bear the most on second and third year plants I didn't want my squares spoken for for 2-3 years because I didn't have many squares. Also, even though everbearing plants don't put out as many runners, you still have to be more concerned about removing them because of space constraints.

For me - I'm lazy so I planted 4 Ozark Beauty and 4 Honeoye plants I got at a local big box store in this "tabletop" in MM. (Is this where I admit I got lucky because I never covered them in straw last Fall, but we had a mild winter and they came back fine?)

Here is a good thread where QuiltBea explains how strawberries produce...

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t10654-strawberries-sfg

Hey Walnut that flower looks great! I hope to get all the new strawberry babies in the new tabletop this weekend. If the weather cooperates then I can make Mel's mix Saturday morning. It's been too windy lately. And to the south and west of my little farm is hundreds of open acres. The winds really fly!

There's still enough sun left today that you could just plant those little guys. My bareroots when in around mid-February. So they've been out there through a few days of snow and a bunch of rain. Doesn't hurt them a bit. All 75 are happily growing.

I planted most of them a few days ago and they are looking wonderful, 50 Earliglow and 4 Quinalts. I'm holding off planting the last 10 as they are a questionable variety from Big Lots. The Big Lots package only said June Strawberries on it but sheesh they look ok and at 45 cents a piece I don't mind taking a chance. I emailed the supplier to ask about the variety and have not received an answer yet. I put the Big Lot berries in the garage to harden off a bit like I did the others. They'll get planted tomorrow. Then there will be 64 in the new tabletop.

There's no such thing as a questionable variety of strawberry! They're all delicious.

Noie wrote:There's no such thing as a questionable variety of strawberry! They're all delicious.

I hope you are right! While at Big Lots for some cheap worm tube flower pot tops, I grabbed the strawberries on a whim. Decided to read the fine print later on, never dreamed the supplier wouldn't mention the variety of strawberry. It'll be interesting to see what becomes of them.

llama momma wrote:

Noie wrote:There's no such thing as a questionable variety of strawberry! They're all delicious.

I hope you are right! While at Big Lots for some cheap worm tube flower pot tops, I grabbed the strawberries on a whim. Decided to read the fine print later on, never dreamed the supplier wouldn't mention the variety of strawberry. It'll be interesting to see what becomes of them.

Hopefully it's not true.. Fella at my workplace told me my strawberries would smell and taste like my the manure in my MM... Can't be true!!

That poor fella must be city folk who has never grown a thing in his life

Has anyone planted dormant bare root strawberrys outside before?? I bought 2 boxes from BJs and when I opened the box boy they looked dead.. but researching I found that's how they are suppossed to look.. So its now day 8, i soaked them in water pre-planting and have been watering them every other day and no growth yet... Does it take a few weeks for them to pop and start looking alive??

Did you read the beginning of this thread? I went through pretty much what you're going through. The first week in Mel's mix they were not impressive and I was quite worried. Now it is the end of week two and they are much improved.

March 24
Received 50 dormant dead looking bare root strawberry babies.
April 2
Planted outdoors, seven nights in the 30's and several days of relentless winds 20-30mph. Over the next 2 weeks they looked a little darker but still light green and yellowish plus some little stems and leaves were shredded or torn off from the winds.
April 30, today, lost one plant, everything else is 4 times larger than they started out, they are dark green, and 20 of them have clusters of little green strawberries. What seemed to be such a rough start ends up showing that nature is incredible. I know I have to cut off the berries, waaah, but not till I get out there again for pictures.

Question ?? I want to move the strawberry plants to another location. I see they have now flowered is it still possible to uproot them an move them. ??


Boog

I don't know the answer to that, sorry! For what its worth, my instincts say don't disturb them.. If you need an intelligent fast answer I would call your extension service, or else someone will come along here in good time and help you too. Best wishes.

I had 64 baby light-yellow and very light green tinged strawberry starts in a tabletop. They struggled through days of 20+mph winds, some leaves and stems bent and torn off since April 2. There was also about 6 nights of freezing temps.
Here they are just 4 weeks later and solid proof of Mel's Mix.
Flowers blooming! I'd love to let it set fruit but I know I'm suppose to cut them off...at least I'll have this picture.

What beautiful baby strawberries you have! I've never heard of trimming off the flowers, though. Is that so it can spend its energy on getting rooted?

Also, I have to ask... what are you using for a grid? Are those by chance shims? Because if they are, that's an awesome idea. I just happen to have some 12 inch cedar shims laying around and no grids at the moment.

Thanks! Mel's says they bear fruit for at least 3 or 4 years, then yields will decrease and eventually the plant would die. In the book he recommends to cut off the runners. Oh my gosh! After re-reading it, ( thank you for making me go back and read this!) it says to cut off the runners, NOT cut off the flowers --Excuse me! I totally messed up on that one! Had it stuck in my mind to cut off flowers, duh. So I guess I can enjoy a few little fruits right away this year. If you let the runners take off and root, those will deplete the mother plant. He said to take them off about once a week. Then says to replace all the plants when the harvest dimishes in about 3 or 4 years.

Yes, those are cedar shims pushed in on their skinny sides. I love how the end is tapered so I can snap a little off for a nicer fit. And if I want a 2 foot rectangle area it's a cinch to move them around.