When you receive your bare root strawberries from your favorite online supplier such as these.
If is too early to plant out in the garden when the soil is dry and able to be worked, you can get a jump on the season by starting the pants indoors in pots.
You do not want to start them too early as the flower buds will grow along with the new leaves from the crown of the plant. I would recommend not starting the plants more than a month before you will be putting them out in the garden. To hold bare rooted strawberry plants until you are going to start indoors or plant in pot to get that early jump you can hold the bar rooted plant by preventing the roots from drying out. You can do this by wrapping the roots with a wet paper towel and putting the wrapped roots in a plastic wrap and then storing in a cool, dark place, like an unheated basement, cellar, garage or shed. This can hold your plants for up to two weeks.
After this the risk of crown root and the plants drying out our start to grow greatly increases.
If the garden is not ready you will want to either heal them into an area of your garden or you can begin them in pots to transplant outside when the conditions are ready.
To start your strawberry plants in pots use a pot of the proper size. It must be large enough to contain the roots of the bare root plant without crowding the roots and give the new roots some room to grow. Large Solo cups work well you will just need to add drainage holes in the base of the cups.
Or you can use 6 inch pots to start your plants in
The potting mix (not potting soil) can be any of the ones that are aviable in your area or you can order it from amazon
To start with you will take your bare rooted plant that typically are shipped in a bundle
Separate the plants and remove any excess dead material
Fill the bottom of the pot with a couple of inches of the potting mix
then place the plant into the cup and spread the roots apart
Add the potting mix to fil in around the root until the pot is filled.
Do not plant too deep. You want the crown of the plant
level with the soil and not under it or you run the risk of the crown rotting and the plant dying.
.Planted too deep
Planted proper depth
Water the plant well.
Then let the potting mix dry out between waterings. Too much water will increase the risk of rot setting in. to the crown or the roots.
In two weeks, you should begin to see the new leaves beginning to form from the crown of the plants
The bare rooted plants will develop new roots
When the garden is ready you can then plant them out into their permanent garden home to grow and produce strawberries year after year
In a month you should see the plants also begin to form flowers that were in the crown of the plant
In two months, your plants will be in flower and starting to form fruit.
