Will my Everbearing Strawberries grow this year?

[Felicia]

I've never done strawberries from dormant starts and I'm a little worried that I may have screwed them up. I'm in Raleigh, NC, so we don't get much of a winter and I didn't get the dormant starts in the ground until the end of March... As far as I can tell, none of them have started to green up at all yet.

Did I ruin my starts by not waiting to plant until fall? if not, how long does it take before they start to look like strawberry plants?

[tylianna]

I live in zone 5 and I planted mine middle of April and I have green leaves sproutng from mine. I had my bareroots in the refrigerator for almost a month before I planted them since I didn't have a spot for them ready when I got them. I ordered them online from Gurneys.

Hope this gives you some insigh on what yours should look like.

[applestar]

In my area (Zone 6), the bareroot strawberry plants arrived 2nd week of March last year and I managed to plant all 75 by 4th week of March. They had nice leaves on them and I was concerned that they might freeze -- I covered some with floating coveres. They all came through. A few that didn't have growing leaves took longer to get going, but I think they had recovered from the planting process by mid-April.

Were your roots in good condition? Plump, not shriveled? Is it possible you might've planted them too deep? Strawberries should be planted with the growing tip exposed (picture the tip of your finger above the first joint above the soil). The roots should be spread out over a cone/mound of soil and watered in well before covering with the rest of the soil.

[Zapatay]

75 plants? Wow.

[applestar]

Yeah We had a decent harvest despite it being the first year, and the kids ate until they were tired of them. I did not have to provide snacks during the strawberry season. Made a lot of smoothies, and few jars of jams. We'll see what happens this year with these established plants. The very first strawberry was picked and eaten yesterday.

... did I mention I already have a big bed (about 10'x8' of Wild Strawberries? We're going to be buried in strawberries this year. Let's see... jams, pies, strawberry ice cream....

Maybe a strawberry picking party

[Zapatay]

omgosh strawberry picking party - that sounds fabulous!

Have some champagne and fresh strawberries
Home-made Strawberry tarts
Serve salad w/ sliced strawberries

How fun!

[farmerlon]

The roots should be spread out over a cone/mound of soil and watered in well before covering with the rest of the soil.

I have planted Strawberries that way (with the cone/mound), and it works well.

Also, this year, I planted some Tribute everbearing strawberries, by putting the roots into the soil in a straight line... the roots were spread out in a straight line, looking somewhat like a handheld fan.
I found that planting with the "fan" method is much quicker and easier than the "mound" method. With the "fan", you can spread the soil with your trowel, stick the plant in, and then just firm the soil around the plant... very quick. Those "fan planted" Tribute berries look great, and are growing like gangbusters!

[Felicia]

O.K. so I must've really done something wrong because none of them have even started to turn green much less have leaves and I left the crown part at the top like the directions said. So, should I pull them up and start over? Should I give them until next year to see if the winter wakes them up? I knew I should've started with green plants, I'm so much better at keeping things green than making them turn green

[!potatoes!]

they sound dead from here, but it doesn't sound like you did anything wrong either...there are other possibilities!

but i'd start over. poke around, and be sure they're really dead first, but they should've done something by now.

[JONA878]

The trouble probably occured in the time between lifting and re-planting.
Once a plant is lifted the roots must never be allowed to dry out completely. This is usually avoided by wrapping in plastic and cold-storing or by healing the plants in to soil in bunch form.
The first way gives you a far greater spread of time for planting as the cold store will keep the plants for up to six months if controlled well.
If the roots are allowed to dry out then the plant will die quite quickly.

I've found that as too the method of planting, it's much more important to get the soil prepared well than the way the plants are put in.
When planting many thousands of plants the roots are usually pushed into the soil with a forked stick. The roots are hooked around a broad vee shaped cut on the end of a a stick of about an inch wide.
This is then pushed into the soil and the crown left just proud of the soil level. Providing the soil is well worked the roots will self spread very quickly. I have never had any failures from this method and when planting into grow-bags or ground that is covoured with polythene this is about the only method possible without making a huge planting hole.