How to grow bare root strawberries?

How to grow bare root strawberries?

There is nothing better than an excellent harvest of very fresh strawberries to start the summer season. And if we are thinking in starting our own strawberry orchardThe first thing we have to do is visit a store or nursery to buy bare root strawberry plants.

After this, we are going to need some knowledge on how to properly plant and store bare root strawberries.    

 What is a bare root strawberry?

What is a bare root strawberry

Bare root strawberry plants they are dormant plants that are not planted in the groundInstead, its appearance is that of bare roots with withered foliage attached to them.

Bare-rooted plants are usually shipped by both nurseries and seed catalogs and this is mainly because they are easier and at the same time less expensive to ship.

El Growing these strawberries is the key to ensuring they wake up from their dormant state. and start the production of these delicious fruits as soon as possible. We cannot always easily know if the plant is alive and if it is healthy, however there are some clues that can guide us towards the well-being of these plants.

First of all, said plants they should not show any signs of fungus or mold and above all they must not have any kind of strange or decomposed smell. Second, strawberry plants must be completely free from damage while their foliage has to be intact and their root system is generally heavy, not light and dry.

Planting bare root strawberries

We can plant our bare root strawberries in the yard and after all the danger of the cold and icy seasons has passeds. To carry out this process properly we must do the following:

  1. First, we must prepare a plot in the garden where you have a good sun exposure and that also has a good drainage of eight centimeters of compost to a depth of 32 centimeters.
  2. In addition, we have to place half a kilogram of fertilizer, 10-10-10 for every nine square meters that the bed has.
  3. After soak bare root strawberry plants for about 20 minutes in a bucket of water. We simply soak the roots, without submerging the entire plant. This allows the roots to rehydrate and break their dormant cycle.
  4. Then we dig holes the size of roots and twice as wide.
  5. Immediately we extend the roots in the hole and fill it with soil, keeping the crown of the plant at ground level.
  6. We place the plants at a distance of 45 centimeters and keeping the rows separate.
  7. We water well and put a layer of about two inches of mulch around each plant to keep the water in. From this moment, we water the bed every week with a little water. Bare root strawberry plants should start growing in early summer.

Bare root strawberry storage

strawberry picking and cultivation

Really storing bare root strawberries is not recommendedHowever, and sometimes we cannot avoid it.

The main concern when storing bare root strawberries is protection from cold weather. We can take them to a basement or a garage to protect them from the cold and if we store them outside, we must bear in mind that if the temperatures get hot, the plants can come out of their dormancy prematurely.

Instead, and a frost falls on them, the plants can die. Protecting the roots is also one of the most important concerns, so it is it is essential to cover them. We can place the plants in pots, sand, wood chips or sawdust; this in order to protect the roots and maintain moisture.

Similarly, when storing bare root strawberries we must not let the roots dry out. The roots should be kept moist, not soggy as excess water will rot them.


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