How Deep Do Strawberry Roots Grow? 6 Helpful Tips for Successful Growth

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Preparing a strawberry bed in your garden may seem intimidating. With any new plant, there’s a learning curve. Thankfully, planting bare-root strawberries doesn’t have to be hard. We’ve scoured the web to find the most helpful tips and tricks for you!

We’ll discuss the best time to plant strawberry roots, how deep the soil needs to be, and how you can ensure a plentiful harvest of these delicious fruits! Let’s dive in!

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When bare-root strawberries remain dormant and show no signs of new growth, it’s time to plant them. This typically occurs at the beginning of spring. Once the ground is workable and no longer frozen, strawberry planting season begins.

The sooner one plants the bare roots, the better. Spring rains will provide the plants with the moisture they want and you won’t need to water them as often. The chilly spring weather, frost, or even a little bit of snow now and then won’t bother the roots.

If the ground hasn’t thawed or you have a busy schedule, you can store strawberry roots for a short time before planting them. One should ideally plant bare-root strawberries as soon as possible after getting them, although that isn’t always practical.

You can keep them in storage for no more than two weeks if you follow specific criteria. The plants have probably dried out during transport. You should keep them in a plastic bag and lightly mist the roots with water.

Avoid getting them soaked or even damp, since too much moisture may cause mold to grow on them. Put the bag in the crisper of your fridge, leaving the flap open if the bag didn’t arrive ventilated.

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When planting bare-root strawberries, following two straightforward criteria will result in plants that are more robust and produce more fruit. Don’t expect any berries from the plants during the initial year if you are growing a June-bearing type of strawberry.

After your June-bearing bare-rooted berries settle themselves and begin to grow, you should remove all of the flowers. To provide the plant an opportunity to devote all of its energy to developing strong roots and runners for its harvest of the following year, June-bearing strawberries should bloom within their first year after you plant them from bare-root plants.

Although waiting can be difficult, the size and quantity of strawberries you will get in the subsequent year of the plant will more than makeup for the scarce small berries you would receive in the first year.

Everbearing strawberries are subject to another tip. This is all about how you should remove springtime blossoms while allowing the vines to produce strawberries throughout summer as well as fall.

These cultivars produce a sizable crop in the springtime, a few strawberries here and there in the summer, and another sizable crop in the fall. Although the berries are smaller, there is a constant harvest, so you can have fresh strawberries throughout the summer.

It is acceptable to keep part of the blossoms on the crop so you can collect your first bounty earlier after the plants start to appear robust and vigorous, often in the middle of the summer.

Strawberry bare roots don’t need to soak in water to rehydrate them prior to planting. Although, others say they should. It’s just one of those things where there’s a difference of opinion. This leaves it completely up to you.

If you choose to hydrate the bare roots, immerse them for no more than one to two hours in a container of slightly warm water. Never leave them submerged for more than two hours. Your strawberry plants will appear more vibrant and prepared to move into their new location once they have had time to rehydrate.

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Thankfully, you won’t need a ton of special equipment to plant strawberry roots. Most likely, you already own what you need if you’re an avid gardener. The tools and equipment you’ll need are:

Now that you have everything, here is how you properly plant strawberry roots to help them grow and flourish in your garden.

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Inconvenient for planting, bare-root strawberry plants frequently have roots that are up to a foot long. The roots twist and rotate inside the planting hole if you don’t trim them before planting. With pruning shears, cut these roots down until at least six inches of the root remain.

This encourages the establishment of new roots and facilitates nutrient uptake. The majority of nutrients accumulate in the first few inches of soil. If the roots are entwined, carefully detangle each plant from the others.

Create a hole with a depth sufficiently deep to hold the root length with a trowel. Check that the trowel can penetrate the earth far enough; if it’s too short, grab a small shovel. Spacing varies according to the strawberry variety.

They are cultivated in rows that are three to four feet apart, spaced roughly two feet apart, according to the standard matting row arrangement.

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Plant the strawberry roots in the holes, then spread them out. They ought to be dangling downward, not curved in any direction. The strawberry plant’s core should be positioned such that the soil line is where the base of the crown is.

The precise location is important since development will be hindered if the crown is beneath soil level and buried with soil. The crown of the plant can dry out and become infested with pests and diseases if it is too elevated and unprotected.

Ensure that you don’t accidentally cover the crown when gardening or tilling near the plants because the crown shouldn’t be encased in soil. Using your hands, start replacing the soil into the hole, covering the roots.

Complete the planting by watering the roots. The plants receive an initial boost when an organic fertilizer, like fish emulsion, is added to the water. Water the strawberries during the first several weeks until sprouting begins if there isn’t regular rainfall.

The most affordable approach to starting a fresh strawberry patch is using bare-root strawberries. There are businesses that will sell you up to 25 plants of practically any variety for only $15.

That many strawberries will allow you to establish a bed that is 10 feet long and roughly 30 to 36 inches wide, which is sufficient for the average household without yielding an excessive amount of fruit that will go to waste.

Another benefit of bare-root strawberries is that they are frequently the only option to obtain the specific variety that you choose. Typically, your neighborhood grocer will only carry two or three strawberry kinds. They probably won’t have the precise cultivar you’re looking for.

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You get a lot of nutritious value from strawberries for just a few calories. They taste good yet have little sugar by nature. It’s difficult to top that mix. First off, strawberries are a great source of vitamin C.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) suggests that you have eight medium strawberries every day, which equals 160% of your daily allowance of Vitamin C. In addition, strawberries are a rich source of antioxidants, which guard against cellular damage.

Anthocyanin, the pigment that provides strawberries their red, is the fruit’s main antioxidant. Therefore, the darker red a berry is, the greater amount of antioxidants it has. In addition to fiber and a number of other vital vitamins and minerals, strawberries also include manganese, potassium, and folic acid.

The natural sugar content of strawberries is also lower than that of other common fruits like apples and bananas.

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