How to Plant Strawberries From Roots
You can pick up bare-root strawberries from local nurseries and home improvement centers each spring. Buying bare-root strawberries is inexpensive, because you are not paying for containers or fancy packaging. Bare-root strawberries look kind of like dried up roots with shriveled foliage when purchased in a dormant stage. Learn how to plant strawberries from roots and start your own strawberry bed.
Required Items
- Strawberry roots
- Compost
- Mulch
- Shovel
- Bucket
- Fertilizer
Look for a level spot in your yard with full sun for a period of six hours or more and prepare a planting bed. Turn the soil up with a shovel or your tool of preference in the new strawberry bed. Remove weeds, rocks and sticks. Amend the soil structure with cow manure and compost if needed. You can add granulated time-release fertilizer now or use a liquid fertilizer after plants are established.
Rehydrate the strawberry roots in a bucket of warm water for at least 20 minutes.
Prepare individual holes for each strawberry root approximately 18 inches apart with rows spaced three feet apart. Each hole should equal the length of a root, but twice as wide. Separate and spread out the roots for each plant taking care that the crown is placed just above the soil level. The crown is where the stem and the roots meet. Cover the roots with soil and a top dressing of two inches of mulch to keep plants moist and prevent weeds.
- Water the new strawberry bed thoroughly and provide water weekly as needed. If you did not use a time-released fertilizer when preparing the beds, try using Miracle-Gro fertilizer according to the directions on the package.