The Best Way to Buy Strawberry Plants for New Beds or Patches

There are different options for growing strawberries.

Strawberries can be grown from seed. They can be planted from potted transplants. Or, you can grow them from dormant bare-root plants.

So, what is best for establishing a new strawberry bed?

For planting a new strawberry patch or strawberry bed, there is definitely a better and best option.

Seeds are not the Best Way to Grow

Starting strawberry plants from seed, as we do with many annual vegetable plants, is not the best option.

There are a few reasons why this is true.

1. Strawberry seeds take a long time to start and a long time to grow to transplant size.
2. For best results, you’d want to start the seeds indoors.
3. Strawberry seeds should be started very early indoors for spring or early summer transplanting. A January start is best.
4. Starting indoors requires space, heat, grow lights, and up-potting.
5. Strawberry seeds are expensive.
6. There is no guarantee all the seeds will germinate and result in a transplant.
7. (In fact, for number 6, you can pretty much count on the fact that all of them won’t!)

Even if you’re up for the work of it and the utility inputs, there’s a bigger reason why we don’t typically start strawberry bedding plants from seed.

The reason is that you are very limited in variety and type when you start strawberries from seed. You won’t get the large, juicy berries that most of us are looking for from an outdoor strawberry bed with varieties that can be grown from seed.

The strawberry plant varieties that we grow for big, juicy berries are hybrids. They can’t be grown from typical seeds. Hybrid strawberries don’t reliably produce when grown from seed. This is why we usually buy strawberry plants from commercial nurseries.

Commercial nurseries usually propagate hybrid plants from runners from the parent plants, making them reliable clones.

There are strawberry seeds that home gardeners can grow, but these are not usually hybrids. The most popular are alpine varieties. They are usually larger than wild strawberries but are nowhere near as big as the hybrid strawberries most of us have in mind for our strawberry beds, patches, or even fields.

If you’re happy with small berries, you might give some alpine seeds a try. They certainly have a place and offer some benefits, but you can’t expect the big, bumper crops of the common large strawberry from anything you can start from seed.

A better use of strawberry seeds and alpine varieties is planting in a patio container or hanging basket or perhaps as a ground cover for a shady spot. But they’re probably not what you’ll want to rely upon for a significant amount of fresh eating and certainly not for preserving.

What About Planting Potted Strawberry Transplants?

Potted strawberry plants are a good option, but they are not the best option if you want to establish a whole bed.

There is nothing wrong with growing healthy potted strawberry plants that come from reputable nurseries or sellers. They will be alive and thriving and ready to take off.

The drawback to planting a new bed of strawberries from potted plants is that those plants will be the most expensive option. Generally speaking, potted plants are several times more expensive per plant than the best option.

It is not unusual to pay eight to ten dollars or more per plant for potted strawberry plants.

It takes a lot of strawberry plants to grow a sizable bed for a household. The recommended amount of plants for a family is 25 strawberry plants per person. This will give you enough for both fresh eating and preserving. So, growing a new bed from potted plants can easily cost hundreds of dollars.

One other thing to know is that potted plants get planted later than bare root plants. It is advised to plant potted strawberries after your last frost date.

You will also be limited by local availability. Or, you will have to have live plants shipped, which is possible but is less than ideal. Shipping takes a toll on the live plants, too, and it’s common for them to suffer some breakage and damage in shipping.

Transplants are also subject to transplant shock, which can set the plants back after they’re planted in the garden bed.

In the end, they usually recover, but may be no further ahead than planting bare root plants to begin with.

Bare Root Strawberries are Best for New Beds

Bare-root strawberries are arguably the best option for planting a new strawberry bed. There are several reasons why this is true:

• Dormant plants can (and should) be planted earlier than potted transplants
• Bare roots can be planted as soon as the soil is workable in the spring
• Planting time for bare roots is a month or more earlier than planting for potted transplants, but the dormant plants will begin to grow quickly, and they easily catch up to the point that potted transplants are at the time of planting
• Bare roots don’t typically experience transplant shock because they wake up from a dormant state
• Bare root strawberries are sold for much less than potted transplants
• 25 bare root plants cost about $16 to $18 but are just as successful when properly handled as potted transplants are
• Bare-root strawberry plants ship easily, and damage is not typically a problem
• Most sellers will ship bare roots at the time that is right for planting in your location, helping to alleviate guesses about when to plant your new strawberries
• You will have the widest variety of strawberry types with bare-root strawberries
• Popular varieties are readily and widely available (and some less popular but coveted varieties, too)

All things considered, between cost, selection, and availability, starting a new strawberry bed with bare root plants is by far the best and most economical way to go.

How Early is Too Early to Order Bare Root Strawberry Transplants?

There is almost no time that is too early to order bare-root strawberry plants. Most reputable sellers will not make the plants available until the new shipping cycle. They usually have built-in times for shipping to different locations. As mentioned above, most larger sellers will wait to ship your dormant bare-root plants until it is time to plant them where you live and grow.

This is true even if you order your plants early. In fact, it’s best to place your orders for bare-root strawberries early. You can order as soon as your seed catalogs start arriving. Strawberries do often sell out, especially the more proven and popular varieties.

It is smart to pay attention to when the plants will ship. This information is generally listed on websites or in catalogs. If it is not, you might inquire.

Or, if you are buying on a site like Amazon, be aware that they are often shipping order by order. The timing may or may not be right for you. If the listing does not say otherwise, assume the order will ship right out. This may be okay if the time is right for planting, but if it is still several months away from workable soil and spring planting, consider holding off or buying from a vendor that will ship your plants at the right time.