Care of Bare Rooted Plants?

[Whitewater]

Well . . .

Even though I know it's kind of early (I don't have the ability to start baby plants inside) to start thinking about getting my hands on some new plants, I couldn't help myself and started to cruise Ebay, looking for some cheap replacements for the raspberries that the blasted . . . rabbits? . . .squirrels? . . . ate right down to the ground last fall, before I noticed. I have no idea if they'll come back and so am planning for the worst.

I'm also looking to expand my strawberry patch -- I've got Honeoye, Ozark Beauty and All-Star, but only 2-3 plants per species. I'd like to add some Sure-Crop in the mix, which somebody right now is selling on Ebay. 25 plants for an astonishingly low price, I think it's something like $10 including shipping. And they'll hold them until spring, too, which is nice.

I'm not worried about getting rid of the extra plants, I can give them away on Craigslist or Freecycle or something, but what I am worried about is the fact that the seller will ship them bare-root.

Last summer I bought 12 Honeoye strawberry plants from Ebay and they were shipped bare-root, and all but one of them died. Actually, they all died but one actually came back to life in my patch after a couple weeks, believe it or not. And I don't know if the other 6 survived, I gave them away to friends.

Does anybody here know how to take care of bare-root plants immediately after shipping? I just planted the strawberries last year in those biodegradable pots, you know, potting them up like you would with young plants, because I didn't know any better.

Obviously, that's the wrong thing to do! Does anybody know how to properly care for bare root plants? I'd appreciate the information. I'd like to order 2-3 more Honeoye berry plants from nurseries and I suspect that they will ship them bare-root as well.


Whitewater

 

[TillinWithMyPeeps]

Who is the seller? I've bought strawberries on eBay before, so I might know a little about them.

The best thing I can recommend is planting them in slightly damp saw dust, and leaving them in a sheltered area where it is cold enough to keep them from coming out of dormancy before they are planted. Once the ground thaws, you can plant them outside, where they will start growing when it warms up.

I had very good luck doing this, with very close to 100% of the plants coming up in the spring.

 

[Whitewater]

Hmm . . . let's see . . .

Somebody called 'denowolfes1' for the strawberries and lakesuperiortreefarm for the raspberry plants.

The nice thing is that both of these sellers will hold the plants until spring, ie, early May, so I don't have to keep them in the basement or anything until then.

Sorry I wasn't clear, my question is what to do when you get the plants. When you open the box, and the soil is all ready and stuff . . .is there anything special you have to do? Can you just bung them into your strawberry patch right off?


Whitewater

 

[patandchickens]

I do not know about strawberries, but with trees, shrubs, cane fruits and perennials that I've mailordered bareroot, all I've ever done is soak their roots in tepid water for a few hours and then plant them. I think it *is* worth the short soak -- the roots seem to plump up noticeably in most cases. Don't leave them in there too long though, like not for a day or more (I dont' even know whether overnight would be ok or not), as you don't want to drown them.

And then, if there is ANY growth started whatsoever at all (buds breaking, tiny leaves, whatever), make sure the plants are WELL shielded from wind, and get only filtered or morning sun, til they have got going strongly.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat