I’ve ordered a ton of strawberry plugs and more than likely I’ll not have my ground ready for planting when the arrival of them. So my plan is to pot them and in early spring transfer them to the ground. What I need to know is what size pot for each individual plant? I don’t know what the root system is for strawberries and wondering (hopefully) someone knows. I need to know before so I can order pots of the proper size. Please help.
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You can put them in a 2"x3" trays.
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Hmm. Ok I was thinking larger. Will this be large enough for the root system? I’ve ordered 500+ plugs 10 trays so saving space the3”x4” would certainly work.
My plans are to use promix to pot them. Is there any specific medium that would work best?
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Promix should work. But in my experience starting seeds its good to have some quality compost thrown in into the mix. I have had issues with starts grown in sterile mix, sometimes if there is a pathogen in the seed or pots/trays etc. it can take over making the plant sick. The non-pathogenic microbe in a quality compost can help counter that.
3" is pretty deep for a strawberry start, hope you don’t plant to leave the plant in a plug for months.
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Would black cow work mixed in? At least that’s what I think it’s called. Yellow bag with black label?
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I haven’t used that one. I’ve only Olymountain fish compost. dirt hugger, Malibu biodynamic blend to name a few. They may got a $9-$20 a bag (Malibu biodynamic is the most expensive) but you only need 10% - 15% of your total soil volume.
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I have used Black Kow in the past several times… good stuff. The nearest Lowes carries it. Decent price. 1774 reviews 4.5 stars.
I save the pots from previous plant purchases… wash them and reuse them over and over.
I bought some bareroot strawberries a couple years ago for my daughter… and started them in pots for her… her first time planting a strawberry bed.
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Here is what I did and what I used in case it helps get you started.
I bought some strawberry plugs this Spring and wasn’t sure where I wanted to put them so I planted them into deep 3.5 inch pots. They are either in straight promix BX or maybe BX with a bit of pine fines added. They plugs were sad looking when I got them and I lost a few but they have grown well and given me a ton of runners to multiply the plants. These are a much more dainty variety than something like Chandler, but the pots would be fine for the larger varieties to carry you through to spring. I wouldn’t go smaller or you’ll risk stunting the plants. The whole point of getting plugs in fall is to have good sized plants ready to fruit in Spring, so you want to grow these plants as big as possible before planting, not just keep them alive.
You can fit 18 of these pots in a 10x20 tray or you can use 24x24 trays to hold 36.
The pots I used are available in a qty. of 18 or in a case of 450 from Greenhouse Megastore. I use the regular 3.5 squares for tomato and pepper starts, but used the deeper ones for the strawberries since I knew I would get busy and ignore them and wanted them to have more soil so they’d be less likely to dryout and die on me.
Here are the 24x24 trays that I use for seedlings, etc. which are very rugged and great for things like this. Besides fitting 36 of the 3.5 pots, you can also put two 10x20 trays inside (each with 18 3.5 pots), which I do when starting flats of seedlings.
Personally, I’d probably used a liquid fertilizer at 50% strength and not worry about adding manure or other additives.
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I’m not familiar with the brand name compost you mentioned. Must be west coast companies. With shipping costs as high as ever, more than likely they don’t ship to the east coast. I have a diesel truck and the cost is 80 cents more per gallon than regular gas.
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That sure looks like it could work
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I’m liking these pots and trays. I would be able to reuse them for other plants as well. @zendog thank you and everyone for helping. It’s really great to be able to ask questions and get feedback from people who are knowledgeable.
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I don’t know how to post a picture and want to show the potted strawberries.