GARDEN : Strawberries – Planting Live Plants

AHTrimble.com

Practical Knowledge. Real Experience. Better Preparedness.

GARDEN : Strawberries – Planting Live Plants

April 16, 2026

This experience couldn’t have been more different than the “bare root” experience. I bought my 20 Eversweet plants from an Etsy vendor…GrowYourOwnFoodShop. I’ve written about them before, they are the folks from whom I purchased my “test” plants last season. They were extremely helpful, easy to work with, and flat-out nice people.

I was hoping to buy 10 Albion and 10 Eversweet live plants from them for this year. Turns out they were going to by $100 for all 20…not a bad deal, we just didn’t have the $100 at the time. A little later, maybe a month or so, the vendor offered $50 for 20 Eversweet. I couldn’t say no.

The last “strawberry” post I related my planting “bare root” plants…considerably different than planting “live plants”. Well, not entirely different but some.

I had already prepped the raised beds, amended the soil, and planted some bare root plants (bed on the left). The bed on the right has the plants carried over from last year.
The box contains the live plants that I just picked up from the mail drop.

It is kinda weird…each little 2″x2″ planting pot is taped together with the others and all are taped to the box itself. That prevents them from shift around during transit. Each pot is wrapped in cling wrap to keep the soil intact and the soil moist. There was absolutely no damage to any plant. This was the same method they used last year, it works really well.

Then I literally laid out each potted plant where I was planning on planting it. This ensures I have the spacing right and that it makes sense.

I like to dig a notably larger hole than the pot. I put about 1 teaspoon of organic fertilizer (4-4-4) in the bottom and mix it thoroughly.

I don’t “fluff” the roots with live plants like I do with the bare root plants. I keep the root ball intact…it is already loose mulch soil and is not root bound.
I don’t pack the soil, I water it and that packs it without it being too packed/dense.
Once all that is done you can see I did a ring of the same organic fertilizer around the plant.
Look how good the quality of that live plant is! That is what you get when working with a quality vendor such as GrowYourOwnFoodShop on Etsy.

Once all the plants are in the ground I go ahead and water them in really well. I put about 1 quart of water on each plant. When that is done I start over and put another quart on them.
Then they get wood chip mulched and drip irrigation installed.
And yes…I picked up my trash.

So here you go…my latest attempt at building a great strawberry patch…

< click here to read about my planting “bare root” Albion & Eversweet everbearing strawberry plants >

GARDEN : Strawberries – Planting Live Plants

Related Articles –

Never Miss an Article

Discover more from AHTrimble.com