Last year when planting our strawberries at our current property, I designed the strawberry beds 3’ x 10’ with 3’ wide walkways in-between. I had an idea to plant the strawberries in landscape fabric originally, but the goal was for my husband to rototill between the rows to prevent weeds. This was the first year I was helping with planning, planting, trimming, and caring for the strawberries. Oh, I had A LOT to learn!
Strawberries produce runners like crazy. With selling cut flowers at the DuBois Farmer’s Market every Saturday along with working on another graduate course that summer, the runners got ahead of me, big time!
The good news is I spaced the strawberry plants out enough that with any of the established runners with strong roots I cut off them off from the main plant and let them continue growing, as long as they were within the strawberry spaced.
My husband did rototill between the beds a few times, but with only needing to go 10’ before moving to the next 10’ walkway, ehh- not the best design.
This year, we just needed a different strategy for keeping weeds out of the strawberry bed, along with keep the runners from rooting. After having so much success with growing my cut flowers and melons in Sunbelt landscape fabric, I planted 50 new bare root strawberries in landscape fabric.
Strawberry Varieties
Last year, I planted three varieties, including Earliglow, Jewel, and Sparkle. These came in a collection that its goal is to provide strawberries throughout the season with an early season variety, followed by a mid-season and late variety.
This year, I purchased two more varieties of bare root strawberries to plant in landscape fabric. One is a June-bearing. June-bearing strawberries are seasonal to well, June. For the new bed, I purchased some Honeyoe Strawberries. These are a favorite of my mother-in-law, who has grown a strawberry patch for as long as I’ve known her. They’re a bit smaller, but the flavor is entirely sweetness bliss.
The other variety I purchased for the 2023 season is an ever-bearing strawberry. This means that it will produce not necessarily all year, but twice. Once in the summer and again in the fall. The variety I chose is called EverSweet, having a sweet flavoring with a firm texture.
Both varieties are for my growing zone 5. When choosing your varieties keep that into consideration.
Where to Purchase Bare Roots
You could buy strawberry plants with green growth at a local greenhouse or garden center, but they will be more expensive.
I’ve bought strawberry plants from a big-box-store before in my early years of gardening. It may have even been on clearance- WHOOPS. Those plants were not viable at all.
There are two places that I’ve had great success with the strawberries. In a previous season, I bought the strawberry collection from Johnny’s Select Seeds. These plants did awesome.
This season, I purchased from Stark Brother’s, as well as some fruit trees. The strawberries came labeled and wrapped up very nicely with some moist roots.
Both companies provide tons of resources to help you plant, grow, and harvest.
Choosing a Good Location
Last year was A MESS! We rototilled our garden in the previous fall and then as soon as the soil was workable in March. By April, the garden was entirely saturated with the rainfall. Our garden was a swamp. And yet, I needed to plant strawberries.
Okay, well, the garden did dry out when my strawberries arrived, but the next day with the downpours, the bare root strawberries were underneath water on the one side of the garden. Our garden has low spots, and in those low spots, the water does not drain well. We have a relatively flat yard with large layers of rock in the sub-soil that does not allow for drainage either. WE FLOODED HALF OUR STRAWBERRIES!
I ended up trying to save the plants by pulling them up, moving them to different location in the garden or potting them up. So much effort, and I wasn’t able to save them all either. For the ones still in some containers, I’m not sure if they’ll come back this year, although they had some pretty nice growth throughout the summer.
With this season, I changed my design plans for my garden rather quickly. Where I wanted to plant them, it was indeed a swampy mess again. Even if it would dry out by May, that area of the garden is still prone to overwatering. Strawberries don’t like to be saturated soil.
I chose a different location for my strawberries. Where we had rototilled for my spring cut flower garden, I measured out where I planted poppy seeds, and chose a site on a small slope of a hill with full sun. With how much I invested not only financially with the bareroots, but also with time for planting, picking out a healthy environment for the strawberries was essential.
Landscape Fabric for Strawberries
I used a variety of landscape fabrics before. I usually used the type that is easy to cut through, but it is also on the thinner side. It doesn’t hold up year after year.
The landscape fabric I used last year with my cut flowers and for planting these bare root strawberries is from Johnny’s Select Seed with the brand called Sunbelt. It is a thicker plastic that is woven to still allow water to flow through it.
Most people will use landscape staples to secure it into the ground. From another project, we have leftover cement cap blocks. They’re not as bulky as cement blocks, so they are easier for me to move and also work around in the garden. For a 29’ roll, I use 8 blocks, 4 on each side. This may seem like a lot, but with living on a ridge we have our share of wind. Even with the blocks we do use, the sides can still flap a little. Nothing to where it blows over the top of the plants.
Do NOT use GARDEN ROCKS laying around in the soil. Even larger sized rocks won’t exactly keep the landscape fabric in place. I tried this before, and the next day the plastic was wiping across the melon patch.
This type of landscape fabric will also last for years outdoors. It has good durability, which works great with strawberries that will stay in the same area for years until they need replaced.
When to Plant
My strawberry bare roots last year shipped in April in early spring. My bare roots this year shipped in late winter in late March. The soil was able to be worked, but snow was in patches in my yard.
This had me worried, am I planting too early? Here’s the thing, bare roots are dormant, much in the same way my current strawberries are dormant in my main garden. They should stay dormant until the soil reaches the right temperature for them to start.
Laying Out the Landscape Fabric
Unroll the landscape fabric, a section at a time. Place the two cap blocks at the one end, lining it up where you want the end of your bed. Unravel about 8’-9’ of fabric before laying down two more cap blocks. Repeat until reaching the end of the bed.
Sunbelt landscape fabric has four yellow lines, one foot apart. This is nice for finding the width of spacing between plants. To find the length, use a landscape tape measure along the center yellow line. This will provide the information needed for the spacing of the strawberries in the landscape fabric.
Spacing and Burning Holes for the Strawberries
The one downfall to using landscape fabric is that it cannot be cut. Well, it can be, but it will fray. I don’t even know if serging the cut marks would keep it from fraying!
Instead of cutting off the landscape fabric from the roll, use a propane torch to burn it off. Then, instead of using a knife to cut holes into the landscape fabric, burn holes large enough to plant the bare root strawberries.
These need to be placed according to the plants’ needs. Strawberries take 12” – 18” of growing space. Spacing nearer would not allow strawberry plants to have enough room to remain healthy away from disease.
I space mine a foot a part width-wise following the yellow line. And then 18” apart length-wise, following the numbers on the landscape tape measure. I burnt my first hole at the 1’ marking. My second hold was burnt at the 4’ marking, 3’ away from the first hole. Then I find the 6” marking that is half way, 2’6” for here, and burn my third hole. It makes it easier burning at 3’ intervals, and then burning in between that.
Continue this process of adding 3’, burning a hole, then finding between the two burnt holes, to burn another hole, until reaching the end of the bed.
How to Use a Propane Torch
These torches can be purchased at hardware stores. They come in a whole kit, usually with a blue tank.
Turn on the knob; face the torch end towards the plastic; press the on button. It will light and create a flame to burn through the plastic. Once finished, turn the knob to off so that no more propane is coming out. Once knowing how to use it, it is not as intimidating, but make sure to see instructions with the propane torch for more details.
Be Careful of Extra Flames
Keep an eye out for any stray flame that didn’t go out as soon as you were finished burning a hole. This happens to me a couple of times. When burning the holes for the strawberries, I got down to the end of the first row and realized that one of the holes still had a small flame that was still spreading.
To stop it from spreading, I ran up and pressed my Muck Boot onto the flame to extinguish it. It didn’t melt my boot or cause more of a fire. Other options is to use a spade shovel for a small gardening digging tool.
Now, I just have a hole that is the right size with a little extra. The bummer with this is that now weeds can seep up through that extra burnt spacing. It is what it is, but do be careful that you check for any stray flames that keep on feeding on your landscape fabric.
Continue Burning Holes
With having 50 bare roots to plant, I needed to burn 19 more holes on the other side, as well as a few holes on the center line. For those in the center, I placed them between the other two holes at a diagonal.
Planting the Bare Root
Planting any plant within the confides of the landscape fabric may be a bit tough. Here’s the steps that I used.
First, use a digger to create a hole large enough for the strawberry roots. The roots should have plenty of room. They should NOT be squished into the hole. So, make the hole to a decent size..
Add an organic fertilizer. Espoma products are great, since they won’t burn the roots. Berry-tone works, but so does Bio-tone, which is a starter fertilizer. I didn’t have any berry-tone at home, so I used Bio-tone. I put in enough Bio-tone fertilizer to cover the bottom of the hole in a small layer. Just a few shakes from the bag.
My roots were still rather moist, and the spring soil I was planting in was also moist. One can soak the roots for a little before planting.
Roots, Crown, & “Stems”
The bare root itself has the roots on the bottom, the crown, and then the stems from last year at the top. If the roots are too long to fit nicely into the hole, it is okay to cut off some of the excess length. The crown should be place right at the soil line.
Think about it this way, if planting strawberry plants versus bareroots, where would the soil line go? Essentially where the potting soil line is, which is right underneath the green growth. Imagine the browned dried, cut off stems on the top as green. You wouldn’t plant the green stems with leaves under the soil, so don’t plant the whole bare root under the soil either.
The other thing to consider is none of the roots should be above the soil surface. Make sure to cover all the roots, even at the top near the crown with soil. About a third to a half of the crown will be covered in soil. It shouldn’t all be covered, and it shouldn’t all be showing either.
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