Bareroot strawberry plants dying. What should I do?

[GardenNinja]

I ordered twelve bareroot Mara Des Bois strawberry plants from Ken Muir last month and they have been planted out for several weeks now. They developed some leaves but then the young leaves started dying off and now I only have five plants that appear to be alive. I planted them in three large containers (4 in each) in different environments: one gets full sun, one gets dappled shade, and one gets morning sun only. I don't know what I am doing wrong because all three containers have at least some dying plants and some thriving ones.

Is there any chance that the plants with the dead leaves will recover and is there anything that I can do to help it? Also, I don't know if I should contact the vendor about this as it is my first time to order bareroot plants.

[redser]

I would move them to the shade, somewhere cool. Make sure and keep them WELL watered. I've lost loads in containers at the plot during this hot spell. Just havnt been able to keep up with the watering. A weak feed might help them along too.

[FB.]

Planted too late in the season? (bare-root season is normally November-March)
Planted too deep?
Struggling to establish in the hot dry weather?
Not regularly watered? (most people severely underestimate how much water potted plants need)
Over-watered or over-fed?
Diseased on arrival?

[rustylady]

Have you watered them well? New bare-root plants take a while to get established and send out new roots to support them, and containers can dry out really quickly even in the shade.

[GardenNinja]

Thanks for your replies, everyone. I have been watering them regularly, making sure the compost is always moist but not too wet. I also give them a weak feed of Miracle Grow when I water them. I am not sure why some of the plants are surviving and others in the same container are dying off. The website states that these plants can be planted up until end of July.

Should I contact the vendor to let them know of this or do you think it was probably my fault that the plants died? I was thinking about doing this if they don't recover when I move them to a shadier spot.

[rustylady]

I would contact the vendor now to let them know of the problems you've been having.

At least then they will be aware of the situation and may be able to offer reasons or advice.

[FB.]

Although I've never purchased from Ken Muir so can't comment on them, I have purchased many fruit plants from a variety of nurseries over the years - and I generally work on the assumption that about one-third* to one-half* will fail to thrive, or will die from some disease or another brought along from the nursery.
Often the failure to thrive is batch-specific because something happened to the plants while growing at the nursery.

It shouldn't be that way, but when there are thousands of plants in mass-production, it's inevitable that a few plants missed getting sprayed (or heavy rain quickly washed-off the fungicides sprays and the plants were unprotected) so diseases of those plants would be present too - and once the plants are no longer sprayed in the home situation the diseases get their chance to attack any plants which aren't strong.

*
Plant death or failure to thrive is often batch-specific. For example: I might buy a dozen plants of each of strawberries, some raspberries and some currants, then find that while the strawberries and currants all survived, most of the raspberries died.
Or perhaps a batch of apples, pears and cherries - with most of the pears dying while the apples and cherries grow well.

One winter a number of years ago I bought a batch of probably twenty young apple trees from a well-known nursery. About half were on M25 rootstock and about half on M26.
None of the M25 trees in that batch lasted more than a couple of years (all died from crown rot) but all of the M26 trees were fine (although I later gave the M26 trees away to a friend when I redeveloped the plot where the cordons were).
However, M25 trees and rootstocks from a number of other suppliers have established well.

[WendyC]

I've had replacement bare root strawberries from Ken Muir with no hassle. I think I just dropped a email. They did ask me to wait a bit longer but did replace.

[GardenNinja]

Hi Wendy, did they ask you to cover the postage for the replacement plants?

[WendyC]

Don't think so but it was a couple of years ago so my memory was a bit hazy! It was only two or three plants. Have you then?

[GardenNinja]

Don't think so but it was a couple of years ago so my memory was a bit hazy! It was only two or three plants. Have you then?

Yes, I emailed them two days ago and got a reply yesterday saying that if I want the replacements they will send some in September, but I would need to pay £5 for postage. They said it is likely because of overwatering or underwatering that the plants died. I'm still having a think on whether I want to spend more money for the extra plants.

[rustylady]

I wouldn't pay £5 for another lot of runners that may turn out to be just as bad. How many of your plants have survived?

You should be able to root your own runners from them soon. Free plants

[WendyC]

I wouldn't pay £5 for another lot of runners that may turn out to be just as bad. How many of your plants have survived?

You should be able to root your own runners from them soon. Free plants

Exactly. Would suggest you only take the number of runners you actually need this year as the mother plant is only just getting established now.

[GardenNinja]

Thanks a lot for your input, ladies. It looks like I only have four that are going to make it for sure. I think next time, I will just pay more for the plug plants as they have never died on me. I might ask them if they will send a few pot grown plants instead of the bareroot ones. But then again, I could wait for the runners.... tough one! How many runners do you think I should take from each plant this year?

[rustylady]

For goodness sake wait for the runners. How big are your plants at the moment? Photo would help.