Planting strawberries?

[The Griff]

First of all I am new to the site so please be gentle.
I have just purchased a few bare root strawberry plants(about 200) and have planted them in rectangle shaped containers about 2 feet by 10" and have put between 3 and 5 plants in each container depending on plant size with peat free compost mixed with a bit of sharp sand and some water granules and about an inch of gravel in the bottom.
I have them all planted apart from the last 40 plants which are probably the smallest graded out of them all.
I plan to leave the ones already planted up in the unheated greenhouse for a couple of months to bring them on a bit early and protect from frosts, not sure if thats the correct thing to do, from what I have read they be ok as long as they don't get above 16 degrees as this will make them flower.
I have now run out of room in the greenhouse and am struggling to fit the last 40 in there.
I have one of these blow away shelf things with a plastic cover, it has 4 shelves the size of grow bags, would it be ok to plant these 40 bare root strawberries I have left in the blow away thing out against my shed in grow bags?
I live in the north east uk so will still get heavy frosts from now until summer

[greenishfing]

My strawberries live outdoors and are planted at 18" intervals in all directions. They will happily survive an English winter.

[Guest]

Hi and welcome to the vine Planting them in grow bags in a blowaway is fine. As you have already said having them undercover will bring them on sooner. Strawbs are tough plants I have found wet bothers them more than cold/frost. What variety/s are they?

[greenishfing]

Do you have a large family? I have about 50 of the strawberry plants that fruit on and off all summer and they provide loads for me, my extended family, neighbours, making jam, the freezer and the some of the local kids (basically any kids that come and ask)

[Alison]

That's a lot of strawberries! Mind you, grown in pots is likely to decrease yield so you will need more. I've had runners in 3" pots outside all winter, totally frozen over and they're fine do don't worry too much about protection, they're very hardy.

[The Griff]

Thanks for quick replies,
The reason I have planted so many apart from loving strawberries is they are all last years runners sent bare root apart from 20 elsanta and 20 fenella which are all second year bare rooted plants with massive crowns and I aren't expecting a big crop this off the bare root runners until next year. Including the elsanta and fenella I have about 20 varieties in total.
I have had a bit of a swap around in the garden and as my old strawberries were 4 years old and all cluttered I decided to pull them out last autumn, these were in huge half barrel planters and I just left them in all year round.
The reason I am asking about planting these runners is I have never bought bare root strawberries before in winter, I have always bought them at the end of summer to get them established for the following year and just left them out, I was unsure if these ones were to be treated the same.

[The Griff]

Another question
How long should I expect to be waiting before these dormant dead looking plants look like they have come alive again, obviously the ones in the unheard greenhouse will probably look alive faster than the ones in grow bags in the blow away thing, but should I expect to see them all start to grow green leaves/shoots in the next few weeks or should I not be too concerned if they still look dead for a couple of months.

Thanks again in advance for any replies

[Bigmallly]

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/grow-y...t/strawberries