Bare root stawberries?

[The Griff]

I have just ordered another 40 cold stored bare root strawberries, 20 elsanta with 18mm+ crowns and and 20 fenella with huge crowns sold as waiting bedding plants, they will be here this week.
I have prepared a slightly raised bed(5" decking frame), dug it over (a spade depth) and forked a bag of rotted manure 2 weeks ago and then added about an inch of peat free multi purpose compost (100lts) with 25ltrs of John innes no3 over the top.
When these cold stored bare root plants arrive will it be ok to plant them out straight away without protecting them from the frost. I allready have loads of strawberry plants in my greenhouse and can't fit any more in, I was hoping I could just plant them out and leave them for nature to grow them, rather than have to put a fleece over them on a frosty night.

[starloc]

They should be fine, i buy them like this and even in the middle of winter I just stick them in pots or the garden and dump them outside and its often -15C to -25C here, no damage

[WilliamD]

Yep, bung 'em straight in the ground. I put my bare root strawberries into planters outdoors on 1st Feb. They've been through some pretty cold conditions since then and are doing just fine. A bit of fleece is good but not necessary really.

[The Griff]

Thanks,
Got a bit of a strawberry fetish going on this year, I already have about 200 in planters in the greenhouse, most are only last years runners so I probably won't get a lot of fruit this year but the elsanta and more so the fenella plants were so big and mature I ordered another 20 of each but can't fit them in the greenhouse.
It will be good to see if the ones in the ground outside produce more fruit than exactly the same stock in planters in the greenhouse, I am predicting the ones in the greenhouse will crop earlier but the ones in the ground will produce more fruit.....................what are other peoples predictions??

[Alison]

Depends on a lot of things really but suspect you will be correct. Where are you going to put all the plants? If they're staying in pits its a lot of watering / feeding to cope with (I'm rubbish at it) and obviously the size of pot will have an effect on yield. If they're going in the ground then I can only assume you have a huge plot, especially as I assume you'll want to stagger the yield in future years by taking new runners every year. I know I've said this previously but am the numbers you've got almost put you in pick your own territory

[The Griff]

The tubs are about 2 foot by 10 inches and have between 3 and 5 plants in them depending on size of plants, each tub has gravel in the bottom with a mixture of pest free compost, a bit of sharp sand and water granules, I plan to have tubs around the garden and I have a dripper irrigation system I plan to set up. I am presuming not all the runners will come back to life and some varieties will do better than others in containers so it's all a bit of trial and error until I find what works.

I put my name down for an allotment a few weeks ago but didn't realise until last week there is just short of 300 plots and there is 167 on the waiting list, I am 35 now so I might get one for when I retire.