My strawberry plants came in the mail today. They were shipped out yesterday and I received an email from Burpee telling me to expect them the next day. I had plans out for the day so I made sure that Mike was checking for them every hour. I didn't want them sitting out in the cold. It wasn't very cold this afternoon but I knew it would get colder as the day went on. Mike texted me around 2pm to let me know that they had arrived. A few hours later, around 5pm, I arrived at home and grabbed the package.
The first thing I said was "Wow this is really small. This is 25 plants?" Mike replied "I don't know. I didn't know what it was suppose to be." So, I opened the package and inside is a plastic bag knotted at the top with what seems like a ton of roots in it. I opened the bag and realized that the roots had crowns but no stems. This was not at all what I was expecting. I knew they were supposed to come barefoot (without soil) but I didn't expect them to have no stems or leaves. I still have no idea if any of them are actually alive and didn't then so I was a little disappointed.
Planting Begins...
I read the insert it came with and made a decision I would plant them like the Bonnie plants in seed starting pots (in my case paper cups) and let them get rooted so that I could transfer them to the Topsy Turvy in a few weeks. The other option was to wrap the roots in damp paper towels and store them in a shaded place for 1 to 2 weeks which wouldn't give me any real time or not the time I needed. The last frost date is April 16 2013 and even though these are day neutral, able to withstand temperatures between 55-90, the weather outside has been jumping from high 50's and 60's to the high 40's. I can't take the chance of putting them out yet.
Once I decided what I was going to do I grabbed 2 cardboard trays, 25 paper cups, a pair of kitchen scissors, a needle, and a kabob stick. I grabbed the the Vigoro Organic potting mix too. I lined the cups up on the cardboard trays upside down and started poking holes in the bottoms for drainage. Once, I was done with that I filled each cup with dirt except for 1. I put the barefooted plants into another cardboard tray and took them outside to trim the roots down to three inches. For this task, I'd need a measuring tape and the scissors I'd brought down with me. I sat out on the cement path locked the measuring tape at 4 inches and started measuring 3 inches out on each plants root system and cutting. I probably could have cut a few at a time but I wanted to be extra precise. That took me about 20 minutes then I went back inside to plant each plant in it's cup.
I had a little trouble spreading the roots out and getting them to stay spread but I finally did by shaking each one upside down first and starting the process with only about an inch of dirt in the cup. Then I filled in the rest with the cup I'd left empty to pour the extra dirt into. Each one took me about 4 minutes. Once I had completed them all, doing a few twice because I'm a bit clumsy when I have a lot around me so I spilled a few and had to redo them, I needed to line the cardboard trays and water them. I ran up to the kitchen and grabbed some parchment paper. I lined each tray with the glossy side up and started watering the new plants with a pre-filled water bottle. I over watered a few to make sure that the needle and kabob stick points were big enough to allow for drainage. They were.
Praying for Life...
Once everything was watered and on the tray neatly I placed them by a window in the sun room. Hopefully, they'll either stay dormant and alive or get enough light and warmth to grow some before I am able to transfer them. Like I said before I don't know that they are actually alive at the moment. I don't know what a "good" barefoot looks like but I'm praying they are alive and that they'll actually start taking root in there little homes so that they are easy to transplant. I didn't really know how I was going to get them to stay in the Topsy Turvy without the shoe. It would have been pretty, pretty, pretty (said Larry David style) difficult.
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