Seascape Strawberry Plants - Great for Planters - Day Neutral (Heavy Producer) - Bare Root Strawberry Plants from Hand Picked Nursery (5)

These plants (order of 5) arrived 2-3 hours ago and though I've never received bareroot strawberry plants before, I am very happy with how they look. They were shipped in a small bubblewrap envelope, which concerned me when I saw it, but the plants seem to have survived well. They were sent by USPS, which I always prefer, but travel time concerned me in this case. They spent 2+ days in North Carolina (mid August - my choice), zipped across the country, and then spent another 2 days in Washington state. I've since let the roots soak in water for maybe 20 minutes, and planted them in pots. In both cases only the roots were covered. I also cut off any black or badly damaged leaves and runner bits, to minimize rot. It's 83° outside now so I'll keep the plants inside until this heatwave passes. I'll update this review should there be any change. P.S. I did receive a couple extra plants, for a total of 7 healthy-looking plants. Thank you. Update 10 days later: Though 4 of these plants, in 2 pots, were knocked off my rail after 3 days outside (bird), all are thriving. They showed progress almost from day 1. So far: Excellent! Update: Day 13 What's happening!? All of a sudden, every leaf on every plant has become 'lacey'! Existing plants (variety - Montana) 1'-3' away are fine. See photos. I can't imagine how these plants can survive, though the stalks look fine. Extremely disappointed. Update after 1 month: Pretty sure I know what's happening now: earwigs! Letting the dog out at night, I'd noticed that there were a decent number of earwigs around. I learned that they do this sort of damage and like to hide out in damp straw mulch during the day! They're likely responsible for the small holes I've been seeing in every ripening berry on other plants I have as well as munched strawberry flowers! Not all of these plants are likely to survive, but that's my fault. I'm dealing with the earwigs now. I would buy from this seller again. Update mid October: Earwigs were definitely what caused the demise of all 7 of these plants. They later started descimating my established container strawberries. Friit and flowers were heavily targeted, but leaves were not spared either. Soya sauce and vegetable oil traps helped, but nightly hunts with a flashlight finally started knocking back the earwigs. Until they arrived, these bareroot strawberry plants grew amazingly. I'm so happy with the plants I received that I've just ordered more.

I've tried repeatedly to plant strawberries from seed only to fail every time. I decided finally to try bare root strawberries and picked up this set of 10. First of all, I received 13 which is an excellent bonus. I didn't even need to clean them up, there were no dark roots and the crowns were in nice condition. I stuck them into my A-Frame NFT hydroponic system 4 days ago and already have 2-3 new leaves growing on every single one. This is INSANE. I can't believe how quickly these things are growing. I couldn't recommend these more to anyone. If you want strawberries, and don't want to hassle with germination and waiting a long time to grow - get THESE. I will be ordering a lot more very soon. Just need to empty out some of my tubes first. Update Almost 5 months later: So, even though I got the initial plants growing only 2 of them actually survived in my Hydroponic system. It may have been something I did, I do not know. What I do know is that through the runners -exploding-, those 2 plants now have provided me with a total of 38 plants and still continue to grow out new runners. Every new plant is healthy as can be and are producing very nice strawberries. They are on the smaller side a lot of the time, but there are a lot of them and they are quite tasty.

Update: I have to recant my original review (below). Although I got one more root than expected, and the roots all popped up a leaf or two. All but one have died in the first few weeks. I have been gardening for over 50 years, and have a green thumb. I had a very well mixed sand/soil base topped with a soil made specifically for strawberries. I even used a fertilizer designed for strawberries. One plant survived of the 6 and I treated that plant exactly the same way as I treated the other 5. I ordered 5 roots, got 6 - I can't say that will happen to you, but it's always nice to get a bonus. 3 of the roots were already sprouting leaves when I got them. I was a little worried about the other 3 but they just took a week longer so I'm six out of six. I planted them in soil made for strawberries, and I'm using fertilizer made for strawberries as well. People ask me how all of my plants do so well, I feed them what they want and put them in the soil they like! This is a really good value compared to buying plants at the store, and you don't have to put them in a small pot and transplant them later, you can just put them in the soil. I'm caging mine because I live next to a forest so I can have all the berries for myself (the critters have plenty of food to eat in the forest!). I'm going to cover them in straw with a moisture barrier for the winter, so hopefully I can keep this crop going next year.

This is the second time I've ordered strawberry crowns from Hand Picked. The first time was early spring 2020. They were amazing. I ordered 20, recieved 25. All survived and we enjoyed thorough for several years. Last year decided to change and plant them in a greenstalk. I ordered from a local small nursery, twice, and had less than 50%luck. I rooted runners from the few that did grow and planted in the fall. These were Albion, and I'm not thrilled with. Only had 4 of 20 Seascape survive from this same original order. Those are my favorite. So I ordered 10 more Seascape from Hand Picked to get started in the greenhouse to be ready for fall planting. And again I'm thrilled with what I received in the mail all the way to Oregon. I received 12 crowns. 11 look absolutely amazing and the one that looks meh. Is in great condition just not thriving like the other 11. But I have great hope for it. Anyway, all this to say. As much as I like to support local business's, sometimes quality and service are more important. The youtuber who mentioned fall planting for strawberry starts mentioned how hard it could be to get crowns or starts in the fall but started that Hand Picked still offered strawberry crowns through the summer and I remembered that was where my pandemic strawberries came from. Same quality and service as 6 years ago. Thank you!

First time with trying to grow strawberries and NGL when I first saw them after arriving I was a little concerned 😅 These are meant for dirt but I put them into a hydroponic tower and after a thorough and gentle washing of the roots (just because you don’t want soil in your hydro) I placed rockwool around them and dropped all 6 into growth ports and despite having to put up with a lower EC (less nutrients) due to having to cohabitate with leafy greens they still grew fast and started producing tons of berries. These plants seem very healthy and good quality. If your also putting them into hydro growth ports you might need to put strings around the stems simply because the berry weight can cause them to get bent over the hard plastic which won’t be an issue for dirt. Supposedly simply dropping them unceremoniously into bright grow lights and hydroponic towers can cause “shock” but these lil hermaphrodites are super healthy and pretty tough. They even withstood my pump malfunctioning and drying everything out way better than everything else that nearly died. Definitely recommended!

These were delivered on the 2nd of May and were placed in the ground on the 3rd. I received 26 roots. I soaked the roots and placed them in the ground as required. Out of the 26 only 22 are alive. So if you’re planning on filling a bed, I would expect some to not make it through the process.

Wow. These strawberries 🍓 grew like weeds!! Awesome experience! All the plants lived and they’re thriving!! Thank you! I’ll be back!

Six total plants came in the mail. They were all tangled together and I had to slowly untwist the roots. Two of them had mold growing at the base and down into some of the roots. I planted the other 4 and only 1 has stayed alive. One was viciously and unceremoniously yanked from its home by a puppy, there other 2 seemed to be doing ok at first, even showing new growth but then they wither and wilted away. The one thats left is beautiful. Big foliage, healthy, tall good color. No fruit or flowers this time around so we will see how it goes next year.