Someone help please.................

[KeylaNC]

Can someone please help???????? I have purchased do it yourself strawberry kit with 10 plants, soil and the container. My dilemma comes in seeing some form of life. They look really dry and are brittle to the touch (the portion above ground at least). I don't understand what happened because I have kept the plant watered. Could someone give some insight as to what to do? Are they dead? How long does it take for things to begin to grow? I have had them about 3-4 weeks. There are no leaves or any sign of growth.

 

[ducks4you]

, KeylaNC!
I've never had them grow for me, either. There are alots of experts here--I'm pretty brownish/greenish thumb, myself, but I've learned over the years that some contraptions AND some plants that are sold in the stores or in gardening centers are VERY HARD to grow. Other stuff, like starting tomatoes from seeds is really easy. Anybody else?

 

[vfem]

First of all, have you planted them in the container? or were they left unplanted for 3-4 weeks first? I'm not quite understanding.

Second, was the kit from a garden store (nursery, or even a place like homedepot or lowes), or ordered online? Are they outside and getting full sun?

I'm thinking if they have been out, in full sun, in the their given pots in our climate for 3-4 weeks they are probably dead.

I'm guessing they came as bareroot plants to you... I think many places will refund you if you tell them what happened. I know gurney's will replace them no questions asked.

 

[journey11]

I saw a similar kit in Walmart and thought to buy it as a gift for someone, but I opened it up and took a look at the plants and decided it was not worth it. I know when I bought my strawberry plants from Miller's last year, they were much larger, with some small leaves (they were still winter dormant mostly) and the instructions from the nursery stated that it was very important to keep them humid and cool in the refridgerator veggie bin until ready to plant and that they should be soaked 24 hours prior to promply planting for best results. The Walmart plants I saw were tiny and completely dry, kept in a box sitting on the shelf and compared to the plants I bought from Miller's, I found it hard to believe that they would grow and amount to anything. They looked dead to me!

If it didn't have you do it before, I would try soaking them really good with water. If that doesn't bring out some life in a week or so, I'd ask for a refund if it were me.

Btw, Strawberries are so worth the effort to grow, so if this doesn't work out for you, I hope you'll try again. There's still time to get some live plants from a nursery started (usually come in pkgs of 25 plants for like $8). I highly recommend the everbearing variety 'Ozark Beauty'. They'll give you fruit later this summer clear through to the first fall frost.

 

[boggybranch]

All the strawberry plants that I've ever planted came "bare root". I put them in the ground the day after they got here from Gurneys. They had dry leaves on them, which is natural, sometimes, but they had plenty of green showing, too.
Yours may very well be dead.....but you got nothing to lose, and everything to gain, by going on and planting them, anyway.....just in case there is a spark of life left in them.

 

[dickiebird]

Here are a couple of containers of crowns I planted about a month ago. I bought them as dry roots, 10 to a pkg. at Wal/M.
I put them in warm water for a half hour or so, mainly to make untangling them easier. Planted them directly in the pots using compost from my pile as growing medium.
Within a week I had leaves developing.

It's hard to count from the angle of the photo but there are 19 of the 20 I planted, doing just fine.

THANX RICH

 

[old fashioned]

I wouldn't give up on them just yet, sometimes there is still life in the roots even when you don't see life in the leaves.
It may also depend on how deeply you planted them in the dirt. I think there is supposed to be some of the crown (where the leaves & stems meet the roots) exposed.
If it were me, I'd pull em up, soak the roots, replant and then leave them alone till next year. I say this because I've had some perinnials (including strawberries) that I thought were dead but wasn't able to dispose of them right away come back the next year just fine.
And depending on what type of strawberry you have, they might send out "runners" that make new straberry plants. It's possible you could get more plants in the future than you are prepared for.

If you are really wanting strawberries this year and don't want to wait & see with these, then you might want to get new plants and maybe from another source as a backup plan.

 

[KeylaNC]

Thanks to all that responded. I will attempt to soak them and replant. It can't hurt.......::