Strawberry Question

Question

Can I transplant some strawberry plants that I have in pots in my unheated greenhouse to outside? First, it is mid-Februrary in Southern Illinois. Here it can get real cold and real hot, but this winter has been mild so far. I have had good luck in my yard growing strawberries and have been potting up out-of-place plants/runners in pots and putting them in my unheated greenhouse, which gets real cold and real hot (on cold sunny days). I want to get ahead of the season by doing as much ahead of time as I can because I have two big gardens and I will be very busy when spring actually comes about (and for the rest of the garden season). So, I was wondering if it is too early to put those strawberries that are already in pots and actually growing outside right now. I assume I would not be doing as much root damage or shock since they are in pots, which means I will not be digging them up. I could use extra care planting them, making sure I put each plant in a nice big hole with a half soil/half compost/mulch mixture and even cover them up with some more mulch. So, what do you think?

Answer 1

As long as the temps are reasonably mild and the soil is workable, it should be ok to transplant them out. But I would still add some straw mulch over them as protection should some unexpected winter weather and freezing temps decide to roll in.