Bareroot Berry Planting Instructions
Yay! Thank you for ordering Bareroot Berries from us. We appreciate your support and we're so excited for you to enjoy the absolutely delight that is homegrown berries.Before you get to planting, let us answer some of your Frequently Asked Questions:
#1. My plants look dead! Are they dead?????
No you're plants are not dead. They are dormant, meaning they've gone to sleep for the winter. That's the whole idea behind bareroot plants. Because they are asleep, we can move them around without soil or water, and they are fine! Once the weather warms up, they will sprout and start growing quickly!
#2. Okay I've received my plants, when should I plant them out???
You can plant your bareroots as soon as your last frost date. If you don't know your last frost date, you probably don't live in an area with frost (we're looking at your most of California), and can plant immediately!
#3. I'm not ready to plant yet. How do I store my plants?
Store your plants in a pot with any potting soil, and just keep the potting soil moist until you are ready to plant. If you are in a cold climate, store your pot of bareroots in a garage or sheltered environment.
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Sign up nowBlackberry Growing Instructions
Blackberries are easy to plant and grow! They can be grown in-ground or in a pot. Our Prime Ark Freedom variety makes insanely large fruit, and will fruit multiple times in areas with long summers. Expect 1 summer harvest your first year, and 2 to 4 harvests in subsequent years.
Container Planting Instructions
For potting blackberries, you'll need a 15 gallon size or larger pot. One plant will go in each pot. We recommend using fabric pots for all potted plants as they prevent root circling and allow better airflow into the roots.
Prepare enough potting mix for to fill each pot. You can use any commercial organic potting mix for this, or make your own. Our potting mix recipe is simple: 1 part compost to 1 part coconut fiber to 1 part perlite. All of those ingredients should be available at your local nursery (including at Sarvodaya Farms).
Once each pot is filled, plant your bareroot plant, and water well.
Add a LARGE SIZE tomato cage around your plant to provide support as it grows tall. Your blackberry will grow long branches that can get about 8 to 12 feet long (though you'll prune them off once they get to about 6 feet long).
That's all! Head to care instructions below.
In-ground Planting Instructions
Prepare you planting area by clearing out any other plants. Blackberries need about 3ft of space to grow.
If you have never amended your soil before, add 3-4 inches of compost to the top of your soil in a 3ft diameter and 1 cup of slow release sea mineral organic fertilizer.
If you have amended your soil before, a half inch of compost should do you fine. Blackberries don't need a ton of fertility.
Plant your bareroots into the soil and water them in. See trellising option below.
Trellising Options
For just a few plants (3 or less)
Support each plant individually with a LARGE tomato cage. These are available at most nurseries. Get the tallest size available, as these blackberries will grow tall quickly.
For Multiple (4+) Plants
A two strand trellis like the one pictured will work well for multiple plants. You can make these quite long and support lots of plants well. As the plants grow up, guide their branches above the lower and upper strand.
Care Instructions
Blackberries don't need much care. They are vigorous and resilient all on their own. Pruning is the #1 task to encourage more fruiting on these.
To prune your blackberries:
As your plants grow, they will send up 3-4 canes (aka branches) from the ground. When each cane reaches 4-5ft, cut the tip (the last 2 inches of the cane) off. This will encourage the plant to make more branches, and more branches will mean more fruit. You can continue to pinch the tips off of branches that get 4-5 ft long throughout the growing season to encourage more fruiting.
If you'd like to encourage extra abundant fruiting, there are a few steps you can take, especially if you live in California, where Prime Ark Freedom can fruit 4x per year.
Dress the soil with 1/4 inch of compost after every flowering/fruiting.
Spray the leaves of the plants with a liquid organic fertilizer like Neptunes Harvest Fish & Seaweed once a month.
While blackberries are establishing, water them whenever the top 4 inches of your soil has dried. Once blackberries are established (after 1 year of growth), water when the top 9 inches of your soil has dried.
Strawberry Growing Instructions
Strawberries are the best garden snack. Both Seascape and Mara du Bois are Everbearing varieties, meaning they will produce fruit all summer long while temperatures are moderate.
Container Planting Instructions
For potting strawberries, you'll need a 3 gallon size or larger pot. Plants should be spaced about 12 inches apart. We recommend using fabric pots for all potted plants as they prevent root circling and allow better airflow into the roots.
We highly recommend planting strawberries around the edges of larger pots (15 gallon and up) and planting something tall in the middle of that pot (like a small fruit tree).
Prepare enough potting mix for to fill each pot. You can use any commercial organic potting mix for this, or make your own. Our potting mix recipe is simple: 1 part compost to 1 part coconut fiber to 1 part perlite. All of those ingredients should be available at your local nursery (including at Sarvodaya Farms).
Once each pot is filled, plant your bareroot plants 1 ft apart, and water well.
In-ground Planting Instructions
Prepare you planting area by clearing out any other plants. For strawberries we recommend beds that are 30 to 36 inches wide so you can easily reach all fruit.
If you have never amended your soil before, mix 3-4 inches of compost and 1 cup of powdered organic fertilizer to the top 6 inches of your soil in your planting bed.
If you have amended your soil before, a half inch of compost and some powdered fertilizer will suffice.
Plant your bareroots into the soil and water them in.
Care Instructions
Strawberry plants are fairly vigorous and resilient. Strawberry fruits themselves, however, are very attractive to everyone for their juicy sweet fruits. The hardest part of growing strawberries is getting to them before the bugs.
There are few strategies that can help here.
- Having healthy, strong plants means they will produce plenty of fruit and you will have enough to share with bugs and harvest. We feed our strawberries weekly with Neptunes Harvest Liquid Fertilizer, and all the micronutrients in this mix keep the plants super healthy and lush.
- Planting strawberries so fruit can hang over the edges of a raised bed or in a vertical garden or tower is the easiest way to keep bugs off of your fruit.
- Regular harvesting is the last best strategy for keeping your fruit. Strawberry plants will ripen fruit almost daily, so be sure to get out there and eat them!
Water strawberries regularly, whenever the top 4 inches of your soil has dried.
Bluberry Growing Instructions
Blueberries are easy to grow IF YOU FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS. The plants will produce vigorously over 1 to 2 months starting in their 2nd year.
Container Planting Instructions
For potting blueberries, you'll need a 15 gallon size pot for each plant or you can put 3 plants together in one 30 gallon pot. We recommend using fabric pots for all potted plants as they prevent root circling and allow better airflow into the roots.
Prepare enough potting mix for to fill each pot. DO NOT use a commercial potting mix. Use our simple Blueberry Potting Mix:
- 75% Peat Moss
- 25% Compost
- 1 cup of Acid Lovers Fertilizer per 15 gallon pot or 2 cups per 30 gallon pot.
Once each pot is filled, plant your bareroot plants.
In-ground Planting Instructions
DO NOT PLANT BLUEBERRIES IN THE GROUND UNLESS YOU ALSO LIKE BURYING MONEY IN THE GROUND.
Care Instructions
Blueberry plants are stress free plants as long as you have following our planting instructions. You can put them out in full sun during spring, but move them to filtered sun (under a sparse canopy tree or shade cloth) during the heat of summer.
Pick off any flowers and fruit in the first year, so the plants can focus on growth. You can do the same the 2nd year if you are a patient person.
The heavily peat potting mix will hold water really well. Event in the heat of summer, you should not need to water more than 1 time per 3 days.
Refresh plants annually by adding another cup of Acid Lovers Fertilizer. Prune after the 3rd year for openness and shape.