[rhysdad]

My T&M strawberry collection turned up yesterday looking a bit sorry for itself!1 Is it okay to plant them now, i prepared the ground with lots of horse manure and, once in the ground, should i pinch the flowers off to let them establish this year or can i let them crop?

[DD.]

I'd slap them in.

I had some "Irresistible" strawberries from them a couple of years back. They looked no more than a leaf and a bit of root. Had a job to stop them taking over last year!

Strawberries are a lot tougher than folk give them credit for.

I know that you should remove first year fruit, but I can never bring myself to do so!

[bigben]

I got a load of Irresitible strawberries FROM t&m in Oct and planted them. Then of course we had that artic November. They looked a bit sorry for themselves and seemed to lose ground with leaves dying. There is now new growth on ones I thought had died!

[Trikidiki]

Some of their strawberries are kept in deep freeze then thawed and sent out as needed.
I ordered some last year and when they arrived they were still partly frozen.

Give them a good soak in a bucket of water and plant up asap. They'll soon spring into life.

You will regularly hear people saying you should not let them fruit in their first year and let them build up reserves to fruit the following year. I was not aware that strawberries have a means to store up energy (like a potato) for the next year. I have also looked for any information anywhere about compartive yields from plants which fruit in their first year and those stopped from fruiting.

I have always allowed my strawberries to flower in their first year and taken a reasonable crop. The following years I take a better crop but see nothing to suggest it would be better if they hadn't fruited the first year.

My view: "a bird in the hand......"