Uncovered Strawberry Plant Survival Rate in 28 Degrees

Who shall live and who shall die? It really is no mystery which plants will live through a Spring Freeze. First, I was told by an experienced gardener, warned by other garden bloggers, and my inner sense also planned to assist in the survival, but was caught short by exhaustion which circumvented functioning brain cells. In short, I forgot to cover the strawberry plants the night before the freeze was expected.

In a photographic post on March 15, a strawberry plant is shown growing its way up out of the straw winter covers. Curious, I lifted away some straw from another fully covered plant to see how it was doing. It looked good, a couple of crowns were full of new growth and I gently pulled off the dead leaves and stems, see below. It was warm and sunny for many days so I left it to grow, knowing it was a risk.

One gardening expert says to leave the plants under straw until all possibility of frost is over. This way the extra energy stored in the roots will be used for new leaves and blossoms that have a good chance of fruiting. If they freeze, all is lost. If they frost, but still live, the strawberry will have less root-stored energy to put out new growth. It sounded reasonable to me, yet it is difficult to cover the little one that enjoyed the sun so much.

I knew that the weather report was for a cooler night. I could feel it in the late afternoon as I planted peas in the bed right next to the uncovered strawberries, but I was cold and tired. I think I even left a portable phone out there, came out later to look for it, but my inner blinders did not allow me to notice the strawberry plants I had promised to cover up again. So it spent the night, down to about 28 degrees, shivering, and sadly, one of them died. Of the two plants that I willfully uncovered, one survived.

The strong self-motivated growers, which had fought their way to the sun, still look wonderfully comfortable no matter what temperature. The lesson in this is obvious, something my grandmother used to say, "Leave well enough alone." Or it might be to "Let sleeping strawberries lie."