Strawberry plants: cold-stored, fresh bare-root or tray-plants?

The type of plant you order is not just another line item in your procurement budget. It is a core technical decision that sets your harvest window, determines your first-season yield potential and defines your risk exposure at establishment. A grower who orders a standard cold-stored A-grade plant where the situation calls for a tray-plant — or who plants fresh bare-root stock without irrigation — will not recover that gap during the season. The decision must be made upstream, before the supplier order is even placed.

The range of strawberry plant types available is wider than it appears: cold-stored plants in multiple crown grades (B, A, A+, A++), fresh bare-root plants, standard tray-plants and mini-trays, fresh tray-plants, waiting bed plants, plug plants and pot-grown plants, and runners for on-farm propagation. Each format follows a specific agronomic and economic logic. Their relevance depends on your growing system, your variety, your target harvest window and your commercial outlet.

The cost gap between formats is significant: a cold-stored A-grade plant costs roughly two to three times less than a tray-plant. Over a few hectares, that difference represents a substantial production cost — but a cold-stored A plant placed where a tray-plant is required can cost far more in lost yield, delayed fruiting or downgraded produce. Return on investment analysis cannot stop at the per-plant price.

This article gives you the technical benchmarks to understand the characteristics of each plant type, their suitability for different growing systems, the crown diameter criteria that directly affect yields, and the order timelines to respect. The actual trade-off decisions — which type for which precise farm configuration — are another matter, and that is precisely where standardised advice reaches its limits.

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Cold-stored plants: the benchmark format for professional growers

Cold-stored plants are the most widely used format in professional strawberry production, both in open-field and substrate systems. Their popularity rests on one fundamental advantage: controlled dormancy and the scheduling flexibility it provides.

Principle and definition

Cold-stored plants are bare-root plants lifted in December–January, at full vegetative rest. After grading and sorting, they are held in cold storage between -1.5 °C and -2 °C, in darkness, until the grower's order is placed. Dormancy is maintained artificially — the plant waits without consuming its reserves, and vegetative regrowth is triggered precisely at the moment chosen by the grower.

This scheduling flexibility is the key advantage of cold-stored plants: the planting window runs from January to the end of August, enabling staggered establishment, coverage of multiple harvest windows within a single campaign, and week-by-week volume management in substrate systems. It is a planning tool as much as a production plant.

Crown grades: B, A, A+, A++

Grade is measured by crown diameter in millimetres. It is the primary determinant of the plant's carbohydrate reserves and, directly, of first-season yield. This relationship is documented and quantified.

Grade	Crown diameter	Primary use	Year 1 yield (indicative)
B	6 to 10 mm	Transplanting into pots / trays by propagators	Very low — remove flower trusses in year 1
A	10 to 15 mm	Standard open-field and substrate systems	100–200 g/plant
A+	15 to 18 mm	Substrate systems and scheduled open-field production	200–300 g/plant
A++	> 18 mm	Annual-cycle substrate systems, fruit size maximisation	High yield + commercial premium +30 to +50%

Grade B is not intended for direct production planting: its limited reserves lead to poor fruiting in the first season. The recommended practice is to remove the first flower trusses to direct the plant's energy into rooting and crown development. Its use is reserved for propagators who grow it on into tray-plants or pot plants.

Grade A is the standard choice for the majority of multi-year open-field systems. It yields between 100 and 200 g per plant in the first season — modest fruiting, but consistent with a two- to three-year production logic, with peak output reached from the second season onwards.

Grade A+ is the right choice whenever the growing system requires significant yield from the first season — particularly in annual-cycle substrate systems, where the plant has only one season to express its potential. At 200–300 g per plant in year 1, it doubles first-season output compared to grade A. The incremental cost of upgrading to A+ is marginal and recoups quickly on high-value operations.

Grade A++ is the ultra-premium subcategory of large-crown plants. Above 18 mm, maximum carbohydrate reserves enable rapid growth and superior fruit size. The impact on the percentage of fruits graded extra or class 1 is documented: combined with considered truss thinning, this format can generate a commercial premium of 30 to 50% on the per-kilo selling price — a decisive lever for operations selling on markets that are sensitive to fruit size and presentation.

From year 2 onwards, the yield difference between grades A and A+ diminishes: both formats converge towards an optimum of 500 to 900 g per plant depending on variety and growing conditions. Grade choice is therefore essentially an arbitrage on the first season and on commercial strategy.

Storage conditions on receipt

Cold-stored plants delivered to the grower must be handled with the same care applied by the propagator. The cold chain cannot be improvised.

Plants delivered frozen: hold at -2 °C until planting. Thawing must be carried out slowly at 4 °C, out of heat and wind. A warm draught can desiccate the roots within hours and irreversibly compromise establishment — a loss that is difficult to detect before planting.

Planting delayed by a few days: store at 2–4 °C. Humidity inside the perforated bags must be monitored continuously — neither too dry (mist roots lightly if needed) nor with standing condensation (ventilate the packaging to prevent mould development). Wilted or dead leaves remaining on the crown require particular attention: they provide a favourable substrate for Botrytis cinerea development within the first hours in a confined environment.

Before planting: soak roots in clean water for 15 to 20 minutes, then plant without delay. This simple protocol, often skipped to save time, significantly improves establishment and the uniformity of dormancy break.

Optimal storage duration is 6 to 7 months after lifting. Storage up to 9 months is technically possible, but progressively depletes the plant's carbohydrate reserves, resulting in slower establishment, less vigorous vegetative regrowth and first-season yield that is consistently below potential.

Order window and availability

A+ and A++ grades are allocated quickly. Growers who plan ahead in autumn–winter secure the best lots — varieties, grades and delivery dates. Those who wait until spring to order often find themselves limited to grade B and standard A, sometimes on delivery slots that no longer fit their planting schedule.

Ever-bearing varieties are available as cold-stored plants, as are non-remontant varieties. Variety selection and grade must be confirmed together, not separately.

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Fresh bare-root plants: raw yield potential, logistical constraint

Fresh bare-root plants are lifted to order during the summer period, from July to September, directly at the propagator. They must be transplanted within 24 to 48 hours of lifting. No significant intermediate storage: transport time must be controlled and the logistics chain organised accordingly.

Agronomic characteristics

This format offers high raw yield potential in open-field systems: the plant carries fresh reserves and an intact root system at planting, and establishes in thermally favourable soil conditions (late-summer soil temperatures typically 15–18 °C). Time to first harvest is approximately 140 days — meaning a late July to late August planting translates to a spring crop the following year across most of the territory.

Establishment requires near-continuous overhead irrigation during the first days after planting, sometimes multiple times a day depending on weather conditions. This irrigation requirement at establishment is the main limiting factor for operations that do not have a suitable mobile or fixed overhead system.

Resistance to pathogens at establishment is generally better than with cold-stored plants, partly because the plant has not undergone prolonged storage. The leaves are alive; there is no necrotic tissue on the crown that could serve as an inoculum reservoir for Botrytis cinerea — unlike cold-stored plants held for several months. This point is rarely highlighted but is genuinely significant on systems with a heavy fungal history.

Suitability for growing systems

Fresh bare-root plants are better suited to open-field season production systems than to week-by-week substrate systems. Their constrained planting window (July–September) and long time to first harvest (~140 days) make them less suitable for succession planting or precise volume scheduling.

However, for open-field growers seeking to maximise yield potential for the following season without the cost premium of tray-plants or the risks of extended cold-stored plant storage, fresh bare-root is a solid option — provided establishment logistics are under control.

Order window

Orders must be placed before the end of June in year N-1. Some suppliers accept orders until the end of July, but variety availability is then reduced. As with cold-stored plants, varieties and volumes need to be reserved early.

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Tray-plants and mini-trays: accelerated harvest

Construction and origin

A tray-plant is a plug plant produced by transplanting a cold-stored grade A plant into a controlled draining substrate under glass or polytunnel in the spring preceding the target planting date. After 3 to 4 months of nursery growth under cover, the plant develops a high, dense root volume perfectly suited to substrate growing systems. Floral initiation has already been triggered in the nursery, under controlled temperature and photoperiod conditions, ensuring rapid and uniform fruiting after transplanting.

The mini-tray follows the same logic but starts from a grade B cold-stored plant: its root volume is approximately half that of a standard tray-plant. It offers a compromise between cost and earliness, used in substrate systems where high planting density or container type limits the optimal root-ball size.

Tray-plants can be held in cold storage before delivery, giving them additional logistical flexibility compared to fresh bare-root plants. This is valuable for growers who receive their plants a few days before the optimal planting window.

Time to harvest and production scheduling

Time from planting to first harvest is 60 to 90 days, compared to 120 days on average for cold-stored grade A. This 30–60 day advantage is the central argument for tray-plants in substrate systems: it enables precise alignment of fruiting onset with a target price window, compliance with long-channel buyers requiring regular volumes over a defined period, and advance planning of harvest labour.

Controlled floral initiation in the nursery also ensures a production uniformity that bare-root plants do not systematically achieve in the first season. A high proportion of class 1 fruit, consistent sizing and a tight harvest window are documented characteristics of well-managed tray-plant crops — a direct advantage on markets that reward supply regularity.

In substrate systems, combining tray-plants with considered truss thinning after establishment further improves fruit uniformity and average fruit weight. This approach concentrates the plant's energy on a limited number of trusses rather than dispersing it across an abundant but heterogeneous flowering flush — an agronomic decision that economically justifies the tray-plant premium on high-value commercial operations.

Fresh ever-bearing tray-plants and succession planting

Fresh tray-plants are a variant available only in ever-bearing varieties. Produced from cold-stored plants transplanted under glass in the spring following the target planting date, they offer even faster fruiting than standard tray-plants, with a larger leaf and root volume at delivery translating to superior vigour at establishment.

Their primary use is succession planting: transplanting fresh ever-bearing tray-plants behind a season variety at the end of its productive cycle extends the harvest window on the site without interruption. This is an advanced scheduling technique, particularly relevant for direct-sale or short-circuit growers who value continuity of supply across the season.

Cost and economic justification

Tray-plants cost 2 to 3 times more than cold-stored or fresh bare-root plants. This price difference only makes economic sense in relation to the value generated on the targeted harvest window. In a high-turnover substrate system with a long-channel outlet requiring regular, homogeneous volumes, the premium is often justified by the gain in class 1 fruit and reduced sorting labour. On a small direct-sale surface with a captive clientele and flexible pricing, the equation differs.

Orders must be placed before the end of June in year N-1. Tray-plants in specific ever-bearing varieties are even more constrained in availability.

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Waiting Bed plants: the economical alternative to tray-plants

The waiting bed plant — often abbreviated WB — is an intermediate format that attempts to combine the cost of cold-stored plants with the earliness of tray-plants. Less well known than the two primary formats, it fills a genuine technical niche for growers seeking to schedule early plantings without paying tray-plant prices.

Production process

The process is as follows: fresh bare-root plants or fresh plugs are transplanted into open-ground nursery beds from August onwards, in conditions close to commercial production. The plants grow on in this nursery soil until natural vegetative rest in December. At that point, they are lifted, graded and held in cold storage until delivery to the grower.

The result of this open-ground growing phase is a more developed crown than a standard cold-stored plant, and a denser root system built up over a full growing season. The grade obtained is superior to a standard cold-stored A plant, explaining the higher yield potential at establishment.

Technical characteristics

Time to first harvest is approximately 105 days after planting — notably better than cold-stored grade A (120 days) and slightly longer than tray-plants (60–90 days). The waiting bed therefore enables an early harvest window to be achieved without the technical expertise and logistics of tray-plants, and at a significantly lower cost.

This format is particularly relevant for early plantings under tunnel or in substrate systems, in situations where available cold storage capacity is insufficient for tray-plant volumes, or where the farm structure does not yet justify full tray-plant sourcing. It is also a pertinent option for growers seeking to extend their harvest season without duplicating equipment.

Orders must be placed before the end of July in year N-1 — with tighter variety availability than for standard cold-stored plants.

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Plug plants and pot-grown plants: flexibility for diversified growers

Plug plants and pot-grown plants are raised in individual containers throughout the nursery phase. The root system develops in a confined substrate, which facilitates establishment at transplanting and reduces water stress in warm conditions.

Characteristics and use

Planted in July–August in well-warmed soil conditions, they come into production in spring the following year after a complete overwintering cycle. Time to first harvest is not an argument in favour of this format: season N+1 must be waited for. Its value lies elsewhere — in the reliability and simplicity of establishment.

The confined root ball limits water stress at transplanting: without requiring systematic overhead irrigation, establishment is reliable even in moderately warm conditions where fresh bare-root plants would require meticulous moisture management. Handling is straightforward, manual or semi-mechanised planting is faster and establishment losses are generally low.

This format suits diversified growers who cultivate strawberries on limited areas alongside other crops, operations in transition seeking to integrate strawberries progressively, or growers who want reliable results without the logistical expertise required for cold-stored or tray-plant management. Variety choice in plug plants is more restricted than in cold-stored formats — worth checking against the target variety. Per-plant cost is high, which penalises profitability over large areas.

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Runners: for on-farm propagation

Runners are not production plants intended for direct planting in commercial fields — this point deserves clarification, as the confusion is common, particularly among growers starting out or seeking to reduce sourcing costs.

A runner is a vegetative offset taken from a mother plant before the end of June. It is intended for propagators and nurseries who wish to produce their own pot plants, tray-plants or container plants from their own planting material. Cutting is done to order from the propagator, and converting a runner into a usable production plant requires appropriate nursery infrastructure: greenhouse or polytunnel, controlled substrate, precision irrigation, rigorous phytosanitary monitoring and control of floral initiation.

Planting a runner directly into a commercial production field without this nursery phase is a frequent technical error: without the prior development of root system and carbohydrate reserves specific to nursery management, the runner does not have the vigour needed for sound establishment and satisfactory fruit set. Yield will be disappointing and disease risk elevated.

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Which plant type for which system? Decision table

Type	Crown	Relative cost	Time to first harvest	Open field	Substrate	Order deadline
Cold-stored A	10–15 mm	++	~120 days	✅	✅	Autumn
Cold-stored A+	15–18 mm	+	~60 days (first harvest)	✅	✅✅	Autumn
Cold-stored A++	> 18 mm	+	~60 days + fruit size ↑	✅	✅✅✅	Autumn
Fresh bare-root	—	+	~140 days	✅✅	✅	Before June Y-1
Tray-plant	plug	– –	60–90 days	✅	✅✅✅	Before June Y-1
Waiting Bed	> cold-stored A	–	~105 days	✅	✅✅	Before July Y-1
Plug / pot plant	plug	–	Full cycle Y+1	✅	✅	Variable

The table provides broad guidance. It cannot integrate the variables that tip a technical itinerary decision one way or another on your specific operation.

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What the comparison table cannot decide for you

The technical benchmarks above serve as a first reading framework. They do not resolve the real trade-offs that arise concretely on your operation. Five situations illustrate the limits of standardised advice on this subject.

The interaction between variety, crown grade and dormancy break date. The same variety planted as cold-stored A+ in March does not behave like the same variety planted as cold-stored A+ in May. Phenological stage at dormancy break conditions the expression of the plant's genetic potential — flowering earliness, fruiting uniformity, sensitivity to temperature fluctuations. These are parameters that general tables do not document, and that vary according to the pedoclimatic conditions of your site.

Botrytis inoculum on long-stored cold-stored plants. Wilted leaves left on the crown during extended storage constitute an inoculum reservoir for Botrytis cinerea. In a poorly ventilated tunnel or a high-density substrate system, this contamination source can trigger early-season infection during the establishment phase — a variable rarely mentioned in guides on plant types, yet decisive in confined systems. Tray-plants and waiting bed plants, with their high initial leaf volume, are also more exposed during the critical phase: the microclimate created by their rapid development favours the pathogen if ventilation and heating management are not planned from the moment of delivery.

The tray vs waiting bed calculation based on weekly selling price. The choice between the two formats does not reduce to a per-plant cost difference. It depends on the value generated on the harvest window each format enables. If your optimal price slot is week 15, the waiting bed may be sufficient. If it is week 12, the tray-plant may be the only agronomically viable option. This calculation is specific to your local market dynamics — no national technical reference can do it for you.

Grade B tolerance in cold early-season conditions. In a January planting under an unheated tunnel, with substrate at 8 °C and overnight temperatures below -3 °C, grade B tolerance varies by variety, the tunnel's disease history and the substrate used. For some varieties with strong vegetative potential, grade B in cold conditions can give satisfactory establishment if the substrate's thermal inertia is correctly managed. For others, the risk of loss is high. No general guide can make this call for your specific situation.

The A++ and truss thinning combination. Grade A++ combined with considered truss thinning can generate a commercial premium of 30 to 50% on the per-kilo selling price — but correct implementation depends on variety, flowering stage at the time of thinning, planting density and volume targets. This is a standalone technical decision, not a universally applicable recommendation. Overly aggressive thinning on a variety with dense flowering can reduce marketable volumes to the point of cancelling the expected premium.

These questions are not unanswerable — but they find no answer in a guide on plant types. They call for advice adapted to your specific situation: your variety, your pedoclimatic context, your crop history, your commercial outlet.

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Conclusion: a technical decision that commits the whole campaign

Strawberry plant type determines your fruiting date, your investment level and your risk exposure at establishment. It is not a secondary decision — it is the starting point of the campaign's technical itinerary.

Four criteria structure the trade-off: your growing system (open field or substrate), your target harvest window, your available per-plant budget and the dynamics of your commercial outlet. In annual-cycle substrate systems with long-channel valorisation, tray-plants or waiting bed plants are often the right choice despite their higher cost — the ability to schedule fruiting onset and production uniformity justifies the investment. In multi-year open-field systems, cold-stored A+ or A++ plants offer better overall return on investment, with room to manage fruit grade and commercial premium. Fresh bare-root remains the raw yield potential choice for open field, provided establishment logistics are under control and the planting window fits your commercial circuit.

For further detail on the management of each technical itinerary, see our guide on the tray-plant strawberry technical itinerary, our dossier on the plug plant strawberry technical itinerary, and our article on strawberry planting dates and densities.

When variables accumulate — variety, growing system, logistical constraints, commercial window — standardised advice is no longer sufficient. Fraisibot enables you to ask the question in your exact context and obtain an agronomic response adapted to your operation, available 24/7, without an appointment.