tumbling trailing fruits? where from and what type?

s4lvatore

Hi guys

Continuing with my garden adventures!!

Ok have decided that other than just flowers some fruits would be nice too this year.

I dont really wanna be digging an turf up but having looked through the posts on this forum it does seem feasable to do it in baskets, I have plenty of room for this as well as quite a few baskets I have collected over the years ( I don't like throwing stuff away, lol).

Ok as far as the tomatoes go, I have pretty much read up on this and it looks like I need tumbling/tumblers. Is there a difference between the 2, I assume they would both be cherry sized or do they come bigger?

Also, it is obviuosly too late in the year to sow my own, so where would I buy this particular type from? Any recommendations?

The other fruit I was looking at doing was strawberries. Now I see that you can do these in hanging strawberry planters. I like the look of these, but unfortunatly not the price, getting on for a fiver at some places. So I was wondering could I not just use a normal flower pouch, they sell 2 for 97p at Wilkos and it would be just right for me. Also any particular style of strawberry plant?

Again many thanks guys.

stilernin

I have strawberries in home made towers.

Get 3 large pots in different sizes - fill all with compost - put strawberry plants in the smallest one, and around the edges of the other two.

Now stack one pot on top of the other (smallest at the top) taking care to miss the plants in the lower pots.

The benefits of this system are - small footprint for a large number of plants, plants and fruits hang down the sides and keep clean, easy to water and soil in larger two pots is kept moist by the pots on top, easy to net.

Keep an eye out on Freecycle for large pots being given away.

You could make a rectangular tower with different size storage boxes too.

s4lvatore

That sounds really, will probably give it a go next year once I have sorted the garden out a bit more.

Is there any particular type of strawberru plant you use? Also do they grow back the following year as they seem to when grown in soil?

stilernin

I confess I don't know what type they are. They are from a garden I left a few years ago. I gave a bucket full of them to my daughter when I moved up here then when I got this house, I took a load back again.

They do survive over winter, but will have produced runners (new baby plants on umbilical stems) during the summer season. Put yoghurt pots of compost under these runners with a stone to keep them in contact with the compost and they will quickly root; you can then cut them free and you have new free plants.

When I had a lot of space, I had rows of strawbs that 'walked'. Year 1, put in row of plants, harvest strawbs and peg out new row of runners. Year 2 get 2 rows of strawbs and a third row of runners. Year 3 get 3 rows of strawbs and a fourth of runners, Year 4 get 4 rows of strawbs and fifth of runners. This year pull out row 1 (the oldest plants). Continue each year with 4 rows.


Edited to say..... just had a thought, if you got a set of big pots, you could try tumbling toms in them. It should work.

LJM

the only ones i have in at the moment are strawberries and tumbling toms

pookiewn

I saw some climbing strawberries, they grow to about a meter tall. Perhaps if put in a hanging basket they would do the tumbling bit rather well?

http://www.vanmeuwen.com/plant/69145
Just an image of, although the price doesn't seem to bad.

stilernin

pookiewn wrote: »

I saw some climbing strawberries, they grow to about a meter tall. Perhaps if put in a hanging basket they would do the tumbling bit rather well?

http://www.vanmeuwen.com/plant/69145
Just an image of, although the price doesn't seem to bad.

I'm a bit of a sceptic I'm afraid and I think this is yet another way of jumping on the current popular gardening bandwagen.

Surely ..... "Whether you train their runners up a support or let them trail from baskets" " Train runners up a trellis or plant support using soft plant ties." "Although strawberry plants will continue to fruit in successive years, the crop will become considerably reduced and it is advisable to completely replace plants every 3 years" ". (quote) means you train the runners that all strawberries have, up a framework.

Note that they suggest you replace stock every 3 years, which is what I explained in an earlier post where I described how you 'walk' the rows of strawbs in the traditional manner.

MSE ers beware.



EDIT - Note the phrase "they will produce exceptionally tasty, bright red, juicy fruits year after year", they then contradict themselves when they say that you should " replace plants every 3 years". No different to any strawberry plant.

heynonnynonny

I've got a strawberry and a Tumbler tomato in 2 hanging baskets - picked both the plants up really cheap. As for varieties of strawb to put in - just google it, I have Honeoye in hanging basket, and cos I got given a free strawb planter by my mum Cambridge Favourite are in there too, think I paid £2.80 for 5 bare root runners.

pookiewn

stilernin wrote: »

I'm a bit of a sceptic I'm afraid and I think this is yet another way of jumping on the current popular gardening bandwagen.

Surely ..... "Whether you train their runners up a support or let them trail from baskets" " Train runners up a trellis or plant support using soft plant ties." "Although strawberry plants will continue to fruit in successive years, the crop will become considerably reduced and it is advisable to completely replace plants every 3 years" ". (quote) means you train the runners that all strawberries have, up a framework.

Note that they suggest you replace stock every 3 years, which is what I explained in an earlier post where I described how you 'walk' the rows of strawbs in the traditional manner.

MSE ers beware.



EDIT - Note the phrase "they will produce exceptionally tasty, bright red, juicy fruits year after year", they then contradict themselves when they say that you should " replace plants every 3 years". No different to any strawberry plant.

Sorry, wasn't meant to be a link to a scam in any shape or form. Was mearly meant for image purposes. Please delete my post if it offends.

stilernin

pookiewn wrote: »

Sorry, wasn't meant to be a link to a scam in any shape or form. Was mearly meant for image purposes. Please delete my post if it offends.[/QUote

Ooooh no, no offence at all. I just didn't want any new gardeners to be taken in by this sort of marketing.

There are always new things being bred, but you do have to be careful.

(off to work now )

s4lvatore

So do you know if it would be possible to put those strawbs in nor flower pouches and would they regen next year in those pouches?

Also where would I get those tumbling toms? Homebase B&Q or online?