advice on growing strawberries

Missy79

you can get special strawberry mats to put underneath fruiting plants or alternatively put straw around the base.

D&DD

I grew our alpines from seed and now have 5 big clumps which are 3 years old.Last year however we also tried the new full size perpetuals they are everbearers BUT not mini fruits they are full grown strawberries and they were brilliant we were picking for months so have ordered another 30 plants this year as my mum wants some now :rolleyes:Our original 30 are looking really healthy too
These new ones we plan to grow as a rack system,leaving my seedhouse up and placing growbags on the shelves so the strawberries are kept up off the floor.If anyone has seen a Ken Muir catalogue its my cheapo version of his 70 quid fruit table

malamala

I got 6 small strawberry plants from Aldi at 2.99 pounds. Two of them are early crop and are flowering.

Would love to transfer them into pots now. I have got some 10 inches tubs from Morrison's (thanks to the info on this board). The instructions said give 10" space in between each plant, that means I have to use 1 pot for each plant! Or shall I just ignore it and follow the 2" rule instead as stated in the 'grow your own' magazine?

Also, the tub is quite tall (10" in height), it seems quite a waste to fill it all up with compost. What shall I put at the bottom first? I have heard about gravel and sand (which I don't have), anything else you would recommend?

My questions are:
1) Shall I plant 3 plants in a 10" pot, or shall I plant 1 plant in each 10" pot?
2) What shall I put in the bottom of the pot if I don't have gravel and sand?

Thanks in advance!

irnbru_2

malamala wrote:

I have got some 10 inches tubs from Morrison's (thanks to the info on this board).

Can you post a link to that thread?

malamala

Sorry I could not find the link.

They are actually black coloured plastic buckets placed near to the cut flowers section in Morrison's. 8 for 99 pence only but you need to drill holes at the bottom to use as planting pot.

sured

my father in law asked the woman on the flower section about the 10" buckets and she gave him about 50 free as they only throw them away,
he gave me.......2

Noozan

malamala wrote: »

Also, the tub is quite tall (10" in height), it seems quite a waste to fill it all up with compost. What shall I put at the bottom first? I have heard about gravel and sand (which I don't have), anything else you would recommend?

I put big chunks of broken up polystyrene in the bottom of my pots to save on compost

malamala

Noozan wrote: »

I put big chunks of broken up polystyrene in the bottom of my pots to save on compost

That's a good idea! Do you find the light weight polystyrene a problem with the balance of the pot??

malamala

sured wrote: »

my father in law asked the woman on the flower section about the 10" buckets and she gave him about 50 free as they only throw them away,
he gave me.......2

He gave you 4%, not bad

teapot2

malamala wrote: »

That's a good idea! Do you find the light weight polystyrene a problem with the balance of the pot??

Hi I use a layer of polystyrene too in pots. Either the containers that some plants come in from garden centres or else if I've bought something that comes with polystyrene as packing I keep that. Find that once its filled up with soil/compost etc its fine - never seems to be a problem with balance [suppose it might be with a very small pot] and I live in a windy part of the country!

Good luck
Teapot