Suitable containers for strawberries 29 April 2013 at 3:08PM edited 29 April 2013 at 3:16PM in Greenfingered MoneySaving 9 replies 1.3K views

littlemoney

Now I have got my free strawberry plants I need to find a suitable container. Any advice on how deep the container should be? I would like to use as shallow container as possible. Also how close can I plant in a container? I would like to plant as close together as possible as I don't have All the books talk about spacing for planting in the garden not for containers.

I have a tub 14" square, 7.5" deep.. Also troughs 26" long, 7" wide and 6" deep.

Any advice would be appreciated please

tanith

the more space strawberries have the better they crop.. also be aware of of birds and slugs I used to put straw around my plants and nets over them to protect them from both.

forgotmyname

The smaller the pot or the more crowded they become = less fruit.

Its a compromise. Less maybe more.

You can get the small stackable 3 way planter from the £ shop etc. Lots of people buy them.

I do wonder how much fruit they get from just a small amount of soil or compost.

Linda32

tanith wrote: »

also be aware of of birds and slugs I used to put straw around my plants and nets over them to protect them from both.

Yes you do need both, although not so bad with slugs if you are growing in pots. You could put pellets around the base of the pot.

It is best to give them plenty of room, 7½" deep is fine, 14" square, I'd put one at each corner and one in the middle if it was me. Hope that gives you some idea.

Lobsta

forgotmyname wrote: »

The smaller the pot or the more crowded they become = less fruit.

Its a compromise. Less maybe more.

You can get the small stackable 3 way planter from the £ shop etc. Lots of people buy them.

I do wonder how much fruit they get from just a small amount of soil or compost.

The answer is not a lot! I put all my strawbs in those 3 way stackable planters and got hardly any fruit last year. I am now desperately trying to get them all moved into bigger pots. They seemed like such a good idea at the time but between the poor performance and the slugs my 30+ plants provided me with just a handful of fruit, and they didn't produce a single runner either.

[Deleted User]

any container, just keep them watered and feed regularly. I have had a lot of success with strawberries in the 3 tiered containers eg mara des bois fruits continuously all through summer. Grobags work very well on a table top, 12 strawberries in a bag and again careful watering and regular feeding. They grow well in buckets. My latest here is gropots on top of troughs, gropots on grobags and 3 tiered strawberry planters. All strawberries look as though they are thriving but I do have a moisture meter and a couple of packs of strawberry feed

my ground results on the allotment were rubbish compared to the containers. We are still eating frozen strawberry puree from last year

ALIBOBSY

I am thinking alot of the spacing advice for veg/fruit as well as based on size of plant looks at the amount of soil ie. nutrients the plant needs, and tbh most books are based on old open bed/farming methods. I reckon in pots and raised beds most stuff can be crammed in alot closer as long as you make sure they are well watered and feed them.


We are doing more "upright" growing this year-got some "old" treliss that neighbour only had up for about a year, given us for free. You can grow stuff closer together but upwards as long as the soil is well fed/manured to start with and you feed as you go. Things like squashes are supposed to be planted in massive areas, but we plant in the edges of beds and let trail over paths/up stuff, the secret is well fed soil, plenty of water and liquid feeds later.

Some stuff you can experiment with, like pointed cabbages can go alot closer than recommended-you get slightly smaller more upright plants, but more from a smaller area. Toms just planted and left to fall over and just grow grow grow will produce alot of fruit-ok it will be smaller and harder to pick, but more overall. So sometimes even a small area or pot can grow things you wouldn't expect, just plenty of feed and watering.

Plus in this case strawberries aren't great in the first year anyway, its always the second and third year of growing that works best. Plus last year was rubbish for most fruit all around because of the wet weather.

Ali x

wild_tiger

sorry to hijack this thread but i got some very cheap strawberry plants from tesco the other night but i've no idea how to look after them, i think they are going to stay in my house on the windowsill. Some of them have small flowers on them already. What should and shouldn't i do to them? thanks x

ALIBOBSY

Strawberries are hardy so better not to be in the house. They always go straight in the ground here.

However if they have had a few days in the house, to avoid shocking them, rather than go straight out you could put them in a cool conservatory/porch/cold frame for a few days then out in the garden.

Ali x

littlemoney

Thanks everyone for you advice. I have planted four in the container, one a each corner. I found another pot for the other two. I now have a supplementary questions please

What is the best to use for feeding strawberries?

The container has a reservior for water and the compost absorbs it from that. Will that keep the compost too moist, or am I OK just topping it up when I see the compost starting to dry out. It does have a guage at the side to show the level of water but I don't want to over water as the instruction say moist, well drained soil. Where the dividing line between moist and well drained is I don't know