Strawberry plant is amazing fruit. It is only superseded by its ability to grow almost anywhere.
As a shallow rooted crawling plant, our options of where to grow our strawberries are unlimited. But what isn’t unlimited is space. Our backyard garden can quickly run out of locations to grow as we fill out every nook and cranny with our favorite fruits and veggies.
When we got no more spaces to grow, no more spots to put that last pot, we got to go vertical!
As we mentioned before, strawberry plants are quite shallow rooted, undemanding crops.
This allows us to use a wide variety and assortment of relatively small containers to grow them in.
However, when growing vertically, you usually have to go lightweight. And the form factor that works best is long and skinny.
Build The Planters
We found that the four foot herb planters work amazingly well. These are DIY herb planters. If you want to save a ton of money, learn how to build your own. You can build your own 4-foot herb planter for under 10 bucks in less than 10 minutes.
The great thing about them is that you can build them any size to fit your needs. We build ours four feet wide and this allows us to put in about four to five large strawberry crowns per planter.
Cedar is our wood of choice for both longevity and aesthetics. These planters are great, they’re super versatile and you can hang them virtually anywhere.
Table of Contents
Prepare The Planters
Before planting, let’s set these planters up.
I always line my planters with newspaper before each new planting. I do this both to hold in moisture as well as to keep that soil off the wood to improve the longevity of the planter itself.
Once we have our newspaper in place, I then go ahead and put a thin layer of organic potting mix along the bottom. In the case of strawberries, any quality container mix from the store will suffice.
Planting
With one to two inches along the bottom holding that newspaper in place, we’re now ready to plant.
Begin by taking that potted plant with one hand and then with the other hand place it across the top, straddling that crown with both your index and middle fingers. That strawberry plant should pop right out for you without much effort at all.
Space your plants nice and evenly in that planter box, giving at least 4 to 6 inches between each one.
Spacing is important but orientation even more so. Strawberry crowns grow in a direction and when we grow vertically, this usually entails growing along a wall. Therefore to have adequate grow space the plants must be growing in the direction away from the wall. Wo you need to orient your plants accordingly.
Potting the strawberry plants from this point is actually easy.
Simply take that quality organic potting mix and begin to fill in and around all those plants. Take special care not to bury those crowns as strawberry crowns hate to be covered with soil and they may rot as a result.
Mulching and Watering
After planting, your first instinct would be to water the plants. While we do have to water, we must mulch the plants first.
Strawberries accept a wide variety of mulches, including shredded leaves, yard trimmings and most organic plant matter. We are using a 50/50 mixture of green grass and coarse straw.
Over the years my strawberry plants have shown to love this mix, so it’s my mulch of choice. I do lay it on quite thick at least 2 inches.
Mulching is great and in my view, it’s actually necessary to moderate extreme temperatures and prevent excessive moisture loss.
But immediate benefit to us is that it allows us to water from above these beds without blasting that soil everywhere ,undoing all the work we just did.
After mulching and before I water, I put these planters back into place or else they get way too heavy too move. Plus I really don’t feel like getting my shoes or my pants all wet.
With everything back in order, we’re now ready for that most satisfying of steps – watering. Water your planters thoroughly, especially for the first time. We want these strawberry plants to have every advantage to take off and be successful.
Don’t make those roots have to search for water at this key transition time.
If you’ve used a quality organic potting mix and you have that plant based mulch in place, don’t stress about any additional fertilizers at this stage either.
These planters might not look like much at this stage, but once the warmer weather hits and the crowns really start sending out those new shoots and then eventually flowers, these vertical strawberry planters will make an impressive showing in any garden.
Picking delicious strawberries right from your garden from July until September is simply awesome.
We all know that, but doubling your strawberry productivity after you’ve run out of garden space is even more awesome. As you plant out your garden in the spring and you fill up all those growing spaces, thinking outside the box becomes a necessity to grow that much more.
With the way strawberry plants grow, it allows us to get creative with our garden spaces in ways previously we didn’t think was possible.
10 Tips To Grow The Best Strawberries Ever
Here are 10 tips that’s gonna give you the best strawberries ever, and if you implement these tips then you’re gonna get the best harvest you’ve ever had.
1. Strawberries need sun. shelter and very good fertile soil that’s well-drained.
2. Avoid areas that are prone to frost and soils that previously grown potatoes, tomatoes and chrysanthemums because these crops are prone to verticillium wilt.
3. Order your plants early and from reputable suppliers so that you get your plants early enough
and that you get the cultivars you’ve actually ordered.
4. You can grow plants pretty much anywhere, in pots, buckets, hanging baskets and even dedicated beds.
5. You can get an early harvest by planting up your strawberry runners in a polytunnel, a greenhouse or conservatory and that will give you about four weeks earlier harvest.
6. When planting out your strawberry plants, ensure you give them plenty of space, because this will help prevent grey mold and powdery mildew. The more airflow that you have the better.
7. When the fruit starts to form, mulch underneath the plant with some straw and it will help prevent the fruit from rotting as it touches the ground.
8. Make sure you net your strawberries, because if you don’t net your strawberries, the birds are going to see those little red jewels that are glistening in the sun and they’re gonna have your fruit away.
9. Collect your own runners, you can increase your own crops and you can also use these to replace three year old plants because the three year olds, the fruit harvest tends to decline.
10. Ensure after you’ve picked all of the fruit to trim back all the old leaves and to remove the mulch because this can help prevent disease from forming.
