EG

Planter is filled with regular top soil and fertilized with strawberry food.

I googled strawberry pyramids after I saw your pic and saw another SFG pyramid without bottoms -- it makes me wonder what's under/inside (part that won't have roots).
http://www.livingcornfree.com/Garden.html

I also saw an idea of making circular pyramids with aluminum lawn edging. I wonder is a rubber lawn edging will be just as good.

I wouldn't (and don't) do strawberries - or any perennial - in my SFG. Strawberries will be back next year, won't respect the boundaries when they spread, and don't like the soil disturbed when you pull up their neighbors.

I grow mine in their own 3x1 boxes, with bottoms so I can move them. And I planted them fairly dense - 25 plants per box. We had a decent crop last year, we'll see how they do this year when the snow melts.

Why do you move them (for winter?)

(I have 25 June-bearing plants ordered for April and no place to plant them yet.)

dapper, those growpots remind me of this -- I wonder if they would be a good idea for strawberries:
http://users.jett.net/cindee/tipsypots.jpg
http://users.jett.net/cindee/teapottip2.jpg
http://users.jett.net/cindee/buckettip.jpg

Basically pots stacked via a rebar.

Your pyramid SO great! I'd just built 4X4 rasied bed that I was going to use for strawberries, but now I'm going to try to figure out whether I have the extra 2' to do something like (OK, EXACTLY like) what you've got there.

Couple of questions: first, why did you run gravel around the outside on the bottom?

Second, how did you do the plumbing? Did you just put in a PVC pipe as you were building and then run the hose through that? What type of a sprinkler head is that, and did you just get it at one of the big box stores?

Gosh, I hope I have room for that! What a fun change from the 4X8!

Cheryl

The gravel is there to keep the grass at bay and makes it easier to control the runners. There's landscaping fabric under it that is overlapped from the bottom box.
The sprinkler is from an online supplier(can't remember which one). It's a 6" or 8" pop-up style attached to an L-shaped pvc pipe and a hose connector is at the other end. The assembly was in place when I filled the boxes. I used an 8' circular nozzle and it waters the whole thing nicely.

I found these on line www.growpots.com has anyone checked these out. You can plant 36 plants per unit. Smallest order is r units for $35 I didn't check shipping. That is 108 plants. What do you all think about these?

They are great for vertical gardening. You can also use PVC pipes. I believe there is a thread on the hydroponics forum.

EZgro
stack-a-pots
hydro stacker
agrotower
verti-gro

I have the set from stack-a-pots.com, and I tried basil in it last year, but I had it in too much shade and when I remembered to water it, it was too late and had gone to seed. I never thought about strawberries in it, but it would be perfect! I think I will plant strawberries in mine and hang it from a post to keep pests away.

Would also like to know what type or types of strawberry plants you are growing.

Gorgeous strawberries! I've grown them through the years, but never in a sfg. I have a new 4x8 bed waiting for them this spring though, and I had planned on 2 per sf, staggered planting. Now that I see yours at 1 per sf, you just saved me a bunch of money! I'll only need to buy 32 plants instead of 64. I'm thinking of putting day neutral berries in half the bed and June bearing in the other half. That way I should get a nice crop in June for jam and freezing, and the day neutrals will keep us in berries for eating fresh most of the summer.

Granny

http://www.qvc.com/qic/qvcapp.aspx/view.2/app.detail/params.item.M18984.desc.Set-of-2-Topsy-Turvy-Hanging-Patio-Strawberry-Planter

Their hanging tomato planter gets good reviews -- I wonder if this has any advantages.

Granny

Granny

Granny

Yes, that's correct. Trimming runners will essentially stop the strawberries from spreading. They do spread through other methods, but they are very slow and you don't need to worry about them.

Charleslou23:

A runner is basically a stem that shoots out from the "mother" strawberry plant and, if left alone, will root and produce a new "daughter" plant that is genetically identical to the mother, a few inches away.

I started planning a few strawberry plants a couple of months ago and noticed the the berries that have popped out are quite small, about size of a grape!!
any suggestion as to how can i get them grow much bigger??!?

What variety are your strawberries? Are they by chance alpines? They are smaller, but have much better flavor.

If they aren't, there are many factors to consider. Water, soil fertility, sunlight, temperature... And it might just be that this is the first production season, so quality isn't as good as it will be next year.

Charleslou, I don't think Walmart or Lowes sell alpines, so it's got to be something with the growing conditions. Do they get more than 6 hours of sun per day? How much are you watering? What's your soil like? When did you fertilize and what did you fertilize with?

Ft. Laramie was a heavy producer for me many years ago. I started with 25 bareroot plants the first year. I did not pick blossoms off (can't bring myself to do it even though I know it is good). The second year I got 3 cases of berries (plus what I ate while picking them). The third year I got 8 cases. Then we moved.

Most recently I have grown Quinault. Nice sized berries, good flavor, and good production. They are everbearing so you get an early crop and then a smaller fall crop. I fed them in between crops and the second crop was still nice big berries. We moved again in December but I brought over 40 of the plants to the new house.

The key is sun. Minimum (bare minimum) is 6 hours/day but they prefer full sun.

Gianni

Cut them off! They can be planted elsewhere or just discarded.

I followed his advice for the last two years and have had very good results. I hope that helps.

If I cut all the runners will the plant begin to produce strawberries or what I think is that they are June bearing strawberries and are done.

The 3rd strawberry plant is still producing strawberries but not sending any runners out.

Also, when winter hits, or before it hits. Should I just bury them under more mulch to protect the roots?