novel methods for backyard strawberries

June 12, 2023 8:24 PM

I have a little vegetable plot where I grow some summer stuff successfully. My spouse keeps mentioning that it would be nice to have strawberries. But I know that if I try to grow strawberries on the ground, they're going to get ruined by pests before we get any. Is there a way?

I've seen "hanging basket" methods that miiiight work but it seems like a big weight to hang from a rafter? I just know that there's no way strawberries are going to make it on the ground. (I see snail tracks sometimes; something is eating my basil; there's a squirrel issue --there's just no way.)

And yet people do sometimes grow strawberries. Have you? How did you do it? Maybe some sort of planter-table apparatus? Maaaaaybe something I could find and install by Father's Day?

Ideas welcome.

posted by fingersandtoes to Home & Garden (12 answers total)

Best answer: The traditional approach is a planter with a bunch of planting pockets around the sidewalls - usually called a Strawberry Pot. You can make the same sort of device out of a recycled pallet or gutters, the idea being that the fruit dangles out into space rather than touching the sluggy ground, or, say, the straw that one would spread between the rows to keep the fruit off the dirt. Your aesthetic tolerance may vary.
posted by janell at 8:31 PM on June 12, 2023

I grow my strawberries in pots. The pots are contained in a wire enclosure and bird netting, which keeps out mice, birds and (thanks to the tight mesh of the bird netting) most snails.

A raised planter would work just as well, but would still require a screen to keep varmints away.
posted by SPrintF at 9:00 PM on June 12, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I have mine in a raised table-height planter about 3 feet off the ground. Last year the critters definitely got all the way up there, so this year I took a small tomato cage, stuck it in the middle, draped anti-bird netting over it and nailed it around the sides to keep it tight (so nothing can crawl under it). Kind of a hassle to remove when harvest time comes, but without there would be nothing TO harvest, so I just make do.
posted by lovableiago at 9:02 PM on June 12, 2023

Strawberries in hanging gutters work for some people, and here’s a blog post by someone for whom they did not! work, BUT also a picture of their beautifully screened raised strawberry bed AND the comments are mostly helpful and discuss the details of places it does work.
posted by clew at 9:37 PM on June 12, 2023

Best answer: Vertical strawberry planters: Green Stalk , Mr. Stacky, etc.; DIY tower, DIY tiers; many more ideas for getting them off the ground.
posted by Iris Gambol at 11:38 PM on June 12, 2023

I grow them in plastic pots on a sunny porch. Basic, but it works, the slugs 90% don't seem to make the trek. Also have strawberries in raised beds and those get gnawed more.

I then have to look for crows and rats.
posted by away for regrooving at 1:49 AM on June 13, 2023

I grow strawberries in an old enameled sink that's hanging on a wall.
posted by Too-Ticky at 3:38 AM on June 13, 2023 [4 favorites]

Dollar Tree is having a sale on stacking strawberry planters. My personal approach so far has been to just devote a lot of space to strawberries, like two whole 4x8 raised beds and more than a hundred plants, which makes enough for me and all the critters, but I kind of want to eliminate raised beds and am thinking about buying a whole case and moving everyone to stacked planters. The downside is that there's nowhere for runners to go, which is one of the nice things about strawberries.
posted by drlith at 5:56 AM on June 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: A warning about the cheap stackables from any store: they don't really have any UV resistance and they're not very strong, so you can maybe go 3 high before they knock themselves over and you might get a season out of them but one day you'll go to move one and it'll crumble when you put pressure on it.

I have used CaliKim's milk crate method and found it pretty productive (it was dependent on me watering it appropriately which is not maybe my strong suit), but I did have to heavily spread Sluggo around the base because I lived in a very sluggy place. She's got four different methods in that video.
posted by Lyn Never at 6:22 AM on June 13, 2023

My experience of growing strawberries on the ground, is that pests tend to pick off the first ripening ones: you have been waiting for them - but so have they and they are more vigilant. But later there is more fruit ripening and enough for all. So one way of looking at it is that you are encouraging nature as well as feeding yourself.
posted by rongorongo at 8:48 AM on June 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

I grow them in windowboxes on a ledge on my terrace. They're good producers and the berries are sweet, but the god damn woodlice that live in the planters have been chowing down on 'em.

Woodlice have never harmed another plant of mine and normally mind their own business, but they LOVE strawberries.
posted by Pallas Athena at 11:51 AM on June 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

I read about this method decades ago. Barrels!
This nice duckduck link gives images.
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=strawberry+barrel+planters&ia=web
posted by Goofyy at 2:00 PM on June 15, 2023