Happygarden,
The IBC expert told me that as long as your strawberry plant has blooms BEFORE any minor freezes, the fruit should ripen after the frost passes, if the plant doesn't freeze to death.
Also, you CAN protect your tender strawberry plants from short-term frosts. I plan to put mine under a hoop with some lights for warmth, if necessary. We have only a couple to 7 days of temps that might dip into the low 30s. Last year we had four nights in a row of temps in the mid-20s. LOTS of excitement here! Usually, we have a dip here, a dip there. Nothing sustained like you might have.
Hope this helps.
P.S. The good thing about that strawberry eBucket is its PORTABILITY! If it gets too cold, pick it up and bring it into the garage...^^_^^
Strawberries
We had some of this variety planted in the ground a few years ago. They survived our Zone 4 winter very well.
If you are planting in the ground, leave some new runners to get started for the next years crop.
Remember these are day neutral & they handle different than June berries.
Ohhh, I will have to look up day neutral, I am a newbie to all this.
Gymgirl, we have a couple more days than you in the 20's...rofl, most of the time any more I am happy if we can hit a high of 20! Last winter was brutal here, I have some strawberries that a friend gave me and they did wonderful, but I really like the raised bed idea.
Happ, if planted in the ground, cover them with straw to stop them from heaving. That's the death of the plants here. I'd love to have room for a ''raised'' bed :o) What could be more perfect?
Covered the beds with blankets overnight. Temp was 26º this morning. Later today will see how they fared.
It will be interesting. This was the first year you planted them in the boxes isn't it?
I have learned so much from this forum, I want to thank you for showing us and sharing, I think I will build a raised strawberry bed this winter for spring. I have two concrete block raised beds already (I can sit on the edge and pick vegs), think I will try your plan this time. I had also found this setup somewhere which might be viable.
I have strawberries in the ground and they do great, but not knowing how bad they spread I put them in flower beds.....good mulch...rofl, but a little agressive and really hard to pick the strawberries especially among the rose bush... ouch!
Happ, I have no doubt you will build yourself something :o)
Well, you know where you can get all your new runners from to plant, LOL!
I still love your set up Bernie.
I visit every now and then to dream.
I have one bed of strawberries in the back yard.
They use to bear huge strawberries but they are also only June bearing .
The guineas eat them before we have a chance to harvest one red strawberry.
As soon as they start to turn colors....the guineas are having breakfast.
Netting===I am thinking about it. But....not sure that little patch is worth the effort.
I want a patch like yours.
Hi all,
I am having a Great time reading about your success in Strawberry land, CG. I have just moved into a new home in Western Washington.
I had been trying to grow a garden on Firwood Road, in Oregon. Yes, the fir trees were 90 feet tall all around the house.
Now, I get good Southern exposure about 7 to 8 hours a day. Many new possibilities.
I read with interest your posts on the raised beds. Great way to grow strawberries. Here is a way I discovered a few years ago to grow many things. They grow strawberries commercially in California with these. They do start the year with new plants. It cuts down on disease and gives them new vigorous plants.
Here is the link:
http://www.agrotower.com/default.aspx
I wonder how long it takes to set up for that picture ?
Notice those berries close to the ground, who will get to bend over & pick them ?
Those towers are mighty expensive!
very interesting tower, but yes pricey. It is strawberry season here in Central Florida, I grow a few for fun, but can buy them so darn cheap since we are so close to Plant City where they are grown. When the boys were little we used to go picking them, now that was fun, but they stopped that due to insurance regulations, so can't do that now.
I have a pink flowered strawberry plant this year, got some berries on it. My other two are in hanging baskets and are sporting a few berries now.
Here's my strawberry tower...
Question. Should I be snipping off the blooms so the foliage continues to bush out, or just leave them alone? Where do the berries produce from? The little white blooms?
These are the Seascapes that Countrygardens has planted.
Linda
Lookie.
Snipe off the bloom & you are short a strawberry!
Oh, shoot! Thanks.
lol, did you notice in that first tower pic that 90 percent of the strawberries look just alike.
I want easy table top strawberry garden.....not ready for that construction yet.....but one day soon!!!!
Hi all,
If You go to the site, you will see that the towers are a little expensive; if you use them one or two years and
throw them away.
I owned 26 layers or bins for 12 years and sold them before I moved. I wished I had kept them. They are so versatile that
I could raise anything I wished in them. I just learned how to use a drip system with fertilizer injector.
The last few years I used a plastic cable spool under the stack to keep the bottom layer off of the ground. I even hung a
couple of towers from my eave and had Great Luck with strawberries. If You have a side of the house that gets a lot of
sun, but don't have any growing room, these towers work great.
Now I am working on a system of 5 gallon buckets that will work just as well. They won't be as durable but they will surely be
cheaper, now I have sold my towers. I go to local restaurants and get food buckets for nothing; some are square and others are
round. I will paint the buckets because I want to put them in the front of the house where the public will see them. My grandkids
will paint flowers and bugs on them to decorate them.
Paul.
We used 5 gallon buckets years ago for tomatoes inside the greenhouse. 2 plants per bucket. Took 3x a day watering once they got around 8 ft high. Didn't have a drip system then.
I am setting up an Aquaponic system, using the fish pond that came with our new home. I will pump the water out of the fish pond to a raised tank so the ammonia in the water will change from nitrites to nitrates. Then I will flow into the hanging grow buckets filled with coir/vermiculite/charcoal/volcanic rock powder and worms. From there into wading pools with floating plant rafts and back to the fish pond.
My fish pond is approximately 1000 gal. I will begin by using cheap gold fish because I am sure I will have something go amiss at first.
I eventually want to raise yellow perch in the fish pond. I will probably continue with some gold fish because the grandkids love to watch them. They are easy to see.
I am sure glad we are having warm weather this late winter so I can get things set up.
When I get things set up, I will be sure to forward pictures.
I have several growing systems starting at once, well, one at a time, with some overlap because I will be waiting on some things to move along while I work on other things; Aquaponics, grow-buckets, straw-bales and containers.
Paul
Paul, are you stacking the buckets to make a tower? for strawberries?
Paul I look forward to your photos, I'm intrigued. I have a small garden and not much room, so the five gallon buckets for tomatoes or strawberries look very interesting.
Bernie. I couldn't make myself order Seascape. I love the description but they are patented. That's not good for me.
I did order Quinault. only 300 plants for production. I figure that is a good start for me.
What difference does that make ?
difference in patented and not patented......if its patented you cannot propagate from the mother plant ordered. You can only grow the mother plant that was ordered. Which means you can't grow or sell the extra plants.
Is that what you mean by " What difference does that make"?
I buy new plants every year. They freeze out in the boxes. Also toss all old soil & start fresh.
Hey guys, just found this thread and have really enjoyed it. I want to try strawberries - again. Last year at our RU, I received about 3 plants and I planted them in a window box sitting on a table. I did get a couple berries, but then they just burned up. They were watered frequently. Too frequently? We can get HOT here in summer. Nothing Gymgirl knows about, huh Linda? This weekend I bought a bag of 10 Sequoia starts at HD, so want to get them going.
I am just loving those long 'tables' CG has. I was thinking if only 1 table/bed was built, that it would need extra support underneath, so as not to be able to knock it over. I was thinking I might be able to have some shade needing stuff planted under them, like what? Wish we had a good saw. I want to make so much stuff, raised beds, etc. Planting in-ground is difficult what with gophers and needing to use wire mesh 'baskets' or spread the mesh for lengths underground.
Those Agrotowers look very interesting too. Yes, pricey, but if they last for many years they would be worth it. The web page mentions irrigation can be run down the middle? So a soaker hose, I guess? So, maybe they should be elevated on blocks so the hose could come out/go in from bottom. Maybe a PVC pipe drilled with holes that a hose could be attached to at the top. Would not be as attractive as the photos, but keep them from drying out.
I have never made e-buckets. I think you are e-bucket queen, Linda? What did you use to drill the side holes? The holes look a bit smaller than the website you linked. I like the idea of painting the buckets. E-buckets or towers would need to fenced somehow to keep the bunnies out.
Then there is the horse DH like to let out to run 'free' occasionally. Gotta make him stop that before getting this season's stuff going.
QG,
I used a 6.5 gallon bucket, and drilled holes with a 1'' or 1.5" hole bit. Just offset each row so the holes are staggered.
I got all 25 holes drilled in the bucket. Followed the instructions on the eBuckets site that Gessieviolet has.
Here's an update on that bucket.
GG- what do you have it sitting on? Do you have wild rabbits?
LOL! No rabbits. It's sitting on my concrete garden bench. So far, the squirrels haven't bothered it either.
Hey, I was just reading Sunday's paper ads and Big Lots has those Topsy Turvy Upside down planting things for strawberries $2.50 ea). Had not seen those before. They also have a stand to hang them from that is just over 5 ft tall and holds 2 planters.
Anyone seen/tried these?
I am trying them out right now.... but I didn't hear of the strawberry turvys on sale at big lots. ... I got mine on sale online at AceHardware...... $1.99 ..free shipping if delivered to local store for pick up.
ust finished off a bowl of berries with whipped cream on them. Yummy.
Why is it everything has got to be a gimmick ? Like raising tomatoes upside down. What does it do ? Doesn't save space. I wonder how many plants have broken when they get heavy with tomatoes.
Somebodies worried about rabbits in the pots with berries hanging out the sides. I don't worry about rabbits, they can't jump 3 feet high. We did have deer feeding in there one night. We can stand that.
My plants get to big to work in the side pots by the way.
Lookie what I found when I got home...the Strawberry eBuckets work. Either that, or the Strawberry fairy decided I've been good this week...
Will DEFINITELY be constructing more berry buckets in September!
This was toooooooooooooooooooooooooo EZ!
This message was edited Mar 2, 2012 9:17 AM
Countrygardens,
I have runners on the plant, dropping around the outside of the bucket. Since the runners don't touch the ground or any soil, could you advise me on how to root suckets for next September?
I could put a flat of potting soil on the ground underneath the bench, and train the suckers to find it. They might catch hold and take root in the flat.
Thanks!
We are busy getting ready for the coming season.
Here we are building boxes.
Second photo is the completed first row.
We are going to plant 2000 plants this year. 1000 last year.
Bernie
That is alot of work. Considering the dates, shouldn't there be snow on the ground in MN? Pretty warm winter across the country! Bought some bags of berry starts and have 2 Topsy Turvey strawberry bags at Ace waiting to be picked up. Too wet today (thankful to finally have rain). Three days of temps in SoCal lower than in the north and northeast states! Go figure.
I planted a few strawberries in my table top gardens and I hope they put off a lot of runners.
Then I have some in concrete block holes and the runners can spread over into the main bed area.
Then I have 26 strawberry turvys.
Slowly but surely, I will have to gradually build my stock of strawberry plants.
Cricket,
Are these new Seascapes? Mine in the one eBucket are doing nicely. Should I be fertilizing with something?
Thanks!
Crickets - Oh my, 26 Turveys? Where do you hang them all? Please share some photos that show how they hang. That is a lot of weight, no? I picked my 2 up from Ace and have 2 bags of 10 starts each, so need to plant.