Topic: Raised strawberry planters?

[anneski]

Hey all,

last year I kept reading in various magazines (Amateur Gardener and the like) about these raised strawberry planters that were going to be all the rage for both commercial and the public. Basically it was like a table, but with sides of course, about 4 foot high or so.  Well I've been looking around this year and can't see them anywhere, nor can I remember a brand name of course.  ::)

I know I can probably get someone to knock something up if I really want them, but does anyone have any memory of these, and knowledge of a website or supplier?

[Debs]

I've seen them in the advertised in the rear pages of gardening magazines.

Next year I shall definitely be planting mine in a hanging

basket or similar, as this year I had lots of large succulent

looking fruits which the slugs/ snails obviously enjoyed

 Debs >:(

[jennym]

I've visited commercial strawberry producers who grow this way - they call it 'table-top'. One guy had 2 acres laid out this way. He used old pieces of aluminium from salvaged polytunnels and scaggold poles to build the frame. The frame was waist high. He then had polystyrene troughs (about 60cm long x 20cm wide x 15cm deep) sitting in the framework. These were lined with perforated cheap black plastic. Ordinary compost was used. He had an irrigation system with drippers all along the rows, fed from a central tank which pumped the water up to the plants. The fertiliser was dispensed into the water, and the plants were continually fed and watered, this process is known as fertigation. He said that he had very few p&d, but that the fertigation was essential. I'm sure that one could rig up something like this quite cheaply.

[real food]

:) I made a basic one by using a very large trough container( large fish box) raised up on an old set of steel legs from a table. I feed mine occasionally with tomato feed which seems to work quite well. The great advantage is that slugs, snails and mould are defeated, and is you plant with perpetual strawberries, you can crop them for several months.