Strawberries advice please

[allaboutliverpool]

Last year I saw a programme on TV where strawberries were grown commercially in grow bags on raised platforms about 4 feet high.

I plan to place a platform over one of my raised beds and plant up about 6 grow bags with 3 plants per bag.

The space under the platform will be used for short stay potted plants.

Has anyone any experience of growing strawberries in grow bags?

Should I make my own perhaps mixing with perlite?

It will be easy to add netting covers to keep the birds off and even polythene to produce an early crop.

http://allaboutallotments.com/index.html

[allaboutliverpool]

[nilly71]

This is what i was planing to have over all the beds... but not got round to building them yet ::)



If rain guttering was used inside then filled with soil or grow bags they would be easy to water. I was going to use them for Strawberries, onions and flowers to encourage the bees and look nice.

Neil

[allaboutliverpool]

Thanks Nilly, that has given me a great idea, one bed with a platform and one with a trough and compare results.

I can add the instructions to my web page.

http://www.allaboutliverpool.com/Raised_bed_building.html

[nilly71]

I'm not sure if you have already seen this, they are pound shop pop-up bins. This year i will cover them in netting as the wasps had eaten most of them.




Taken when first planted up 03.05.09


Taken today




Neil

[allaboutliverpool]

It looks simple and effective. For the netting, I would make a wooden frame with net attached and simply pop it over the top.

[antipodes]

Oh unreal! what a great idea! I am a hopeless handywoman and as I live in a flat it's hard to scrounge wood, scrap etc, but that looks like a great way to grow things in minimum space!
But really I was drooling over neil's raised platform...  ;D

[Mortality]

Wow great idea.  ;D

[Macy]

I didn't buy it, but this month's "grow your own" has a project for building a stand for growbags - one on top of the other.

For my strawberries, I was going to try using a v-shaped feeding trough available from the local saw mill, with 4 or 6 stakes to raise it with the trough attached to cross bars. The troughs are 10 foot long, so should take 3 grow bags.

Now I'm not so sure though - would the growbags be better on the flat, rather than sunken into the "V"?

btw I read that you can put up to 6 strawberry plants per growbag, staggered. I went with 5, in a straight line with the trough in mind. It's my first year growing them either way so I've no idea on how it will go - I just know I need to get them up away from my slug population!

[elvis2003]

nilly,your diagram is pretty much the idea ive had in my head,and have been asking the husband to build for strawberries etc. thank you so much as i can show him your pic,hope you dont mind! i need him out of my hair as all other construction has been completed now we are in year three,and he thinks he will be sowing/planting with me!

[Pesky Wabbit]

I've been growing  my strawberries in a 56ltr compost bag

I have 3 of these on a table I picked up from a charity shop for £10.00 and another 4 bags on a picnic table I got of another lottie holder.

By raising them up and keeping them in bags you dont get slugs or weeds and no mud spashed into the fruit making it taste gritty. The main problem of being in bags, especially in a hot summer (??) is water.

I put 10 plants in each bag, a 56 Ltr bag being 62 cm long, 43cm wide, 4 cm deep. To water them I use two of the one ltr squash bottles inverted and bottoms removed for easy filling from a watering can.

I only put one variety in any one bag and use different coloured/makes of bags for different varieties. The best one I find is  the Mirical Grow multi-p. with water retention - the yellow and green, followed by the slightly more expensive  yellow and blue Mirical Grow for containers.

I dont feed the first year as there is sufficient feed already in the bag, but in the 2nd and 3rd years I feed weekly with tomato feed.

[nilly71]

elvis2003

No problem, just remember to show us the pictures of the finnished item as I might not get time to build mine ;D

Neil

[jennym]

I've seen strawberries grown here commercially  in raised contraptions - they are at a Pick Your Own farm, to make it easier for the public to pick without bending down. It's pretty big scale, but the idea could be adapted.
There is a framework abut 3 ft high, made of scaffold poles and struts salvaged from old polytunnels.
Resting on the framework are what look like polystyrene wallpaper paste troughs. These are lined with black polythene, and filled with compost, and the strawberries grow in them, trailing over the side too.
There is a drip fertigation system in place - this particular one is pumped from a self built reservoir, but a basic gravity fed one would work just as well on a small scale, or of course theres the good old watering can. Evidently, the main work involved is watering and feeding, as they do dry out quickly.

[allaboutliverpool]

Thanks Jenny,

I have been thinking about the watering and am considering a raised reservoir as we are allowed to fill containers via a hosepipe.

An ideal thing would be the type used on camper vans and caravans as they are only about a foot high and hence unobtrusive the one shown costs just under £50 from http://www.agentfiamma.co.uk

[Hyacinth]

Thanks Nilly for the pic of the pop-up bag - and the idea 8) I'm going to be doing potatoes in these and I've got some strawberry plantlets going spare. So that's me sorted, then.