The site secetary is giving me some strawberry cuttings at the weekend but I have no idea what to do with them. I plan to put them in a big heavy duty clay pot salvaged from work. Will this do? How do I go about this? This is my first plant that I'll be planting and have no idea how to go about it.
Any advice would be most appreicated.
TrailRat
I have grown them in pots and got good results ... you will have to be careful to ensure that they are watered well in the summer though.
It may be useful to fill the large pot up with compost, put another slightly smaller one on top, fill that with compost too and then another on top of that so you have a tier of 3 pots. I secured mine with a pole through the central drainage hole. This helps watering as the excess water from a higher pot drains into the pot below. It also allows good ventilation and I planted at 6" spacing.
It also allows the pots to become a bit of a feature. Place them in the sunniest part of your garden. They must be planted out before winter as they need to experience a cold spell to cause them to fruit next summer.
Hope this helps
I like the idea of the stacking pots,
But with all pot plants do treat the compost for vineweevil I lost my trailing ones to the grubs.
Trailrat, I rekon strawbs are brilliant plants. I bought 10 runners last year and bunged all 10 in to one growbag in early april. I had my first berries in late may or June, and now have about 30 new runners to plant this year.
I am planning to make a diy strawberry planter by sawing some holes in a plastic bin (Thanks Mr Moggle :)). I saw that described on here quite some time ago.
My growbag dried out easily in the summer, needed to water it a couple of times a day on the hot days, and now I'm down to every 2 or 3 days. 8 out of 10 crowns have got really big. I'm very pleased. ;D
What about winter? Will they cope? Do I have to cover them?
TrailRat
After the runners have "taken" we always plant them out direct in the strawberry bed on the lottie along with the previous year's plants where they take care of themselves. they are perfectly hardy to withstand the winters - well never had them die off yet even thru the snow and ice. I know some people keep them in the g' house but think that just takes up space and you need to water etc.. Strawberry planters look nice tho.
I think they take them in the greenhouse to force them to fruit earlier but outside in the garden they will be fine. I am moving runners from my garden to lottie.