This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
Strawberry Growing
M Fent
Posts: 166
in Fruit & veg
For those of you who grow strawberries, where do you get a better crop; in the ground or in containers?
0
Posts
Hi
I have only grown in the ground with excellent return.
Growing in containers/baskets need water frequent at flowering fruit set stage so unless you are around to keep them watered your return may not be as big as from ground/raised beds
Happy gardening
I reckon in the ground is best. Whenever I've tried in containers the results have been disappointing.
They need plenty of compost and mats to keep the fruit off the ground (they also help to trap slugs, which you must collect frequently). And nets to keep the birds off...
Far better crop in the ground. The same varieties produced virtually nothing in containers.
We are new 'allotmenteers' and are busy getting advice from our near neighbours. One very experienced guy told us we were doing a good thing to put our new runners in a raised bed because we dont want them to run wild. However he said he would recommend taking off the flowers in their first year to strengthen the plant for the next year. We'll see if we can be that strong willed!
nah sod that, i want strawberries in 1st year for my daughter, i dont even eat the things
Hi Nic
to be honest i have never held back new strawberry plants and they have always returned a good crop.
The thought of strawberry plants in the ground for a year without fruit
Sack that one off and eat the lot and if by the end of summer you want some more plants just root off the runners fronm this years plants for next year.
Most plants from garden centres and nurseries are runners from last years stock
Happy gardening
I think the remove-first-year-flowers advice is silly in case of strawberries: you're supposed to replace them after three years anyway, so you'd be depriving yourself of a third of the whole crop. And I've read somewhere (can't remember where, but it was a respectable gardening source) that it's a myth anyway, except for removing the first flush of flowers from perpetual strawberries in their first year.
I've gotten pretty decent results from planting strawberries in the ground. After reading some of these comments though i might give a pot a try!
We've grown in both but I wouldn't do containers again unless they were very big. The constant watering when they're fruiting in the summer is a proper pain and they are much easier to mulch and keep moist in the ground. As for not eating the fruit in the first year, I eat them as soon as they arrive while working on the allotment, they never even make it home lol