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Strawberry pot
Carol Ann
Posts: 25
I have a conventional strawberry pot - "like a chimney with holes in!" I have had no success whatsoever with strawberrys over the years. I dont seem to manage to plant them in properly and when I water them the water just pours out of the holes taking all the soil with it. I'd like some tips on how to manage please. Also, is there another plant/plants I could grow in that type of pot? Thank you.
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Posts
I tried that last year and there wasn't enough room for the strawberries to grow at all. In the end I had to break the pot with a hammer and tear the plants apart - the roots had grown together. The plants were still pretty shell-shocked at the end of the season, I'm hoping they'll be OK this year - I put them in normal pots. I'll never use one of the strawberry pots again.
I think people grow herbs in them. But again, I can't see how you could repot anything from it if you needed to.
Perhaps you've planted it so near the top of the hole that it's inevitable the soil will come pouring out, or maybe you're watering it too heavy-handedly? Try leaving a small rim of pot visible (as you would with any other plant pot) so the water is contained better.
Strawberries have quite shallow roots and should do very well in these types of pot.
Never seen the point of these, personally. Strawbs do best in the ground, if you can keep the pests off them, or shallow pots will do, as long as they have decent compost. I did try them once in a hanging basket, but it was (always is) hard to keep them sufficiently watered.
I agree with Steve - I think these pots are useless for strawbs as they can't get access to enough soil and moisture. If you wnat to grow in pots, just use conventional ones - around 3 in a decent 15" pot will give good results and you can feed and water easily.
You could possibly grow thyme in those 'holey' pots, or aubretia or sedums. Something that enjoys living on air!
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Thanks everyone for your replies today. I've come to the conclusion that these pots aren't really all that good for strawberries so I think I'll put some herbs or maybe aubretia as "Fairygirl" suggested. Thanks again.