Growing Strawberries in Containers 🍓

Summary

In this engaging video by GrowVeg, Ben takes us on a delightful journey into the world of growing strawberries in containers. Perfect for those short on space or keen on controlling growing conditions, Ben shares tips on selecting the right type of strawberries, preparing the potting mix, and planting techniques for optimal growth. He also discusses the importance of sunlight and methods to keep strawberries safe from birds. Ben wraps up by sharing care tips such as watering, mulching, and managing runners, ensuring a bountiful and sweet harvest.

Highlights

• Learning about different strawberry types enhances your growing strategy. 🍓
• Containers offer control over soil and aesthetics of strawberry plants. 🌿
• Proper potting mix with a boost from blood, fish, and bone meal leads to thriving plants. 🐟
• Mulching with hay or straw keeps strawberries dry and rot-free. 🌾
• Regular watering and full sun yield the sweetest berries. ☀️
• Bird-proof your strawberries with nets to protect your harvest. 🐦
• Avoid runners initially, focus on plant growth for a future bounty. 📈
• Sign up for more tips on strawberries to perfect your garden game. 🎥

Key Takeaways

• Growing strawberries in containers is ideal for flavor and space efficiency. 🌿
• Two main types: ever-bearing for prolonged harvests, June bearers for bulk. 🍓
• Proper potting mix and planting height is crucial for healthy plants. 🌱
• Mulching helps maintain moisture and cleanliness of berries. 🌾
• Consistent watering and sunlight exposure lead to juicy strawberries. ☀️
• Protect strawberries from birds with netting for an uninterrupted harvest. 🐦
• Avoid letting strawberries produce runners in their first year. ❌
• Proper end-of-season maintenance ensures a vigorous crop next time. 🔄

Overview

Welcome to Ben’s radiant garden where the allure of growing strawberries in containers is unraveled, offering a dual reward of impeccable flavor and smart space usage. Ben introduces us to the vibrant world of strawberries, breaking down the varieties that can be grown, including the ever-bearing or perpetual strawberries which promise a prolonged harvest, and the June bearers, perfect for those who wish to enjoy bountiful pickings in a short time, ideal for making jams and other treats.

Ben takes us step by step through the riveting process of container planting, ensuring our berry delights are set up for success. From selecting the perfect potting mix packed with the goodness of blood, fish, and bone meal to simplify the planting to the essential aspects of sun exposure and proper watering. His engaging lessons also cover practical aids like mulching, using hay in place of straw, to protect fruits from rot while accentuating this practice's aesthetic charm.

Keeping strawberries safe from scavenging birds is another essential tip as Ben guides us to cover plants with netting without snuffing their beauty. He emphasizes thwarting runners in the initial growing phase to focus on robust plant development, leaving us with handy tips on maintaining plant health season to season. With such passionate guidance, Ben ensures the joy of harvesting a strawberry garden that not only looks good but tastes sublime.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction to Growing Strawberries The chapter "Introduction to Growing Strawberries" begins with a rhetorical question about the love for strawberries, emphasizing their aromatic, sweet, and juicy qualities. Ben, the host, introduces himself and highlights that to enjoy strawberries with an outrageously good flavor, one must grow them personally. He reassures those with no prior experience by stating that he will guide them through the process. The chapter also notes that strawberries can thrive both in-ground and in raised beds, marking them as a natural choice for growing.
• 00:30 - 01:00: Why Grow Strawberries in Containers The chapter discusses the benefits of growing strawberries in containers. It highlights the aesthetically pleasing aspect of container-grown strawberries, especially in a strawberry tower or against a sunny fence. The chapter also notes strawberries' preference for well-drained soil, which is more easily managed in containers. The chapter introduces different types of strawberries, namely ever-bearing or perpetual strawberries, and mentions planting each type in containers.
• 01:00 - 02:30: Types of Strawberries Day-neutral strawberries produce crops over a longer period, from early summer to autumn, providing consistent but smaller yields; known for their deliciousness.
• 02:30 - 05:00: Planting Container-Raised Strawberries This chapter discusses the characteristics and types of strawberries that can be planted in containers. There are different types of strawberries including June bearing or summer fruiting strawberries, which produce all their fruits within a three-week period during early to late summer. These strawberries have larger berries and are ideal for jam making, canning, or dehydrating into strawberry crisps. The chapter also introduces day-neutral strawberries, a lesser-known type that produces fruits once they reach a certain size, regardless of day length.
• 05:00 - 09:30: Maintaining Your Strawberry Plants In the chapter 'Maintaining Your Strawberry Plants,' the focus is on alpine or wild strawberries. Unlike regular strawberries, these can thrive in the shade and require little maintenance. The small, delicious fruits they produce are not suitable for container planting, but they are an excellent option for ground cover under shrubs.
• 09:30 - 12:30: Additional Tips for Growing Strawberries in Containers This chapter provides insights into planting strawberries in containers. The speaker emphasizes the importance of promptly planting container-raised strawberries once purchased, ideally anytime from spring through summer. They advise using wider, shallower containers as strawberries do not have deep roots, thus conserving potting mix. The strawberries should be well-soaked prior to planting to ensure the root balls are adequately moist. These tips help in efficiently growing strawberries in limited spaces using containers.

Growing Strawberries in Containers 🍓 Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 So you adore strawberries? Oh yes, aromatic,  sweet and juicy, what's not to love?   Hi I'm Ben and welcome to my garden. If you  want strawberries with outstanding flavor   and I mean outrageously good flavour, then  you're going to have to grow them yourself.   No idea where to begin? Don't worry, that's  where I come in. Come on, let me show you how.   Strawberries grow very well in the ground or in  raised beds but they are also a natural choice
• 00:30 - 01:00 for container growing for several reasons: they  look really good grown this way, especially within   say a strawberry tower or against a sunny fence  and strawberries love a well-drained soil, so   by growing them in containers we can ensure just  that. Before we get started let's take a look at   the different types of strawberries you can grow.  There are two main types and I'll be planting a   container with each of them today. Now the first  group is ever-bearing or perpetual strawberries.
• 01:00 - 01:30 As the name suggests these crop over a longer time  from about early summer right through to autumn.   They won't give lots of berries all at once,  rather little bits of pickings here and there   throughout the growing season. This means  it's great because it spaces out your crop   nice and evenly. Now the berries tend to be  a little bit smaller but they are considered   the most delicious. Then there are the June  bearers or the summer fruiting strawberries.   I've got some here and these ones have already  got some beautiful strawberries on look.
• 01:30 - 02:00 These guys tend to produce all of their fruits all  at once within about a two to three week period,   that could be anytime from early  summer through to mid to late summer.   June bearing or summer fruiting strawberries tend  to have slightly larger berries and because they   come all at once they're ideal for say jam making,  canning or perhaps dehydrating into delicious   strawberry crisps. There's also a third,  lesser-known category of strawberries called day   neutral strawberries which aren't affected by day  length, they simply crop once they're big enough
• 02:00 - 02:30 and if the conditions are suitable. Oh and  then there are this lot! Growing behind me   here in this stone retaining wall, these are  alpine or wild strawberries and unlike other   strawberries they grow quite happily in the shade  and can be left to pretty much get on with it.   The fruits are absolutely delicious  but they are tiny so probably not worth   growing in containers. They would however make a  fantastic ground cover under for example shrubs.
• 02:30 - 03:00 Right let's get on and plant. Now today I'm  planting these container-raised strawberries.   They're ready for sale anytime from sort  of spring and then throughout the summer   and you just plant them as soon as you get them,  don't leave them hanging around. They've been   given a really good soaking so the root balls  are nice and moist and I'm planting them into   these shallow containers here. Now I've chosen a  wider, shallower container because these aren't   especially deep rooted so there's no point wasting  all that potting mix. And in a container this
• 03:00 - 03:30 size I should get I would reckon three plants,  so that would give us a nice little display. Then for the potting mix I'm just using an  all-purpose peat free mix. Don't be tempted   to use soil, which will just sort of compact  with time and won't be very free draining.   Something like this beautifully crumbly  potting mix here is just the job.
• 03:30 - 04:00 To help it along I'm going to add in some blood,  fish and bone meal. This is an organic waste   product of the food industry and I've read  up the instructions for how much to add and   it's just a very scant handful for this amount of  potting mix. This will give it a really good start   and our strawberries should really enjoy rooting  into this. Now you could just go without the
• 04:00 - 04:30 blood, fish and bone meal and just use a high  potassium tomato feed for example and that way   you could just add your strawberries into the same  feeding regime as your other fruiting vegetables,   like say peppers and of course tomatoes. If you're  a vegan gardener and you don't want to use blood,   fish and bone, there are plenty of organic  alternatives available. Just make sure that   what you choose is relatively high in  potassium and not too high in nitrogen,   because nitrogen, if there's too much of it, will  encourage foliage over those flowers and fruits.
• 04:30 - 05:00 We're all filled up, now we're ready to  plant. When planting strawberries it's   really important that the crown of the plant,  that just means where the leaves emerge from,   is at soil level. You can see here in this  pot it's just sitting on the soil here   and we want to replicate that in the potting mix  as we plant. So dig your hole and then pop it in.
• 05:00 - 05:30 Just make sure that the potting mix isn't sort of  covering up that crown. If your plants are leaning   a bit to one side like they are here then plant  it so that this dangles over the container. That   way it won't crowd out the center here and those  fruits will be seductively displayed and much   easier to pick. When planting into containers,  strawberries can go a little bit closer than they   might otherwise be in the ground. You can go as  close as eight inches, that's 20 centimeters apart
• 05:30 - 06:00 without any problems because there's much  more goodness in this potting mix here.   Be sure to firm your strawberry plants in as you  go and leave a bit of a gap at the top to allow   for watering. Now the final thing to finish  these off is to apply a mulch. Strawberries   are called 'straw -berries' and that's because  straw is often used to support the berries and   what that does is it stops them getting kind of  wet, splashed up, so it stops getting mucky but
• 06:00 - 06:30 it also stops them rotting if they sit on moist  soil or potting mix. I don't have any straw so I'm   going to use some hay which is just as good and  I'm going to carefully feed it around the plants,   taking care not to cover or bury the  foliage, just to lift it up onto it.   The strawberries in this pot are hanging over the  side so this isn't entirely necessary but I think   it gives a really lovely finish. If it's very warm  where you are then this will help to shade the   soil and keep the root zone nice and cool and also  the lighter color of the straw, in this case hay,
• 06:30 - 07:00 reflects back some of the light which will  actually help the berries to ripen a bit easier.   If you don't have any straw or hay  for a mulch you could use for example   bark chippings, something like that, anything to  keep those developing strawberries nice and dry.   There we go, that's all done. All that's  left to do now is plant the other one up...
• 07:00 - 07:30 ...and give this a water. Now you can see when  I water the plants that the mulch keeps the   compost or potting mix from splashing up onto  the foliage and fruit, so it's doing its job   right there. I've moved them up onto this sun trap  patio here because strawberries do perform best in   full sunshine, at least six hours a day. They  will cope with a little bit of shade but you'll   maybe get a less vigorous crop and it won't be  quite as sweet and juicy and delicious. This is   one of the things I really like about growing in  containers; if the space is full in the garden,
• 07:30 - 08:00 there's no sunny spots left, it doesn't matter,  there's always room on the patio and these   will thrive here. In this particular location  the paving slabs will radiate warmth back up   into the strawberries while the white walls  will help to bounce back light onto our plants.   Look at this strawberry pot! Isn't she a beauty?  Strawberry pots are a really efficient way of   growing strawberries. This pot here has one, two,  three, four, five plants growing in it, all in
• 08:00 - 08:30 this small space. The downside to strawberry  pots is that they do need regular watering,   really careful watering, because the plant at  the top will of course get most of the water,   so it may not be ideal if you're not around a  lot. Also the terracotta on this one will wick   away moisture, making this less ideal for hotter  climates. But I'm happy to water it often and   keep an eye on it. If you do have a terracotta  pot you particularly like the look of but you
• 08:30 - 09:00 don't want to water quite so often, one thing you  can do is either line it or drop a close fitting   plastic pot inside the terracotta pot so you get  all the good looks of the terracotta without the   impracticalities. You could also plant into  a strawberry barrel or try making your own   strawberry tower. This is quite simply done by  stacking two or three pots of different sizes   one on top of the other, starting with the biggest  at the bottom. You can use a cane thrust into the
• 09:00 - 09:30 center of the pots through the drainage hole to  keep them nice and level on top of each other.   Then you simply plant around the edges with  one on top and keep everything well watered   and you'll get a really beautiful kind of tiered  effect with all those strawberries. Beautiful!   Something else you can do is to grow strawberries  vertically against a wall or fence in containers   or perhaps deep guttering secured to that wall.  Choose a sunny spot for this. This is something   I hope to do on this wall here and because it's  got a nice white background it will reflect the
• 09:30 - 10:00 light back onto the plants. It should create  a really show-stopping effect. Now a few extra   things to help you get the most from your plants:  First off keep the potting mix consistently moist   by watering regularly. Plants in pots will  dry out a lot quicker so it's important to   check them often for moisture. The second thing is  that birds, well they love our fruit don't they?   Including strawberries. We love birds too but not  when they're eating our fruits! So protect your
• 10:00 - 10:30 plants with some sort of mesh or netting secured  properly at the sides to stop it blowing off and   from birds getting trapped in underneath. Should  you let your strawberries fruit in the first year   after planting? Well as you saw, mine were already  producing fruits and they're good sized plants   so I'll let them just carry on to maturity. If  plants are a good size just let them fruit. If   they're small and they flower towards the end  of summer then you're probably best picking off   those flowers to concentrate all the resources  into bulking out that plant ready for next
• 10:30 - 11:00 season. Pick the strawberries as they  ripen and enjoy them as fresh as possible,   don't put them in the fridge that really kills the  taste. Forget the cream, the absolute best way to   bring out the flavor is with a little sprinkling  of black pepper. Trust me, it really works...mmm Have a look at this strawberry plant here.  It's producing this really long stem which   is called a 'runner'. It's the strawberry's way of  propagating itself. They send these runners out,
• 11:00 - 11:30 they touch the ground, roots are produced  and then you've got a new little plant.   That's all well and good but we don't want them to  be producing runners in their first year, we want   to concentrate the plant's energy at this stage  to bulking out and growing strong. You can however   use these to propagate new plants in three or four  years' time when the strawberries naturally slow   down fruit production and we'll be covering  this in a later video later on in the summer.
• 11:30 - 12:00 And then at the end of the season all that's  left to do is cut off the old foliage and just   tidy up your strawberry plants ready for  next season. Oh the pure unbridled joy of   a just-picked strawberry! The best things in  life aren't complicated are they? Now tell me,   are you planning on planting strawberries and  if you are what variety do you hope to grow?   Let me know in the comments below. And remember by  growing your own you can prioritize varieties that   have the best flavor, that's the way to do it. Now  as I mentioned earlier we will be revisiting the
• 12:00 - 12:30 topic of strawberries later on in the summer so  if you don't want to miss that, do subscribe and   turn on notifications so we can let you know  once that video and all of our videos are out   and ready for you to watch. If you've already  subscribed well a very big thank you to you.   Finally if you want even more on strawberries, do  check out this video. I'll catch you next time.