Vertical strawberries?

[sweetpea]

Maybe I just need a pep talk, but I would like to know who has actually tried strawberries in those vertical garden arrangements, or those stacked, ever-shrinking pyramids? I have real struggles with every conceivable critter who eats strawberries, plus I'm tall, and it's hard to be dealing with something that low to the ground, so I'm thinking of saving space, saving my back, saving my sanity planting them in this way. I know they should be in guilds, and that would spread them out farther....I'm just not sure what to put the effort into without feeling like I am probably wasting my time trying something that experimental.

Thanks.

[sweetpea]

Ohhhh, I just thought...I have to redo my mandala anyway, and maybe I should make the stacked pyramid mandala? Or would that put them all too close together? The mandala has a circumference of 30 meters, about 10 meters across.

[Grasshopper]

I have
If I was to change it, it would be a bigger pipe maybe 100MM
Bigger holes further apart.
I have started some in pots a few days ago to keep the runners and then I will go back to vertical.
I had difficulty trying to start runners from the vertical so i had to keep buying strawberry plants.
Not cost effective.

[eco4560]

What about a strawberry spiral like a herb spiral - would that get them high enough to keep the critters away? I grow mine as a ground cover and it has performed effectively i.e. there are now hundreds of strawberry plants in my garden. So if they don't yield much per plant it doesn't worry me. There's always some that the critters missed.

[sweetpea]

The pipe looks very nice. Interesting about the runners. I was looking for that size pipe to make a cheese press, and it's not readily available around here....

Eco, I do need to grow the strawberries to sell, so protecting the fruit is important, and I'll have to have beer/yeast bowls everywhere, get the voles drunk if nothing else!!

[Grasshopper]

Monster big pipe stuck in the ground would be good
You need to find a nice plumber who does commercial work and get 400 or 500 mm pipe or just get a whole lot of 20litre buckets and stack them
Do voles only burrow, if so wire mesh at the bottom, if not they will still get to them

You need a carpet python
.................................................. .................................................. ......
You got me thinking ....... Im up-sizing the next one to 300 to 500 mm have a friendly plumber friend who might be able to help with the pipe too.
I will also use them as ground cover too

You can never have too many strawbs, raspberries or blueberries

[S.O.P]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBh1fjMqjmI

Vertical-ish sub-irrigated bucket strawberries. You could put them on a table, stacked two high. Only problem is potting mix/media.

[sweetpea]

Thanks, guys. It does amaze me how many containers strawberries seem to adapt to. I'm finding tons on hydroponics and these types of containers, not sure I want to do that. But the argument is for clean fruit as well as protected fruit.

Check out this photo: No instructions, but I like the soil/straw approach. although now I'm realizing that if I lift these up too much they'll be in the wind, unless I do a strawberry greenhouse -- more work than I anticipated, but probably the saner approach.Strawberries-Growing-Vertically.jpg

[Terra]

Everything loves strawberries we grow heaps and heaps in two cut down rainwater tanks , rings about 500mm high , 2/3rds full , mrs terra has an extensive native garden which creates a huge breed ground for millipeeds earwigs harliquins ect ect . Interesting that we get very few bugs in the beds i do hunt bugs with no mercy though , lots of clear ground around beds so little cover for them . Wind problems solved by bird net more or less sitting on the leaves with a centre low "hoop" (stops leaves banging together) net also cuts wind a bit keeps birds ect out and provides maybe 10% shade . Really heavy feeders typically you will get a fantastic first flush crop and then they drop off production so need a system where you can top up compost feed regularly , this year really showed we ran out of compost last year we were over run with strawberries . Dont know how you would grow commercial amounts in small towers , to keep the feed up you would need great liquid teas apparently strawberries grow well in aquaponic beds and towers which would solve most problems ive started the aquaponic learning curve so will try some next season . A set up like the photo on your post above could work stand the legs in water containers and some bird net , i know its frustrating when you pick a lovely strawberry and something has wrecked the under side , all our seconds get chopped up and frozen mrs spins up lovely jam with those .
Rob
Mediterranean climate

[sweetpea]

Nice reuse of the rainwater tanks. I went through YouTube and it seems there is no end of containers that strawberries are adaptable to. But I just can't get past the plastic part. Most of them are not food grade, and even if they were, I still don't trust plastic. I have started storing all leftovers in glass containers, and am trying to get plastic out of my kitchen.

But I can see the advantage to raised containers, and I can get fence boards pretty cheaply. I like the idea of narrow containers so the berries hang off the sides, rather than sit on the top being vulnerable to critters under the straw they must sit on to stay clean.

So I was thinking of very long but narrow horizontal raised beds out of fence boards so even the top berries will hang over the side, but I'm a little worried about them being too narrow and drying out too quickly or heating up too much. I will run them north and south so both long sides are in the sun at some point during the day. I don't usually grow things in containers for this very reason, but if it helps to protect the berries, it might be okay.

Any opinions?