I bought a strawberry plant that was dying. Cost me 50p I planted it in a pot to see what would happen. Iv had the plant about 5 years now and each year it has given me lots of yummy strawberries
I had birds eating every strawberry before they could even ripen but I didn't want to bother with the hassle of netting. So I tucked my strawberry container amongst my aromatic herb containers. (Dill, basil, oregano, cilantro, chives, and mint) Seems to have properly confused my feathered thieves because I haven't had a single strawberry nibbled on in a over a month.
you can also paint some rocks red and place them near your strawberry plants earlier in the season. birds will learn that strawberries are hard and inedible and then have no interest in the actual berries when they appear.
I've had mixed success on keeping sources of water around so birds don't use fruits to literally wet their beaks. It makes a lot of sense that when it is dry, they will take a single bite just to get some moisture
I heard of a grandma who painted some small stones bright red. She placed the stones among her berry plants well before they fruited. The birds learned that the bright red "fruits" were not worth the trouble and never bothered the real strawberries once they arrived. Maybe this idea will keep our birds at the feeders and off the berries!
In an attempt to prioritize time, as well as letting nature do it's thing, I mow my yard less often. Doing so presented a large area of ground cover berries, which kept my two-year-old granddaughter very busy. By the end of her daily interest in harvesting and eating ripened berries, her hands, arms, hair, and smiling face were strawberry red. Who would imagine doing less work would produce such joy. Good stuff, and thank you!
I had alpine strawberries growing in deep shade under trees and what a treat! They came back every year and not only did they attract the birds but the birds took care of any insects in the garden too!
Also I may have mentioned this before, but one of the perks of working in a university for me is that I get access to all the plant science research papers I have time to read, even though I am not a plant scientist! There was a very good study into how to increase strawberry yield and it found planting borage near the strawberries helped pollination a lot, leading to better cropping. What the plant scientists neglected to add is that this is also handy for making the subsequent Pimms ;.)
Great feature on strawberries! We inherited a lot of old plants, which weren’t very productive, and we only got a solitary bowl out of them last year. I got some tiny plant pots, put in some compost, and just tucked in a runner into each one. Once the runners had rooted in the pots I cut off the plant umbilical cord and replanted the baby plants into the original bed, now cleared of the old plants. I then spread Strulch over the bed. We ended up with 50 new plants for free this way. We have had a very productive season this time with something like 10kg of strawberries resulting in 14 jars of jam and a lot of desserts. I’m planning to repeat this propagation process every three years so my plants are always quite young. Top tip: If you have a bread machine, see if it has a jam setting as it can save a lot of burnt pans. You might need to run the setting 2 or even 3 times to get the perfect consistency, maybe adding a little pectin, but if you’re busy, this is a real boon.
Great tip - and well done on propagating so many new plants from runners. This is my mission for this summer - bulk out my strawberries and create a dedicated strawberry bed.
Such a helpful video, thank you! I always appreciate that you use seasons for reference rather than specific months for those of us in a different hemisphere. 🙂🇦🇺
Oh my memories. The alpine strawberries used to be grow all over these Mtns when I was a child. We called them wild berries. Daddy would find us a big patch, and we all went, 5 of us, to pick for the winter’s jam. 1 gallon containers. As the youngest I remember having a measuring cup having to pick it full. We all had to fill our containers to Mother’s satisfaction. Being reminded that the jam will taste better on our biscuits (scones to you )than a snowball, lol. These days you hardly ever see them, and if you do they are very tiny. But I grow my own “tame” ones. Thanks for the advice
This is absolutely the best video for growing strawberries, I have found, much good information here. ❤ Thank you for posting it. I just started planting strawberries a few weeks ago in containers and really enjoying it so far. North Carolina girl..
I have wild strawberries growing on mountain scree in Mid Wales. They have spread into the cracks of my terrace providing more fruit for free. This year I'm harvesting 600g of fruit every two days.
If you're in Australia or a hotter, drier climate remember to keep up the watering! Also if you're considering using netting on any fruit trees or vertical growing areas, make sure to use small aperture netting, small enough that you can't stick a finger through it as the larger stuff is deadly to fruit bats.
@bina nocht Yes they are! However they can get their limbs tangled up in the large aperture netting trying to climb it and it cuts off the blood supply to their limbs rapidly, particularly if it constricts their wing membrane. Also they have very high hydration needs so when they get tangled and can't escape they often die rapidly of kidney failure. The outcomes for fruit bats that have been rescued off netting is pretty bad which is why the small aperture netting is a great alternative as they have a much harder time getting tangled in it.
Hello All, We are in Australia where the summers are very hot, even in Melbourne, for a long time I have been lining my terracotta pots with bark from a paper bark tree, but I think you could use a thin flexible bark from any tree. The bark slowly breaks down over years, but in the meantime insulates the roots and slows water evaporation and stops the root ball in the pot from drying out. When you want to re-pot, removing the roots from the pot is easier as the bark helps the root mass and soil just slide out. It is organic and cheap, I just pull some of the excess bark off the tree, and the paper bark tree is generous and gives me plenty without being harmed in any way. Cheers, Bron
I have grown strawberries for a few years, and I have still learned some great tips from your video Ben. Thanks for making and sharing and your strawberry harvest is making my mouth water. Yum!
Hi Ben,we have had our allotment for 15 years ish & we can tell you the best strawberries we have found are Marshalls Marshmellow ,sweet juicy and quite large fruit,we have set runners and our fellow plot holders who also agree,next year we will try potting some for an early crop,they also make great jam,the first fruit are usually 2nd week in June,we still have a few on now but soon we will collect new plants for a new bed next year although 2 year plants are stronger,you can’t rush gardening it takes time,good luck & happy gardening.
Hi Ben. This is my first year gardening and I am loving your channel love❤ I saved some strawberry plants from the b&q clearance aisle and put them in containers and they have already given me some fruit. Happy days x
Just planted some this weekend using a felt strawberry bag! Can't wait for the fruits! Also keen to learn how to preserve the plant for next year. Looking forward to the next video :)
It depends on the variety, but I know I've seen strawberry plants that survived -40 temperatures. If in doubt, mulch them with dried grasses or shredded paper. You could put cardboard "toppers" over to help insulate.
3gen farmer from Iceland with disability that had to move to the capital city. I find you're videos informative and insightful a long time ago my farm had plant research by my grade grand parents, then animals by grandmothers older brother and now we have still have animals by my mothers disabled little brother.
Thank you so much for your strawberry video ! 🍓 I look forward to part two later on this Summer! I’m needing to learn what to do with the runners , so this will be very helpful !
Thank you for the tip about the homemade strawberry tower. I will do it this summer. I have strawberries called corona😄they fruit once during the summer and are super sweet. I also have wild strawberries. I have planted strawberries around bushes and trees in large potting.
Wonderful. I have tried growing blueberries 2 times. Once in ground (they drowned in winter). Then I planted in wine barrels. Used proper mix of plant medium, but they died. So I went to a workshop at my local nursery. They said never plant in containers that they like to grow 6 feet tall and spread. But your video gives me renewed hope.
I had about 40 strawberry plants in containers about 5 years ago… until they all succumbed to the dreaded vine weevil. 😟 I was really upset. This year my collection has grown to about 35 and I’m really pleased to report I’ve grown another 30 from seed this year. 🍓🙂They are all big now so I’m looking forward to them fruiting next year. 🍓🍓🍓 They are all in a new huge 3ft high raised bed and I’m all ready to buy nematodes again if I need to. 😊
Several years ago I planted up a metre square raised bed with some strawberry plants. I knew nothing about growing fruit but I had beginner’s luck because I had bowlfuls and bowlfuls of strawberries that summer. Years later and I’m going to do it all again. The raised bed is in, the compost and soil are in, the barefoot strawberries arrived in the post and are now in! Hopefully, after settling in over this coming winter, they will give me lots of berries next summer and autumn 🥰
Really appreciate this! I have quite a long balcony that gets lots of sun from May onwards and I've been wanting to grow strawberries for ever. This has given lots of great advice and I'm excited to get planting once I can find the plants in my local garden shop.
Thank you, Ben. I’m planning to plant up strawberries in hanging pots in our polytunnel. This is partly to try to deter our Blackbird strawberry thieves. And partly because, even with a straw-based mulch we have issues with mould on our fruit. So your video has been really useful. It confirms that I am doing basic things right, but has also given me tips for ensuring the plants grow healthy and strong. I’m using Marshmello for the pots, following the advice of a local polytunneler. Here goes!
I have new raised beds where I've planted Quinalt and Ozark Beauty strawberries. Next summer I hope to put some in my Greenstalk planter on the patio. Thanks for the tips. USA
hello..I started Ozark strawberries last year in Hay rack baskets. The baskets were suspended horizontally between metal arbors . this added extra growing room in my small garden to grow beans up the arbors at the same time. There was a fence about 3 feet from the structure which blocked the morning sun, so i painted it white, which should help reflect the noon and midday sun light . hopefully this will give what need light is required to develop delicious Strawberries. Thank you for all your helpful garden tips and planting suggestions.
That sounds like an ingenious setup you have there Gale. Certainly painting the fence white may help a little to improve overall light levels. I hope you get a good crop this summer. :-)
I remember picking wild strawberries from the hedgerow while hitching through Devon. I also had wild strawberry jam made from fruit picked in the forests of northern Poland. Although the fruits are small, the taste is simply incredible! 100% more sweet, delicious, and strawberryish than anything I've ever had from a shop. I didn't know they were called Alpines but that's definitely the variety I'll be looking out for.
Wild strawberries are so much better than "supermarket" strawberry, it's just so different taste, the big ones never have the forest aroma of wild strawberries. In other languages the "big" type is different name than small, for example "Klubnika" vs "Zemlyanika" (big vs small), but in English the big strawberry and the small forest one, have same name, that's why many people don't even know there's one more berry type that looks similar but tastes 80% different than "classic supermarket strawberry" 😅
I don't know the strawberry varieties, but my partner gave me a pack of six plants for Easter to give our kiddos in their Easter baskets, and they all decided they wanted them on the fence! I bought 2 felt bags with six rows of pockets and used UV zip ties to secure them. It's a beautiful back drop! The strawberries have produced beautifully.
@@GrowVeg I missed giving them some fertilization so I appreciate the reminder. Thank you for your wonderful videos! I used a sandy mix to plant them and covered the top with coco coir to hold in moisture.
I read somewhere that having red-painted pebbles spread around the strawberry plants will deter birds since they will peck at the stones and find them inedible. Put the pebbles around a little time before the berries ripen to get the best effect.
I also heard the same thing. I collected flat rocks from the ocean and I’ll be painting them reddish pink to resemble strawberries. Hopefully it will work.
Some great advice! We had good success with Gariguette strawberry plants a few years back. Then mice started to come into the netted strawberry bed under a neighbour’s fence eating every scrap of fruit long before they were ripe. Attempts to stop this were unsuccessful and so I gave up, donating the plants to a colleague with a larger garden. Last year I decided to try again with different plants in containers; I bought Mount Everest plants, sold as ever bearing with long runners that would provide the additional plants that could be positioned above the originals. We had what I thought was a good site but while the plants produced plenty of flowers at the start of this year they all withered away to nothing. Runners are now growing but nothing like the 1m lengths advertised. I will look after the plants as best I can and let them have another year to produce some fruit. Meanwhile, I found 1 Gariguette plant hidden under other things at the back of the old bed. I dug this up a few weeks ago and transferred it to a pot where it has gone from strength to strength. Plenty of strong runners bearing baby plants that root easily. I’m hoping for perhaps 20 small plants by the end of summer that I will grow on, protected from mice, in our “catio”. Having failed to find much success with strawberry towers in the past (great for a year but the plants below the top layer didn’t thrive) I plan to grow the individual plants in good sized pots hanging from the wire walls of the catio. Fingers crossed for Gariguette strawberries next year! They really are tasty strawberries and worth growing despite a short fruiting season. Happy to receive any advice on succeeding with either variety. 💐
@@GrowVeg Doing well to date, so far we have parent plant and 4 rooted babies plus runners growing from each. Researching containers that will be comfortable for the plants next year, suspended from the wire panel walls of the catio. So far found options with no drainage or way to add a drip tray. Any suggestions will be welcomed. 😁
This is my first year planting strawberries plants. Just learned from you my Sweet Ann variety are day neutral. Excited to see the fruit next year. Saludos!- Los Angeles
Lovely ideas and great tips as always! We had a volunteer strawberry and have merit out going on the greenhouse a couple of years now. I also decided to try some white alpine strawberries and they are tiny but have a delicate sweet flavor
I sowed a variety called Temptation earlier this year, and planted them out some weeks ago. They´ve been flowering and will continue to set blooms throughout the summer. Would like to add a variety called "Korona", suitable for colder climates, but this will be in a few years time. Thank you for a very informative video 🌻🍓
Saya sangat kagum dengan cara anda menanam Strawberry sehingga tertarik ingin mencobanya, semoga berhasil. Terima kasih telah berbagi ilmunya 🙏🙏🙏 Salam dari Indonesia 🇮🇩 👍👍👍
thank you so much, very good explanation "on how to grow strawberiies on the pot", i will try that I wish to find good one that stays longer..thank you and see you..for my feed back after i do grow my own.❤
Thank you for the lesson on growing strawberries. Live on Hatteras Island (North Carolina - USA) and have never grown them. Want to give it a try this season. Appreciate your expertise.
I have all ever bearing berries...I think the variety is one of the most popular. I grow in containers now but am thinking of devoting a section of my raised beds this year. Still learning about berries but loving the harvest so far.
I grow day neutrals, exclusively, here in Southern California. I have Albion, Eversweet, and my favorite - Sweet Ann. They slow for only about 2 months during the coldest part of the year, then they get right back to it. Nice video :)
Wow, south California? I thought they can't grow in the south, only around half moon bay at the most (Pacifica has great hill with wild ones, people pick full jars 😁). How do you plant them, from seed, or bring larger plants from northern region?
I've been growing strawberries for years. I grow the variety that gives fruit over a matter of weeks. We made jam for the 1st time last year and it was delicious!
I'm growing strawberries as well and I've got a hand full from two of my plants I'm also growing peas,cucumbers,carrots,brokoli,lettuce, tomato's, radishes and sunflowers. There all growing very well :). Also your videos have helped me sooooo much and I just wanted to say thank you.
I just bought some Bubble berries at the nursery. AKA fragaria Moschata. They’re a light pink strawberry. I’ve never grown these before but they’re supposed to have a hint of pineapple and raspberry flavors.
I have been growing strawberries for years and grow all the varieties. This growing season I have purchased two Green Stalks growing towers to fill up with strawberries, I am excited to get started but I live in Western Montana with my last frost date in mid-May however strawberries plants don't mind some frost, but snow would not be good for them. Thanks for sharing your beautiful berries with us.
Howdy Ben!👋 I plan on adding strawberries to our garden next year. Someone suggested the Alpine ones. After your tutorial I might do two kinds...the Alpine for garden snacking and the June bearing ones for jam.😀 Thanks for the knowledge!💕
I have a hanging upside down garden in my chook coop. Strawberries are prefect for it! The berries hang down, no dirt for them to sit and rot on, and easy to pick. I have some herbs growing in the top too. Considering trying chives in the top to deter bugs
I watched your video to see what type of container you were using, to my surprise you showed several varieties. I built one out of 2 5 gal. Buckets on top of each other with 3” holes, and a pvc pipe in the center w/tiny holes. I copied from an instructional video I had seen on balcony gardening. One thing I learned through that project was the central pvc pipe not to add a lot of tiny hole because the water comes out to fast…less holes better so the water trickles out. Another video I seen that I am going to also do since I already have the extra plants is take two 22 gallon containers and plant 2 different varieties of blueberry bushes in each one with strawberries planted around the edges. They require similar ph soil and growing needs. Garden Answer has a video that was put out recently; just type in blueberries and strawberries under their site. Love most of the gardening channels and yours is a pleasure too!😊
Your Strawberries look Beautiful. 🍓 I'm not growing any this Year, but have done an upside down, screwed together, 2 litre bottle set up with them before, it's screwed to the wall. It works very similar to the Towers, by just watering the top ones. Hope that made sense. TFS GV, & take care everyone. ❤🙂🐶
I haven't had luck growing June-bearing strawberries, but refuse to give up. My Pacific Northwest weather seems too cold and rainy for the raised bed (mold and powdery mildew). This year I tried a wood half-barrel but we had an even longer cold and rainy spring. The plants are short and produced small berries that rotted just as there was a blush on them. Ben's video showed me a few things I did wrong, so hopefully there will be a decent crop next year. Thanks, Ben! The tasty alpine strawberries around my blueberry bushes are tough guys. Two years in a row my brother weed-whacked them to soil level and they grew back. I recently put up a border and a sign that reads "back off, Bob!" : ) Maybe I'll get a crop of alpine berries next year.
I have not tried the alpine strawberries. I grow both June bearing and everbearing. I have to grow them with partial shade, as the sun burns up the leaves here in North Texas. Thanks for the tips. I struggle growing them and am always appreciative for all the tips to try to get a better growing crop and harvest.
this is my first year in the new house and i can finally grow strawberries! i will be planting some everbearing and some junebearing. because while i do want to make some chips or freeze them, i mostly eat them fresh so a few over the long haul sounded better. IN addition i got seeds for alpine strawberries, and i will be planting them all over where we have a bit of shade
i’d actually highly recommend growing wild strawberries in north america, because they are native here, and the native insects will benefit from them. the smaller berries are still a great reward for helping out the ecosystem.
Our yard has an inground strawberry patch. I struggle with not just birds, but also slugs and snails. I don't like to use slug bait because of the powdery mildew that comes after application. I'll be pulling mine out of the ground and into my Mr. Stacky towers. And have those on concrete pillars. I'm excited to see what will come next year. 👀
Super useful to know about waiting until the following year to make the most of the runners. I'll be getting 5 Aromel strawberry plants and 5 Norfolk Nectar this year, I've decided on a nice sunny spot in the middle of the garden and am hoping for the best!
@@GrowVeg that looked like a Quaker parrot to me from the few moments it was on screen for, but it definitely wouldn't be the first time I mistook a green bird for one of those 😂
This is a great video and very informative.I am in phoenix Az I grow Gurney Whopper and Ozark Beauty it took me years to learn how to grow strawberries here but now I am trying new kinds next season
You have persuaded me to try out a perpetual variety - I'm thinking Flamenco. Also, the Cambridge variety that I have in normal beds, always start well, but then end up rotting, so I will try using some form of raised planter.
Excellent idea you mentioned in this video ♥️🥰 make a tower so it won’t dry quickly cuz I have those strawberries pot and they don’t live longer so I will make them top on another pot so it won’t dry during summer 👩🌾🥰👍👍 thank you again!
Hi Ben, thanks for another of your very informative videos. Because we have a large area of sloping rock I've installed 2X 9 meter soil pipes 200mm diameter with 3'' holes drilled 30cm apart to accommodate a drip watering pipe, filled with good compost. The ends have 90 degree bends that hold in the compost the pipes are just held together with 3 self tapping screws and they are on breeze blocks. I can get 30 plants per row and a few in the ends. It's not cheap but it should last many years. I did have a problem with drainage, or better said "lack of" I didn't think it would catch much rain water, so this spring I've been busy drilling drainage holes, should sort it out. Great for using bits of land unsuitable for planting or along tops of walls. In hindsight I think 150mm or 180mm pipe would have been better and a lot cheaper.
I bought a strawberry plant that was dying. Cost me 50p I planted it in a pot to see what would happen. Iv had the plant about 5 years now and each year it has given me lots of yummy strawberries
That's wonderful to hear!
@@GrowVegwould love a video of Pineberry's White strawberrys
I had birds eating every strawberry before they could even ripen but I didn't want to bother with the hassle of netting. So I tucked my strawberry container amongst my aromatic herb containers. (Dill, basil, oregano, cilantro, chives, and mint) Seems to have properly confused my feathered thieves because I haven't had a single strawberry nibbled on in a over a month.
Yeah thise little buggers do that. worst thing is they take 1 bite and move on to the next...
Smart work camouflaging them - great idea. :-)
you can also paint some rocks red and place them near your strawberry plants earlier in the season. birds will learn that strawberries are hard and inedible and then have no interest in the actual berries when they appear.
Good tip!!!
I've had mixed success on keeping sources of water around so birds don't use fruits to literally wet their beaks. It makes a lot of sense that when it is dry, they will take a single bite just to get some moisture
I heard of a grandma who painted some small stones bright red. She placed the stones among her berry plants well before they fruited. The birds learned that the bright red "fruits" were not worth the trouble and never bothered the real strawberries once they arrived. Maybe this idea will keep our birds at the feeders and off the berries!
I've heard of this and would love to try it - seems like a great idea!
I'm definitely going to try this, as I already have my paints out!
I put my strawberry plant in a LG ferret cage because of the birds
That’s a good idea
We tried it, it worked
I put a coffee filter over the drain hole to keep soil in the pot..works for me...I can't wait for spring 🙂
Great idea Shirley! :-)
In an attempt to prioritize time, as well as letting nature do it's thing, I mow my yard less often. Doing so presented a large area of ground cover berries, which kept my two-year-old granddaughter very busy. By the end of her daily interest in harvesting and eating ripened berries, her hands, arms, hair, and smiling face were strawberry red. Who would imagine doing less work would produce such joy.
Good stuff, and thank you!
What a lovely vision! :-)
Pine needles also make a great mulch for strawberries. They seem to really like it.
Thank you!!! I have lots of those in my backyard...
I had alpine strawberries growing in deep shade under trees and what a treat! They came back every year and not only did they attract the birds but the birds took care of any insects in the garden too!
What a fantastic win-win scenario Sherri! :-)
Yes Ben , you’re right , “the best things in life aren’t complicated” Cheers !
Also I may have mentioned this before, but one of the perks of working in a university for me is that I get access to all the plant science research papers I have time to read, even though I am not a plant scientist! There was a very good study into how to increase strawberry yield and it found planting borage near the strawberries helped pollination a lot, leading to better cropping. What the plant scientists neglected to add is that this is also handy for making the subsequent Pimms ;.)
Haha - maybe the thought had crossed their minds though. The perfect duo in the perfect Pimms! :)
What is Pimm?
@@CC-lv1ox Pimms is a cocktail drink and borage is a good option for a garnish.
Great feature on strawberries! We inherited a lot of old plants, which weren’t very productive, and we only got a solitary bowl out of them last year. I got some tiny plant pots, put in some compost, and just tucked in a runner into each one. Once the runners had rooted in the pots I cut off the plant umbilical cord and replanted the baby plants into the original bed, now cleared of the old plants. I then spread Strulch over the bed. We ended up with 50 new plants for free this way. We have had a very productive season this time with something like 10kg of strawberries resulting in 14 jars of jam and a lot of desserts. I’m planning to repeat this propagation process every three years so my plants are always quite young. Top tip: If you have a bread machine, see if it has a jam setting as it can save a lot of burnt pans. You might need to run the setting 2 or even 3 times to get the perfect consistency, maybe adding a little pectin, but if you’re busy, this is a real boon.
Great tip - and well done on propagating so many new plants from runners. This is my mission for this summer - bulk out my strawberries and create a dedicated strawberry bed.
Such a helpful video, thank you! I always appreciate that you use seasons for reference rather than specific months for those of us in a different hemisphere. 🙂🇦🇺
That's why we do it! :-)
Oh my memories. The alpine strawberries used to be grow all over these Mtns when I was a child. We called them wild berries. Daddy would find us a big patch, and we all went, 5 of us, to pick for the winter’s jam. 1 gallon containers. As the youngest I remember having a measuring cup having to pick it full. We all had to fill our containers to Mother’s satisfaction. Being reminded that the jam will taste better on our biscuits (scones to you )than a snowball, lol. These days you hardly ever see them, and if you do they are very tiny. But I grow my own “tame” ones.
Thanks for the advice
That's a wonderful memory to have Tonie. I bet that jam was totally unrivalled.
Which region it is and how many years ago? Maybe the warming affects how much of them grow now?
This is absolutely the best video for growing strawberries, I have found, much good information here. ❤ Thank you for posting it. I just started planting strawberries a few weeks ago in containers and really enjoying it so far. North Carolina girl..
So pleased you’re enjoying the process. Hope you get a super harvest. 😀
I have wild strawberries growing on mountain scree in Mid Wales. They have spread into the cracks of my terrace providing more fruit for free. This year I'm harvesting 600g of fruit every two days.
Oh wow - that's an incredible result from wild strawberries - how lucky and delicious. :-)
If you're in Australia or a hotter, drier climate remember to keep up the watering! Also if you're considering using netting on any fruit trees or vertical growing areas, make sure to use small aperture netting, small enough that you can't stick a finger through it as the larger stuff is deadly to fruit bats.
Great advice, thanks for sharing. :-)
@bina nocht Yes they are! However they can get their limbs tangled up in the large aperture netting trying to climb it and it cuts off the blood supply to their limbs rapidly, particularly if it constricts their wing membrane. Also they have very high hydration needs so when they get tangled and can't escape they often die rapidly of kidney failure. The outcomes for fruit bats that have been rescued off netting is pretty bad which is why the small aperture netting is a great alternative as they have a much harder time getting tangled in it.
I'm starting my first garden this year. I'm trying to learn so much, thank you.
How is it going?
Hello All, We are in Australia where the summers are very hot, even in Melbourne, for a long time I have been lining my terracotta pots with bark from a paper bark tree, but I think you could use a thin flexible bark from any tree. The bark slowly breaks down over years, but in the meantime insulates the roots and slows water evaporation and stops the root ball in the pot from drying out. When you want to re-pot, removing the roots from the pot is easier as the bark helps the root mass and soil just slide out. It is organic and cheap, I just pull some of the excess bark off the tree, and the paper bark tree is generous and gives me plenty without being harmed in any way. Cheers, Bron
What a great idea Bronwyn, thanks for sharing. :-)
I have grown strawberries for a few years, and I have still learned some great tips from your video Ben. Thanks for making and sharing and your strawberry harvest is making my mouth water. Yum!
You're very welcome Dawn - thanks so much for watching.
Ha, I just planted 50 strawberry plants in some meters of gutters, fixed on the fence of my kitchen garden! It makes me so happy!!
Great job! :-)
Hi Ben,we have had our allotment for 15 years ish & we can tell you the best strawberries we have found are Marshalls Marshmellow ,sweet juicy and quite large fruit,we have set runners and our fellow plot holders who also agree,next year we will try potting some for an early crop,they also make great jam,the first fruit are usually 2nd week in June,we still have a few on now but soon we will collect new plants for a new bed next year although 2 year plants are stronger,you can’t rush gardening it takes time,good luck & happy gardening.
I've tried Marshmallow in the past and it is definitely delicious - good choice. :-)
Hi Ben. This is my first year gardening and I am loving your channel love❤ I saved some strawberry plants from the b&q clearance aisle and put them in containers and they have already given me some fruit. Happy days x
Happy days indeed Linda! Thanks for watching :-)
Just planted some this weekend using a felt strawberry bag! Can't wait for the fruits! Also keen to learn how to preserve the plant for next year. Looking forward to the next video :)
Can we over winter the container strawberries? Wisconsin...but I do have an unheated shed?
It depends on the variety, but I know I've seen strawberry plants that survived -40 temperatures. If in doubt, mulch them with dried grasses or shredded paper. You could put cardboard "toppers" over to help insulate.
Thanks for mentioning mulch or straw. I will do that now.
3gen farmer from Iceland with disability that had to move to the capital city. I find you're videos informative and insightful a long time ago my farm had plant research by my grade grand parents, then animals by grandmothers older brother and now we have still have animals by my mothers disabled little brother.
Thanks for your kind comment. Your farm sounds like it was wonderful. :-)
Very comprehensive video. Thanks so much for your thoughtful content
Have a lifetime supply of various pots. Thanks for the idea of a homemade tower!
Thank you so much for your strawberry video ! 🍓 I look forward to part two later on this Summer! I’m needing to learn what to do with the runners , so this will be very helpful !
Thank you for the tip about the homemade strawberry tower. I will do it this summer. I have strawberries called corona😄they fruit once during the summer and are super sweet. I also have wild strawberries. I have planted strawberries around bushes and trees in large potting.
Strawberries and pumpkins are the most fun things to grow with kids!
Absolutely!
Wonderful. I have tried growing blueberries 2 times. Once in ground (they drowned in winter). Then I planted in wine barrels. Used proper mix of plant medium, but they died. So I went to a workshop at my local nursery. They said never plant in containers that they like to grow 6 feet tall and spread. But your video gives me renewed hope.
Hope you manage to get them to grow next time round Marge.
Blueberry ‘Top Hat’
My newborn daughter will thank you as we just planted a few strawberries in the garden. Love from California.
That's fantastic - great job. How lovely to have a newborn daughter - many congratulations! :-)
Thank you for your tip on how to plant in a pot
I had about 40 strawberry plants in containers about 5 years ago… until they all succumbed to the dreaded vine weevil. 😟 I was really upset. This year my collection has grown to about 35 and I’m really pleased to report I’ve grown another 30 from seed this year. 🍓🙂They are all big now so I’m looking forward to them fruiting next year. 🍓🍓🍓 They are all in a new huge 3ft high raised bed and I’m all ready to buy nematodes again if I need to. 😊
Well done on raising them from seed and building up your collection again. Those pesky vine weevils!
I’m so glad I watched this video before trying to plant strawberries I didn’t know they needed straw or hay
They don't really need the straw or hay - it just helps to keep the berries cleaner.
I sure wish I had watched this back in July. LOL Super info and I will use it from now on.
Brilliant as always. I've not grown strawberries for years, I'm going to try this year ....
Several years ago I planted up a metre square raised bed with some strawberry plants. I knew nothing about growing fruit but I had beginner’s luck because I had bowlfuls and bowlfuls of strawberries that summer. Years later and I’m going to do it all again. The raised bed is in, the compost and soil are in, the barefoot strawberries arrived in the post and are now in! Hopefully, after settling in over this coming winter, they will give me lots of berries next summer and autumn 🥰
I hope your new strawberry bed settles in beautifully and you get another bumper crop of berries next season. :-)
I absolutely adore your videos. Thank you for sharing your expertise.
--gardener in Minnesota, USA
And thank you for watching - really appreciate your support. :-)
Thank you. I'm looking forward to the season!
You are AMAZING! I can see why you are a Master Gardener.
Really appreciate this! I have quite a long balcony that gets lots of sun from May onwards and I've been wanting to grow strawberries for ever. This has given lots of great advice and I'm excited to get planting once I can find the plants in my local garden shop.
This is just the video that i needed and came at the perfect time! Thanks Ben! :)
Great stuff Jackie, thanks for watching. :-)
Thank you, Ben. I’m planning to plant up strawberries in hanging pots in our polytunnel. This is partly to try to deter our Blackbird strawberry thieves. And partly because, even with a straw-based mulch we have issues with mould on our fruit. So your video has been really useful. It confirms that I am doing basic things right, but has also given me tips for ensuring the plants grow healthy and strong. I’m using Marshmello for the pots, following the advice of a local polytunneler. Here goes!
Great stuff Sarah. I've heard only great things about Marshmello, so I think you've chosen well there.
what is marshmello?
Thanks very much for sharing this video. I've started growing strawberry plants in my balcony (in Bangalore, India). Your tips help a lot.
That's really great to hear Shanmugam. :-)
Everbearing and June berries. All my Gardening are in raised beads. This video helped !
Berry good sir! And thanks for the alternative thoughts for veganic gardeners 👍
Nice one Gawain! 🙌😀
I have new raised beds where I've planted Quinalt and Ozark Beauty strawberries. Next summer I hope to put some in my Greenstalk planter on the patio. Thanks for the tips. USA
hello..I started Ozark strawberries last year in Hay rack baskets. The baskets were suspended horizontally between metal arbors . this added extra growing room in my small garden to grow beans up the arbors at the same time. There was a fence about 3 feet from the structure which blocked the morning sun, so i painted it white, which should help reflect the noon and midday sun light . hopefully this will give what need light is required to develop delicious Strawberries. Thank you for all your helpful garden tips and planting suggestions.
That sounds like an ingenious setup you have there Gale. Certainly painting the fence white may help a little to improve overall light levels. I hope you get a good crop this summer. :-)
I’ve had strawberries do well in hanging baskets too.
Great job on this beautiful video of strawberry 🍓
Thanks!
I remember picking wild strawberries from the hedgerow while hitching through Devon. I also had wild strawberry jam made from fruit picked in the forests of northern Poland. Although the fruits are small, the taste is simply incredible! 100% more sweet, delicious, and strawberryish than anything I've ever had from a shop. I didn't know they were called Alpines but that's definitely the variety I'll be looking out for.
What happy memories Dave. :-)
Wild strawberries are so much better than "supermarket" strawberry, it's just so different taste, the big ones never have the forest aroma of wild strawberries. In other languages the "big" type is different name than small, for example "Klubnika" vs "Zemlyanika" (big vs small), but in English the big strawberry and the small forest one, have same name, that's why many people don't even know there's one more berry type that looks similar but tastes 80% different than "classic supermarket strawberry" 😅
I don't know the strawberry varieties, but my partner gave me a pack of six plants for Easter to give our kiddos in their Easter baskets, and they all decided they wanted them on the fence! I bought 2 felt bags with six rows of pockets and used UV zip ties to secure them. It's a beautiful back drop! The strawberries have produced beautifully.
That's wonderful to hear - you've clearly looked after them perfectly. :-)
@@GrowVeg I missed giving them some fertilization so I appreciate the reminder. Thank you for your wonderful videos! I used a sandy mix to plant them and covered the top with coco coir to hold in moisture.
I read somewhere that having red-painted pebbles spread around the strawberry plants will deter birds since they will peck at the stones and find them inedible. Put the pebbles around a little time before the berries ripen to get the best effect.
What a great idea!
I also heard the same thing. I collected flat rocks from the ocean and I’ll be painting them reddish pink to resemble strawberries. Hopefully it will work.
Some great advice! We had good success with Gariguette strawberry plants a few years back. Then mice started to come into the netted strawberry bed under a neighbour’s fence eating every scrap of fruit long before they were ripe. Attempts to stop this were unsuccessful and so I gave up, donating the plants to a colleague with a larger garden. Last year I decided to try again with different plants in containers; I bought Mount Everest plants, sold as ever bearing with long runners that would provide the additional plants that could be positioned above the originals. We had what I thought was a good site but while the plants produced plenty of flowers at the start of this year they all withered away to nothing. Runners are now growing but nothing like the 1m lengths advertised. I will look after the plants as best I can and let them have another year to produce some fruit.
Meanwhile, I found 1 Gariguette plant hidden under other things at the back of the old bed. I dug this up a few weeks ago and transferred it to a pot where it has gone from strength to strength. Plenty of strong runners bearing baby plants that root easily. I’m hoping for perhaps 20 small plants by the end of summer that I will grow on, protected from mice, in our “catio”. Having failed to find much success with strawberry towers in the past (great for a year but the plants below the top layer didn’t thrive) I plan to grow the individual plants in good sized pots hanging from the wire walls of the catio.
Fingers crossed for Gariguette strawberries next year! They really are tasty strawberries and worth growing despite a short fruiting season.
Happy to receive any advice on succeeding with either variety. 💐
Very best of luck with the Gariguette. Great that you rediscovered it at the back of the old bed! It will be the start of great things I'm sure. :-)
@@GrowVeg Doing well to date, so far we have parent plant and 4 rooted babies plus runners growing from each. Researching containers that will be comfortable for the plants next year, suspended from the wire panel walls of the catio. So far found options with no drainage or way to add a drip tray. Any suggestions will be welcomed. 😁
This is my first year planting strawberries plants. Just learned from you my Sweet Ann variety are day neutral. Excited to see the fruit next year. Saludos!- Los Angeles
Lovely ideas and great tips as always! We had a volunteer strawberry and have merit out going on the greenhouse a couple of years now. I also decided to try some white alpine strawberries and they are tiny but have a delicate sweet flavor
I bet those white alpine strawberries are totally delicious. :-)
Thanks for the info, I am planning on planting strawberries this spring.
Epic stuff, black pepper with strawberries..amazing
Thanks so much, your videos are so great for beginners and the tips such as if you're not able to water whilst away etc are brilliant thinking
Thanks for those kind words Andy, it's appreciated.
I sowed a variety called Temptation earlier this year, and planted them out some weeks ago. They´ve been flowering and will continue to set blooms throughout the summer.
Would like to add a variety called "Korona", suitable for colder climates, but this will be in a few years time.
Thank you for a very informative video 🌻🍓
Never heard of korona, where can I get the seeds from? 😮
Saya sangat kagum dengan cara anda menanam Strawberry sehingga tertarik ingin mencobanya, semoga berhasil. Terima kasih telah berbagi ilmunya 🙏🙏🙏
Salam dari Indonesia 🇮🇩 👍👍👍
Terima kasih telah menonton. Saya menghargainya.
thank you so much, very good explanation "on how to grow strawberiies on the pot", i will try that I wish to find good one that stays longer..thank you and see you..for my feed back after i do grow my own.❤
I'm planting some bare root strawberry and raspberry plants tomorrow. Very informative video. Thanks! 👍
Great to be getting some new fruits in. Hope they grow away well for you. :-)
What beautiful strawberries 🍓 We had some with almond and coconut pancakes this morning. Bio organic yoghurt too. We're sooo keto darling! 🤩😆
Sounds absolutely goooorgeous darling! Wonderful! :-)
Thank you for the lesson on growing strawberries. Live on Hatteras Island (North Carolina - USA) and have never grown them. Want to give it a try this season. Appreciate your expertise.
Hope they grow well for you. You live in a very interesting place - would love to visit the Outer Banks some day. :-)
You just inspire me to grow strawberries, good info & tips thank you
I have all ever bearing berries...I think the variety is one of the most popular. I grow in containers now but am thinking of devoting a section of my raised beds this year. Still learning about berries but loving the harvest so far.
Definitely worth devoting some of your raised beds area if you can. :-)
I grow day neutrals, exclusively, here in Southern California.
I have Albion, Eversweet, and my favorite - Sweet Ann.
They slow for only about 2 months during the coldest part of the year, then they get right back to it.
Nice video :)
A lovely mix of varieties. :-)
Wow, south California? I thought they can't grow in the south, only around half moon bay at the most (Pacifica has great hill with wild ones, people pick full jars 😁). How do you plant them, from seed, or bring larger plants from northern region?
I've been growing strawberries for years. I grow the variety that gives fruit over a matter of weeks. We made jam for the 1st time last year and it was delicious!
Hey 👋
@@tomleww7975 Hi 👋
How are you doing?
@@tomleww7975 Not too great at the moment. Thanks for asking. How's you?
Am good
I'm growing strawberries as well and I've got a hand full from two of my plants I'm also growing peas,cucumbers,carrots,brokoli,lettuce, tomato's, radishes and sunflowers. There all growing very well :). Also your videos have helped me sooooo much and I just wanted to say thank you.
That's so lovely to hear, thank you. You're growing some super stuff there. :-)
I just bought some Bubble berries at the nursery. AKA fragaria Moschata. They’re a light pink strawberry. I’ve never grown these before but they’re supposed to have a hint of pineapple and raspberry flavors.
Sounds incredible!
I have been growing strawberries for years and grow all the varieties. This growing season I have purchased two Green Stalks growing towers to fill up with strawberries, I am excited to get started but I live in Western Montana with my last frost date in mid-May however strawberries plants don't mind some frost, but snow would not be good for them. Thanks for sharing your beautiful berries with us.
You're welcome. I'm sure your towers will look stunning with the strawberries in.
Just hope the squirrels don’t steel all my strawberries 😂
Fingers crossed they don't notice them! :-)
Squirrels always steel my berries and I have cages on them. I've tried everything except building a green house.
Air gun works great.
Howdy Ben!👋 I plan on adding strawberries to our garden next year. Someone suggested the Alpine ones. After your tutorial I might do two kinds...the Alpine for garden snacking and the June bearing ones for jam.😀
Thanks for the knowledge!💕
Sounds like a great idea Valorie. The alpine ones pretty much look after themselves.
strawberries are my very favorite
Useful tips to try. Thank you.
I planted strawberries and all the birds in my hood came. Maybe I planted birds.
Sorry to hear that - how annoying for you!
I have wild strawberries everywhere my grandson loves them
I have a hanging upside down garden in my chook coop. Strawberries are prefect for it! The berries hang down, no dirt for them to sit and rot on, and easy to pick. I have some herbs growing in the top too. Considering trying chives in the top to deter bugs
I watched your video to see what type of container you were using, to my surprise you showed several varieties.
I built one out of 2 5 gal. Buckets on top of each other with 3” holes, and a pvc pipe in the center w/tiny holes. I copied from an instructional video I had seen on balcony gardening. One thing I learned through that project was the central pvc pipe not to add a lot of tiny hole because the water comes out to fast…less holes better so the water trickles out.
Another video I seen that I am going to also do since I already have the extra plants is take two 22 gallon containers and plant 2 different varieties of blueberry bushes in each one with strawberries planted around the edges. They require similar ph soil and growing needs. Garden Answer has a video that was put out recently; just type in blueberries and strawberries under their site.
Love most of the gardening channels and yours is a pleasure too!😊
Great suggestions, thanks for sharing! :-)
Your Strawberries look Beautiful. 🍓
I'm not growing any this Year, but have done an upside down, screwed together, 2 litre bottle set up with them before, it's screwed to the wall.
It works very similar to the Towers, by just watering the top ones. Hope that made sense.
TFS GV, & take care everyone. ❤🙂🐶
What a great idea - I love the sound of your bottle planter! :-)
@@GrowVeg It's working really well in the 6 weeks we've had this set up, & it can be made big or small too. Take care GV. 👍🌱
A lot of good information. Thank you.
I haven't had luck growing June-bearing strawberries, but refuse to give up. My Pacific Northwest weather seems too cold and rainy for the raised bed (mold and powdery mildew). This year I tried a wood half-barrel but we had an even longer cold and rainy spring. The plants are short and produced small berries that rotted just as there was a blush on them. Ben's video showed me a few things I did wrong, so hopefully there will be a decent crop next year. Thanks, Ben!
The tasty alpine strawberries around my blueberry bushes are tough guys. Two years in a row my brother weed-whacked them to soil level and they grew back. I recently put up a border and a sign that reads "back off, Bob!" : ) Maybe I'll get a crop of alpine berries next year.
Hope Bob takes the hint and you enjoy a fine crop of alpine berries next year!
I live out in the PNW too what kind of strawberry you figure grows best
Thanks for some great, simple tips.
Hi, Ben. I love homegrown strawberries😋
Yum! :-)
I have not tried the alpine strawberries. I grow both June bearing and everbearing. I have to grow them with partial shade, as the sun burns up the leaves here in North Texas. Thanks for the tips. I struggle growing them and am always appreciative for all the tips to try to get a better growing crop and harvest.
Glad you found the tips useful. I hope you enjoy a superb crop this year. :-)
this is my first year in the new house and i can finally grow strawberries! i will be planting some everbearing and some junebearing. because while i do want to make some chips or freeze them, i mostly eat them fresh so a few over the long haul sounded better.
IN addition i got seeds for alpine strawberries, and i will be planting them all over where we have a bit of shade
Sounds like you'll have a real abundance of strawberries Kirsten. :-)
Thank you
i’d actually highly recommend growing wild strawberries in north america, because they are native here, and the native insects will benefit from them. the smaller berries are still a great reward for helping out the ecosystem.
Our yard has an inground strawberry patch. I struggle with not just birds, but also slugs and snails. I don't like to use slug bait because of the powdery mildew that comes after application. I'll be pulling mine out of the ground and into my Mr. Stacky towers. And have those on concrete pillars. I'm excited to see what will come next year. 👀
I hope they thrive for you next year Anna.
Super useful to know about waiting until the following year to make the most of the runners. I'll be getting 5 Aromel strawberry plants and 5 Norfolk Nectar this year, I've decided on a nice sunny spot in the middle of the garden and am hoping for the best!
I'm sure they'll thrive in a sunny spot. :-)
I love that you have parrots around! I know they're invasive and somehow even a pest to some but DAMN parrots are awesome!
We don't have parrots around. I'm not sure what that bird call may have been though (I'm not very good at identifying birds by their call!).
@@GrowVeg that looked like a Quaker parrot to me from the few moments it was on screen for, but it definitely wouldn't be the first time I mistook a green bird for one of those 😂
@@GrowVeg
That was a Quaker Parrot or Monk Parakeet at 9:58.
Very informative thank you!!!
This is a great video and very informative.I am in phoenix Az I grow Gurney Whopper and Ozark Beauty it took me years to learn how to grow strawberries here but now I am trying new kinds next season
Fabulous thank you
You have persuaded me to try out a perpetual variety - I'm thinking Flamenco. Also, the Cambridge variety that I have in normal beds, always start well, but then end up rotting, so I will try using some form of raised planter.
Hope you get better luck this time round Mike.
Thanks for sharing all of this information. I didn't know that is why they were called strawberries. I will add some pinestraw to ours. God bless!
Thanks for watching. :-)
Thank you : )
Excellent idea you mentioned in this video ♥️🥰 make a tower so it won’t dry quickly cuz I have those strawberries pot and they don’t live longer so I will make them top on another pot so it won’t dry during summer 👩🌾🥰👍👍 thank you again!
Hi Ben, thanks for another of your very informative videos.
Because we have a large area of sloping rock I've installed 2X 9 meter soil pipes 200mm diameter with 3'' holes drilled 30cm apart to accommodate a drip watering pipe, filled with good compost. The ends have 90 degree bends that hold in the compost the pipes are just held together with 3 self tapping screws and they are on breeze blocks. I can get 30 plants per row and a few in the ends. It's not cheap but it should last many years. I did have a problem with drainage, or better said "lack of" I didn't think it would catch much rain water, so this spring I've been busy drilling drainage holes, should sort it out.
Great for using bits of land unsuitable for planting or along tops of walls. In hindsight I think 150mm or 180mm pipe would have been better and a lot cheaper.
What a great system you have set up there Chris - lots of delicious strawberries await!