Strawberries in a GreenStalk Zone 6

General Fruit Growing
1

Does anyone else have a GreenStalk for growing strawberries in zone 6 or colder and could offer some growing tips?

I tried growing them in two GreenStalk Leafs last year and this spring I have only seen one strawberry plant break dormancy out of a few dozen plantings. I moved my GreenStalks into an unheated garage late last fall with a layer of straw mulch over the pockets. I recently found a video from GreenStalk that states in colder climates than zone 7, it is recommended to use the GreenStalk Original with deeper pockets for more root development. Another challenge I ran into was getting potted strawberries in 3.25in or 3.5in square pots to survive for more than a week or two when following instructions about the proper position of the crown relative to the soil level the best that I could manage. In the end, I found bare root strawberries from a particular source did much better than the others.

Anyway, Iā€™m probably going to end up selling the two GreenStalk Leafs and giving it another try with a GreenStalk Original planter. I really like the idea of growing strawberries in a vertical planter and want it to work out.

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In addition to growing strawberries in a GreenStalk Original planter instead of a GreenStalk Leaf, below are some more growing tips.

  1. Allow the plants to go dormant by leaving the GreenStalk outside until there has been at least a few light frosts, then move the planter into an unheated garage or similar protected location.
  2. Apply a frost cover or frost blanket over the planter.
  3. During the winter months, water each of the plants monthly to prevent the roots from drying out.
  4. Fertilizer application. For June bearing varieties, apply fertilizer in early spring and again at the end of the season. For everbearing and day neutral varieties, apply fertilizer in early spring and again every 4-6 weeks until the end of the season.
  5. Once temperatures are consistently above freezing during the daytime, be patient as the plants break dormancy.

If all of the steps above are followed closely there should only be a few plants which fail to break dormancy.