I’m looking for suggestions for soil mix for growing strawberries in rain gutters.
I grow lots of fruits in pots. But I use 14 gallon pots. Even my 14 gallon pots demand to be watered daily. The soil volume per strawberry plant will be very small compared to my larger pots. I think I need a wetter mix for strawberries in a rain gutter. Any suggestions on soil mix for strawberries in rain gutters?
Any other thoughts?
Thanks.
Will they have drainage? If so I agree you will need a wetter mix. I keep my pots wet longer by using horticultural grade diatomaceous earth. Well I use Oil absorbent. Optisorb or Napa floor dry. Make sure it is 100% DE. That has worked well. It holds 120% of it’s weight in water, when not saturated holds air in the soil. Slowly releases water as soil drys, keeping soil moist longer. Also adds the needed trace element silicon. You could also add compost in the mix to keep wet longer. Plus compost has the added benefit of preventing root rot. Just add one part DE and 1 part compost to your normal soil mix. Now my normal soil mix includes these amendments for everything. I need to buy some pine bark fines, peat, and compost. I need soil like yesterday and I’m completely out!
I have about 50 pounds of DE, all set there!
From my experience, yes,a more moisture retaining mix will be better.I think Coir may be something to add.
I’m going to try something like a 50/40/10,Coir/Peat moss/Perlite. Brady
I grow my strawberries in gutters and it works beautifully. I change varieties every two years. The trick to growing in gutters is not drilling too many holes in the bottom of the gutter. For my gutters that are five ft. long (each) there are only three holes. No more than that; I only water once every two days. I use simple bagged potting soil then spray with fertilizer all summer long. I am only growing Mara des Bois this year a day-neutral, so I will have berries all season long. (these are established plants) remember the first year you grow strawberries remove all of the flowers. You will not have berries until year two.
And here is a picture of my ‘QUAD’ strawberry for Eric! The little white one was on a different stem. Tasted really good!
Their is a new hybrid that crosses Mara des Bois with something else, and I heard they rock! I don’t remember the name though? I heard it on a radio show, i should have written it down! I grow Mara des Bois also, and they are pretty good! I do like the June bearers more though. As they produce bigger and an extreme amount of berries. Having both works for me. Nice to have some berries all season. I still have strawberries left from last year’s harvest, I better use them up soon!
Mrs. G.
I was about to ask you for pictures. You read my mind. What the material your gutters is made of?
I ordered two strawberry varieties on a whim. Now I have to figure out containers. It happened when the wants went ahead of the thinking 
I went to Home Depot and bought a ten ft. pvc white gutter, I had them cut it in half. I bought four end-caps for either end of each gutter, drilled three holes in the bottom of the gutter, left, right and center. It was more difficult to find the right hooks for hanging the gutters off of my railing. Add soil, add strawberries and water!
Any concerns about growing in pvc plastic? I wanted to do this but my wife was worried about chemicals in the pvc leaching to the strawberries.
How different is it from growing in fiberglass or buying salad in a bag?
As long as your strawberries don’t catch on fire, you’re fine. Burning PVC is nasty. PVC sitting there is fairly inert.
I like your framework for the netting idea Mrs.G. Brady
Any suggestions on June bearing, ever bearing, etc… for strawberries being grown in rain gutters, or do you think it doesn’t really matter? (The plants will probably be taken out of the gutters once they are done fruiting). I’ve just been given the green light on setting this up against our wooden fence.
Thanks!
I grow both. I like June bearing as mentioned. usually bigger, are crazy productive, and excellent flavor. I find everbearing to give a first good crop, then they slack off depending on weather. Super hot weather they shut down. Mara des Bois is the best tasting day neutral and Albion’s flavor is very good for a day-neutral. Besides those two I do not like any others. The June bearing are much better tasting than any others. Buy early, mid, and late season June bearers to extend season some. Check Nourse Farms, how they break these down by ripening times.
If anybody knows any other good day neutrals, please advise.
As far as what will do better in gutters, neither IMHO they all like the same conditions.
I don’t have any suggestions for June bearing. i have not tried enough to have much of an opinion. One day I will test many different ones. I do like White D pineberries. As far as I’m concerned the only pineberries worth growing. They are June bearing. Very prolific in June!
Good question, as ‘gutter’ growing is not like in ground growing at all. A five foot long gutter only takes about 10-12 plants so for ten feet of gutter I buy 25 plants. Day neutrals give me berries all summer long. Not all large, only some. But taste delicious. You can grow any kind you like. I removed all of my ‘Honeoye’ as one person here said they taste like kool-aid. They do at least one did and that did it! Gone! Those were early summer blooming strawberries. I keep them in the same soil for only two years then carefully remove the plants in the third year, put in new soil and start again. It takes about 45 minutes for the entire process. I used that white wire fencing you find in hardware stores and cover it with bird netting. Not one bird or one squirrel even tried to get a berry! You will not get enough to cook with unless you freeze them in batches, which I do. You do not have to mulch at all. I do fertilize with plain old miracle grow during the summer and thats it. I do not have a strawberry fungus problem. Hope this helps.
Thanks everyone, I’m super excited! Will bare root June bearers fruit this spring/summer like the ever bearing ones will? Some sites say that June bearers fruit one year after planting.
You will be excited and the gutters look great. Friends are excited by seeing them too. ‘How did you do thet’? Is always the first question; second question are those strawberries? Yes; third question, ‘May I have one’? No.
They can fruit, but you should remove berries. You can leave one or two. I myself didn’t really see an advantage to removing them. I don’t do it anymore. I did notice the first year June bearing are not that good. Also let those berries get ripe before picking. They look ready, wait another day! They should be a very deep red. Sometimes letting a couple almost rot to see when peak ripeness is, is not a bad idea. Here the June bearing are the huge ones. The smaller ones are a mix of June and everbearing. The small container are yellow alpines, and 2 musk strawberries.
This is one day’s harvest on June 11th 2015.
Not entirely sure about PVC being harmless.
The vinyl monomer (single unit of the poly vinyl) is very carcinogenic. I recall some decades ago when in DC and the local news story was of a small town in MD downwind of a plant that made the vinyl monomer. Dozens of cases of a rare liver cancer that normally in present at the rate of 1:10,000,000 in the population.
I suspect that waste water PVC pipes, gutters and other non-potable water PVC is not made so that it is fully polymerized, whereas the pipes and things for drinking water are (or should be).
Anyhow. Just something to consider. Not that it would necessarily keep me from using PVC gutter for growing purposes. But if there was another choice like Al, I might go with that.
Thanks all, for your input. Any additional thoughts are appreciated.
I too thought about potential risks of growing in plastic gutters. If I recall correctly, I read a long time ago that the risk of picking up poisons are greatest in fruit crops, less in leaf crops, and even less in fruits. But I could be wrong. I’m starting a new thread to see if maybe we get a wider audience on that specific question.
I found Seascape was tasty in my garden, but not the first batch of early season berries. The berries that set early in the season were on the tart side. When the weather warmed up (or maybe just that there was more sun), there was more sweetness to balance out the tartness and the berries became quite tasty.
The June bearing berries I have growing are some unknown variety that were left in the garden by the previous owners. I do find them significantly tastier, but their harvest window is pretty short. I much prefer growing the day neutrals to keep berries coming in for my berry addicted family.
