How to Grow Strawberries in a Container

My absolute favorite moment of every gardening season is picking my first strawberry and popping it in my mouth. Yum! It tastes just like summer. Everyone can grow strawberries—even apartment dwellers—because they thrive in containers. And once you grow your own, I promise that you will never even be tempted to buy the big, shiny and totally tasteless berries at your neighborhood grocery store.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Strawberry pot
• High quality, soilless potting mix
• Granulated organic fertilizer
• Pea gravel
• Cardboard tubing or 2-inch PVC pipe
• Strawberry plants

1. Choose a strawberry pot that is at least 24 inches tall, with a wide mouth, and six to eight pockets on the sides of the pot (look for pockets with a cupped lip, which prevents soil from spilling out and helps hold in water). Grow an everbearing variety to ensure that you get berries all summer. I’ve had very good luck with "Tri Star."
2. Pour enough potting soil to fill the container into a tub and premoisten it with water. Premoistening the soil helps prevents air bubbles and keeps the soil from floating out of the pot when you first water it. Stir in some granulated organic fertilizer (follow the fertilizer label’s dosage recommendations). Use a high quality, well-draining soilless potting mix, and avoid products that come premixed with synthetic, time-released fertilizer or water absorbing polymers.
3. Ensure that water percolates through the entire pot by installing a gravel column in the middle of the pot. Measure the height of your pot and add two inches, then cut a piece of cardboard tubing or 2-inch PVC piping to this length. Place the tube vertically into the center of the empty pot and fill it with pea gravel to within 1 inch of the top of the pot.
4. Hold the gravel filled tube steady and then add some potting mix to the pot, stopping when it reaches the bottom of the first pocket. Plant one strawberry plant in the pocket. Tease the plant’s roots apart and then stick it in the pocket, making sure to angle the plant’s roots down. Pour in more potting mix to cover the roots, then firm the plant into place. Continue working up the pot until all the pockets are planted and the container is filled with soil to within 2 inches of its rim.
5. Plant three or four strawberry plants in the top of the pot (it should look full, but not crowded), being sure to leave room between the top of the soil and the rim of the pot for watering.
6. Remove the cardboard or plastic tubing by gently wiggling the tube back and forth and pulling it out slowly. This leaves a channel of gravel in the middle of your pot. When watering, fill each cupped pocket, then place the nozzle over the gravel column and water until you see water run out the bottom of the pot. During the heat of summer you may need to water more than once a day.
7. Spray your plants with liquid fish emulsion when they first begin to flower and then once a month for the rest of the season. Harvest the berries when they are fully red and tender. In the fall, place the pot in a sheltered area that receives winter rain or snow. In many climates the strawberries will come back again in the spring.

Tips & Warnings

• Unglazed terracotta pots tend to wick water away from soil. Avoid this problem by first soaking the pot in water for 1 hour prior to planting. Use a clean garbage can if you don't have a big enough bucket or sink.