Few things top the taste of red ripe strawberries in the summertime. It’s easy to grow your own beautiful fruit right in your container garden. Strawberries are perennials, meaning that they continue to grow year after year giving you lots of fruit for your efforts.

Before You Plant

Choose the Right Type:

There are three types of strawberries plants available. All of which may work for container planting, depending on your location. June bearing plants produce a large crop of fruit in late spring. The entire crop ripens over a three week time span, usually in June. Everbearing plants produce smaller crops than the June bearing, but produce two crops, one in the spring and one in the fall. Day neutral plants are capable of producing fruit throughout the entire growing season. Virtually every type that can be grown in a garden can be grown outdoors in a container. However, indoor planting can limit the amount of sunlight that the plant receives. Red Alpine is an everbearing variety that can tolerate a good amount of shade making it ideal for indoor growing.

Find a Suitable Place: 

• Strawberries need plenty of sunshine for the best growth. Find a sunny window to place your plant in front of for the best results.
• A minimum of six hours of sunshine a day is needed.
• Rotate plants regularly to ensure all sides get full sun exposure.

Prepare the Soil: 

• Ideally, the soil pH should be 5.3 to 6.5. Most commercial potting soil will be sufficient for this purpose. If you are unsure about the pH level of the soil, your local cooperative extension office can test the soil for you, or you can buy pH test kits from hardware stores.
• For container planting, mix a high quality potting soil with a slow release fertilizer. 

Planting in Strawberry Pots and Containers 

Strawberry pots are specially designed planting containers with pockets up and down the sides of the pot. These pockets are perfect for planting runners, although most gardeners start plants in them from the start. 

What You Will Need:  

• Strawberry plants
• Strawberry pot or container
• PVC Pipe capped on one end
• Slow release fertilizer (optional)
• Fertilizer (high in potassium)
• All purpose potting soil
• Drill
• Small shovel 

Planting in a Strawberry Pot: 

1. Begin by standing the PVC pipe in the pot and cut it down so that the open edge is even with the top of the pot.
2. Use the drill to make small holes (approximately 1/8 inch), spaced one inch apart all the way down alternating sides of the pipe. The finished pipe should have holes on alternating sides (not directly across from each other) so that the water will be evenly distributed.
3. Prior to placing the soil into the pot, you can mix it with a slow release fertilizer. This step is optional but may help keep the plant fed.
4. Fill the pot approximately 1/3 full with soil and insert the pipe so the capped end is at the bottom.
5. Continue to loosely fill the container about ¾ full with soil.
6. Next you will start planting in the side pockets.
7. Prepare the plant by removing damaged roots, trimming long roots down to 4-5” and removing any flowers, runners and dead leaves.
8. Place one strawberry plant in each pocket.
9. Fill in with more soil around the roots as necessary.
10. When all the pockets are planted and there is sufficient soil around the roots, you are ready to plant the top plants.
11. The top of the pot is designed to hold 1-4 plants. Place the plants where you would like them and fill in with the remaining soil.
12. Water thoroughly to moisten the soil. Use a funnel to pour water into the pipe inserted into the center of the pot to allow for even distribution of the water to all of the pocket plants.
13. For the first six weeks, remove all blossoms and runners by pinching them off. This allows the plant to become established before it spends energy producing runners and fruit.
14. Continue to water regularly, even daily, until growing season. After this time, water when the top of the soil is dry.
15. Indoor plants require regular fertilization. If no slow-release fertilizer was added to the potting soil, fertilize plants with a high potassium fertilizer every ten days starting when they begin to bloom and stopping two weeks after harvesting.

Planting in Regular Containers

 What You Will Need:  

• Strawberry plants
• Container (any type will work)
• Slow release fertilizer (optional)
• Fertilizer (high in potassium)
• All purpose potting soil
• Drill/Hammer and nails
• Fiberglass window screen 

Planting in a Regular Pot/Container: 

1. Begin by checking your container for proper drainage. If there are no holes in the bottom, use the drill/hammer and nails to make some.
2. Cover the bottom of the container where you have made holes with the fiberglass window screen. This will keep the soil from exiting the container through the holes.
3. Fill the container about 3/4 full with potting soil. If your container is very deep, fill it a little higher.
4. Prepare the plant by removing damaged roots, trimming long roots down to 4-5” and removing any flowers, runners and dead leaves.
5. Make a small hole in the soil. Place the plant into the hole so that the roots are pointing downward and are slightly fanned out.
6. You will need to carefully set the plants to keep the roots from either rotting or drying out.
7. Place the crown slightly above the soil (so that the midpoint is even with the soil surface). The uppermost roots should be ¼” below the soil.
8. Fill in the around the plant with additional soil.
9. Remove all flowers and runners for the first six weeks. This is a time for the plant to establish itself and all the energy should be used for plant growth and strength.
10. Continue to water regularly, even daily, until growing season. After this time, water when the top of the soil is dry.
11. Indoor plants require regular fertilization. If no slow-release fertilizer was added to the potting soil, fertilize plants with a high potassium fertilizer every ten days starting when they begin to bloom and stopping two weeks after harvesting.

Planting in Hanging Baskets 

Hanging baskets provide a great way to grow strawberries away from the many pests that love to eat them. Simply place 5-6 plants in a basket in the spring and allow them to grow the same as growing in a container. If you’d like to get an awesome strawberry display, follow these steps:

What You Will Need: 

• 24 Strawberry plants
• 16” Wire basket
• High quality potting soil
• Sphagnum moss, coconut fiber or specialty basket liner 

Steps for Planting the Ultimate Hanging Basket: 

1. Begin by lining the basket with either the damp sphagnum moss, coconut fiber or basket liner.
2. Insert 18 of the plants into the liner around the side of the basket. This gives the plant a very full appearance.
3. Once all the plants are in place, fill the basket with potting soil.
4. Plant the remaining 6 plants on the top of the basket.
5. Water thoroughly after the initial planting and continue to keep the soil moist.
6. Hang the basket in an area that receives plenty of full sun.
7. Rotate the basket frequently to allow adequate sun to reach all of the plants.
8. If maintained, fruit will continue to produce for approximately three years. 

Harvesting 

Strawberries require gentle handling and picking to keep their beautiful shape and color. Here’s how to pick your strawberries for a splendid presentation and tasty treats!

 What You Will Need: 

• Shallow bowls 

Steps for Harvesting: 

1. When the berries reach a bright red color, they are ready to be harvested.
2. Carefully look inside the leaves for the reddest strawberries.
3. Remove the strawberry by gently grasping the stem above the berry and pulling with a slight twisting motion. Allow the berry to gently fall into your hand.
4. Continue until you have 3-4 berries in your hand.
5. Gently place the berries in the bowl, being careful not to throw or drop them as this can cause bruising.
6. Continue picking until the bowl is no fuller than five inches deep. Packing the berries too deep causes them to crush from the weight.
7. Remove any berries that are over-ripened, damaged by insects or are defective and dispose of them.
8. Store berries in a cool place. They will keep for approximately 3 days in the refrigerator.
9. Now it’s time to enjoy your berries! Strawberries are easy to freeze and make wonderful desserts and jams. They are also very tasty all on their own or on top of shortcake. So be creative and enjoy! 

Additional Tips and Advice 

1. Strawberry plants are subject to fruit rot, root rot and fungus. A local nursery can help you determine which plants will thrive in your area and which viruses you will need to watch out for.
2. Slugs and snails can overtake a strawberry plant. If your container is kept outside for a portion of the day, check your plants regularly for any unwanted visitors.
3. Aphids and spider mites can be controlled with dusting or spraying.
4. Read all packaging for safety information. It’s usually safe to treat most problems up until the fruit is set.

When temperatures drop and snow falls, it’s time to move those plants indoors to keep fresh produce all winter long.

Where to Keep Your Container Gardens

Containers are generally very portable.  To grow through the winter, though, you’ll need a semi-permanent space to put them in that is heated and allows sunlight in to the plants in ample quantities.  A greenhouse is ideal, but not everyone has one of those.  A room with a large, south-facing window is the next best thing. 

Decorating with Container Gardens

Indoor gardeners often choose such a window and build a decorative shelving system around it to house their garden.  Sometimes this is just a few spices for the kitchen, other times it’s a full bevy of garden vegetables from cucumbers to lettuce.  Your lifestyle, space, and your family’s patience will dictate how much you can do.  If done right, though, just five square feet of space around a south-facing window of good size can literally grow a whole season’s worth of garden vegetables to keep your table in the fresh, home-grown greens through most of the winter.

Grow Lights

Outside of invading your home’s space for planting, unless you live in a very mild zone, you will not otherwise likely be able to grow through the winter.  That is, unless you don’t mind using grow lights.  These can replace the window and allow you to grow plants in any part of your home – even that little used basement storage room.

While we know the first frost marks the end of our gardening season, container gardening offers a special advantage.  The portable pots can be moved to warmer places and protected easier than a large garden. There are a variety of methods to protect plants from the frost, which in the beginning to midway through Fall are only happening overnight.

Move Plants Indoors

The simplest method is to move the containers indoors overnight and put them back out in the mid-morning when the air has warmed up again.  In the mid- and even late-fall, a garden shed or garage is enough shelter to keep your plants from freezing.  If they’re cold-hardy varieties, they won’t mind the nippy weather if they’re sheltered from it.  Warmer season plants like tomatoes, however, will need to be brought indoors to a warmer environment, such as your house, and will have to be kept indoors on cold days as well. 

Cold Frames

Another option is to build cold frames around the containers or that the containers can be set inside.  These are simple structures that look a lot like miniature greenhouses.  They will have four sides, be well-insulated from the outside, and usually have a glass or thick plastic top that can be exposed in the daytime to allow the inside to heat up from the sun using the greenhouse method.  These are sturdy little structures, but do not need to be permanent and can be purchased or built to be disassembled when not in use.

Make Your Own Covers

In the earlier week or two after the first frost, simple covers can be used to keep plants warm and frost-free overnight.  These can be large water-filled towers that are set around the plants to radiate daytime sun-heat onto the plants at night or they can be simple plastic frost covers available at most garden stores with heat stones set around the base of the plant to collect sunlight in the day and radiate heat overnight.

All of these methods work well until the weather turns for the worse and stays below 55 degrees Fahrenheit during most days.  At that point, more drastic methods will be required to continue extending the growing season. Read more about winter container gardening…