Methods for growing strawberries in vertical beds

Description of the method

What's so appealing about vertical strawberry cultivation for gardeners? Strawberries are a berry that requires a good plot of land to plant and cultivate. Besides the fact that their tendrils grow extensively and take up a significant portion of the garden, harvesting them is also quite a hassle.

Vertical strawberry beds significantly save time and effort when picking berries.What does this method involve? Strawberry seedlings are planted in special vertical containers, which are easy to make yourself. These can be ordinary plastic bottles, pipes, tires, boards, and even bags.

Selecting a variety

Experienced growers note that this method is suitable for growing any strawberry variety. However, trailing varieties, with their beautiful cascading stems, look more distinctive. Everbearing varieties, on the other hand, produce abundant fruit, providing tasty and aromatic berries throughout the growing season.

Let's take a closer look at vertical strawberry growing and the varieties suitable for it:

• Alba is an early, frost-hardy variety. It's impossible to imagine a strawberry bed in plastic bottles without this variety, with its long, drooping tendrils. The cone-shaped fruits are a rich red color. The berries are firm, juicy, and flavorful. A single mature bush can yield approximately 1 kg of fruit.
• Alba belongs to the large-fruited everbearing group. With proper care and watering, the berries have a long shelf life and are easy to transport. The fruit is dense and fleshy.
• A home delicacy, this early everbearing strawberry variety offers a unique taste. Its tart-sweet fruits are large (averaging 3 cm in diameter) and dark red in color. Their long stems make them a beautiful choice for vertical planting.
• Ostara is a trailing variety developed by Dutch breeders. Compact bushes with dark green foliage and brightly colored berries make a wonderful addition to any garden. The fruits are characterized by a firm texture and a sweet and sour flavor.
• Geneva is one of the low-maintenance varieties. It has elongated, paniculate flower stalks. The fruits are large and have firm flesh.

Types of vertical beds

Vertical growing is interesting because it allows for a variety of creative ideas to be put into practice. Building your own raised strawberry beds isn't particularly difficult or time-consuming. Flower pots, tires, wooden boxes, burlap, boards, slate sheets, PVC pipes and other materials at hand can be used to plant strawberries. For example, growing strawberries vertically in polymer pipe poles is an excellent solution for creating a garden gazebo. Hanging flower pots filled with climbing varieties make a unique window decoration.

Interested in how to build a vertical strawberry bed yourself? We offer several of the most common strawberry planting methods:

Pyramids of planks

Pyramids made from planks are very popular. These can be either individual planks or wooden boxes. The design of the bed depends on the gardener's creativity. Often, square or rectangular boxes are knocked together from planks, which are then assembled into a pyramid, ladder, triangular hill, and so on.

Tire pyramids

You can make a raised bed for strawberries from old tires, which every car owner has. Tires of different diameters are formed into a pyramid, and similar tires are then stacked to form a tall pole. A PVC pipe should be installed in the center of this structure to water the plants.

However, do not forget that car tires belong to the group of environmentally unsafe materials.

Garden beds made of pipes

How can I plant strawberries in polymer pipes? These can be either vertically installed pipes with slots or suspended structures. To create a suspended structure, the pipe must be cut into two troughs. The optimal length of one trough is no more than one meter. Several such troughs are connected together with special fasteners, end caps are installed on the sides, and they are suspended somewhere high, for example, from a tall fence or the roof of a garden gazebo.

Bags

"Plastic bag pockets"—that's how you can describe this method for planting strawberries vertically. Take a thick plastic bag, fill it with nutrient-rich soil, cut holes in the sides, plant the seedlings—and voila, your strawberry bed is ready!

Plastic bottles

Growing strawberries in plastic bottles is an interesting gardening solution. Plastic bottles (2–2.5 liters) are attached to a metal mesh or wooden board. The bottoms of the bottles are cut off, and the caps are loosely screwed on to allow water to drain out during watering rather than allowing it to stagnate.

When decorating a country house terrace, modern designers recommend replacing flower pots with strawberries in plastic bottles.

Planting and further care

How to properly plant and grow strawberries in unusual structures? This question often arises among beginning gardeners. Regardless of whether you're planting seedlings in open ground or in unusual planting structures, it's recommended to follow the following pattern:

• make special structures that will be used as garden beds;
• fill with soil (sandy or sandy loam);
• apply fertilizer;
• Plant the seedlings.

Proper care of strawberries and their shoots includes proper watering, timely fertilization, weed removal, and insect control. Seedlings planted in early spring grow and bear fruit best.

To ensure juicy and tasty berries, choose the right location for your beds – it should be sunny and protected from drafts.

Pros and cons

Now let's look at the advantages and disadvantages of growing strawberries in vertical beds.

Pros:

• practicality and space saving;
• cheapness of the materials used;
• easy to care for;
• cleaner berries;
• small pests (for example, rodents) cannot reach tall-growing fruits;
• the harvesting process is significantly simplified;
• serve as decoration for a vegetable garden or orchard.

Cons:

• increasing the frequency of watering;
• more frequent fertilization;
• At the first frost, it is better to dismantle the structure, as the soil in it freezes to the ground and the plants die.

Video: "Vertical Strawberry Bed"

This video provides a step-by-step guide on how to make a vertical strawberry bed from a sewer pipe.