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Who doesn’t love the taste of fresh, homegrown, ripe strawberries?
Rich with vitamins and delicious to eat, strawberries are one of America’s favorite berries and are available in many varieties.
While strawberries grow best in areas with a mild climate, there are some varieties that do fine almost anywhere in the United States.
But, you say, I don’t have room for a garden! Not to worry; this guide will show you how to grow strawberries in containers on your deck or any sunny outdoor area.
In fact, pots, cans and other containers are a great way to grow strawberries. Potting them is quite easy to do yourself in minutes!
Just feed and water your container-growing strawberry plants regularly and enjoy strawberries throughout the summer.
Clay pots designed for growing strawberries work best with special pockets on the sides for multiple strawberry plants.
What you’ll need to Grow Strawberries in Containers or Pots:
- Strawberry crowns (preferably plants certified as disease free)
- Strawberry pots or cans
- Potting soil mix
- Window screen (if using cans)
- Slow release fertilizer
Instructions for Growing Strawberries in Containers:
- Choosing Containers – Proper drainage is very important for strawberry plants to grow and produce plenty of fruit. You can either plant them in hanging containers or raise the containers to allow drainage. Any type of clay planter pots that have drainage holes in the bottom and “saucers” to keep the soil from washing away, will work just fine; pick a size that fits the area you intend to grow your strawberries and how many containers you have. You can also use large cans by hammer by punching or drilling several large holes in the bottom with some screen over the holes to prevent soil from washing out through them. Most nurseries and garden centers also sell special strawberry pots which have pockets up and down both sides. If you use the strawberry pots, be sure to fill each one to the lowest pocket with soil. If you use cans, fill them so you have about one-and-a-half inches of the rim still showing. Sunlight is very critical, so be sure you pick a spot that gets between six and eight hours of sunlight per day for best results.
- Selecting Strawberry Plants – The two main types of strawberry plants are ever-bearing and seasonal. Either type will work fine for container growing, but if you live in a colder climate then the ever-bearing type may not survive the winter months, so seasonal producing strawberry plants may be your best bet. Ask your local nursery or garden center which variety is recommended for your local climate conditions.
- Preparing Soil for Strawberry Plants – Strawberries like soil that is “loamy”, with lots organic material they can consume. Add either 5-10-5 fertilizer or 21-0-0 ammonium sulfate to your soil before planting strawberries. Again, ask your local nursery what type of fertilizer they recommend for your local soil conditions or what type of potting soil they suggest for growing strawberries.
- Planting Your Strawberries – After filling each container with the amended soil, plant your strawberry plants so the roots are covered. Unless you have very large containers, place only one plant in each container; strawberry plants should be about two feet apart from each other so that they get plenty of sunlight.
- Watering Container-grown Strawberries – Don’t over water your container strawberries; they should be watered enough to keep the soil damp but not so much that you have any standing water. You should water the plants whenever the top of the soil begins to look dry on the top half inch or so. Again; it’s important to be sure your containers are able to drain adequately without the soil being washed away!
- Fertilizing Container-grown Strawberries – Throughout the summer months, fertilize your plants every other week with a high phosphorus liquid fertilizer to encourage them to flower.
Growing your own strawberries is easy to do with pots, cans or other containers. Pick your fresh strawberries as they ripen through the summer months!
Container Strawberry Growing Tips:
- In the spring, strawberries are typically the first fruit to ripen.
- Place your strawberry containers in a sunny area and turn them 180 degrees twice a week to keep the plants exposed evenly to sunlight.
- While ever-bearing strawberry plants grow throughout the year, they will produce two crops a year; in June and late summer. These berries will be smaller than classic strawberry varieties.
- If you plant a “day-neutral” variety of strawberry, you will get a modest crop of fruit throughout most of the summer months except when the weather is very hot.
- Alpine strawberries, also called “fraises des bois”, will produce small, but tasty fruit all summer, but you need a lot of strawberry plants to produce any real quantity of berries, so they are not the best for container-growing.
- If you plant ever-bearing strawberries, you should pinch off the blossoms until midsummer of the first season and then let them flower naturally after that; you should get an early fall crop the first year and then two crops a year afterward.
- Let the fruit ripen on the plant, picking your strawberries when they are red and juicy; enjoy!
Comments
35 comments
raelyn fielding
September 1, 2008
I bought a strawberry plant that produced strawberrires and then I stopped clipping off the runners and sat the basket in the flower bed.The runners started rooting, so I clipped them from the mother plant and planted them in their own containers. How do I keep them until the next harvest? Can they be brought into a screened porch? And do I continue to clip the runners off? Right now the daughter plants are growing and producing runners that I have potted. I’m running out of room. Thanks
September 22, 2008
What do I do with my container strawberries this fall and winter. I live in N. calif. Thanks
September 23, 2008
velva – strawberries are pretty hardy. You can mulch them in late fall with straw (no pun intended). On cold winter nights if temperatures get below freezing you can cover them with light netting to keep frost off the crowns. But since you can also move your container strawberries under some type of cover this probably wouldn’t be needed … yet another advantage of growing container strawberries!
October 4, 2008
We have an indoor potted strawberry plant that we started from seed in the early spring of this year. It is in a strawberry pot and we water and fertilize it regularly. It has abundantly produced berries, but none of them have grown to full maturity. They start to develop, turn pink, and then inevitably wither before getting large enough to eat or turning red. What are we doing wrong?
October 7, 2008
i LOVE STRAWBERRIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
October 12, 2008
Enter Your Comment
How do I care for a potted everbering strawberry plant I liv in northeast Pa.
Do I cut runners? cut off dried leaves
October 26, 2008
What is the ideal container depth to grow strawberries?
October 31, 2008
How do I grow strawberries in the winter? I live in Charleston,South Carolina.
Thanks,
Allen
November 3, 2008
i saw strawberries growing on styrofoam containers like in layers, can you help me how to do this?
November 14, 2008
Devin, I have heard someone else tell a story just like yours, only their strawberries only turned white and never red before they went bad. It turned out that they were growing a white alpine strawberry! Is it possible that you are growing a pink variety?
March 31, 2009
hey this is my first year to plant strawbeery so wish me luck
March 31, 2009
Good luck and enjoy those berries!
April 1, 2009
Last year was my first time. Nothing happened! I love strawberries so I was very disapponted.
April 17, 2009
I gave up growing strawberries…The ants eat more then i get to…I’ve tryed natural stuff that the co/op suggested…Don’t want to use chemicals if at all possibile. Any suggestions as to keeping ants from eating all the berries?
April 26, 2009
Steve – hang your potting containers. Make those ants go out on a limb to get that sweetness . . . that is, if they can get past the ant spray on the hangar hooks (and just to state the obvious for good measure, take down the strawberry planters and set them well away from the spraying, wait a little bit before hanging them. Only had to do this once last summer and it worked like a charm).
May 7, 2009
How can I save potted strawberry plants over the winter living in Ontario Canada? I did read the wintering reply for N. Calif. but our Canadian winters are a lot colder.
May 18, 2009
I live in palmer, alaska, and own a fruit farm there. we winter the berries in the field usually without straw mulch , but they do better if you do use the mulch, especially if it gets cold without any snow. the potted plants do just fine if you put all the pots close together, then cover the whole thing with a plastic sheet and then severall inches of mulch on top of the plastic. be aware that little micies consider this a winter mouse mansion, so you need to use something to keep them from eating all the crowns. also, watch out for the mulch that you use that it does not contain weed seeds. good luck
May 21, 2009
The problem with almost all indoor plants is related to insufficient sunlight. Fruiting plants require sunlight for much of the day to thrive. Lots of direct sunlight is what provides the plant with it’s food to grow and make fruit. Once your berries start ripening, they need to develop lots of sugar. The plant doesn’t have sufficient energy to do so and “aborts” its fruit.
May 21, 2009
im growing mine in a plastic container and i want to know if a 60watt bulb is a good amount of light. my container is the size of a softball and about 6in deep
May 31, 2009
do you have another article about this?
June 12, 2009
hi. did you just start it this year? i started my strawberries last year and was told that I should cut the plant the first year because they don’t produce good berries until the second year. i didn’t cut the plants down, had shriveled berries last year, but this year i have quite a bit! look forward to next years harvest, my friend.
June 12, 2009
I bought strawberry plants with little berries already on them. In a couple of weeks I already ate my first berry.
July 6, 2009
I just recently received plants from my sisters garden. They’re in containers and when I put them in the sun they start to wither like they haven’t been watered even though they have, then I will take them inside and they perk right back up again. Is something wrong? I thought they love sun?
July 21, 2009
I bought new plants this spring and planted them in special strawberry pots. They fruited a little but now have nothing on them. Some plants left over from last year have also grown just in the earth around the pots and have a few fruit but they are not filling out property. How can I do better? I live a little north of Boston. Thanks!
July 27, 2009
This is my first season to plant strawberries and they are planted in containers. They have a lot of blooms but are bearing very little fruit. My plants are fairly thick, they look to be real healthy with green leaves. Could you advise me on what may be the reason for these plants not making fruit?
August 2, 2009
Are you feding them when they are ripening? i read you shouldnt feed them as the berries are ripening,also maybe too much watering or watering in the evening? only water in morning and keep berries dry,cheers
August 2, 2009
Hi steve,i too have had trouble with ants but i found a natural way to help.
Save your lids(plastic) from your peanut butter jars etc. I use 3 on my section.
Three quarter fill them with water and place around strawberry plot.Now add a teaspoon of sugar to each lid ! They go mad over it,much more appealing than the strawberries and develop chronic diabetes over night.They will be full of dead ants the next day.Repeat as needed.helps.
August 10, 2009
I bought a large pot with strawberry plants in it this summer. It seemed to be doing great and then one day, all the strawberries disappeared! Can’t see any slugs or anything but something is eating them. The plant still looks healthy. I put the plant up on a larger platform and they are still disappearing. What could be eating them? I think it is happening mostly at night.
August 15, 2009
I bought 2 strawberry plants at the beginning of this year, and planted them in pots just as the containers them came in told me to and they were doing really well, 2 days later i went back to water them and on the first one the whole stalk the strawberries were on disappered and on the other one there was only one strawberry, I only got one strawberry this year,
What have i done wrong with them???
Please help .
October 14, 2009
Rita and Cheeky Monkey,
Is it possible that squirrels or rabbits are eating your berries? The squirrels in my neighborhood are really aggressive – they’ve walked off with entire basil plants still in the little plastic pots! And I’ve seen the rabbits eat my green beans, tomatoes, and even marigolds (which all the gardening books say they hate).
You can try putting chicken wire or some other fencing around the plants, but if it’s squirrels, then you’ll need to cover the tops of the fence, too.
Hope this helps.
October 15, 2009
I am from Sri Lanka,it is a trophical island in south Asia.Recently I bought a few strawberry plants from a nursery here and planted them in pots,now they are shooting out plants like creapers. no signs of fruits,. Will I have to wait for a long time to see fruits. Thank you
October 20, 2009
I was always told that you don’t get a crop the first year. That is the year the roots get established.
November 24, 2009
For best production, pinch off blooms from first year plants and only allow one to two runners per plant. Compost the rest.
December 17, 2009
I want to have a guide of strawberry planting (pictures attached). I am from bangladesh and will be happy if there is specific information about strawberry sample RB-3 launched in bangladesh recently.
January 12, 2010
I’m living on a ship in Africa. My friend bought me a strawberry plant, are there any fertilizers that are easy to make in very small loads with no smell or major mess?