Planting Strawberries in a Strawberry Jar Video

 

Planting Strawberries in a Strawberry Jar Transcript

Hi, I’m Barb Pierson, Nursery Manager at White Flower Farm. Today we're going to talk about Strawberries, and how simple and easy it is to grow them in a container on your patio.

Our Strawberry plants come bareroot and potted. This is Mara des Bois, which is a French variety that's day neutral, and we also have our Fraises des Bois, which is a woodland Strawberry and this comes potted.

So we have our bareroot Strawberries—keep them in the refrigerator until you're ready to plant or a very cool garage. Take your plants out, lay them out, here’s all your little Strawberry runners and now you're ready to prepare your soil. For soil preparation it’s is very important to use a high-quality potting mix, such as Fafard complete container mix. I like to add 1/3 compost to 2/3 potting soil. There's many kinds of compost you can use but ⅔ to 1/3 for your ratio. Take your soil, your potting soil, especially if it comes dry in a bag, put it into any kind of plastic bin… add some water... because you don’t want to plant your Strawberry jar with completely dry soil… So add some water, mix it in with a trowel and now you're ready to put your soil into your strawberry jar.

You're going to fill your Strawberry jar up to the first row of pockets, placing your soil in firmly but not compacting too much. You can see the soil just coming out of the first rim of the pockets. Now it’s time to take your bareroot plants, and poke the crown of the plant through the hole. So when you're looking at your Strawberry runner, here’s your crown of your plant and here’s your roots, so you’re going to take the head of it and stick it right through the hole here. Now you can see there’s roots at the bottom of the crown… so you’re going to lay your Strawberry plant like this and then when you put your second layer of soil on, make sure that you've got the roots covered, but never bury the crown. That's very important on the plant. So you want all of this covered with soil but not the top of the plant.

So I'm going to do all three holes. Here’s your third one. And now that we’ve placed them flat, we're going to put another layer of soil on top. So basically when you do your Strawberry jar, you're just going to do it in layers, make sure that the pockets each have enough soil for the plant, covering the roots but not the crown. Put it in firmly but not compacting too hard. And then you're ready to plant your second layer. Complete your second layer and fill your soil not all the way to the top of the container. It's a good idea to leave a water reservoir 1 to 2" at the top of the Strawberry pot. When you get to the top, you're going to take three of your Strawberry runners and plant them in a triangle, apart, right at the top of your jar. So we're going to put these in, just giving them a little space. Making sure their crowns are sticking out.

And now we're ready to water in our Strawberry jar. After planting make sure you water the top of the Strawberry jar and I like to do it slowly to allow the water to get to the bottom of the pot. So give it some water wait a few minutes, give it a little bit more, let it soak in and then I like to water the pockets. Each pocket—make sure the individual plants are getting water.

After you've watered in your Strawberry jar, let the plant settle for a few days in the container in the shade, and then gradually bring it out to full sun. For woodland Strawberries, the Fraise Des Bois, we recommend full sun but they can take a few hours of shade and sometimes in the hot weather it's a good idea if they have a little partial shade. For care of your Strawberry jar, strawberries need 1 to 2" of water per week, so it's important to check your Strawberry jar for water, make sure that the plants stay moist but not soggy. I like to water the individual pockets, especially during hot weather, and they do like fertilizer, so we recommend using a well-balanced organic fertilizer. During the growing season it's important to fertilize your Strawberries at least once every two weeks. So stay on top of your fertilizing when you're taking care of your Strawberry planter.

When your Strawberries begin to flower it may happen soon after you plant them. It's a good idea to pinch off the first flowers for at least 3 weeks after planting your Strawberry jar. It's important to let the plants build their strength, build their roots and their leaves before the first flowers turn into fruit.

At the end of August, stop fertilizing your Strawberry jar. If you live in colder climates, bring your Strawberry jar into a cool location. Some people treat them as annuals and discard the plants at the end of the season. If you do have your Strawberry jar and you overwinter it in a cool location, make sure the plants don't totally dry out, but you do want to keep your on the dry side while you're overwintering it. For more information on growing Strawberries and complete cultural instruction go to our website at whiteflowerfarm.com to the gardening help section.