Mar
25
Submitted by Kevin on Wed, 03/25/2009 - 21:56
The strawberries are growing decently, but not as well as I hoped. The problem, I believe, is the soil. It was wrong and I knew it, but I thought it would be alright. (Stupid...) It had a rather high amount of compost and was amended with bark and perlite. It ends up making a mucky wet mess at the lower part of the pipe. Watering it is difficult becuase drainage is so bad. I added a 24" x 2" cotton towel strip for a wick. That has helped move the water but the muck still remains due to compaction and such poor aeration of the soil. I will be re-potting the entire tree soon.
Here are some pics. growth is slow, but there are several blooms already.
Update: Since the photo was taken about a week ago, there are now about 15 blossoms around the strawberry tree.
2 comments
Thanks for tips about both things that are working well, and those that aren't. Questions:
1) If you were going to do this again, what would you use for soil mix?
2) Sounds like in the current arrangement, the bottom mucky soil won't support strawberry plants. How far up from the bottom is the soil mucky?
Thanks
I would use the same bark / sphagnum peat / perlite mix that I am growing the veggies in. I'm not 100% sure how much of the bottom is mucky, but judging from a short 10" container that I emptied with the same soil I am guessing at least 8 to 10 inches is totally anaerobic. Since I wrote the post, I have only watered once, very lightly. I might be able to manage keeping everything ok through this season by very light waterings - being sure not to over saturate the soil.
I will be starting to write a little about the bark based veggie container soil (soil-less actually) that I am using, so keep checking for that update.