[shokkyy]

No matter what I do, I never get to eat the strawberries I grow. I've been putting down pellets and I've got a wire cage over the top to stop the mice and squirrels, but still they're being eaten. Either the mice are finding a way through or I'm not putting the pellets down often enough for this year's slug population explosion. And they're taking up a whole bed I could be using to grow other things.  So next year I'm going to rip up the strawberry plants and use the bed for veggies.

What I might try next year as a last attempt for a strawberry crop is growing a few plants in some kind of container. Most of the containers I've seen, the ones designed so the plants can cascade down the sides, don't look as though they've got enough root space to keep the plants healthy. Does anyone grow strawberries in containers, and if so what sort works best? Do any of the containers allow you to keep the plants healthy over the winter or do you just get a crop then throw them out and replace the plants each year? Or do you pull the plants out and replace the compost each year and replant?

[Trillium]

One solution that I've seen is to build a raised bed for them, and top this with a squared meshed 'lid' that flips back on hinges (a framed box covered in mesh). You'd need to make sure the lid frame sits snugly against the main bed so that slugs can't slide in, or put a copper slug strip on first. Hinge it down so squirrels can't lift it and slip in.

[JayG]

A long time ago as a student our accomodation had even more mice than students living in it  and I can vouch for the fact that they can squeeze through gaps that look theoretically impossible! 

If you don't like the idea of trying to eradicate them, or if it's actually slugs causing your problems I can only warn against the traditional strawberry pot - I agree with you that most of them don't provide enough root space, also watering and feeding evenly is difficult, and when I had one the side "pockets" proved to be perfect living spaces for woodlice, which nibbled away at the crowns!

How about growing them in plant troughs, possibly in the greenhouse if you have one as well as outside?

[shokkyy]

I have got them in a raised bed with a framed box covered in 4mm wire mesh

I put box traps for mice all over the place and catch plenty, but when you've got a huge local population there's just no way you'll ever catch or kill enough to make any difference. Barricades are the only things that ever do any good. I thought I had it solved when I discovered the 4mm wire mesh, which worked like a dream when I put it over my pea seeds. It's horrible stuff to handle, every time I touch the mesh I cut myself, but it did work. But with the pea seeds I had the mesh just bent into a box with the edges pushed down into the soil, so there was no way in. On an area as big as a raised bed you have to put it on a frame, and I think that's where the problem lies. You can't really push a frame into the soil the way you can the wire mesh itself, and that's where they're finding a way in. Strawberries are just one of those crops that are irresistible to everything, aren't they.

I did try a few early strawberries in the beds in my tunnel, but they didn't do very well. I think it was too humid for them and they quickly succumbed to mould. Yes, I do have a greenhouse, a very cold one with missing glass, and I could try some troughs in there. You still get mice in there but nowhere near as many as you get around the beds outside, where they've got a bigger choice of food sources.

[shokkyy]

But the good news is I've got a very good crop of raspberries and loganberries this year, right next to the strawberry bed, and nothing is touching them at all. I don't even both to net them.

[Goosegirl]

I haven't got a strawberry bed at the moment and, due to my new hip, I never got round to getting some netting to cover my new raspberry frame. I have had four good crops of raspberries so far. I thought it was my four cats, but now - hey - maybe slugs and snails don't like heights! 

[GrannieAnnie]

Mine are doing well, but with all the wind I did keep them just inside the greenhouse door.  Only 1 strawberry had a little nip out of it.  Chancer bird I think!!!!

As its their first year, I've been well pleased so far.  The only thing is, like you said about the root room, but I'll see how things go.  If I need to, I'll take them out over the winter and replant next year.

[JayG]

Now THAT'S more like a proper strawberry planter GA! 

Even so with relatively little soil I imagine they might benefit from fresh compost next year - although mine are doing well in the soil I can see the advantages of your "rig" (another way of saying "I want one!") 

(The one I was referring to earlier was one of those all-in-one terracotta jobs and probably not much more than 18"-2' tall!) 

[shokkyy]

It does look pretty growing them like that, doesn't it Very easy to pick it up and move it around too, and easier to put a cage or netting over or around them if you need to. And if I do rip up my strawberry bed that gives me another 8'X4' bed to play with for veggies.

They certainly look healthy enough. What variety are they? And how many plants can you cram into one of those planters? Is it plastic or terracotta?

[littleblossom]

We have a three foot high trellis fence around our veg patch to keep the dogs off. No space is wasted in our garden so I bought 9 x 2' long containers that the OH fixed to the top of the fence. There are three plants to each container and we have had a really good crop of strawberries this year even though we had some slug damage (although not as much as when they were planted in a bed)

[swaine]

My strawberries are 3 yr old plants this year and the general advice is to replace after 3 years, so Im also wondering what to replant and where.

I've also had quite a bit of slug damage this year but I put it down to the wet conditions. A bigger problem for me this year is misshapen fruit caused by poor pollination.

Ive got some plants in a conventional bed, and some in rectangular 24" x 9"(ish) plastic planters that I got from Wilkinsons. My experience is that I get fewer but better quality fruits from the containers. I think that I'll get some more containers and not have a conventional strawberry bed next year.

If you use a small mesh netting to keep out mice and birds, dont forget to leave it open when the plants are flowering so the bees and insects can pollinate the flowers! This can be difficult if you have early and late varieties in the same bed.

[sunshineband]

We have had to relocate our plants to the garden, where they now occupy window boxes along the bonsia benches. Voles were the problem, and they just tunneled their way up and under any barriers, storing dozens og whitish fruit and not even waiting for it to go red.

Have trapped one, and will persevere, as they also chewed off chilli plants to leave bare stems.

Got a huge crop of strawbs, enough to share with the blackbirds in the garden 

[shokkyy]

It could well be voles causing my problems too. I've caught one in one of my mouse traps once. And the entire baby owl population of southern England seemed to be learning to hunt in our garden over the last few weeks, judging by the amount of noise, which does indicate there's a few voles around.

I had a huge crop of strawbs last year, and I never got to eat a single one. The whole lot were stripped off the plants long before they turned red. I had bird netting over them, but it could have been squirrels, mice or voles doing it. I think it was mice though. I did see one stuffing his face with a huge strawberry.

[sunshineband]

That sounds like typical vole behaviour, Shokky.

I have found that having the plants in troughs in tiers makes it harder for rodents to access them and they actually get to ripen

[GrannieAnnie]

It's my Poundland bargain!  I did put them on another thread a couple of months back.

10 poundland 3 sided pots.  I didn't realise when I bought the first one that they were actually 3 for £2 at the time.

Then someone on here mentioned Marshalls were offering 30 Elsanta strawberry plants for 11.82 incl P&P.  So I sent for some.  I only got 29, but Marshalls were very apologetic and gave me £1 off my next purchase, which I haven't used.

Brian drilled holes right through the 10 pots and put through it some threaded steel rod he has and bolted each end so its all one.  Mind you it did 'sort of' blow over one day, so that's why I put it back in the greenhouse. 

Then I bought a little pot trolley thing from Wilko, so each day when I water it, I turn it round so that all the strawberries get some sunshine (when it comes out of hiding! lol)

So far we've had nearly 7lbs of strawberries from it with lots more ripening.

I agree about the fresh compost.  I will give it new stuff every time I use it and it has had a little comfrey feed.

Okay, expensive so far.  £7 planters, £11.82 strawberries and about £1.75 for the wheels and whatever the compost cost, but the strawberries will go on another 3 years I hope and just fresh compost each year.

This is what it looked like when I first planted it up