Strawberries In Pots & Annuals
I have an email here from Mary who says, “what tips can you offer for planting strawberries in a strawberry pot?”
The first tip is don’t overcrowd them. Usually, you just want to put one plant per hole, and that’s about all you would want to really put in there. I would do a natural fertilizer with the potting soil. You could mix it with a granular garden tone as well, Espoma is a good one to use. Garden tones are good for providing added calcium and good stuff in there that strawberries like.
Check it for moisture as well. You want to let it dry out, but not too much, but just dry out in between watering. Those can be kind of tricky to water. You do use more water in the top hole, just because they can tend to run out that side. But other than that, there’s really nothing overly special to do with them. They do need full sun. They can take a little bit of shade, but definitely more sun, depending on the variety. Full sun, regular water, and a little bit of patience.
Most of them are going to be the ever-bearing variety. If you haven’t purchased them yet, that’s what I would look for, one that’s called ever-bearing. There’s one called Ozark Beauty, which those are ones you’re going to continue to bear. They’re not just going to bear one time. That would be one to look out for.
Planting Annuals in the Ground
When you’re planting annuals in the ground instead of planters, it is always recommended to add something to the soil. A lot of people do mix in a potting soil or Sweet Peat, but our ground is usually a little bit tougher, and most annuals need that more porous. They like that potting soil. The all-season fertilizer is also a good thing to do too because they are very heavy bloomers and feeders. You can use a liquid when you do water them, you know, periodically throughout the season, but the all-seasons will continue to feed them.
It is a good idea to add some sort of soil amendment to it when you’re planting. I like SweetPeat. SweetPeat is one of the better things to use because it is going to enrich your soil and your garden beds, but it’s also going to help the annuals establish and grow really well. It is actually better for the soil to be fluffy. That’s why it’s good for pots because it doesn’t tend to compact.
Our soil, like, if you put regular soil from the ground into a pot, it’s going to compact and become really heavy, and the roots aren’t going to be able to grow. It is meant to be fluffy, but the perlite and the vermiculite are those little white things that you see. I don’t like having that in my ground, in the yard. Its kind of is a mess. That’s more for pots. So that’s why I like the peat, because it’s just a natural material, like a complex material.
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