While you can certainly plant strawberries in any type of container, but strawberry planters can have some advantages over other types – namely, space saving features! So we decided to list some examples of these as well as share our tips in making sure you get the best one.

Our First Pick: The Mayan Planter

We love this planter because it has a unique look that many planters do not offer. It is also a very affordable option and gives you plenty of options in choosing how to plant your strawberries. There are many different ways to plant your strawberries in this container, and it will give you plenty of space. With several of these planters, you could likely yield a nice amount of strawberries!  From Amazon, Click Here to Read Reviews

Garden Stackers Planter

While these are not meant specifically for strawberries, we think they perform pretty well for growing strawberries in containers. These stacking flower pots are perfect for growing strawberries indoors or out and don’t take up too much space. They’re cheap, and they’re sturdy once filled with dirt. Available From Amazon

Smith & Hawkens Grow Pot

This grow pot is another good option for small and confined spaces. This is a traditional style of growing pot for strawberries which offers pockets where you can plant your berries to give you a nice indoor or outdoor option. It also has a nice decorative appeal as well. Click Here to Read Reviews at Amazon

Tips to Consider When Buying a Strawberry Planter:

Before you pick the right one for you however, it’s important to consider some different things to help make sure it’s going to live up to your expectations.

Watering: Strawberries need watered quite often. With most planters you can do a few things to help water your plants evenly, as outlined in our tips on How to Grow Strawberries in Strawberry Pots. Soil should always be moist, but be careful not to over water – strawberries do not like that either!

Number of Plants: With strawberry planters, they typically will work well but not yield as much as if you were to plant them in the ground. This is because in the ground you will want to keep them at least 12 inches apart for maximum productivity, but in planters they do not get that much space.

Choose the Right Berries: Since strawberries are self reproducing, they will usually grow tendrils and start to spread. When growing them in pots, it is best to choose a variety such as Alpine Strawberry seeds or another that does not grow roots as rapidly. Their root systems are shallow, but they do spread to create new plants, and so that’s another thing to consider when planting in a pot or another container.

Now that you have some ideas on where and what kind of strawberry pots to buy, we hope once you plant them you’ll send a picture to us so we can show it off in our upcoming gallery coming soon!

Knowing how long they take to grow will also help you decide the best time to plant strawberries, since depending on when you plant them, you may have to wait a few weeks or wait several months.

So, let’s try to clear up some of this confusion on how long you can expect to wait!

If you are a serious strawberry grower, you will have to wait a very long time for your plants to grow and start producing fruit, because most people will pinch off the flowers so the plant puts more energy into growing strong roots (and therefore reproducing). In the long run, this is going to be much better for your plants and give you a better crop for a longer period of time. But it is hard to be patient!

Typically you can expect that most plants, when grown from seed, will take about 4 to 6 weeks to sprout, at which point the crowns of the plant will be visible. You can then expect it to take a few more weeks for the first flowers to appear. Though you won’t want to do it, picking those flowers off at first will help your plant to instead establish strong roots and propagate. If you do this in the spring, you will likely get another crop of flowers by late summer or early fall and at that point you’ll be able to keep them there. Remember that different berries produce fruit at different times – June bearing varieties will only flower and produce fruit in June, ever bearing and day bearing varieties will typically give you at least two crops per year, one in the spring and another in the fall.

Once you see flowers on your plant, it usually takes another 30 days or so for these flowers to turn into the fruit that all of us are so excited to finally see. It can take another week or so for the fruit to ripen. Once it is ripe, you will want to pick it right away to avoid it becoming moldy or diseased.

Now that you know how long it takes for strawberries to grow from their beginning stages of seeds into a fruit producing plant, you can see that patience is very important! It may be anywhere from a few months to even a year to see to the results, but the hard work will pay off when you have a blossoming strawberry plant that gives you a nice crop!

If you are planting strawberries indoors, then you really don’t need to worry about the time and season much at all. The only thing you may need to take into consideration is that there is not as much natural sunlight in winter months as there is in the spring and summer, but as long as your strawberry plant is getting at least 6 hours of sunlight a day, this usually isn’t much of a problem for most people, not to mention there are always indoor sun lamps to choose from. If you want to grow your strawberries indoors, then check out our section on Growing Strawberries Indoors

Another factor to this question is whether you are growing strawberries from seeds or using already grown plants. If you want to have plants ready to plant in the garden after the frost is over, then you will want to start them indoors several weeks ahead of time of when you wish to transplant them.

Some will tell you the best time to plant strawberries is in September while temperatures are still warm. You will have to wait to see the fruits of labor, since the blossoms will not appear until next spring, but this does typically give your plant a lot of time to grow mature roots and usually helps ensure an excellent crop next spring and summer. It is very important that if you decide to plant them in the fall that you take extra precautions to protect them over the winter. Many people will cover their beds with straw over the winter months to help insulate them from the cold temperatures. Strawberry plants do not need to be replanted each and every year. Since the plant is self reproducing, you can typically plant one and it will grow more plants and then you can later weed out the older ones as needed, typically every two to three years, though some plants can continue to bear fruit longer than that.

If you are ordering plants, then you’ll usually be lucky that you don’t typically have to wait very long to see fruit or flowers, since typically these are mature plants that are ready to go. You simply plant them as soon as the frost dangers are gone, do your best to take care of them and you’ll soon have beautiful and delicious strawberries to eat!

We love strawberries, and it’s great to know that you really can plant them just about anytime as long as you follow the right care tips for strawberries. The only thing that is variable is when you will see fruit, since most berries only produce fruit twice a season, typically spring and summer.

So what do you say? When do you think is the best time time to plant strawberries?

If you’re looking to learn how to build a strawberry planter, there is some very good news for you: it is really easy to do! You do not need to do a lot of work or worry about measuring or anything else – you can have a beautiful strawberry garden in no time at all!

Anyone with limited garden space will appreciate an easy to build and easy to use planter, since strawberries are self reproducing and can tend to spread out and grow – yes, they can take over your whole garden if you don’t take some precautions! (Thankfully, there are no attack of the killer strawberries movies out there!)

By building a raised bed, you can control exactly where the strawberries grow, and you can also make sure the you use the perfect soil for strawberries as well, since they can be pretty particular about what they like!

Plants need to be planted about 12 inches apart, so the larger the bed the more plants you can fit into it. We like a 4′ x 8′ size, as it allows you to grow about 24-30 plants quite easily, ensuring you a nice large crop of strawberries!

Here are the materials you will need:

(3) 2x6x8 boards
8 nails or screws
A hammer or a screw driver
A saw
Potting Mix
Strawberry Plants
Straw

And here is a quick sketch of what we’ll be creating:

Step 1: Cut one of the boards in half. We’re using two of the boards for the length of the bed, and we’ll cut the other board in half to make up the sides of the width of the bed. Since boards aren’t always uniform in size and shape (even though, yes, we know technically they should be!) the best thing to do is measure from both sides about 4 feet and see if they are in the same place. If they are, great! If not, pick somewhere in the middle to give you nice even sized boards.

Step 2: Choose a Place for Your Bed: You are going to want to build your bed wherever you plan on keeping it, since it is going to get pretty heavy and difficult to move on your own once it is together. Strawberries LOVE sunlight, so make sure wherever you choose to place it that it will get at least 6 hours of sunlight in that spot each and everyday.

Step 3: Lay out the framework. You are going to place the longer 8′ boards about 4 feet apart from each other so they are running parallel and then the 4′ boards on each side to make a box.

Step 4: Nail the boards together. Nailing is pretty simple, you could instead use a power screwdriver and screws if you’d rather go that route. Both ways work, so do whatever is the most comfortable and convenient for you. Some beds can hold up just fine without this step, but it is really up to you to decide. Nails and/or screws will help it stay sturdier and last well over the years.

Step 5: Fill with dirt. Strawberries like a mix of potting soil, sand, and peat moss, see Strawberry Potting Soil to learn about which types of dirt are the best.

Step 6: Plant the Berries: It wouldn’t be called a strawberry planter if you didn’t plant strawberries in it, now would it? To plant the plants, just place them about 12 inches apart from each other, and make sure the dirt covers all of the roots.

Step 7: Fertilize and Water. Once your plants are all in their rightful places, you’re ready to fertilize and water them. You should only fertilize your crops once when transplanting and then again only after they bear fruit – fertilizing them too much not only wastes money, but risks the possibility of damaging the plants as well.

Step 8: Cover with straw: Straw will help protect your plants from the soil getting too hot, it will also help reduce the likelihood of ground insects and mold as well. This is especially important to do when planting the strawberries in the fall.

Step 9: Take Care of Your Plants: Now that the hard part is over, you’re ready to just take some basic every day care tips. If it is fall, not much to do until spring. If it is spring or summer or if your plants have flowers or fruit on them already, pinch it off so that the plant can put its energy into growing roots. See more on this in our Strawberry Care FAQ.

Now that you know how to build a strawberry bed, you’ll be sure to enjoy your strawberry plants all through the season. Do you have any strawberry planter plans you would like to share? Tell us about yours in the comments section below.

But enough about my rambling on how I don’t eat wheat anymore, you’re here for an awesome strawberry pie recipe, and that’s what I’m going to give you!

First, let’s take a look at the different ingredients we’ll need:

1 baked pie crust (you only need the bottom since this is an open pie)
2 pounds fresh strawberries (may need more depending on the size of your pie crust)
1 cup sugar
1 box of strawberry gelatin
2 tablespoons corn starch
Dash of salt
1 3/4 cup of water
Whipped Cream (The cans of it work well for easy decorating)

Directions: Mix together the sugar, salt, and cornstarch, then add in with water in a pot on the stove. Cook over medium heat, stirring often until the mixture is smooth and clear. Once it is hot, stir in the package of strawberry gelatin. Remove from heat and allow to cool in the refrigerator. (Don’t let it thicken – you want to keep it at a syrup consistency!)

It is up to you whether to use whole strawberries or to slice them for easier eating. I usually slice the strawberries into quarters, but it also looks really nice if you are using whole berries, and it will work fine if you are using smaller berries from your garden.

Place the strawberries into the pie crust and then pour the glaze mixture over it. Place in the refrigerator for at least one hour prior to serving.

When ready to serve, decorate the pie with whipped cream or place a dollop of whipped cream on top of each slice.

I’ve tried a number of other different recipes out there for strawberry glaze pie, but this one still remains to be my favorite, mainly just because it is so easy to make! If you can boil water, it’s pretty easy to do!

Do you have a favorite recipe for strawberry glaze pie or other strawberry recipes you want to share? Leave it in the comments below!

You Will Need These Ingredients:

1 quart of purified spring water
4 Lemons
1 pound of strawberries
1/2-1 cup sugar (depending on your preference of sweetness)
Ice

You Will Also Need this Equipment:
Citrus Zester or Grater
Blender
Citrus Juicer if You Have One
Knife
Measuring Cups
Stirring Spoon

Directions: Using a citrus zester or fine grater, carefully grate just the yellow part of the lemons for lemon zest, which really gives this a great flavor. You only need about a teaspoon or so of it, which you can usually get from two to three lemons.

Next, you’ll want to juice the lemons. The best and easiest way to juice a lemon is to roll the lemon flat on the table to help it separate from the peel and extract the juice easier. You’ll want to then cut the lemon in half and remove all of the seeds, and then if you have a juicer for citrus fruits use that, other wise you can just squeeze as much juice as you can out by hand. Do this for all of the lemons.

Now let’s get to the good part – those strawberries! Take the strawberries and if need be rinse them off and then cut off the green parts. While the green leaves of the stems of strawberries are edible, they do have a bit of a bitter taste that most people do not enjoy!

Place the strawberries and the lemon juice in the blender together along with the sugar and lemon zest. If need be, add some water. (Some blenders will need more liquid that just the lemon juice, really depends on your make and model).

Once you have these ingredients combined, mix the blender mixture with the water in a two quart pitcher, adding more sugar if necessary. Then, add ice and serve. A really pretty thing to do when serving this is to garnish each glass with a slice of lemon and/or strawberries. If you have extra lemons or strawberries, it can also be very pretty to add in a sliced lemon and sliced strawberry into the drink.

Hope you enjoy our recipe, and if you have another version of a strawberry lemonade recipe you’d like to share, feel free to tell us about it the comments section below!

First, you’ll want to consider which types of seeds you want to use and buy. There are all kinds of strawberry seeds to consider, and where you plan on growing them will help you pick the right one.

For indoors and in cooler climates, it’s usually best to stick with the Alpine Mignonette Heirloom varieties, since they do not require as much sun, though they will still need sunshine. They are an ever bearing strawberry, which means they will have typically two batches of fruit each year.

For those of you planting outdoors or in a sunny place, you can also choose between June bearing and other everbearing varieties, with June berries only producing fruit in the June, and the other types usually producing a crop in both spring and fall.

Now, many people will get frustrated that their seeds will not germinate, and it happens quite often to those who simply stick the seeds in some dirt and hope for the best. This is because in order to trick the seeds into growing you need to mimic their natural habitat, especially when growing Alpine berries.

When you get your first package of seeds, you’ll have to wait a few weeks, but the wait will be well worth it when you get a better conversion rate of seeds into plants!

Wrap your seed packet in a paper towel and place it into a freezer bag. Place in your freezer for anywhere from two weeks to four weeks, with four weeks being the optimal recommended time. After four weeks, you’ll want to take your seeds out of the freezer and then place them to defrost slowly and naturally. Some people will place them in the refrigerator overnight to do this before letting them warm up at room temperature.

After your seeds are room temperature, you’re ready to start planting! It’s recommended that all seeds start indoors to help improve your chances, since when outside you will not have much control over the temperature or whether some hungry birds will try to eat it.

You can use just about anything for starting seeds, whether you choose to use small cups or a tray – some people will reuse biodegradable egg cartons as seed trays, which is certainly as easy and affordable option. You can also use seed starter trays like these that can work just as well also.

If you will be using your own blend of dirt, it’s recommended to use a mixture of potting soil and sand or peat moss, since strawberries like sandy soil best. You’ll want to place them near the top, not too deeply in the cup with only a thin layer of soil over them.

Then, you’re ready to place them in a place where they will get plenty of natural sunlight or what we typically do is start them in our basement where it’s okay if they make a mess and we have more space. We use a Sunlight Floor Lamp which works great for providing “natural” light and leave it on for about 8-10 hours a day over our seedlings.

Once your seeds are producing plants, you’re ready to transfer them to their respective pots or place in the garden. It’s very important that you do not plant them too close together or else they will compete with each other for the nutrients in the soil and likely not grow as well as you’d like. About 12 inches apart is a good rule of thumb. Now that you know how to grow strawberries from seed, you’re ready to do some more reading on how to help them grow their best depending on how and where you want to plant them!

Here’s some additional resources on our site to help you:

• Best Soil & Potting Mix for Strawberries
• Growing in Strawberry Pots
• Growing Strawberries in Containers
• Growing Strawberries Indoors
• Taking Care of Your Strawberry Plants

One of the most important things to know about growing strawberries with tires however is that the tires will attract and hold heat quite a bit, so you’ll want to plant them in a place that does not get too much heat, otherwise they will not grow to their full potential! Strawberries need about 6 hours of sunlight a day, so we recommend placing your garden in a place that gets either early morning or late evening sun. You may wish to paint your tires to help them not attract the heat of the sun.

Now, there’s a few different ways to go about this, but probably the easiest thing is to use them in a stackable tiered planter. We found this video that can show you one way of doing it, using about 6-8 tires and stacking them together to make what resembles a larger scaled pyramid strawberry planter.

You can see exactly as how it was done here, with the tires stacked up making smaller pockets. Once the plants start growing and blooming it can look quite nice. You could also use a non-toxic paint on the outside of the tires to make them nicely colored – we’ve seen everything from your basic white to brightly colored orange, blue, green, red, and purple tires which adds a nice eclectic to feel to any garden and adds to the uniqueness. This will also make them less of a heat target for the sun, so will hopefully help in keeping it cooler as well.

For this style of growing, all you need is a tire and then follow our same directions for Growing Strawberries in Containers. One of the benefits of this method is that you can also take the winter precautions of mulching with straw or pine needles so your plants will last for a few years. Be sure you use a sandy soil mix for the potting soil and be very viligant about watering, since as we mentioned earlier, the tires keep the soil very warm and strawberries actually like very cool temperatures.

One concern that many people have regarding using tires as planting containers is the chemicals in tires and whether or not they would leech into the plant beds and pose any health threats or risks, especially since strawberries are a consumable product. There is relatively little verifiable information on this to give a certain answer on whether or not it is safe to use the tires. Fortunately, we do find this all natural tire to be kind of promising, as it is made with orange oil instead of petroleum and other chemicals. So, if you switch to using all natural tires, then you’ll be able to be a tad more confident in knowing it is safer for plants. We do think however before you discount the use of tires as planters completely you consider that plastic is also made from petroleum, and so is food dye and a number of other preservatives in the foods you eat each and every single day. So if you’re not going to use tires as planters because of the potential leeching, you’d better make sure you’re not eating those same chemicals in your foods! (It is scary when you start reading labels and researching what those ingredients actually are!)

Anyways, we hope you enjoy this one of many creative ideas on our website, and if you complete a project for growing strawberries using tires or have another method you’d like to share, please send us some pictures and your story here!

If you’ve ever been in any garden store during the spring time, you’ve probably seen one of the many kits for growing strawberries in hanging baskets. While the kits are usually inexpensive, many people struggle with them, because growing from seed is pretty difficult for many people because there are a few strawberry germination tricks you need.

After looking at the many different kits available, the one that seems the most promising is this Strawberry Garden Hanging Basket Kit as it actually comes with plants, not just a few seeds that may or may not grow and will take awhile for you to ever see results. The plants are kept dormant in cold temperatures before being shipped to your door, which means after you plant them and follow the basic care directions for strawberries you’ll have some great looking plants of your own that are ready to bear fruit.

But let’s say you don’t want to use a kit and are ready to grow them from hanging baskets all on your own – well, that’s not really any more difficult either once you know the best way to grow strawberries from a hanging basket.

First things first: you need hanging baskets and a good place to hang them. This may seem obvious, but picking the right container, as well as the right place to hang them, will save you a lot of time and frustration later. If you plan on growing them indoors, see our tips on Growing Strawberries Indoors – if you are planning to grow them outside, then you’ll want to make sure that you choose the sunniest place you can find. Strawberries need at least 6 hours of sunlight each day to grow their best, so the sunnier, the better. Some people will hang them from their porch or deck, others will consider picking up some inexpensive Shepherd’s Hooks to use for hanging the baskets. Some people may also instead opt to install a long bar (such as a shower curtain bar) across an area and then hang the baskets on that.

For growing strawberries in baskets, any basket will work, but you’ll want to make sure that you don’t overcrowd it with too many plants. Strawberry plants have very shallow root systems, so your planter does not need to be very deep. Overcrowding will cause the plants however to be more prone to disease, stress, and other issues, so make sure in any planter that you place them at least 6-8 inches apart from each other.

Because you don’t want hanging baskets to get too heavy, and you also want to make sure that the dirt is a sandy soil mix, something that can work well is mixing peat moss with potting soil and a bit of top soil or sand. You’ll also want to make sure that your soil has a pH between 5.6 and 6.3, as this is the favored pH of strawberry plants.

When you plant your plants, it may already have a few blossoms or start growing tendrils (this is how they reproduce to make new plants) – and while it may be very difficult for you to make yourself do this, you’re going to want to do pinch off all the flowers and pick any berries visible when planting. This will help the plant concentrate and focus on building only strong roots, and the yield of blossoms and fruit will be much higher later if you have the patience to do this.

Another important thing to consider is that hanging baskets tend to dry out very quickly, and so proper watering is essential to keeping the plants happy. There is no set number of times or a clear answer to how often to water strawberry plants, but instead you should make sure that your soil is always moist.

Keep in mind if you live in a warm climate that strawberries prefer a temperature around 65 degrees, so you may want to take care to protect them on very hot days and watching that they are well watered. If the temperature will be very hot, you may want to make sure they just get the morning sun between 7 am and 11 am and then move into the shade.

While growing strawberries from hanging baskets may not yield a huge crop, they are very pretty plants and certainly will make you smile when you see the berries growing!

How Much Space Do I Need?

The answer to this is entirely up to you and the method you choose, as well as how many strawberry plants you wish to grow. Obviously, the more berries you try to grow, the more space you will need. But there are many easy and space saving options to choose from, such as growing them in strawberry pots.

I have seen some people dedicate an entire room in their house to strawberry growing, others just have a window sill. The plants need at least 6 hours of sunlight each day, so be sure where ever you choose to grow them it has a window that allows direct sun to come onto the plants. Another option you can try which will ensure that you berries do well is to invest in some indoor plant lighting. You can get portable lights or even just hardwire install lights with the proper bulbs.

What type of containers should I use?

Here is the great thing about strawberries – they have very shallow roots so they can do well in just about anything as long as you have the right type of soil, keep them well watered, and naturally give them the sunlight they need. Hanging baskets are always popular if you have a place to hang them, some people looking for a larger crop may choose to grow them in trays and place them on shelves. You will want to avoid overcrowding the plants, since this will make them more likely to pick up diseases and mold, but other than that feel free to use anything that works for your own individual needs the best.

What Kind of Berries Should I Plant?

There are two main types of strawberry plants – June bearing, which only produce in June, ever-bearing, which will give you a crop twice a year (though some varieties flower and produce fruit more often than that). Our pick for inside berries is a variety of the ever-bearing kind, called Alpine Strawberries. You can get Alpine Strawberry Seeds Here Not only do these berries not depend as much on the sunlight, but they tend to not spread out, which is a plus when you’re working in confined space.

Other Indoor Growing Tips

Use the Right Soil: Strawberries do the best in a slightly sandy soil with a pH between 5.6 and 6.3. See best soil for strawberry plants for more help on making sure you give your plants a good start!

Freeze Your Seeds: If you are starting with full plants, you can skip this step – but if you are growing from seed then you will want to freeze the seeds for at least 2 weeks, with some people recommending 4 weeks for better results. The reason for this is because it makes the seeds germinate more successfully, since they need the cold temperature to go out of dormancy. Read our full guide on germinating seeds.

Water The Right Amount: It can seem very difficult to know how much to water your plants. A lot of people ask how often to water their plants, but unfortunately there is no set amount of times or how much to give your plant. You can either consider getting a moisture meter, or you can simply check your plants each and every day to make sure the soil is moist but not too wet – they like water, but not too much water!

Take Good Care of Your Plants: Taking care of indoor plants is not much different than taking care of one outside. Our article on Caring for Strawberry Plants has everything else you might need to know!

It’s not hard to grown a strawberry plant indoors, in fact I think just about anyone can do it! It may even be easier for many people, as you have far more control on things like temperature, lighting, and other factors you may not be able to change outside.

Have any tips for growing strawberries indoors we might have missed? Share them in the comments section below!