Has anyone tried this, is it worth the effort?
popcorn_smiley
Must be a youtube on it. :D
Are you thinking about drilling a bunch of holes and planting them on the sides?
My wife is into this kinda thing.
Backyard Barrel Gardening - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldutHSjqQCo)
Does it actually work, or after a year or so will I have a barrel full of dirt?
Until a few years ago around here, a lot of small blueberry producers were growing the plants in 1/2 blue drums planted mainly in pine bark. They were irrigating each plant individually with microjets. One fellow I know cleared over $25000 in a season on a one acre farm, all plants under nets, before so many were growing them. Now, there are larger commercial producers, some with over 600 acres of blueberry plants and they plant them in the ground and add pine bark.
Some how I saw berries in blue barrels and read blueberries instead of strawberries. Please disregard my post. I would delete it but that is frowned on.
Strawberries should grow in a drum too. We potted a bunch of strawberry plants up in hanging baskets a few years ago and sold them as an FFA fundraiser.
Yes,we did the strawberry in a hanging basket too. I would turn the hanger so the ripe strawberry could be seen by a cusomer,it would be sold in no time. I had to hang a sign that read,you pick the berry,you buy the plant.
If I was going to to the blue barrel,get that up in the air about 3 feet so I would not have to bend over to pick them.
Sounds like it would make sense to have them on a lazy Susan type affair as well.
Depending on your available space and goals, it's a good way to contain them. Strawberries creep and get crazy once established. Was funny to see my wife actually MOWING them!! :D :D
Growing in containers looks neat, probably the worst part about it would be all the whipper snipping.
I was told about someone growing strawberries in potting soil bags, the bags were set flat in a raised table and holes cut for plants, they were using day neutral berries and replanted in new soil every year.
Quote from: Jeff on February 19, 2018, 11:09:06 AM
Sounds like it would make sense to have them on a lazy Susan type affair as well.
Jeff, it sounds like you want to take all of the work out of gardening. Just raising them up 3' would make me happy, I used to reach the ground easier, all I can figure is that I must be getting taller in my old age.
Quote from: maple flats on March 17, 2018, 01:59:35 PM
Quote from: Jeff on February 19, 2018, 11:09:06 AM
Sounds like it would make sense to have them on a lazy Susan type affair as well.
Jeff, it sounds like you want to take all of the work out of gardening. Just raising them up 3' would make me happy, I used to reach the ground easier, all I can figure is that I must be getting taller in my old age.
We need @Kbeitz (http://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=29553) in here to automate it. I'd say a lazy susan 3' up off the ground with a motor powered by a solar panel. Then it would rotate giving the plants on all sides a dose of full sun and a break from the heat multiple times a day. ;)
I've done this with tomato plants. My only advise is to add baby diapers in your dirt. If you don't and miss a day putting water to them they will die. I put pepper plants in the top.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/39553/Tomatoes_in_buckets.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1521312052)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/39553/Tomatoes_.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1521312136)
Quote from: maple flats on March 17, 2018, 01:59:35 PM
Quote from: Jeff on February 19, 2018, 11:09:06 AM
Sounds like it would make sense to have them on a lazy Susan type affair as well.
Jeff, it sounds like you want to take all of the work out of gardening. Just raising them up 3' would make me happy, I used to reach the ground easier, all I can figure is that I must be getting taller in my old age.
The sun is the reason I thought of a lazy susan. Not sure how you could get the sun to rotate towards the otherside of the barrels. ;)
Mirrors? :D
Hmm! Maybe not a mirror, but a silvery reflective surface.
Works for George Hamilton!
Quote from: Kbeitz on March 17, 2018, 02:42:54 PM
I've done this with tomato plants. My only advise is to add baby diapers in your dirt. If you don't and miss a day putting water to them they will die. I put pepper plants in the top.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/39553/Tomatoes_in_buckets.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1521312052)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/39553/Tomatoes_.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1521312136)
New or second hand? recycling and fertilizing in one step.
Not going to even think MMM! Tomatoes! now.
Quote from: LeeB on March 22, 2018, 07:32:16 AM
Quote from: Kbeitz on March 17, 2018, 02:42:54 PM
I've done this with tomato plants. My only advise is to add baby diapers in your dirt. If you don't and miss a day putting water to them they will die. I put pepper plants in the top.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/39553/Tomatoes_in_buckets.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1521312052)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/39553/Tomatoes_.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1521312136)
New or second hand? recycling and fertilizing in one step.
New without the plastic. The stuffing inside holds water really good. Keeps thing from drying out.
My daughter buys the "water gels" and you mix in a few of the granules into the potting mix. She will also dump some in a 2 liter soda bottle and put a small hole in the lid. Fill with water and invert into the soil of a plant. In the heat here, it helps keep the plants good for a couple days. Not so sure what the benefit of the gels are in the bottles, tho.
But, her way of thinking is a little is good, a lot is better. :-\ I don't know how much she put in but when the rains came, the dirt (the gels) expanded and there was a column of dirt about 2" above the top of the pots! What a mess :-X
While we don't have strawberries in barrels, my wife got tired of mowing the front lawn. 2-3 years ago she started growing strawberries and veggies along side the driveways. We live in a nice residential neighborhood in one side of a duplex, we rent out the other side. Each side has about a 60' blacktop driveway. My wife has a full length row of strawberries along each driveway. One side is June bearers the other is day neutral berries. Last year she got 225 pints off those plants, about 30% off the June bearers and the rest off the day neutral berries.
When my wife was first going to plant the front yard, our 2 grown daughters argued against the plan, but you'd be surprised just how many passers by stop and make nice comments. I don't think we ever got a bad comment on them. In addition, she had 1 tomato plant that grew to about 10' across and yielded several bushels of tomatoes. She also had a group of about 6-8 frying pepper plants that also yielded a whole bunch of peppers. While we gave some of the strawberries away, we ate lots and froze a whole bunch more. We also gave the local food pantry 3-4 bushel of tomatoes and almost that many peppers last year.
Looking this year, the side with the June bearers is loaded about a ft. in from the blacktop with blossoms and the day neutral ones have lots of blossoms but not like the June bearers at the edge of the blacktop. The June bearers are on the north side of an east west driveway, so the sun reflects heat off the driveway and coaxes the heavy production.
Strawberry, Mara Des Bois are the best I think. Also look into Tayberry. Cross from a Raspberry/Blackberry.
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Reviving this older thread: I wonder if the recent posts in other areas of this forum about Bio Char would help with the concerns here with watering and keeping the dirt moist.
What do you all think? Any experiences with Bio Char mixed in pots for berries?
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@maple flats (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=2321) how much work are your strawberries? I'd love to start something like that in the back field with any kind of berries but the area is not very conducive to watering (easily).
Strawberries will not compete with weeds, thus they must be kept weed free. That can be loads of work if done by hand.
If you want to plant strawberries, now is the time to begin. Start by spraying round-up to kill what's there. After that dies, rototill the area every time new weeds emerge. Sometime in this period, get soil samples from several areas around the area to be planted, mix it into one sample and submit it to cooperative extension for analysis to know what you need to do. The PH might need to be adjusted, maybe not, mine never needed adjustment. Also, they will tell you what fertilizer and how much/when to apply.
Back in the 80's I grew up to 3.5 acres of strawberries, for faster production from my land while my blueberries became productive enough, then I cut back and eventually quit growing them for u-pick sales, too much work! We only grow them for family use since about 1990.
If you're still in it, plant as early in the spring as possible, soil dry enough, frosts are ok in the planting year. For your best production remove all flowers in the planting year, that makes the plants produce more runners. In the fall, after 2-3 freezes., cover with 4-6" of weed free straw. In the next spring leave the cover of straw on until your danger of frost has passed, then lightly rake the straw into the aisles. Don't remove all at once, do it in 2-3 steps several days apart. Read up on what fertilizing to do as soon as they are uncovered. Enjoy the fruits of your harvest.
Back when we did acres of strawberries, we used a 3 PH planter a Holand 1000. It opened a trench, set a plant every 18" watered it, the water had a soluble fertilizer in it, and then closed the planting. That machine needed a tractor driver, a slow gear to drive, and 2 people on the planter to place the plants in the V holders, which moved around 2 gears, traveling from just above the workers seated position then down to where the V opened to release the plant just a a squirt of fertilized water was sprayed on the roots. Those machines are still available (the last time I checked) and are a good investment. (Mine is not for sale). Now comes the work, weekly they should be cultivated to keep weeds out as much as possible.
Immediately after harvest has finished, mow the berry plants off and rototill, leaving about 6-8" wide row at one edge of the original planting and fertilize, I used 10-10-10, cooperative ext. may have you use something else. I don't recall how much I used, but it was fairly heavy. Then cultivate and/or use a weed pesticide approved in your area for use on strawberries. Then as before add straw in the fall, it's best to add it after 2-3 freezes.
Most plantings can be kept if relatively weed free and rejuvenated as described above for 3-4 years. Then it's time to till the beds up and start new.
You will do best if you plant multiple varieties, maybe 1/3-1 acre of each if going with 3-5 acres total, if just up to 1/2 acre, try 2, a mid-season and a late season variety. We never had much success with early season ones because they flowered too early, and frost got them.
About frost, we used frost control irrigation to help, I had an irrigation system, which needs to spray 60 gal/hr / acre. If you go that route you need to keep the irrigation running until all of the ice that builds up on the plants has melted. If you shut off before then all flowers and soon to open flower buds will freeze.
Don't even try ever bearing varieties, but we have done well with day neutral varieties, they produce fewer at a time, but into fall they continue to produce until the first frost.
Have fun, if done right there is money to be made in strawberries. Back in the 80's my cooperative agent told us that if you did every task on time you made $30 and hour, 5 days late $20/hr and 10 days late $10/hr, those numbers are likely 2-3X higher now. Pre=season strawberries want 1" of rain weekly, either from God or irrigation, in season they need 2" from God or irrigation.
So the short answer is a lot of work! Thank you, great info here! I'm by no means a farmer but I do have a fair amount of peripherious intrigue in the process and I'll definitely look at your post a few more times (and probably share with my wife too) as I consider things (dumb ol' day job!)
I think I could work the water out, it wouldn't be too huge a deal to dig a water line out to the field. I can't imagine that I'd ever get close to your numbers. My 2 acre field back there looks much too big to farm that whole thing, certainly for the first several years of getting used to things.
Thanks again, I really appreciate the detailed explanation!