Overwintering Strawberries In Gutters

Overwintering strawberry towers or winterizing strawberry plants planted in gutters or pipe systems is more difficult.

Overwintering strawberries in gutters.

Rain gutters can be mounted to the side of decks or vertically to the side of your house or shed to create a strawberry wall a rain gutter about 4 and a half feet long is enough to grow 3 4 strawberry plants depending on plant size. Elevating plants in gutters can make them overheat in the summers and die or produce no strawberries. Multiple blizzards and dangerously low temperatures. I decided to build hall s self irrigating gutter let s call it a sig to grow strawberries.

How did you keep the straw on top of the strawberries during the winter time from the wind blowing them out. This past winter which was our strawberry plants first as new plants was particularly brutal. We are busy this year already harvesting our spring strawberries. With some scrap wood i made a support system for the two gutters one gutter holds water and the other holds soil.

October 16 2017 at 11 49 am. Likewise soil warmed prematurely in the late winter or early spring can induce plants to leave dormancy too early and then suffer cold injury with sharp rapid temperature shifts downward. So it couldn t blow anywhere. A section of rain gutter about 4 1 2 feet long is enough to grow three strawberry plants.

If the strawberry towers or gutters pipes can be moved into the garage or other similar shelter they will often do better than if left suspended above the ground and exposed to all the harshest weather winter can throw at them. One of the best ways is to place the container in a bigger container and then insulate the space between with leaves or straw. Container grown strawberries benefit from a little winter protection. Our heating system is located there which probably helps keeps the garage temp reasonable unless we get an unusually long bitter cold spell in which case i could temporarily bring the pots into the house if necessary.

These climate conditions in addition to the shallow metal gutters in such close proximity to the roots of the plant really did them in. Personally our strawberry bed has a framed hardware cloth cover. These rain gutters not only keep pests away but they make for much easier gardening. Cut a piece of gutter 4 1 2 feet long using tin snips for metal gutters and a pvc handsaw or circular saw.

We have tried growing strawberries out in our garden with all kinds of problems. This is my first summer growing strawberries in a rain gutter. Here s how i did it.