Strawberry Tower

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Advice:

  • Use 6" pipe or larger. (I used 4" pipe.)
  • Drill 1/16" holes in the watering tube (I used 1/8"). I would guess that 6" spacing would be good (but I'm not sure).
  • Water often (every day) through the top and the watering tube. I didn't water often enough. The tower (or bucket) dries out much faster than soil in the ground. Using a 6" pipe would also maintain moisture longer.

Blackwater River Guitars
Strawberry Tower (and Bucket) - June 2015

I was wondering if I could grow strawberrys in a vertical planter rather than taking up a lot of horizontal space. Online, I saw a number of folks using PVC waste pipe with holes in it as a growing tower.

I had a piece of 4" pipe about 5' long hanging around so I used it.

With a hole saw, I drilled a number of 2-1/4" holes in the tower in three staggered vertical rows. Space between each hole vertically is about 8".

I made a watering tube to run down the center of the tower with some 1/2" pvc. The PVC has 1/8" holes equally spaced along it's lenght. I can't remember the spacing. The tube has a layer of porous landscape cloth around it covering the holes in an attempt to stop the holes from clogging up.

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I capped the tower at the bottom (the cap has four 1/4" drainage holes in it), put the watering tube down the center, and put in about 3" of gravel at the bottom to help with drainage.

Then the tower was filled with potting soil and the strawberry plants (ordered from some online nursery) were added.

I also made a planter out of a cat letter bucket that a friend gave me (left col.).

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As you can see from the last photo, the plants at the top are doing much better than those at the bottom. I wasn't watering often enough and even then, not always using the watering tube. Water every day or at least check to see how moist the soil is at various spots on the tower.

Questions?: