Dean Kreutzer helped me out big time. I wanted to grow Strawberries (okay – who doesn’t?) but this farmer from “Over the Hill Orchards” in Lumsden, Saskatchewan helped me see it all in a new way. The result? I started growing/farming strawberries off the ground. And with his help I set up a little mini-model of what he is doing in Saskatchewan and i am already eating fresh fruit! (Watch my video about fabric pots on this web page.)

Dean uses the Rootpouch fabric pot, a soil mix including peat, perlite, coir and compost, and a flood tray to keep all the strawberries well watered. I plan to visit him as soon as possible.

Meanwhile here is how to do it. Mix about 1/4 by volume homemade compost or worm castings to 3/4 by volume commercial soil such as Promix. Plant about 4-6 strawberries into a five-gallon root pouch. If you have six plants, slip some into cuts you make with scissors  into the side of the bag. Place the bags into a big flood tray so that they can be watered once and then left for a few days. If it rains or your “flood” tray is overflowing open it up to drain. My husband put pieces of garden hose into the bottoms of the trays he made me and we corked them with a wine cork. If there is too much water sitting in the trays for more than a day or two, we just pop off the cork to let it drain.

Clip off strawberry runners as they form and plant them somewhere else so that the pots you have made can put all their energy into making fruit. Yummy luscious fruit.