I’ve been feeling an urgency to get this blog post update out, because I have been seeing ridiculous growing traffic on our Strawberry Planting in Rain Gutters post. And I think we should let you all know, that growing strawberry plants in rain gutters hasn’t turned out so well for us. And by that I mean….well, they are all dead. Big gardening fail. It’s true. Take a look for yourself.
Are we missing any signs of life here, People? Yeah, we didn’t think so.
<Sigh.>
I had such high hopes. It was this photo below, that I saw online, that really had me daydreaming, about growing a wealth of strawberries from rain gutters, like this……
OH, the recipe-possibilities, and ample-snackin’ right off the vines.
But alas, the dreams for this project, have come to a screeching halt!
However, if you were hoping, planning, or are trying to grow strawberry plants in rain gutters yourself, there may be hope for YOU.
Let’s just talk this out, about what we figured went completely wrong here, in a minute. We have come to some conclusions, that we are going to share with you. And as sad as it is, we have always said that “gardening is a learning process! “. What’s more, someone can always learn from our mistakes. It’s not exactly what we hope to reap out of our hard work buuuuut……it’sbetterthannothing.
As we explained in our Strawberry Planting in Rain Gutters post, it was time to start over with new plants anyway, and also time to rebuild/replace our garden beds, that were old, falling apart, and starting to be eaten by termites. So it seemed as good as a time as any, to do something new and exciting!
Michael and I designed a structure to hold the gutters, figured out how to protect them from the birds and little critters, and got are new plants in!
We thought we were well underway, with grand expectations and only the problem of having more strawberries than we knew what to do with, in a year, probably two. We only got a few berries the first season in which they were planted, but that was totally expected.
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When the temperatures started to drop to really cold in the fall, and it looked like frost was just around the corner, we got them protected for the coming winter. We covered them in straw, and held it down with some bricks and rocks. We figured that should do it.
When spring approached, and there was no chance of another frost left, we cleaned off all of the straw, watered the gutters when necessary, anticipated new growth. But we were met with disappointment, every time we checked. No teeny-tiny green buds unfolding, no nothing, that reflected any signs of hope. Everything continued to be quite dead.
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It wasn’t a huge surprise. We observed the challenges from the time the plants were in, and had growing concerns from then on.
We’ve compiled the reasons why we think we were unsuccessful in growing productive strawberry plants in gutters, and we are going to share thoughts in our experience with you, here and now:
Why We Believe Our Strawberry Gutter Plants Did Not Thrive
A. We think drilling holes in the gutters, for drainage, was a mistake.
– We planted in mixed sandy soil as it was. So between that and the drain holes, the drainage was too much. More moisture needed to be retained.
B. The shallowness of the gutters, were not compatible with our climate.
– The hot summer days were too much, and would dry out the soil of the gutters to dust, even though they when watered heavily every night. (The drilled drainage holes did not help matters.)
– The greatest contributing factor, we believe, was probably the extremely cold and harsh winter. We live in New England, on the south shore. This past winter, which was our strawberry plants first as new plants, was particularly brutal. Multiple blizzards, and dangerously low temperatures. These climate conditions, in addition to the shallow metal gutters, in such close proximity to the roots of the plant, really did them in. I am sure they froze, no matter how much mulch protection we put over the top of the gutters.
– The shallowness of the gutters also seemed to contribute to losing soil, every time we watered. Because it was often bone-dry, again, we would flood the gutters. Sometimes soil would get displaced, or just wash out. So the soil level seemed to get low, in an already shallow planting.
C. Call Us Senseless, But We Never Removed the Plants Out of the Fiber Pots
– I feel like the whole world just said…..”OHhhh, well HELLO! That would do it!” But you know, planting instructions always say you don’t need to remove it; that it will just break down in the soil. They never really did though. You could see that, every time the soil washed away. There was probably never enough soil all around it, even in depth, for that to happen properly. We should have at least removed them from those fiber pots.
So those are the challenges we faced, that we think may be why our strawberry plants never thrived, or even came back, after winter.
That said, we also just felt like the roots of the plant couldn’t get very established, in such a shallow container. Maybe they were supposed to root sideways? IF they were even out of those fiber pots.
Don’t Let Our Failure with Strawberry Planting in Rain Gutters Stop YOU From Trying! You May Have Success!
Part of us was just not content with the depth of soil to work with. But if that were truly an issue, how are other gardeners having such grand success, such as the photo we found on the internet, shown earlier in this post? The roots must grow sideways. We should have taken the fiber pots off. We should have used better soil. We should not have drilled holes in the gutters, with such sandy soil. (Maybe the soil or ph was off?) In general, we should have done more research, because maybe we don’t live in the right climate, to grow strawberries in this manner, in the first place!
If you DO live in a warmer climate, that does not have such harsh winters of ridiculous snowstorms and drastically low temperatures, and you did not make the mistakes we did above, you could end up with thriving strawberry plants in rain gutters.
As for us, well, I missed our strawberry bed, right off the bat. With a deep bed of soil for roots to establish in, and ample room for runners to wander. I wish we just built another when it was time to, but again….lesson learned, and we can share our mistakes with you, so no one else loses a year of strawberry plant establishment, the way we did. We’ll be going back to a bed for our strawberry growing, because we were very successful with them, and reaped abundant loads of strawberries each season. But not this year. It’s too late now. We’ll just have to depend on the Farmer’s Market or local farms, for our organic berries. Because we will not be just going without this summer! We made some mistakes, but I don’t think any of us deserve that kind of cruel punishment.
If you’d like to read and see photos of our much more successful strawberry growing seasons, check out this post, Lessons Learned with Growing Strawberries. Or better, use our search field in the right hand sidebar, and enter the words strawberry and strawberries, and you will come up with pages of all of the posts we’ve had on strawberries. We’ve blogged about them quite a bit! So poke around!
Thanks for coming by. Wish it was better news but, hey, you win some, you lose some, I guess!
We’ll just go back to our tried and true strawberry growing ways, and all will be sweet again.
UPDATE: Hey Friends! A great guy named BOB happened upon our blog, and shared some very valuable insight into the possible origins and techniques used in the original photo of strawberry gutters. He shared what he thinks he learned in our comments below, and we encourage you to scroll down and read what he had to say, if you’ve been considering strawberry gutters yourself, or have tried and failed as well. I think it’s awesome that he took the time to share the way he did. Thanks again, Bob!
I know I’m very late to this discussion and you may already have figured this out but… once soil or potting mixes dry out they become hydrophobic and difficult to rehydrate… NEVER let them dry out, which is the trick. Especially with contain, and consistent, thorough slow drip watering is the answer. Strawberries have more roots than I think most people realize. I tried them in an expensive garden tower in a dry climate and could not keep the potting mix hydrated even with a regular drip system. Then when I tried to dig the dead strawberry plants out I found out just how huge the root systems were/are. I’ve sense learned the manufacturer recommends that IF planting strawberries in their system they recommend planting everbearing strawberries, such as Ozark Beauty, Tillicum or Quinalult because other types of strawberries have aggressive root systems that will take over. So other types of strawberries have aggressive root systems that will take over. Also, the more recent information is that using rocks/gravel for drainage isn’t a good idea and I’d say especially when the container is already so shallow to begin with. That all said, I’m going to play around with strawberries in gutters (and micro greens, green onions, and maybe violas) with these points in mind as well as others I picked up in the comments on this post. Thanks for sharing your learning experience!!
Never too late to the discussion, Cynthia! Thanks for jumping in and sharing so much valuable input and recommendations. We certainly learned firsthand how true much of what you said, is – from both our failed gutters, as well as out very successful raised strawberry bed.
If we ever grow strawberries in gutters again, we’ll be coming back to all of the info in these comments. We know many readers have garnered as much education, doing the same, as well sharing their own knowledge and experiences. We love to see it!
thanx for sharing your experience. We are moving ours out of the ground and into gutters. Actually started last year with one row as an experiment. I doubt freezing has any impact. I know it doesn’t with ours. In Alaska the ground freezes rock hard up to 10′ down every winter and our berries always survive.
All they did was make an NFT system with rain gutters.
Use gravel or rock pebbles as grow media.
Have water recirculating through each gutter
Give that a try next time you wont be disappointed.
Supplement occasionally with organic liquid nutrients. (Compost tea works just fine)
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DONT USE SOIL
Trust me you wont be disappointed 😉
Awesome post! I am just about to embark on this journey and my husband is building my gutter system right now. So much information from the post and comments. All questions that I had already been thinking about…glad these old posts are still up to see.
Your comment made us smile, Carol. We’re glad you enjoyed our post, and took the time to read the comments, too. We have learned so much from our own readers and commenters, as well.
Best of luck to you in growing your strawberries! Thanks for dropping by, and taking the time to leave us a message.
Happy gardening! –
The Richard Family / House of Joyful Noise blog.
Thank you for all of this helpful information! I was just about to buy rain gutters to plant strawberries for our school garden. I am now having second thoughts, but if I do, these comments are extremely valuable. Not that I won’t make mistakes, but at least they will be NEW mistakes!
I would think if you had a rich soil with humus, perlite, vermiculite, and mulched, you could be successful.
Strawberry is originally found in forests and thrives best in woodland conditions. That means half-shade, spongy ground, and constant humidity in the medium all the way up to the surface. However, it will set much more berries in full sunshine.
I can see on your picture that the growth medium is not good. Looks very sandy, and unable to retain humidity.
Strawberry plants do not set large nets of roots and growing them in a gutter should not be a problem, as properly evidenced in many places (do a google image search for “Strawberry tunnel cultivation”). Strawberries still need nitrogen, and because of their small roots and the gutter, you are going to need some media that can constantly and slowly add the nitrogen to the plant.
So want to go soilless or not? I have not done a direct comparison, but soilless seems to be the way to go when growing in gutters, and coir pith/coco peat is a choice that is growing in popularity. It has a spongy structure, moisture retention qualities, and it does not compact easily, but will allow for oxygen for the plant underground, to help the cells in the plant root to take up water and nutrients. Notice that these good qualities are a fairly good replication of the conditions found in a forest?
Using it is simple: You buy the coir pith as a brick (Look up “5kg coir pith block machine” on youtube to see how it is produced). Add organic fertilizer to about 20 liters of water and add that to the brick. For instance in a wheelbarrow, or in a large bucket. This will yield about 70 liter of coir pith ready to use.
Now add to this 25% perlite, or you can use sand. If you use sand instead of perlite then it should not be too fine grained, because it will clog the drainage. Buy or filter your own sand so that you have grains in 1-4 mm size. It does not matter if you use 1-4 mm or 2-4 mm size, as long as it is not too fine grained. Avoid sand from beaches because strawberries do not like salt.
I see some other comments here that they tried it and they got few and small berries. The reason for this is probably not the gutter or depth of roots, but because of too much fertilizer. If you add too much nitrogen to the strawberries, then they will set many leaves and few berries, so this you want to avoid.
This is a quote from strawberryplants.org: “You do have to be careful when fertilizing growing strawberries. If you apply too much fertilizer, you will get excessive leaf growth and poor production of flower stalks. If you plant strawberries in colder climates, late-season fertilizing can cause new growth that will be damaged by cold-weather frosts. Indeed, I have grown strawberries without any fertilizers in less-than-optimum soil and still gotten a reasonable harvest, so it is better to fertilize too little than too much until you become experienced.”
When the strawberry plant has yellow leaves, it indicates nitrogen deficiency. Yellow and purple leaves also indicate nitrogen deficiency, while purple leaves alone often indicate phosphorus deficiency.
WOW, Frantz! This is a whole lot of good info and education you shared with us here! On behalf of our family and our readers, thank you for sharing your time and knowledge with us! It’ll be an excellent reference for us, for years to come.
– The Richard Family / House of Joyful Noise blog
I’m on the South Shore – Weymouth. I use one gallon grow bags on a tray that holds 3/4″ of water. I have large Folgers coffee cans with 1/2″ pvc attached w/holes for irrigation that I have to fill a couple of times a day in the heat. I have about fifty bags. After they are FROZEN (important), I take them into the shed and put them on bakery sheet pans and place them on a heavy duty steel rack for the winter. Just today I transplanted eight plants into a Styrofoam fish box. I think this may be my road in the future. Easier to put some mulch on and fertilize (Dr. Earth). I have three 2X3 racks with two shelves on sixteen inch saw horses. The top shelf does terrific, but the bottom is iffy. That’s why I’m thinking of changing – I will lay the racks on their side and add another 2X3 down the middle. I have Albion and Darselect both from Nourse. I hope some of this is helpful. I enjoyed reading about you and your lovely family.
So you’re quite nearby, Al! What an inventive system you’ve got going there, for your strawberries. Thanks so much for sharing with us and our readers. We appreciate it!
The Richard Family / House of Joyful Noise blog
Actually I’m fairly certain your original photo showed hydroponic setup rather than a soil medium. We grow strawberries in gutters with great success but it’s running on an aquaponics setup. I wouldn’t try it with dirt where I am because I would never be able to keep them happy.
Hi Jade,
You may very well be right. I was inspired by the photo, and our ignorance assumed it was with soil because….what else is there? We are still learning so much in gardening. Thus, the failures and lessons. We couldn’t keep our gutter strawberries happy, either. They produced a little year one….but it was a battle, and it was over by frost.
Thanks so much for your observation, and the time you took to comment.
House of Joyful Noise blog / The Richard Family
There are lots of little problems with this setup but the real problem is the way you planted them. You definitely should’ve removed them from the container and Spread the roots out evenly in all directions. Then you should’ve clipped all flowers the first year so the plant could concentrate on growing large healthy route systems. Freezing temperatures is not a problem for strawberry plants as long as they have large healthy root systems. The containers didn’t deteriorate and therefore kept the roots contained in a small area. I have some new plants in 1 gal. fabric grow bags that already have roots growing out the bottom and sides of the bags after just 6 weeks. That’s a lot of roots! Ill clip all flowering runners every day for the first year. This will then produce lots of really big berries. Strawberry plants only produce good Berry’s for the first 3 or 4 years and then production dies off. So every two years a new bed is planted to replace the old bed a year latter. Some growers keep 3 beds going with only 2 producing berries at a time.
Yes, we have learned so much since that year, Corniceman. And continue to learn through experimenting, reading, videos, and great comments like yours, from people who know more. After that year, we went back to our former raised strawberry bed, which we have had much great success with. Thanks for taking the time to share. – The Richard Family
I’m not a farmer, but my extended family have had a successful strawberry farm for generations. They have several fields which they rotate every other year.and in between, they trim runner shoots and buds. I’m sure compost from the farm animals benefits their growth, as well.
I love all this info. I am a farmer at heart in a city girl’s body. I can’t wait to be able to try these many great ideas.
The picture you show first is in a greenhouse, where you have a a lots better control of wheater and water! If you do the same outside, the soil will run away with water, and will dry fast… at least i think…
You’re probably right Jade, that it is in a greenhouse, as well. But in addition to that, I guess they might not even be growing in soil. It’s a whole other kind of set-up. Hope you took the time to read the comments on this post, as well. I’ve learned a lot from the people who shared what they knew there.
Thanks for the comment!
Laura / House of Joyful Noise blog
For heat in the gutters try buring heat tape then just plug in in the winter might give off enough heat to keep them alive.
That’s a creative solution! Thanks for sharing that idea!
I am in Tennessee and getting ready to give gutter strawberries a shot. Although our winters arent as bad as what many of you experience where you are located, wintering the plants is a concern I had. My thought was to use shorter gutters (5ft ish) and remove them from the rack, place them between a couple raised beds and put a thick layer of straw over them. Are the gutters rigid enough to move when filled? Any thoughts on it working better for winter survival?
Hi James! It’s possible your plan might keep them from freezing to death (literally), in your area. To answer your question: Yes, the gutters are strong and sturdy enough to move. Best wishes to you. Let us know how it goes.
The Richard Family / House of Joyful Noise blog
I have also found that most plants winter poorly in containers of any kind. Protecting them on the ground for the winter, better soil and constant moisture during the growing season should allow you to produce like the photos you presented.
Thank you for keeping up the informative conversation! We have been growing strawberries in a small 2 ft pyramid set up and have had limited success in the Texas Gulf Coast area. In the winter, I have taken the strawberries up and kept them clumped together in a tub of dirt inside our small, unheated greenhouse.
We have to add new soil and mulch to the top frequently. Once in a while, the gophers decide to tunnel up from the bottom and the whole thing collapses! But since strawberries do not seem to grow here wild, and the weather extremes are so crazy, I feel fairly happy with the results.
Sounds like you’re figuring things our pretty good, for your area Tiria! Strawberries are so worth the efforts. Thanks for sharing!
I have been planning to grow strawberries this way for years, ever since I went to my local strawberry farm and saw this type of set up. I live in southwest Oregon. We seldom get any snow and only a few truly freezing nights between December and January.
It sounds like you live in an optimal area for this strawberry-growing method, Caprice! And if you saw it being done at your local strawberry farm, then they’ll have all of the help and tps you need! Hope you get to it and it all goes/grows well for you! Thanks for sharing wth us.
House of Joyful Noise blog / The Richard Family
Thanks so much for sharing your strawberry failure. I was about to launch into this method but am now rethinking it and will grow them in containers. I liked the idea of having them off the ground though.
You’re welcome, Mary! I hope you read the wealth of education on this topic, offered by our readers, in the comments as well! As for us, we are back to a protected strawberry bed with straw mulch.
@laura
You may already know, but the reason behind doing things like gutter gardens/vertical walls/etc. is for the sake of water conservation. The innovators among us are discovering ways to give us equal or greater yields than traditional garden beds with a fraction of the irrigation requirements.
Please don’t be so quick to give up on new ideas like this. Maybe give it another shot using the brilliant comments here as a resource. Personally I was really inspired by the suggestion to use coir soaked in fertilizer for a sort of geo-hydroponic hybrid. Also overwintering electrical tape. Very cool. Anyway. I’m gonna do it 😛
May you never be without strawberries again 🙂 Cheers and thank you for the insightful blog.
I have been growing gutters for 3 years now with modest success. I made my gutters by taking 3 mobile home gutters and making a double wide trough. This the first year I have used drip irrigation and it is either boom or bust. One week everything is fine and then 3 or 4 large plants will die with lots of fruit shrivel ingebor over night and then we are back to normal. I really do not know what varieties i have because . As a neighborhood we tend pass leftovers along or trade for something does grow in my garden. Thanks for sharing you experiencshould. I will take better notes and pass along what works.
Thanks for sharing your efforts and outcomes with us as well, Helena! It’s very interesting. We have gone back to a bed for now, but we’re gathering all of of the info and suggestions we are getting, and just might put it all to the test again one season in the future.
Take care and thanks again for your thoughts!
The Richard Family / House of Joyful Noise blog
I also planted strawberries in a gutter this year, I planted 3 10 ft gutters with overbearing strawberries. Success was limited I used compost and organic berry fertilizer and watered everyday , the strawberries were very small.
I called into a gardening show and was told the roots in a gutter are too shallow that’s why my berries were so small and since I also live in New England they will probably not make it through the winter , I will be replanting them into a bed this fall hopefully better results next year.
Hi I know time has passed, but just felt I had to thank Laura for sharing her fail, it will help many to deal with problems in advance..
We are in the process of setting up a gutter system, already had decided to drill holes in the sides, which I do with many pots anyway, filling bottom with gravel. But also going to drill a bigger holes in the end, at the bottom, with a piece of plastic to slide down to stop full drainage in hot weather. They will be fixed to the south wall of a building, with facility for fixing bird netting to drop down in front. Having a bad problem with slugs on ground beds I’m hoping we will avoid that as well. We have good soil, mixed with compost hoping that will give good results.
I was thinking about taking them down for winter, now thinking about overlapping sections so each shorter section is easier to move inside for winter.
Thanks for sharing, learned a lot.
Excited about our project
Take small jar lids and fill them with beer. That will eliminate the slugs. Easy fix.
Another way to stop slugs would be to save your egg shells and grind them to a rough powder. Simply sprinkle them around the plants. Slugs hate the sharp edges and will not go over them. Another, more deadly method would be to sprinkle diatomaceous earth around the plants. The micro-powder will slice them and they will dry up. It is not a poison and, if using food grade, it can even be sprinkled on animal food to eliminate intestinal worms.
Thanks so much for sharing these great tips for us all, Joseph!
– The Richard Family / House of Joyful Noise blog
The reason why your strawberries in the gutter fail because your soil was not good. And you didn’t have a quality multch to hold in moisture. You didn’t water enough too and your failures come back to the soil you used. Should had mixture of manure, leaf compost, peatmoss, sweet peat… invest in good soil and water and your strawberries don’t need to be planted in the open field of direct sunlight. That burns out the plant. Semi shade and 6-8 hours of half to full sun is perfect
Hi Michael – There may be some truth to your thoughts. But we wanted to mention a couple of things:
The soil we used was from the original strawberry bed for which we had great success! Maybe it’s different in gutters and the mix you mention would have been more beneficial. We watered them a ton, but it was hard to keep them moist. According to your suggestions, they got appropriate light > shade the early part of the day, and 6-8 hours of full sun later. However, they DID need a lot of mulch on top, to lock the moisture in. Our personal challenge was, the soil seemed too shallow as it was, being a gutter and so there was no room for mulch on top, as well. We may try gutter strawberries again some year, but for now, we’re going back to a bed.
Thank for your thoughts.
Laura / House of Joyful Noise blog
Your plans sound great to us, Carol! We hope you have a fruitful season, and your winter plans work out perfectly. Let us know if you can come next spring!
The Richard Family / House of Joyful Noise blog
Very interesting read! I too have been tempted with the guttering dripping with delicious strawberries, all up there away from the slugs and snails. I wasn’t sure how to go about it, but now I am thinking I do have info needed, thanks to this post and all the comments below.
I am in England, and so I am thinking of hanging mine from the greenhouse roof, to give them warmth to ripen and protection during Winter.
Will keep you posted xx
I have been doing container strawberries for 3 years. You must remove berries each fall and spade in ground, cover with straw n dirt and replant in containers in spring. It works well or winter cold will kill them. Northern Michigan is hard on plants. I do think that gutters are to sallow for roots do need more depth.
We are glad this discussion has given you some ideas, Denise! Please DO keep us posted on your outcome! And thanks so much for sharing your thoughts and plans.
The Richard Family / House of Joyful Noise blog
So glad to have found your site. We planted three rows of strawberries this June. I planted the ever-bearing kind, as who wants to limit your strawberry season to just June? 🙂
They seemed to do just fine this summer–a few even putting out some shoots. I didn’t know if I was supposed to pinch them or not, as they are supposed to bear all summer.
As we are looking down the barrel of winter in Wisconsin…I was thinking about building a kind of “winter coat” for the gutters-especially after reading the comments about the roots freezing. Taking the gutters down is not an option. I am thinking about stuffing some big leftover plastic bags from mulch full of straw, and wrapping the gutters.
I am worried it is going to cause too much freezing and thawing as the sun warms the bags, and it won’t hold the heat at night. Thanks for your thoughts!
Hi Jennifer! We’re just reading over all of the comments again in this thread about growing strawberries in gutters, and wondered how you made out through your Wisconsin winter, and your bags/straw/wrapping gutters plans to protect your plants. Did it work out well? We’d love to hear! We are sure hoping so for you!
The Richard Family / House of Joyful Noise blog
Just a thought , in your comment it was said that you covered them when it looked like frost was around the corner. Shouldn’t they be exposed to at least 28 degrees or so 3 to 4 times so they will go dormant? I had some in pots with half inch foam board under and between each row plus mulching them on top, but I didn’t let them get exposed to freezing temps before mulching I don’t know for sure but I think that was my down fall. Havent had any problems since then. I live in Missouri and we have temps as low as 0 at times. Just a thought, Jerry
Thanks for your inquiry on that, Jerry! You know….we don’t know, to be sure! But now that you’ve mentioned it, it’s another aspect to consider, for a future successful try growing strawberries in gutters again. For now, we are back to beds. But this thread and everyone’s input, has been incredibly helpful to our readers, as well. Thanks so much.
The Richard Family / House of Joyful Noise blog
Thanks for sharing your real experience with the rain gutter gardening. I was going to try this, but I’ve decided against it and just built an elevated garden bed instead after reading this. I don’t live in a cold area, but our summers are scorching. I think everywhere that I’ve read suggests drilling a drain hole on the side. Perhaps to keep the moisture in? I think I’ll stick to putting “klips” onto a pallet to mount pots for herbs and have other things in the garden bed. I’d hate wasting an entire season on a pinterest fail.
Hey Stevee! We’re seeing we missed some comments from awhile back now! Just wanted to say we don’t blame you for deciding not to go with gutter-growing strawberries yet. It does appear to be pretty tricky, and not the best method for all climates.
Take care – The Richard Family / House of Joyful Noise blog
There is nothing like a “fail” to learn big. Gardening, as you said, is a learning process OR an historical one if you have an experienced person in your area of the world to advise you. I’ll take the latter. Find a master when you decide to make changes to any gardening method. A master (not necessarily a master gardener by certification either) will see the problems/challenges with new methods before they arise and you lose plantings.
I moved to an arid climate from a humid one–what a change. An example: we get the best results for composting when holes are dug into the earth about 4 feet square rather than above ground. They contain the moisture. Water is at a premium and the earth is sandy. Of course, lidded plastic trash cans with drilled holes can be used, but the drilling formula is different for various elevations of which there are many. Also they produce less compost per attempt. I didn’t think of this method. After failed attempts, of compost drying out in 2 seconds, I asked a local. He’d been gardening on the mesas for 20+ years. He knew things that only a hands-on master gardening in the immediate area would have known. So, I’d say, find a master.
Hello Elle – We are just rereading and replying to some of these very old comments now, but wanted to say what wise words you shared with us. Learning from the masters is always the best way to go. Thanks so much for sharing this thought.
The Richard Family / House of Joyful Noise blog
I planted berries in gutters this spring. They were small but we have eaten berries all summer. We had many days in the 90’s and also some over 100. We watered morning and night if weater was over 80. I just hope they make it through the winter. We have mild winnters but a drop to the 20’s can be a killer.
Perhaps if you had have drilled the drain holes a bit up the sides of the troughs rather than on the bottom of the troughs it would have been better. This way some of the watering would be retained to soak into the roots of the plants, I think not having any drainage hole would possibly cause drowning of the roots if there is too much water. Another way to retain moisture from evaporating and keeping the soil from going over the edge of the troughs, is to put a layer of straw around the plants and on the soil that is not planted. Also the use of straw also keeps the berries clean and easier to pick….
Hi Sharon! Thanks so much for your thoughts and ideas. You could be right! Drilling up a bit on the sides may have worked better. We definitely did have troubles with soil washing up, over and out the edges – and we always losing some soil. We covered with straw prior to winter, and intended on keeping it in for that very reason. But as you know, the plants never recovered from the winter.
I wondered if you happened to read the other comments on this post? There were others who shared information and links about the suspected original circumstances for this system, which if true, would certainly explain a lot about our failures!
Thanks again for your comment. Happy gardening!
Laura / House of Joyful Noise blog
They may not be gutters, but hydroponic. Here is the link:
http://www.h2ogrowing.com/growing-hydroponic-strawberries/
Thought you might be interested in my take on this. By the way, I learned a lot from your “fail” so thanks!
If you are on Facebook, you can access the album here:
https://www.facebook.com/doug.heitland/media_set?set=a.601182856690373.1073741847.100003959931392&type=3
Hey Doug! We were very interested, indeed! Seems you put a lot of good thought into your version of growing strawberry plants in gutters, and we’re so glad you felt you could learn a lot from our fail! That’s exactly why we shared. Thank YOU for sharing your Facebook album! I’d be particularly interested to hear if the depth of the gutter, and root-growing, proves to be an issue. Please keep us posted how it goes for you!
Take care and happy gardening!
The Richard Family / House of Joyful Noise blog
Hi Laura,
I just saw your reply. I would say it’s going so so. I planted 10 plants. 6 of them were small and came in a 6-pack. 4 were potted separately and were bigger. The bigger ones are doing ok, the 6 are dead! That’s my fault though for missing about 4 days of watering. I just don’t think they recovered from that. They’ll get replaced in the spring. But the drainage et. al. is working well and the other 4 plants are doing well considering how late I started. They have actually produced some little strawberries and have quite a few blooms. I water them almost every day.
Once it turns cold, I plan to move the gutter planters to the garage and cover/wrap them with a tarp. What do you think of that? I think just covering them outside will not be good as they don’t have enough ground around them.
Will get you an update at the end of the season.
Doug
Hey Doug!! Was thrilled to find your update, this morning! Sounds like things are going fairly well. As a consideration for you, I have heard to pinch off the first blooms, to allow more time for the root to get established. I think the moving them to the garage is a good idea, providing that it’s an unheated garage. I think it would be cold enough in there, like a mild winter, but not too cold as it would be outdoors without more surrounding earth, to help protect the plants. I’m just guessing along with you; no guarantees! It’ll be interesting to find out though.
You may want to check the comments section again. I think there has been more incoming info about the actual system and circumstances we’ve been trying to recreate here, since you last posted – although I am not at that post at the moment, to double-check.
Happy Gardening, Doug! Keep in touch.
Laura / House of Joyful Noise blog
I’m going to try this next spring I think. A couple of ideas I plan to implement as well as taking the advice from your “fail” list. My gutter will be elevated but I plan to design it so that it can be taken down, set on the ground and covered for the winter (or maybe even taken inside – like to the garage – if my wife will let me). Also, I think you’re right about removing the planting pots and not including the drainage holes – or maybe just one at each end. Also, I plan to use vinyl guttering, not metal. It should last forever.
How did your strawberries do over winter?
I’ve seen the picture of the abundant berry crop in the overhead gutters in several different places. Everytime I saw it though, it was somebody copying the same picture they had seen somewhere. They always said something like, “This looks like a great idea!” Yours is the first time I’ve seen reports from anyone who actually tried it!
Except, while surfing the net one night recently, I think I came across the person/operation that is the source for that picture that everyone keeps copying and pasting. I believe it’s a Korean or Japanese operation because all the text and audio is foreign, and the workers are obviously Oriental. Without being able to understand a word that’s being said (I’m betting their English is a LOT better than my Japanese or Korean), I think what I picked up from just seeing the video is that the plants are in a planting medium of some kind (i.e. crushed coconut husks or clay pebbles or some such) and they are grown with a hydroponic solution using the Nutrient Flow Technique (NFT).
That would explain why the plants in the “seen everywhere” picture never got stressed from low water or insufficient nutrients, and produced so prolificly. That’s just my thoughts… When I think about trying this method of growing, I do run up against the question, “Is there enough soil in the gutters to support and protect the plants?” Your experience seems to indicate, “No.” Too little soil to keep the plants alive and healthy, it seems.
Thank you for sharing your experience. Best of luck with next season’s crop!
BOB!!! Thank you SO MUCH for sharing this valuable information, about the original source of that strawberries gutters system! That would explain a lot, indeed. I am actually going to edit my post and direct readers down to your comment here. Because I am betting there are gardeners everywhere, trying to make this work, as well. I can’t thank you enough for taking the time to relay the information you found, here at our blog. You’re awesome!
The Richard Family / House of Joyful Noise blog
Thank you very much Bob. In all honesty, I have been searching my search engine to its max, but can honestly not find any good advice on how much soil each plant needs and what would be the optimum ways to plant strawberries in tunnels. So many people with so many ideas and most are just nice pictures and gutters full of lies.
Hi Hannes Snyman,
Thanks for your comment at our blog. Regarding the truth of how people SUCCESSFULLY grow strawberries in gutters, I suggest reading the rest of the COMMENTS at that thread. Our gutter strawberries failed, because we too tried to grow them from the inspiration of a photo, and didn’t realize it was a whole system of which we were not using, in a different climate than we were in. However, it is still possible even where we are, and there was MUCH we learned just from the knowledgeable readers who commented in this thread you commented in. So, you may want to read through it if you haven’t, because it doesn’t seem that those who have been so successful are necessarily growing in soil (as we assumed they were), or at least not soil alone.
Take care,
The Richard Family / House of Joyful Noise blog
I believe Bob is correct. My family and I lived in South Korea for 3 years and have seen this gutter/ trough method and tasted their berries first hand. The Korean people are astounding gardeners and growers. In the original mythical photo of gutter berry fame, you can see the green house plastic roof. Believe me, Korea has some harsh winters, so I believe the key is moderating the environment (early spring warm/ Shaded summer cool) and they utilized a drip/mist watering on a timer, presumably with fertilizer of a sort. The medium in the troughs looked to be peat moss. I plan to take my berry gutters and put them on the ground on the sunny side of the house and heavily straw them for winter over. We’ll see how they do.
Hi Jeff,
I’m curious to see how your berries did? I’m considering some long rectangular pots that have a bit more room for soil/ peat moss/ growing medium. and possibly even a little sub irrigation.
Did the peat moss help?
I agree with you Bob .i thought it was hydroponic as soon as i saw it ..Here is South Australia we have some huge set ups for hydrogrowing ..I dont really agree with them as they are feeding chemicals to plants and us ..But if you look at there systems the same can be applied useing worm juice or aquaculture fish farming ..
The main need is continuouse flow of liquid to keep root and medium temp constant ..In Oz our biggest trouble is every thing gets too hot so pumps run 24/7 ..So unless you want to spend and set up a larger comercial set up stick to a bed on the ground or large raised beds or containers ..Freinds set up an aquaculture set up but its too small to warrant a full time employee to care for it so it only needs i power fail on hot day and if someone is not there to attend vegetables wilt ..In Aust containers and feed pipes are being made white rather than black to keep temp down ..
I know this is going on a year old, but I wanted to share some thoughts as well. I concur that the berry-laden picture is likely utilizing NFT techniques. However, I am not necessarily in agreement that there is too little soil for this to work effectively. I think using a small amount of soil would require more frequent fertilization as the plants would use up the available nutrients rather quickly (small reservoir of nutrients in a small amount of soil).
But, I think the biggest factor (which has been alluded to) is leaving the gutters elevated overwinter. With small sections of gutter they could really be moved to a cool garage – or atleast down to the ground. It’s correct to insulate the top of the plants, but with the elevation and wind whipping below the gutters you are most certainly freezing the roots.
The theory is similar to why bridges ice first in the winter – the wind passes over their sides, underneath of them, and above them – causing heat-loss from every angle and perhaps a more aggressive freeze.
As for the soil seemingly drying out fast, I think you’re on the right track with drilling a small hole – but perhaps a media that retains a bit more water. If need be, soaker hoses could be added to the system to allow low-flow steady watering over longer periods (just put the hose on a timer and go eat dinner!) – although through all of my research, a medium-weight driptape is more robust than the cheap soaker hoses I’ve seen advertised in many places.
Hi Dave! Thanks so much for sharing all of your thoughts, on our post here about growing strawberries in rain gutters! It doesn’t even matter that it is over a year old, as we are still getting very active traffic and comments on it. We *love* it when other share their thoughts and experiences so, THANKS!
Perhaps you’re right, about too little soil not being a factor. (?) I’m not sure. It really just seemed so shallow for the plant roots to grow in. But you have a very good point; Certainly lack of nutrients was a problem as well. We need to learn more about proper NATURAL fertilization of organic food growing.
Yes, leaving the gutters elevated most definitely put the nail in the coffin, so to speak. We don’t have a garage, but the cold cellar maybe was an option, or at the very least, down on the ground and covered. Bridges freezing first was an EXCELLENT comparison. As for drainage, we had some rocks, which in retrospect was not ideal! They were too large. Maybe pebble like gravel would have been better. Soaker hoses is a great idea. We are thinking of going that route for all of our gardens, as we are revising our whole garden lot. We’ll have to look into driptape you speak of.
Thanks again for leaving all of your thoughts here with us. We appreciate your visit.
HAPPY GARDENING!
The Richard Family / House of Joyful Noise blog
Ive been developping an organic vertical rain gutter strawberry method for a few years and its pretty top notch! Heres what you did wrong: you didnt fertilize regularly, you didnt water enough and you may have picked the wrong cultivar. June bearing varieties dont work in these systems as the plants dont survive cold winters (who wants to wait a year for fruit anyway). You need a good day neutral, i grow Seascape and Albion. Your growing medium is also wrong. I know that they say a sandy loam is best for berries but not when gutter growing. Gutters are containers and soilless mediums work much much better. I use promix or coconut coir. Im in the process of planting a massive vertical strawberry wall, you can find me on Instagram @ THEPLANTCHARMER
Wish I would have found this earlier… I bought 10 plastic/vinyl gutters at Menards…3.76 ea…sent in rebate so they were free… they wanted 7.00 for 2 end caps so I used heat gun and bent ends up.. easily bendable. I drilled holes 1 inch up to retain water/water and liquid farm fertilizer I buy from farmer… 4.50 2 gallon…. 3-18-18…I add liquid amonia… 3oz fertilizer and 2 oz amonia to 1 gal water. Since I have never done this before I will increase decrease by trial and hopefully not to much error.
I cut cardboard strips in bottom… laid last years leaves next… then put small 1to 2 ft sticks end to end down gutter…something for roots to attach to…next bought garden soil… 2 parts… 1 part my compost… 1 part bought compost manure. Filled and packed down. Planted into it and hand watered. Added 2liter soda bottle at end with small holes in cap…for water and feed.
Radishes… Lettuce. .. bush beans… onions.. leeks… shallots carrots are up… don’t know what to expect. .. just thought I would try it…
My next goal is putting 30 gal plastic barrel 3 feet high and using small irrigation drip line down each gutter… semi hyponics system. Also old 5 gal buckets with holes 3 inch up… plastic bag in bottom… filled with leaves.. and stichs in bottom… 3 inches…my compost 6 inches. . Put 2liter bottle with bottom cut off… holed punched in sides….
bought garden soil compost manure…4 inches. .. to hold bottle in place….planted tomatoes and covered with garden soil compost…water and fertilizer water will eventually end up in bottom 3inches as reservour…
Hope springs eternal…amen
Thanks again for being willing to share in your failures… we all fail and when someone shows their vulnerability it helps everyone to both learn and be vulnerable too.
And likewise Bruce, thank YOU for sharing all of your ambitious gardening projects and experiments! Do let us know how it all goes!
We loved reading all about every bit of what you have going on! Exciting stuff! But we have to say, our personal favorite part was this:
***Hope springs eternal…amen*** And to that we say, yes, yes it does. Amen.
Thanks so much for taking the time to share so much with not only us, but all of our readers. Please come around again Bruce, and HAPPY GARDENING!
The Richard Family / House of Joyful Noise blog
That’s what the gutter is for to hold the nutrient. Look up aquaponics however with such cold winters I see this being an issue too. You flow water an nd nutrient through one end and flush the other.
This sounds like Korean Natural Farming (KNF), using home-brewed microbes that turn anything into nutrients that are useful to plants. KNF uses various inputs, based on the plant and the current phase of the lifecycle. The “fertilizers” they use for drip irrigation are so natural that you can drink them. The results are pretty amazing. And if there’s biochar or another similar material in the growing medium, the microbes are able to hold onto water better.
https://naturalfarminghawaii.net/tag/master-cho/
The medium used is probably coir pith. Used for it’s ability to retain moisture. Mixed with some sand, to make sure oxygen can reach the roots.
“Any vegetable can be grown on each gallery, after filling it with a medium of coir pith, organic manure, and sand, irrespective of the climate,” — http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/agriculture-universitys-onecent-poly-house-a-hit/article6817728.ece
I hope you guys kept trying after the initial failure.