Strawberries in a barrel

[bwalden3]

I have a 55 gallon drum that I would like to turn into a strawberry planter. The barrel never held anything toxic, and I used it for compost for one season. My plan is to drill (using my 2" hole saw ) holes in the barrel and then fill it with planting soil and some manure. any experience with this?

 

[Carri]

No, but I have mine in a whisky barrel for now and they seem to be doing fine. I'm just wondering if they will get big enough so the fruit and leaves aren't in the dirt, or if I'll really need to get them in a strawberry pot.
This is my first year with them so hopefully someone else can come by and let us know for sure!

 

[Rosalind]

When you water it, how are you going to make sure the dirt stays in the barrel and doesn't wash out?

My biggest problem with strawberry pots is that invariably when I give them a good soak, a bunch of dirt washes out. I water the plants on top, and somehow the next-lower openings get a monsoon. I am too lazy and cheap to install a soaker hose for one lousy strawberry pot, so...

 

[Grow 4 Food]

when you build your barrel use 1 inch holes not 2. Take a 3 or 4 inche peice of PVC pipe and cap one end. This should be cut to be about a foot taller than your barrel is tall. Get an 1/8 inch drill bit and drill holes all over the pvc pipe top to bottom skipping the last foot on the bottom. Drill them in at an angle that goes from top slanting downwards. This will help cut back on the pressure for the water pouring out. Center this in your barrel and then fill the barrel with dirt and pack it down. Insert all your plants and then fill the pipe with water. This small holes will allow it to soak into the dirt and not wash it away as well as water the roots. You wont loose your dirt and every 3 or 4 waterings you can fertilize it too. Then you pick and make pie!

You can test the pipe before you put it in the barrel to make sure it doesn't come out to fast.

 

[bwalden3]

I like the pipe in the barrel idea (and the smaller holes to), how many plants can fit in a 55 gal drum?

 

[silkiechicken]

Strawberry pots always looked so cute to me... but you can only put so many plants in. One thing nice about it though, I guess the berries won't be sitting on the ground next to chicken evidence and slug holes in it.

 

[Grow 4 Food]

the nice thing about the barrel is that you can fill it with plants as you can afford to or as the others spread out new runners. Even if you decide not to fill all the holes at the start go ahead and drill all of them it wont hurt anything.