Strawberries on the Balcony
Modern strawberries, Fragaria × ananassa, are all hybrids. They were derived from North American wild strawberries and coastal strawberries from Chile. The part we know as a berry is actually not a berry at all. The edible part of the strawberry is an accessory fruit: plant tissue that grows from some part of the flower that is not the ovary. The actual fruit of the strawberry is what we typically refer to as the seeds that dot the outside of this accessory fruit. Each of these pips contains a single seed and these pips are the actual fruit of the plant. But who really cares. They're fun to grow and they taste good. That's all you need to know.
Strawberry plants are perennials and can survive a few seasons if you treat them right. They like to spread and propagate by sending out runners. Strawberry plants will produce fruit in their first season so they can be grown as annuals, and that's how I like to treat them. Perennials rarely survive the winter on my balcony. If they can survive the spidermites and neglect on my balcony, being exposed to a Canadian winter in a plastic pot will almost certainly finish them off.
I have grown strawberry plants from seed on several occasions but I have found the seed to be rather expensive. Many of the strawberry seeds I come across are hybrids that seem to have been developed to generate high margins for the sellers. Some seeds are even trademarked. Open pollinated varieties are usually affordable and that is what I tend to look for. But regardless of variety, nothing grows quite like the picture on a seed packet. Strawberries are no exception.
I have also occasionally purchased strawberry starter plants. Even those large hanging baskets you can find at garden centers that have multiple plants stuffed into them. They always seem to be flush with berries. I don't like to purchase these for a few of reasons:
- I find they are expensive for some reason. Maybe because they are popular, hard to start, or perhaps because they are perennials.
- They are perennials that I can't easily overwinter on my balcony, so the extra expense makes me regret the purchase.
- I just don't like buying plants from the garden center because every time I do I bring home something carrying spidermites or aphids and they quickly overwhelm the plant and then my entire balcony.
If I have the time and patients, starting from seeds is my preferred method for growing strawberry plants. The seeds are extremely tiny. Like celery seeds. But I have not personally had any trouble getting them to germinate and sprout. They do seem to take a bit longer to germinate and because the seeds are so small it's very easy to plant them too deep, or two shallow. I barely push the seed into the potting soil when I plant them, and then I just lightly cover them or close up the soil surface above them. I always use a self watering seed tray to minimize the possibility I will disrupt the little seedlings during watering. Using a self-watering tray, with the soil thoroughly moist before seeding, I never have to water the potting soil directly.
Strawberries start out very small from very tiny seeds.
Plants like herbs can also grow well in these strawberry pots, if placed in the right location.
Strawberry plants start out small and floppy but are hardy once they get going. Like all new plants that need to be transplanted, wait until they have put out a couple of true leave before moving them. They form a crown at the soil surface so be sure not to bury the plant too deep when transplanting. Keep the crown above the soil surface. Basically, don't bury it deeper than it already is. Strawberries have a shallow root system so they don't need to be planted in an overly deep container. But having shallow roots is a blessing and a curse. Shallow roots mean there is a higher risk of drying out. Keep this in mind when selecting a container. You can't go wrong with something self-watering.
I planted six strawberry plants in this box and they spread out very quickly. What looks like grass growing between the plants are onions. They couldn't keep up with the strawberries.
There is nothing wrong with planting them in one of those strawberry pots you find at the garden centers. The ones with several holes around the outside for plants. I had one a long time ago. All the glaze cracked off of it after it endured a couple of hard winters on the balcony (nothing is safe out there). The problem with these containers on a balcony like mine is you are left with one side that may never be exposed to sunlight. You can rotate them but the plants would still not be receiving a full day of sunlight. Those containers work best in the open where they can get more sunlight from several directions. It can also be difficult to water those containers unless you water every little opening that has a plant in it.
Hanging baskets are another popular way to grow strawberries. Maybe because they look good. Again though, on my balcony, hanging baskets don't work very well. If I could hang them they would get savaged by the high winds. For me, the best strawberry container has been a simple planter box. Nothing too deep. Something I can put in a place that gets sunlight but not so much that the container overheats and the plants get baked.
Like all garden plants, strawberries need a good amount of sunlight to produce fruit. But they are not heat lovers. They produce fruit fairly early in the season. For me on my balcony, by late July they are done for the season. I have never done anything out of the ordinary when it comes to fertilizers or soil amendments. Any good potting soil is fine so long as it drains well. Being a cooler season crop means an extra boost of nutrients will help the plants to produce fruit before they get overwhelmed by the summer heat. But you don't have to do anything special. Any general garden fertilizer will do. The same fertilizer you would use on your other garden plants, with the same frequency.
Flowers will form on the end of stems that extend out from the plant. The most common flower colour is white but some hybrids have pink or even red flowers. They will self-pollinate with the assistance of a good breeze or some bees. I've never had to do anything special to get a good number of the flowers to set fruit. It's a good idea to keep the berries off the soil surface as they grow, but not absolutely necessary. I guess if you plant strawberries in a hanging basket or one of those strawberry pots you would have an easier time of that. I usually lay out some plastic sheets over areas of the potting soil to act as a mulch to keep moisture in the soil. This also keep the berries off the surface of the potting soil.
As with any tasty garden plant there is a long list of pests and diseases that can and will attack your strawberry plants. On my balcony the big ones are aphids, spidermites and mildew. You can get spray-on treatments for these that may or may not work depending on how bad things get. The spread of spidermites and mildew can be slowed with sprays of diluted insecticidal soap. I have yet to find any remedy that will stop aphids other than their natural predators that rarely show up on my balcony. There are a number of strawberry specific diseases that can cause problems too but I don't grow enough strawberries to encounter them. Likewise, there are slugs, worms and beetles that love to devour strawberry plants. But again, not the sort of things I encounter way up on my little concrete balcony.
I don't grow strawberries all the time. Only every so often when I feel like doing something a little different. They are not large plants and don't ask for much. Having said that though, I should add that they don't give a whole lot either. There are other things I could grow that make better use of my limited space and sunlight. But walking out on the balcony in the morning and picking a couple of strawberries certainly adds variety to the urban gardening experience.