How I Plant Up My Strawberry Hanging Baskets

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I grow many strawberries, mainly for my daughter, who devours them – along with the raspberries. I have tried growing them many ways, but one of the most successful, for me at least, has always been hanging baskets.

I was recently replanting my baskets for this year, so I decided to take some photos as I went along to help out anyone thinking of planting their own strawberry baskets.

So here’s how I do it!

The Basket

Most hanging baskets will work well for strawberries, but I use these ones with holes in the sides. a) because they are cheap and b) because the holes make great spots for strawberries to hang out of.

The Strawberries

If you don’t have some strawberries ready, I recommend getting some bare-root plants. These can be planted in spring, providing plenty of strawberries in the same year.

I bought a few varieties off Amazon and will show you how I planted them. You can also grow strawberries from seed, but they take quite a while to establish themselves properly.

This is how bare-root strawberries arrive, and it can be pretty shocking if you are not expecting it. All you get is a bunch of roots with a tiny bit of green growth at the top.

They will often be covered in soil and looking pretty sorry for themselves. You may think they will not grow, but trust me; they bounce back quickly.

When your bare-root strawberries arrive, the first thing to do is to get them out of the packing quickly and start rehydrating. You want to do this as soon as they arrive. If you leave them for any length of time, there is a good chance they will die.

I give mine a good soak in the sink for an hour or two before planting them up.

The Compost Mix

This is a crucial step in planting up your strawberries if you want to maximise your harvest. I like to use high-quality compost, mixed with vermiculite to increase water retention and, finally, some 6X chicken manure to enrich the mix.

I then get stuck in and mix this well with my hands. Vermiculite is added to help water retention; it is super absorbent and soaks up water before slowly releasing it over time. This means you don’t have to water your baskets as often.

Planting Up The Baskets

I start by adding a little compost to the bottom of the hanging basket to bring it level with the holes around the edge.

I then place the roots of three strawberry plants through alternating holes, leaving the crown sticking out the other end. I only plant up half of the holes as filling all six is too many plants in a small space. I have tried filling this basket before but ended up with lots of small plants that didn’t produce many berries.

Now I will add some more compost on top of this and fill the basket.

I then add three more plants to this top section. I put these above an empty hole, to try and spread the plants out as much as possible.

Again ensuring you leave the crown above the soil level. This is important as if you bury the crown it can rot, killing the plant.

This basket is done and ready to hang up.

Early in the year, this basket was done in March, I will move my hanging baskets into my greenhouse. This helps speed them along a little bit and leads to an earlier harvest.

That is all there is to it. Let me know in the comments below if you have any questions or tips.

Good luck in the garden,
Daniel

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