Ok... help me understand how building the tiers helps? I haven't grown a lot of strawberries, so perhaps there's something I don't know. At first I thought sq. ftage... nope... unless I'm mistaken, it's exactly the same amount of sq. ft... in fact... after subtracting the thickness of each board, there's less. And then I thought... drainage... yeah, there's better drainage, but there's no waterfall effect, so really, you're looking at too much drainage. The plants at the top will need a lot of water due to a simple loss of mass.

The only positive effect I can see is from the lessening of crowding. Is there some aspect of strawberry growth that makes crowding into a regular bed something to avoid?

I agree. In theory it gives you more room for plants in the same base footprint - up rather than out.

But is really doesn't because of all the wasted space under the second tier etc.. So you end up with the same number of plants in 2 tiers as if you had planted all of them in the one bottom bed.

Depends on the type - June or Everbearing, but crowding can be a problem because of runners. You plant the bed with wide plant spacing to begin with as the plant runners (avg. 2-3 ea.) will fill in the bare spots as the plants grow. Individual plants have a limited life span so the new plants from the 1st year's runners become the fresh plants for year 2 and their runners become the new plants for year 3 when the 1st year plants are usually finished and pulled, etc.

But tiers do have a visual appeal for some.

Dave

If a person is planting in a tall pot, or a cylinder-shaped container and holes are cut to stick plants around the sides, then there is an increase in sq. ftage. There are popular containers sold for that purpose, and I've even seen DIY tv shows where they attach pallets to the side of a house for vertical growing space.

I can imagine the visual appeal of a cascade of strawberry plants growing down and around the pyramid bed, but the large one shown is not very practical. As mentioned, it's far too wide to reach the upper tiers for maintenance and harvest. It's also expensive and a lot of soil. I suppose a similar structure with something like stacked plastic milk or soda cases making the rising tiers could make it a bit easier to build.

The benefit to tiered beds is they are easier to harvest (for me, anyway). We decided against the pyramid style because it didn't seem to leave enough surface area for root growth or runners.

Ultimately we decided on something a bit different...it will take more soil but will be very practical for planting a variety of things if I decide I don't want that many strawberries. We're using cedar that is not as thick as the boards pictured (ours are 1" thick and 5 1/2" tall). The bottom tier will be 11" high and the highest tier will be around 26-28" (can't remember what my husband said). We wanted something attractive since this bed will be right next to our lawn and weren't necessarily concerned with maximizing planting space. The whole thing will be a 6x6' square.

I think that's a nice looking bed. I would only suggest that you find a similar sized structure and try to reach into the center. 6' x 6' means you have to reach in 3'. Few people can comfortably make such a reach. The boards used for the one in the photo are wide enough to climb on, but it sounds like you won't have that feature. Perhaps you can find a way to include a 'step' of sorts.

Keep in mind that 1 x s tend to bow out over time once you get much past 3' in length without center supports of some kind.

Dave