We have been using IKEA hanging pots on our outdoor shade structure. It creates something nice to look at and a lot of the strawberries hang over the side. They kinda look like these http://m.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/art/90186094/ but are wider.

I took a look at your picture and I guess I can fit maybe 6 plants in there. That would work. thanks

Milk crates as a tower would work. I would be able to fit many plants in there and the crates could be hung or angeled many ways. thanks

Just wanted to note I have about 4 hanging plants and 1 big potted one. I don't have that many but am looking to get more through runners. Ideally I am going to need more plants for strawberries to make it out of the garden. Between my wife and I strawberries don't make it inside too often. :D I am interested in seeing anything you make for high volume if you decide on something else.

I have a lot of runners plants and I would like to plant them in the towers. Not sure how towers I need, maybe 3 towers of 3 crates each.

I have been thinking for now of using some leftover PVC 3 and 4 inch pipe. I have 10ft pieces and I can cut them in half. I have looked on-line and figured I would use my hole saw to cut some 2.5 in. holes 12 in. apart and plant in the holes. I have so many strawberries with runners that even putting them in a tower I will have many plants left. I also have small 1 in. PVC and will make a planter 5 or 6 ft long and 12 or 14 in. wide and use a fabric liner to hold the soil. I have to make sure whatever I use will not leak the soil. I was going to use wood but after a few years the wood will start to decay. The PVC is light and hopefully will last a long time, longer than wood.

This is a nice way to grow strawberries above ground in gutters system. You can get the gutters either plastic or aluminum from Menards, Lowes or Home Depot.

Tony

I tried that with gutters roughly 6 ft long but my problem was that the runners were hanging down and going into the next gutter. I put 3 gutters up on the side of my greenhouse secured to a support. The gutters were 2 ft from each other stacked. Your setup looks nice and easy I just don't have alot of room/ I have to try and go up.

Sounds good. Spread apart more between each stack then the problem is solved.

Tony

Can the gutters hold enough soil and water for the strawberries without needing to water them multiple times a day? I thought about asking DH to build a structure to hold a few 6 ft gutters. We estimated about $100 bucks for the wood, gutters, gutter end caps and so on. Somehow it does not sound economical to me, that's a lot of strawberries.

I just planted some runner plants in a few earth boxes. Even with the plastic bottle trick, it still took bags of container mix and compost for each box. I am not happy with it and still looking for perfect containers for the strawberries.

I used Miracle Gro moisture control potting mix. I water them once a day.

Tony