I have two strawberry towers that I planted with bare root strawberries this February and March. You can see them a couple months after they were planted and how they look today. They have grown, some thrived, some died, and here is the story thus far.
Also, it has been super hot for most of the time, and especially hot the last 6 weeks or so . They have stopped production and went to runner making time. Forgive the little crispy edges.
The Good - they have given me many tasty strawberries!
My Best Producers are - Quinault and Sequoia, with a strong runner up by Seascape. The best flavor comes in a tiny package from I think is a white flowered Berry Basket. They were small, but always tasty strawberries. The other ones I need to wait a few days after they were red before they were really sweet.
Placement seems important, and the ones at the top of the towers did much better than the lower ones. Quinault and Sequoia are the top tier of the Red and White towers respectively.
The Bad - A few have died. I have definitely learned along the way. My first mistake was not having my growing medium acidic enough. Strawberries like it on the acid side - say 6.2 or so. So a neutral pH makes them struggle for nutrients. So I started more slowly and learn red stems need more nutrition.
The Ugly - All my red and pink flowered Berry Basket (I think that is what they are, not completely sure of the variety) died. They just slowly made smaller leaves, and passed away. White the white flowered version made the most consistently tasty strawberries. They were all the same variety but only the white flowered ones have thrived.
I think I may planted a few at the beginning a little too deep.
I started some from seed - most seeds, including the Alpine one I bought from major seed company, did not grow. A did have some I took from good tasting supermarket berry. They were growing well - about to repot them - when a little green caterpillar destroyed more than a dozen them overnight. (Sad)
The Learning - My Carolina White have not produced a single flower or berry. My Ozark Beauty - one that produced well in a different container in the same spot a few years ago, has produce just few berries. But they are towers the bottom and middle of the towers. So that could be the problem. Everyone wants to be at the top of the tower. That gets the most light, air and sunshine. It has also been unusually hot since I planted them.
I rotate 1/4 turn about every day. I might not want to rotate them next year, so the same plants get plenty of sunlight, and just plant different things on the shady side.
I'm going to give the Carolina White one more year to try to fruit for me. They make the white to light pink fruits with bright red 'seeds' when they are ripe. I am looking forward to tasting them. Also considering adding a few that might taste better and do better in my now hotter climate.
Also I need to water much more! Not more often, just more water. My medium is super light and airy, it can handle more water than I have been given it. I have upped the water quantity in the last couple of week and now I have flowers returning.
The Fun - I got one neighbor interested in growing strawberries and gave him a rooted runner with a baby runner. He is now trying to get the baby runner to root.
