Delicious strawberries grown on your balcony
Harvest sun-ripe fruits and enjoy the full flavour!
You might not get enough for a strawberry pie because you will probably snack on the delicious fruits before you can gather enough. That's because they are so much tastier than store bought strawberries! It is easy to grow strawberries on a balcony and fun to watch them ripen. It is also sustainable because the plants bear fruit for several years. Let's get started.
What you need
Here is our checklist for download
- A sunny spot.
- Pot or balcony trough, always with a hole in the bottom. Min. 20 cm high with a diameter of min. 15 cm. You get special strawberry pots in which several plants grow on top of each other. Hanging baskets also work well and save space.
- Clay shards or a small stone to cover the drainage hole. This prevents soil from running out with the water.
- Drip tray appropriate for the pot.
- Preferably a peat-free plant substrate, e.g. a soil especially suited for tomatoes and vegetables
- Naturally compatible plants from local specialist shops or from an online store. There are everbearing strawberry varieties such as "Siskeep," "Magnum Cascade," or "Cupido" which bear fruit till October. You can also mix different varieties.
- Watering can
- Organic Multipurpose Plant Food or Organic Tomato Feed
- Super Strength Seaweed Extract
How it works
Step 1: Filling the pot
Place clay shards over the hole of the pot. Then fill the pot with a first layer of peat-free plant substrate. Then add Organic Multipurpose Plant Food. Alternatively, you can also fertilize your plants with the liquid Organic Tomato Feed directly when watering them – first immediately after planting, then every two weeks with 10 ml of feed per litre of water.
Step 2: Planting
Water the plant thoroughly and place it in the pot. The upper edge of the root ball should be about 2 cm below the rim of the pot. This prevents the water from spilling over during subsequent watering. Now pour the plant substrate and press the soil lightly on the sides. Important: the "heart" of the plant, i.e. the place where leaves grow out of the root ball, must not be placed any deeper into soil.
Step 3: Watering
Of course, for best results, use Super Strength Seaweed Extract; it strengthens plants and stimulates their growth. The water should come out from the bottom of the pot.
Step 4: Clipping off or replanting runners
Many strawberry varieties yield so-called "runners" in summer. These are longer shoots on which new baby plants grow. You can clip them off, or simply put them into new pots with soil. These plants will bear fruit next year. They also make for the perfect souvenir!
Step 5: Further care
- Of course, water the plants regularly and add Super Strength Seaweed Extract to the water once a week in the first four weeks. Watering the plants is particularly important at the flowering and fruit formation time.
- Provide the necessary nutrients with Organic Multipurpose Plant Food in March and September.
- Trim the leaves in autumn.
- Before the first frost place the plants next to the house wall and put them on wood or a similar surface for insulation. Cover with fleece.
Extra tips for growing strawberries on the balcony
- Don’t forget to water the plants through autumn and winter as well. All plants need water on frost-free days.
- In winters, you can do away with the drip tray so that the plants are not wet for longer durations.
- You can find more care tips here www.neudorff.co.uk/in-around-the-house/balcony-patio/fruit.html
- The yield decreases after about three years; that’s the time to replant.
- And if your strawberries get infested with snails, Neudorff offers effective products to combat them:
- Sluggo® Slug & Snail Killer+: against slugs on all types of vegetables, fruit and ornamental plants, certified for organic use. Snails can also be seen in balconies at times: they are good climbers, but can also be found in the soil, e.g., due to eggs in the substrate.