The best way of adding the Ca sources is via incorporation, but since your plantings are already established, it looks like you'll need to be content with scratching it into the soil as best you can.

Al

May I ask what soil you use? I had some trouble with watering that depth because I made mine before I knew much about water retention, so I'll be changing my soil out to a 5-1-1 mix and letting the crowns survive in shallow flats for the winter.

I love the idea, and I can keep about 50 plants in the greenhouse hanging above lettuce and carrots and short crops, so it's a zero floor space used situation. I love it!

I considered this an experiment. I planted 6 towers, each around 30" tall. 2 were 6" in diameter. 4 were 8" in diameter. In one of those 6" towers, I planted the same number of plants as the 8" towers. In the other 6" tower, I planated 25% fewer plants. In both of the 6" towers, the plants were clearly stunted. At least for my version, the 6" diameter towers were failures. I had two different mixes in these towers. Same result for both mixes. One of those mixes was the gritty mix. That was way too heavy for my purpose.

That left four 8" diameter towers. In 3 of those, the plants flourished top to bottom. So much greenery that the towers weren’t visible. However, I was disappointed with the yield. Those 3 towers had these mixes:
1) Miracle grow potting mix. Because the potting mix is dense, I created a watering core by inserting a pvc pipe (1.5" inner diameter) with small holes drilled along the length of the pipe and blocked at the bottom. Been hitting with Miracle gro fertilizer every two weeks.
2) 3:2:1.5 Pine bark:Peat:Perlite Added a little lime and controlled release fertilizer. Been hitting with Miracle gro fertilizer every two weeks.
3) 5:1:1 pine bark:Miracle gro potting mix:Perlite. Added a little gypsum and controlled release fertilizer. The gypsum was an error. I think it should have been lime. Been hitting with Miracle fertilizer and Epsom salts every two weeks.

The 4th 8" diameter tower also had healthy plants. However, I spaced the rows twice as far apart. So the tower looked kind of sparse. The mix in that tower was 3:2:1. Large Pine Bark:Peat:OilDry (turface substitute). I tried small pine bark, but the mix rolled out the tower’s holes like marbles. Putting in large pine bark seemed to physically work better. Added a little lime and controlled release fertilizer. Been hitting with Miracle fertilizer every two weeks.

I did have a problem with gray mold. I got berries, but I was disappointed with the yield.

I will be experimenting with winter storage as well as other spacing, soils, and varieties next year. I live in Northern Ohio, zone 5. I would really appreciate other ideas. Especially how to avoid gray mold and how to increase yield.

Imstillatwork,
Please share your results and ideas

Thanks.

The other thing is that the ideal PH range for strawberries is 5.8-6.2. If your PH is way out of that range, or if your feeding the berries with a heavy nitrogen based fertilizer that would impair yield...I would think... I just checked my strawberries PH and it comes in at 7.5, but for some reason the plants are doing very well.

Of the growing mediums you tried, which did you like the best? I am considering changing my growing medium for next year.

Donna H.

However, those observations are for my towers. I think SWC would have different needs. It looks like for swc in general, justaguy2 recommends 75% small pine bark and 25% turface or turface substitue. But I could be wrong about that. You might post to see if justaguy2 (or anyone else) has specific swc suggestions for strawberries.

Thanks for your ideas about PH

My general advice on SWC is really very generic. Choose a mix that wicks well without being waterlogged. Stuff like partially composted pine bark and Turface MVP do the trick for me.

Peat heavy mixes tend to range from too wet to OK in year one and too wet not long after due to their fairly fast decomposition rate.

Beyond that it's just trial and error experimenting. The good news is that most plants, particularly the edible ones most of us use SWC for, are pretty tolerant of various conditions and will more than likely survive and produce reasonably well even in a less than ideal mix. So, even if one doesn't get to the 'ideal' right away things will likely work out at least OK.