The only variety I've tried that sort of performed was "Seascape". Quinault, Sequoia, and Treasure(?--can never remember the name of that alpine/standard hybrid) were flops--at least for me. Seascape produced some nice berries but they were not terribly sweet. And I would not call the plants "productive" under these conditions.

I'm giving up on the tubes. This was my second year and with a new soil mix and wider tubes but I found watering very problematic and the plants were difficult to establish at the right depth. Seemed like a good idea, but just didn't work for me in my climate.

I have noticed in a lot of the pics of this type set-up, they were all freshly planted. Nothing well established and covered in strawberries. I have seen these stackable pots that were productive but the price of the pots and set-up were not a cost effective way to go IMO. Have not been able to find much on these methods except from the people selling the product. Even noticed some photo shopped pics with prolific amounts of strawberries next to freshly planted plants. Maybe its a scam?????

We may not be talking about exactly the same animal. I used PVC pipe (4" the first year, 6" the second time around) with holes cut in the sides for the plants. Planting is tricky as the holes must be large enough to insert the plants (bareroot is easier) while not so large as to encourage the soil mix to fall out. If a plant should fail, replacing it is very difficult (for me, anyway).

I remember dismantling the first year effort. The pipe was a solid mass of roots with little top growth to show for it. This year with the larger pipe I have luxuriant top growth (except for plants that didn't make it) but either little fruit or fruit that is not really worth eating.

I am almost sworn off strawberries (except the alpines which grow easily and are not bothered--here--by birds or bugs). I will try a few plants next year in individual 2 gal nursery pots (of which I have a surplus). These will go on a rack in a net-covered area where I grow blueberries and raspberries. If that's a failure, I'm done.