How to grow strawberries in your Vegepod!

Now is the time to get your strawberries in! As they like to spread, it is best to plant them in a dedicated Vegepod of their own- our small Vegepod is perfect for this or if you have the space, plant them in a medium or large Vegepod for your own berry patch.

We have combined our top tips with the super growing knowledge of one of our top Vegepodders Rae @raes.a.dozen.daisies  from the Sunshine Coast QLD who also shared some of her top tips to growing beautiful juicy strawberries:

1. Fill your pod to the top with a mixture of premium potting mix from your local garden centre, our Perlite Plus & a well composted manure like cow manure

2. Choose the right strawberry variety for your climate and if you want berries all year round, choose varieties that fruit at different times of the year to extend your harvest. Rae includes multiple varieties in her Vegepod like ‘Summer Breeze Rose’, ‘Sweetheart’and ‘Redlands Joy’ for her climate in Queensland- here in Sydney we are trying ‘Delizz’, ‘Red Gauntlet’ and ‘Ruby Ann’.

3. Once planted, make sure the Vegepod is in full sun for best fruiting

4. Spread a thick layer of sugar cane mulch around the strawberry plants to help them retain moisture and also keep the berries off the soil which may cause them to rot- we don’t usually recommend sugar cane mulch on the Vegepods as they have the wicking beds for moisture retention but due to the berries we love it for strawberry plantings!

5. Keep plants moist especially through the first couple of weeks after planting the strawberries- keeping in mind the Vegepod wicking beds will be watering for you after this period. Checking every week is great and depending on your weather, watering every week-fortnight should be sufficient

6. Feeding your strawberries is essential for good fruit production- use our Vegepod Booster liquid fertiliser every fortnight will help keeping those yummy fruit coming!

7. To maintain, Rae recommends removing the runners (they look like long stems reaching out with no fruit/flower on them) so the plant can concentrate on putting its energy towards growing

8. If you can help yourself, picking off the first flowers is recommended by Rae so they can focus on getting stronger and giving you bigger juicier berries!

Why not try our Strawberry Coulis recipe with your bumper strawberry harvest: