Easily grow strawberries with a vertical PVC pipe.

That's great, isn’t it?

Tips and Crafts
Tips and Crafts
Published 2 years ago
Easily grow strawberries with a vertical PVC pipe.
Urban Green Space

Have you ever thought of using a PVC pipe to create a vertical garden of strawberries?

This is very practical as it does not require much space: in this example, the man installed his PVC pipe directly at the bottom of the steps of his balcony.

Just weeks after planting his strawberry plants into the holes of his pipe, they had reached a great size!

The equipment of the installation will depend on the size of your project. A pipe or 20 pipes?

You will need:

  • PVC pipes: 100mm or 150mm diameter (The length will = the height of the unit)
  • A length of geotextile (or hessian would do)
  • Duct tape
  • String or twine
  • Electric drill with a hole cutting bit that will cut a 5 – 7cm hole
  • A 2 or 3mm drillbit for the watering pipe
  • End cap for the downpipe
  • A narrower diameter (15mm or thereabouts) length of downpipe for watering. Make it about 8 – 10cm longer than the downpipe.
  • Electric saw
  • Fixing collar or ties
  • Scissors
  • 1 litre or so of coarse gravel
  • Some fertile soil
  • Strawberry plants

Instructions

You have to use 2 pipes per installation: in the large one, you will drill holes large enough for strawberry plants.

In the narrow one, you will drill many tiny holes to water the soil and the roots.


After drilling small holes, cover the pipe with a geotextile membrane and retain it with some string to keep it in place. The membrane will prevent the roots from entering the small pipe.

To prevent the soil from entering the small pipe, cover the end with adhesive tape; you will remove it later.

Insert the small pipe into the large one and install the pipes wherever you want to grow your strawberries. Insert watering tube then fill the bottom 10 cm with coarse gravel.


Fill the pipe with soil and plant your strawberries in the openings.

Once you're done, remove the tape from the small pipe. You'll water your plants every day through the top of the small pipe.

That's great, isn’t it? We could all have our small vertical garden of strawberries! It’s so simple, cheap and really practical! And delicious, I forgot the most important: fresh strawberries are simply delicious!

Handy tip: if you are noticing ants farming aphids on your strawberries, locate their path then smear some orange/citrus oil around the unit at this point. Stops them in their tracks!

Good harvest!