"bag garden" or "upside down" strawberry tips

I am making a tall strawberry growing system with a tube in the center to deliver water (it is made of a black plastic woven fabric will let the water from the top drip through, though it is fairly dense).

There will be another outer tube to contain the soil, I plan to cut into the outer tube to make
little pockets in which to plant the strawberry plants. I will make it out of fabric mulch, another
black, water permeable fabric.

I will tuck all of this into a re- used card display from the grocery store dumpster to support it and
lift the whole thing off the ground. I may add some metal tomato upside down growing cages around
the card display stand to help support the plants

What I want to know is, does anyone know a good wicking material for the center tube?i want to be able to water the whole thing from the top.

This is all loosely based on a "bag garden" I saw a Ugandan girl demonstrate on a vimeo by the UK charity SendACow --she added manure from the cow her family received to the soil ( the outer layer). For the center column she put rocks in a coffee can, moved the can up, put more rocks in it, and rolled the cloth bag up, adding more soil.
I am thinking in a parallel way, using not rocks in the center but strips of wicking fabric, maybe water holding gel crystals, and sticks to keep it open. Should I use a manure/ soil mix also, or some lighter weight planting material?

More generally I am thinking of the upside down fruit planters that hang off the ground, in that they also water from the top and use the dark fabric to hold the plant and the soil in place.

Those are my questions-what should I use in my center column to conduct water downward and what planting medium should I use?

I will post pictures of the project next time.
thanks!
Heather Y.

I like your idea of adding water holding gel to the project. Containers exposed to the air dry out a lot faster than plants in the ground.
I think you could use any water retentive potting mix. Some have the gel already in it.
Manure is a low level fertilizer, depending on the animal it came from. Sure, add some

Perlite would lighten the weight, does not hold water.
Vermiculite would lighten the weight, and does hold water.

Gravity will pull the water down through the container. Not sure why you need a central core- is it a storage place for water? So it weeps out slowly, not just runs around the soil particles?

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Gravity will pull the water down through the container. Not sure why you need a central core- is it a storage place for water? So it weeps out slowly, not just runs around the soil particles?

. [/quote]

Dianna thanks for writing!
Yes, it is for that very reason, so it weeps out. Some of us back East care about water conservation - and i don't want to overwater - though perhaps not possible with strawbs! (grin)

It is 7PM here and I have just enough light for the camera. Will post pics later.
cheers Heather Y.

let's see if I can post some of these pics of the various elements of the planter in the making.

I am showing the card display tower, the fabric for the inner column, the fabric for the outer column, and the bottom of the tower display with the re-purposed tomato upside down planter at the very bottom, securing the whole thing in place.

sorry the picture of the tower is sideways.

Heather

also, for wicking water down and having it weep out how about a length or two of soaker hose in the center?
I just realized I have some that I hit with the shovel last year and so it might put out a geyser of water in those spots but turning it vertical and leaving it open might make it work almost the way it was designed - and I would not have to throw it out!

I think making the soaker tubing into a coil at the top is the best. This will apply water to all the top surface, rather than a point source. Best chance for the water to soak through the whole mass.
Once inside, I can see the need for some sort of reservoir, perhaps in the upper 10%, and as wide as the container. This would be of some fabric that will weep slowly over several hours, and might be filled with perlite or other light but solid stuff to hold the chamber open, but might not even need that. How about a plastic dish with tiny holes?
I have not built one of these, though, so if you are following some directions that say otherwise, then ignore my concepts.
I have worked with a strawberry jar and found that regular water just in the top of the container never made it out to the sides, to those pockets that jut out. I had to water it all around, and make sure that each pocket got water. When I watered from the top the water just went straight down through the middle.
Water does not move sideways through soil very well!

Alternative, using soaker tubing:
Make a coil that is just inside the outer material, perhaps 6" apart, up the whole length of the planter.

Thanks so much for helping me think this through. I am winging it, not following instructions at all.

wow, so you are thinking a loose coil from top to bottom with the loops being about 6 inches apart?
...before I pack the soil in and around it, I suppose that means tying it into place at intervals before the fabric and soil goes in? No that would not work unless the coil was attached on the outside.

That was the problem I had with the strawberry jar: When I decided I needed to apply the water close to each pocket, but from the inside, I had to hold the tubing and fill it.

The first question is if the soaker tubing can be bent that tight? I have seen 1/4" soaker tubing in the stores, sold in a coil that is less than 12" diameter. Perhaps if you started with this, and carefully stretched it out, not straight, but just lifted up the coils so it stayed coiled, but open, like a stretched out spring.
Then cross tie it into the planting bag. Could you use a darning needle and sew it into place with some heavy polyester thread? (Polyester will not rot- I have found missing socks in some soil after many years)

Hmmm, now I am thinking i will suspend strips of it from the top. there are six meal connecting pieces up on top. That's a little less sewing!

It is a spongy black hose though, not a strip.

Hope it works. Water will follow the tubing if the tubing is just straight up and down. It won't seep into the soil very much. So several, spread out around the planter is a good idea.

http://www.groworganic.com/1-4-mr-soaker-hose-100-roll.html

Here is what I am thinking about.
That coiled material is already coiled to fit inside the planter, it won't kink.
How about using some twist-tie, poking it through the planter, to hold the tubing in place.

Thank you so much for the link! Those web pages offer a lot of things I have been seeking in hardware stores and not finding for several years- not just soaker hose but fittings. Ends. Fawcet attatchments. Connectors. I have hit the jackpot.

Of course shopping at ta fabric store for wicking cotton might be faster.
thanks again for the link
Heather

I would like to see what you come up with, and how well it works. Can you post a few pics along the way?

Sure!

I too am very interested.

I am now waiting for the Irrigation guy at home gardening to call me back about what fittings I need and how fast it can get here. I think I will have to buy my soaker hose closer to home, it will not get here in time for my planned trip at the end of May.

Outside I go with the camera, the printout, and the phone.
Heather

Here are pictures of the last of the soaker hose coiled around the planter to be in experimental
fashion. I think I need more.

Do I need to hook it up to the fawcet? I am thinking that if I water it on the top and sides for oh, five minutes a day with a new nozzle on a medium force setting it will get enough water for right then and some to hold onto and weep slowly out.

The last two pics are pic of the strawbs themselves. I had three in one planter and some reason the root balls got heaved up about the soil level and the leaves dried out. They are now nestled down in lots of loose soil with the other strawberry plants.

Heather Y.

PS I will also post more as I go through the process. A neighbor has expressed interest and offered landscape fabric.

You might be OK with the soaker tubing ending above the bottom 25% of the planter. Water 'phloem' downhill ;-)

Ultimately it will be very useful to have it hooked up so it runs automatically. At first you are going to have to watch it and figure out how often and how long to run it.