Strawberries grown in old guttering

After many years wishing to grow fruit and veg, I now have a piece of land suitable. There is an old garage on the site that I wish to convert to a makeshift greenhouse, but that's for next year. I do have two lengths of guttering that I think would be OK to use for growing strawberries in. The idea is to fix the guttering at waist height to the fence which runs the length of the land. Set up on a slight angle for drainage with a downspout to a container to collect the rainwater. As strawberries have a small root, would the gutter be deep enough for the plant to grow and thrive ? I have also considered that as the fruit grows it would need to be supported, which I will deal with as and when required. Does this idea sound possible ? It would also save me a lot of pain in my back by not having to constantly bend down. Thanks you John K

 

I've never had much joy with strawberries in containers. They need quite a lot of food and water and I think it's hard to give them enough.

 

Sounds OK to me John ....i've done a similar thing with decking boards....i'd consider putting some drainage holes in it though and as you say maybe some supports

 

Think I saw a similar idea televised by a commercial grower, it worked for him.
Would the drainage holes just have to be at the far end of pipe though, or enough water may never get to the end plants.

 

Thank you everyone for your responses. My idea was to put the plants in the gutter and water them every day, or even fix a gutter from the roof of the garage at one end and drainage at the other. We live in Cumbria so rain is never a problem. I also have an idea for raised beds ! at the moment I have loads of ideas flying around my head. As Pamsdish says about optimism and enterprising is the right way forward. I think that I should put some plants in the gutter and some in the ground/raised bed, if the gutter thing works then it's cigars all round ! Thanks

 

I'd treat it more like a hydroponic set up, as the nutrient will quickly run out in a shallow gutter. Make sure you feed regularly with the watering

Otherwise, sounds great, it'll keep the strawberries from getting mucky too.