Mine and my son's favorite fruit is strawberries. Last year we used half of an old round-up tote (counter-intuitive I know) to make a strawberry patch in the back yard. This year we moved all those plants into a much larger spot in the ground on the east side of a shed. There they'll get full morning sun and be shaded in the afternoons.
Also this year, though, we're going to build a small "test" hydroponic stand for the strawberries. The plan is to build one that will hold around 10 plants. We're going to do half Jewel strawberries, which are what we have in the ground, and half Albion (assuming we can find them) strawberries. The plan is to see which ones work best, if there is a noticeable difference. If it works, and if there is a noticeable difference, the next year we'll make a MUCH larger hydroponic stand (30+ plants) and only use whichever variety does the best.
If there isn't much of a noticeable difference, or if the Jewels perform best, the plan will be to source our strawberry plants each year from our little ground garden patch. If that happens to be the case, we'll pinch off all blooms from that patch, never letting it make fruit, and forcing all the energy from those plants into making runners and new plants to use the following year.
Either way, I'm really looking forward to this project, and mainly because my youngest son is so excited about it too! Of course I'll keep y'all posted on how it goes as we build the stand, and as the strawberries are growing, blooming and, hopefully, fruiting.
