Soil for growing strawberries

[rary]

I am going to try growing strawberries in shoe pouches, so would like to know what would be the best type of soil to grow them in, would it be soil or compost or a mixture of both also would it be an advantage to include chicken pellets with whatever is used

[burnie]

Moisture retention is something to think about, so nothing too light, if they are bare rooted I would go for a 50-50 mix of soil and MPC, if the plants are from pots with attached compost root ball, I'd just use soil.
Oh and I feed with a tomato feed/seaweed formula.

[Jungle Jane]

I think chicken feed encourages green growth rather than fruit,have you got any BFB or a bit of bonemeal on its own for planting then feed with tomato fertiliser. Can you line the shoe pouch with used tea bags or something to help hold moisture or put a line of plastic along the base?

[ameno]

A soil-compost mix would be best. If you're using shoe pouches, though, you might need to consider weight. Soil weighs about twice as much as the same volume of compost.

[rary]

Thanks folks I will add support to compensate for the additional weight which I had not considered and will go for a 50/50 mix with BFB added to it, you comments are much appreciated

[Dynamite]

I planted mine from pots into a bed about 2 weeks ago. They were in 50/50 soil and mock but now direct in ground. Here they are now in this photo:-

[rary]

I think chicken feed encourages green growth rather than fruit,have you got any BFB or a bit of bonemeal on its own for planting then feed with tomato fertiliser. Can you line the shoe pouch with used tea bags or something to help hold moisture or put a line of plastic along the base?

Just wanted to let you know jane I had been thinking on the best way to line the pouches to hold the moisture, when my daughter phoned asking if she could bring some plastics down to put it into my recycle bin, threr are 5 of them in 5he house and only OH and myself here and we don't drink from pop bottles nor use cans so have an almost empty bin, any way there were some 2lt. cola bottles and they fit into the pouches perfectly and you get 2 pouches from 1 bottle so ideal for the job

[rary]

And I will use a 50/50 mix with soil and coir rather than compost