First aid for Wilting Strawberries pls

[Gardening_in_OH-IO]

I have 36 Everbearing Strawberry plants in my garden this year, the first time I've EVER grown Strawberries before.
I built my own version of a Strawberry tower to grow them in, however the plants that are in the East side of the Tower are looking pretty boiled.
The garden gets sun pretty much all day, direct sun. The garden is on the East side of the house so it's in the direct sun until early evening time.

Before I just watered the Tower with the regular hose, just let the water run in, now I am wondering if that was a wrong approach, that maybe I should set a Sprinkler by it and give it steady watering over a longer period of time?
Or should I block the direct sun?! I was always told Strawberries loved the full sun, now I am not so sure.

Right now the wilted plants are still ... soft. In other words, I don't think they are 100% goners, they are just brown, dropped, wilted. But still soft leaves to the touch, etc. So, if at all possible I would love to turn their luck around. Any input would be greatly appreciated!!!

[dan1979]

This may be obvious but have you tried rotating the tower?

[Gardening_in_OH-IO]

Sorry, should've mentioned that - there is no rotating the Tower.
First off, the Tower is designed to hold many more then 36 plants, as my original plan called for close to 100 plants.
And then there is set up for proper drainage that doesn't allow for any moving of the tower while in use either. (In other words I would have to take out the plants and dirt to move it)
Hence I'm considering other options to block the direct sun.

[JimineyC]

I had Strawbs in towers and they all hated it. It was my first year with them last year but I had quite the opposite - the plants that did best in the pots were the ones facing the sun, and we had a pretty fierce summer last year. Drainage was also a problem for me but you seem set up for that.

I've taken all my plants out of the towers and moved them into normal pots or troughs and they're much happier. One plant that was 99% brown and dead has started sprouting new growth so they are quite hardy, but we've had a lot of rain recently, and I used fruit plant food a bit.

Maybe a mulch or soil covering would help, and watering in the morning or evening only. They also like shelter so if that side is more exposed perhaps they don't like it so much.

I'm currently having a different problem. I had some alpine strawberry's, which have all died, but not before they seem to have cross pollianted with all my other strawberries which are now producing small, sharp alpine fruits. Nice enough, but not what I'd planned.

Hope any of this helps.

Jim

[Gardening_in_OH-IO]

Hm.. I might go ahead and try to take those plants out of the tower then and set them into the soil.
It's extremely puzzling to me, cause, yes, everyone said they loved the direct Sun Exposure. I beg the differ....

All other 3 sides are doing WONDERFULLY so I'm not concerned about the Tower Set up in itself really, they seem to adapt just fine.

I got the Sprinkler set up back there now, waiting for all these thunderstorms to move out so I can test it out. ha ha
Hopefully that will do the trick, drawing the watering out over a longer period of time. We shall see.

As for the soil coverage - I actually refrained from planting in the top 2 rows of the tower, because while planting I noticed that as soon as I skipped the first two rows the soil was moist, in other words, there was enough coverage that it didn't dry out as much. That is just the problem with the Tower System - it's basically container growing, and container plants dry out so quickly...
Unless of course, being that the Sun shines on that side of the tower, rather then drying out from the top down to the bottom, that SIDE dries out from the outside inwards. I think I just answered my own question here It's a shame it took me this long to figure something this obvious out.

Thanks everyone for the input though! Thinking about it out loud obviously helped! ha ha Hopefully now I can come up with a better plant of attack. Maybe set the sprinkler to THAT SIDE of the tower more often... Being that the other sides are in great condition, I'd hate to drown them now.
Think twice a day would be enough?! Morning and evening?!

[rustylady]

When I was a child we used to find wild strawberries growing in the hedgerows. They seem to like at least partial shade, and certainly do not like the roots drying out and cooking. Sunshine is preferable to ripen the fruit, but certainly not essential. I've never had any success with strawberry towers, and grow them in troughs in the back garden and on the level on the allotment. Picked 4 pounds of fruit yesterday off the lottie (those were the ones that were fit to eat - the others had been got at by slugs, snails, woodlice and my friendly neighbourhood blackbird who was still pecking away as I was picking mine).

[northenlights]

i was gonna put some cambridge strawberrys in towers this season but i think i will stick to pots after reading this ,but i have loads of alpine strawbs has anyone tried growing them in towers or pots i have 150plants and was hoping to plant then in vertical plastic tubing with a drip irrigation system anybody done this ???

[Two_Sheds]

Wild strawberries are woodland plants. They hate being dry, and towers just encourage dryness. Don't do it

[areia]

where can i get wild strawberries my nan had them in her garden bitter tasting but loverly, i hate it when we lose old varieties

[southlondongardener]

If you search for alpine strawberries you should get more information.