Insipired by fintuckyfarms and GpsFrontier, and having obtained a bucket of ever-bearing strawberry starts from a friend, I decided to try my hand at a couple of towers this year. I found a video from Bigelow Brook on using PVC for towers, and used the same idea on standard 4" drain pipe.
I did end up doing a bit of extra work to add leak-prevention scraps to each hole, and discovered as I did the last one opening that a bit of silicone caulk at the corner of each opening would have the same leak-preventing effect with far less effort.
These are 5 feet tall and hold only eight plants each. I'm using Hydroton from last year's lettuce system (more on that in another post), and General Hydroponics
nutrients. I'm not using an air
pump yet, in the hopes that the run through the tubes will provide enough oxygen.
Strawberry towers
Already seeing flowers
Strawberry tower drain
Strawberry tower feed line