Strawberries are everyone's favorite berry. However, to grow it in an open area, you will have to make a lot of effort. Its taste characteristics will greatly depend on weather conditions. And insects, rodents and birds, who also love it, will bring many problems to this berry. Professionals advise growing strawberries in a greenhouse.
In the video, growing strawberries in bags in a greenhouse all year round as a business idea:
Strawberries are easy to grow in a greenhouse . And this method has its advantages:
And also, by planting strawberries in a greenhouse, the basic procedures for caring for them are reduced - there is no need to weed the bushes, you can organize a system drip irrigation.
Which greenhouse to choose will depend on the purposes for which the berries are grown. If strawberries are planted only for your own purposes, then the area and equipment of the greenhouse will be the same. When a business is built on this, the type of structure will be different.
Such greenhouses are only suitable for growing early berries. They are a frame covered with film. The advantage of such buildings is their ease of assembly and installation. The disadvantage is poor protection from frost.
This option is suitable for those who grow on a large scale. In this building it is possible to organize a heating and lighting system, and place the necessary technical devices to facilitate maintenance. And all this will be a “plus” of such a greenhouse. The disadvantages include the complexity of the structure, because the foundation needs to be laid. This also includes the fragility of glass. But such greenhouses will still be more durable than others.
Hydroponic strawberries in a greenhouse:
This modern material has made life much easier for gardeners and increasingly personal plots you can see the buildings from it. The disadvantage of such a greenhouse will be its cost, but it will also last a long time and will be able to provide all the conditions for growing strawberries.
If the berries are grown for personal consumption, then a room in an apartment, a balcony or a garage is quite suitable for such purposes. It is only necessary to install special lighting and equipment that will facilitate maintenance.
The greenhouse will protect the berries from weather conditions, but to make your work easier, you can equip the room with all kinds of devices for caring for strawberries.
The rows can be made traditionally on the ground, or it is better to install special racks. Access to them should be convenient and easy.
You can grow strawberries in pots or special containers.
If the greenhouse will be used all year round, then you need to think about the heating system. In the southern regions, biofuel is used. For middle and northern areas this is not enough. During the construction of a greenhouse, it is possible to lay pipes through which water is supplied in winter. hot water. This will provide a kind of “warm” floor for the plants. To heat the air, a water heating circuit is installed.
FOR REFERENCE: You can also use the Dutch method and grow berries in hanging beds.
If the greenhouse is glass or polycarbonate, then carry out electric lighting it's easier in them. In all others, it is worth installing phytolamps, since in autumn and winter the berries will need additional light.
Of course, you can water manually, but it is much easier to install drip or automated irrigation systems. Everything will depend on the scale of cultivation.
Drip systems supply water in doses, which means they save it. You can make them yourself or choose from the proposed types. The main thing is that there is a centralized water supply.
Automatic systems are installed for industrial cultivation.
It must be provided for during construction. Vents are located on the roof and in the side walls.
If the area is large, then it is better to install special ventilation systems.
This is one of important conditions. Everything inside the building should be located in such a way that you can easily get into any corner.
So, if strawberries grow on the soil in beds, then their width should be 0.7 - 1 m.
The height of the racks is adjustable to suit the height of the person who will be caring for the berries.
IMPORTANT: You can provide a small corridor where equipment will be stored.
The site for the greenhouse is chosen to be flat and not muddy. There should be no trees or buildings nearby that could cast a shadow.
It is better to attach the greenhouse to the house, it is easier to carry out communications, and in winter you can get inside without leaving the building.
Before construction, you should make drawings, think over the location of all elements, calculate Construction Materials and equipment.
For capital construction you need a good foundation.
The foundation can be strip or columnar. The first type is most often done:
Waterproofing made of roofing felt is installed on the concrete.
The frame posts are made from metal profile section 40 by 50 mm. They are placed at an equal distance from each other and secured with anchor bolts.
You will need rack and guide profiles. The first is installed vertically, the second – horizontally. Fastened with bolts or rivets. Triangular elements are placed in the corners, which will give strength to the structure.
Polycarbonate is the most practical coating. With its help, they build straight greenhouses with gable roof. If you bend this material into an arc, you can lose light transmission.
Choose polycarbonate with a thickness of 6 mm, the cell size will be 75 by 75 cm.
Thermal insulation will depend on the type of fastening:
Now the doors and windows are installed and the greenhouse is ready.
There is always a demand for strawberries. If at the height of the season you can enjoy plenty of berries, then in winter time its shortage is acutely felt. However, the last fifty years experienced gardeners and farmers are actively developing greenhouse cultivation of the crop, in which they have been quite successful during this period.
There are several options for home year-round cultivation of strawberries. Each option requires a special approach, the availability of the necessary skills, suitable equipment and materials.
You don’t have to spend a lot of money to pick some berries for yourself all year round.
The first and simplest is apartment "pot" option . This method is usually used by those who do not have enough space, but want to get berries all year round.
Suitable for planting in pots are those that can produce crops all year round, and do not depend on the time of day or seasonality. The best samples for this type are Geneva, Homemade delicacy . Less commonly used Queen Elizabeth .
Strawberry Home Delicacy forms a compact bush with a small amount mustaches and hanging berries during the fruiting period.
The soil for pots is selected taking into account the preferences of a particular plant.
This can be a ready-made earthen mixture purchased in a store, it is also allowed self-cooking soil. Before pouring into pots, the soil must be disinfected. For this you can steam or fill with ammonia water . After the soil mixture has dried, you can begin planting.
Pots with strawberries are placed on the brightest windowsill.
Care involves:
Due to the fact that new gardens require iron during the formation of berry ovaries, some gardeners resort to simple solution problems - a rusty nail stuck in the ground.
There are three types of greenhouses that can be set up at home. We have already written in more detail earlier.
The film in such a greenhouse will have to be changed annually, but the frame will last for several years.
A greenhouse made of metal and glass is built to last for decades, but it is the most expensive structure.
Preparing the soil for the greenhouse growing method consists of several rules. First you need to disinfect the planting area. Next, fertilizers are applied - peat, humus . To systematically feed novogardens, you should use ready-made mineral complexes purchased in a special store.
IN simple greenhouses As a rule, a two-line planting row scheme is used.
The distance between rows of strawberries depends on the variety, but cannot be less than 30–40 cm.
Greenhouse strawberries in bags using Dutch technology.
The bags are filled with soil substrate - steamed peat, perlite . The substrate has a high level of moisture absorption, which exceeds its own volume four times. The incoming liquid is enriched nutrients, is introduced into the roots, already saturated with useful substances.
Planting methods
You can use vertical and horizontal planting methods. This allows you to minimize the required area.
At vertical landing In pipes, strawberries are watered through an internal drip system.
- Horizontal placement implies the arrangement of bags in a checkerboard pattern, at a distance of thirty centimeters from each other. They are placed in several tiers, maintaining a gap of about half a meter.
- Vertical method involves placing sleeves in polymer pipes, which are strengthened in several rows. The holes in which the bags are located are located at a distance of thirty centimeters from each other.
Overview of varieties
To obtain the highest possible yields, you should decide on the choice of variety. Let's consider promising crops for greenhouse cultivation:
- Maherauha characterized by early and simultaneous maturation. The fruits are raspberry-colored, sweet in taste, large, with a pronounced aroma.
- Zarya characterized by extremely early maturation and has high rates of adaptation. The bushes are lush, tall, the berries are evenly colored, and have a regular conical shape. It requires maximum systematic watering and does not tolerate heat.
- Festival is in great demand, characterized by compact bushes and a consistently high level of productivity. The berry is large, sweet and sour in taste, with a bright rich aroma. Strawberries have average frost resistance.
- Red Gauntlet refers to late appearance, characterized by high yield and resistance to fungal diseases. But it is also rarely attacked by insects and is not susceptible. Characterized by high adaptive properties.
- Mount Everest – French variety, belongs to the remontants. The main difference is that it is maximally adapted to fruiting in shaded areas. The fruits are sweet, with a sour aftertaste, the pulp is juicy, with medium density.
- Queen Elizabeth It is not for nothing that it is considered the queen among strawberry crops. Powerful bush, large fruits, consistently high yield. The aroma is slightly tart, the taste is sugary and juicy. The pulp is elastic, bright red. A neutral type of soil is required.
- belongs to ordinary varieties, but differs favorably from most crops in that it ripens very early, and mass production is expected. Strawberries are quite resilient. The bushes are small, the foliage cap is compact, with rounded leaves. The fruits are large, sweet in taste, with a rich delicate aroma.
- Strawberries Elvira also belongs to the common species, but is popular among gardeners due to its abundant fruiting. The fruits are large in size and have excellent taste. The ability to bear fruit in the shade is at high level. Grows well in any soil.
- It is no less popular. It is characterized by a voluminous leafy cap, powerful bush structure, and strong rhizome. Excellent winter hardiness and average ripening times are noted. The fruits are medium in size, ripe berries are dark red in color with a dense rind. The taste is sweet with a slight amount of acidity.
When deciding to grow strawberries in a greenhouse, you should pay attention to the length of daylight hours and the intensity of growth.
Formation fruit buds, usually, needs short daylight hours, and flowering period requires at least 16 hours . Suitable for hot, intense sunny weather use an awning cover or special nets. The temperature and humidity in the greenhouse must be maintained at the level required for the specifically selected variety.
Can be used as fertilizer potassium salt, ammonium nitrate, superphosphate . Some species require artificial pollination. It is recommended to use an art brush for this. For preventive purposes, mandatory daily inspection of plants for the presence of diseases is recommended. To prevent fungal infection, it is necessary to periodically open greenhouse windows.
Video about growing strawberries in a greenhouse
Year-round cultivation of strawberries at home is now quite possible with developed technologies and the availability of a wide selection of varieties, especially remontant varieties that produce crops throughout the entire growing season. Combining growing plants in warm summer period year on the balcony, and in the cold winter - in the room, you can pick strawberries all year round at home, without bothering yourself with trips to the hypermarket or trips to the garden plot.
This is not to say that this is a simple task. Forcing strawberries throughout the year modern technology, which received the name “Dutch” in Russia, requires daily labor and quite significant financial costs associated at the initial stage - with investments in equipping the house with space and containers for its cultivation, and later - in purchasing and updating the substrate, purchasing fertilizers, updating varieties (purchase of seeds or seedlings) and electricity spent on artificial lighting and the operation of electric pumps supplying nutrient solutions to the roots of plants.
To this it is worth adding the need for watering, fertilizing, trimming the “whiskers”, artificial pollination and periodic replacement of fruit-bearing plants. In order to save money, you can grow seedlings at home yourself from seeds, but this also requires time and some effort.
In terms of comparability of financial and labor costs, such a hobby can be compared to maintaining two or three aquariums with decorative fish with a volume of 100-300 liters at home.
If you have the desire and skills to work with tools, you can completely automate the process of watering and dosed artificial lighting by assembling simple structures.
By assessing the area of the balcony and living space of the house in which you plan to grow berries all year round. In articles devoted to organizing space for growing various berries and vegetable crops on the balcony, we described in some detail the methods of planting plants: both in horizontal and vertical containers. The undisputed leader in saving space at home is the vertical placement of plants.
The substrate can be filled with both elongated plastic bags (preferably made of thick black polyethylene film) and plumbing pipes large diameter with holes cut in them. The second method is more suitable for year-round cultivation strawberries at home, since without the risk of breaking the bag, the pipe with the substrate can be moved to the room for the winter. And if it is decorated beautiful coating(PE film, hammer enamel or other materials), then it will not spoil the design of the apartment, but will fit organically as an element of landscaping.
If the area of the balcony and the room allows (they should be approximately the same), which you plan to occupy with containers for growing strawberries all year, then it is advisable, in combination with the containers, to place a “life support” system in the same area, which will allow you not to worry about timely watering or turning on the lights.
Forcing strawberries at home all year round usually does not involve using land (especially garden land) as such. Instead, at home, either coconut fiber mixed with peat and perlite, or peat with the addition of expanded clay sand ( small fraction) and perlite (vermiculite). This is due to the weight of the substrate. Containers filled with peat and perlite are several times lighter than those filled with garden soil. They are more convenient to move. The second argument for the use of artificial substrates is their “sterility”. You do not risk introducing strawberry pathogens or pest larvae with the soil. In the middle of winter, mosquitoes or midges hatching from the garden soil will not hatch, and two-tailed insects or caterpillars will not start running across the floor.
Another advantage is the almost complete absence of dirt, which inevitably washes out of the drainage holes after watering the plants. There will be no specific smell of damp soil at home. At any time of the year, you can create a pre-known composition of substrate elements that will be most suitable for plant growth and use it to renew containers for planting new plants.
For growing strawberries all year round on a balcony or in a room at home, the most suitable are remontant and ampelous varieties. There is no need to grow tall, strong plants that produce erect flower stalks in balcony conditions. In any case, the berries will not touch the surface of the earth, and therefore will be affected by all kinds of “rot” nesting in damp soil and will always be clean and elegant.
At home, hanging varieties are convenient because they will completely cover the container in which the strawberries are grown with their hanging vines. And remontant varieties will provide you with an uninterrupted harvest. Modern breeding varieties will also include climbing varieties of strawberries, which are independently capable of clinging to a support and growing upward, like a vine, forming a dense green curtain. But growing them on the balcony of a house is possible only within summer season, since moving the plant into the room without damaging the shoots, and then arranging a trellis in the apartment or stretching twines on which the plant’s lashes could be located is very problematic.
If everything is quite clear with the planting of the first batch of plants, then the subsequent replacement of fruit-bearing plants requires explanation. It is recommended to replace the plant once a year. In order not to completely expose the container in which the strawberries are growing, and not to wait for the seedlings to grow, flower and bear fruit, it is advisable to have plants in one container for various periods disembarkation Initially, it will be enough to plant seedlings at intervals of 6 months (spring and autumn), and the next year replace 1/3 of the plants with new ones. Plants that bear fruit poorly or have formed a small number of ovaries should be replaced.
Under no circumstances should you allow misgrading within the same container. Yes and close location different varieties on the balcony may lead to accidental cross-pollination and degradation of the variety.
When growing 2-3 varieties at home, try to isolate them from each other as much as possible, especially on the balcony when pollination can occur naturally- either by the wind or by insects.
Not a single plant is able to survive all year round on an artificial substrate without an influx nutrients necessary for leaf growth and fruit formation. Therefore, growing strawberries at home, year-round, requires constant use of organic and mineral fertilizers.
Taking as a basis ready-made fertilizer mixtures “For strawberries and wild strawberries” or “For berry crops» initially, during the period of intensive growth and before flowering, they should be applied according to the manufacturer’s recommendations (on the package).
During the period of fruit formation and ripening, their quantity should be reduced as much as possible against the technical standards that are recommended.
In the container there is no intensive leaching of fertilizers by rain or after watering they do not seep into groundwater. When organizing drip irrigation, almost all the moisture supplied to the container is absorbed by the roots. Consequently, the applied fertilizers are also absorbed. Therefore, there is no need to add the recommended 5-10 grams per 1m2.
The main care for plants will be regular pruning of the “whiskers” - if it is not an ampelous variety or a remontant variety that forms fruits on young mustaches, as well as periodic pollination throughout the growing season. Pollination can be done either with the help of a fan (cold hairdryer) or with the help of a soft kolinsky (squirrel) artistic brush.
To pollinate different varieties of strawberries, use different brushes and never mix them up or store them side by side. Pollination with a brush is a rather labor-intensive process that requires attention and time, but gives top scores compared to using a fan or hair dryer.
Be sure to spray the plants with a spray bottle at least once a day, since both on the balcony - due to intense air circulation and at home - due to the action of heating devices, the air is extremely dry, and this negatively affects the plants.
If there are no problems with the lack of lighting on the balcony in the summer months, then in the conditions of growing strawberries all year round in winter period, additional artificial lighting is required. The best way is to use LED lamps having a balanced emission spectrum. As a last resort, you can use fluorescent lamps of “daylight” light in a combination of 1 “cold” + 2 “warm” light.
To prevent the red-blue radiation of LEDs from irritating, plants should be fenced off with a screen made of foil material (thermal insulation sold in construction stores) or crumpled food foil glued to sheets of cardboard or fiberboard. This will allow for a more even distribution of lighting and increase its efficiency to 50% of the light source power.
The time for additional lighting while the plants are in the room should be 12-14 hours. You can automate the switching process by connecting lighting fixture to a simple Chinese timer, costing 200-300 rubles.
If you are using a vertical planting system, then it is advisable to use a drip irrigation system - either by placing a container with nutrient solution(water) above the level of the container in which the strawberries are grown and ensuring that the solution flows through tubes from a medical “dropper”, or initially put into the structure a tube located in the middle of the container and having a bottom (plug) and many small holes d-1 mm. along the entire length of the tube through which watering is carried out.
In “advanced” irrigation systems, you can use a micropump for garden fountains or aquariums, which will pump a strictly defined volume of liquid sufficient to moisten the soil. It can also be connected to a timer. Once every two weeks, instead of water, use a solution of mineral fertilizers for watering.
The process of growing strawberries year-round is permanent. It does not allow you to “forget” or postpone for later any of the listed manipulations. However, this is the lot of any agricultural production - work all year round without weekends and holidays.
If you have minimal experience in growing at least greenery for your table on windowsills, then there is a great temptation to aim for something much more interesting, for example, getting juicy and fragrant strawberries in the depths of winter. Let's try!
Nothing prevents you from growing strawberries from seeds at home. This will not require much expense or effort. If winter is chosen as the harvest season, you will need to provide artificial lighting. Phytolamps are well suited for this purpose, which today can be purchased in the same stores that sell pots and soil for planting.
The secret to getting a strawberry harvest on your balcony making the right choice seed material, which should be undemanding to growing conditions. Our tips will help you get a guaranteed excellent result.
A common mistake is to buy varieties intended for greenhouses to grow strawberries from seeds at home. Only remontant varieties that are insensitive to daylight hours and temperature fluctuations in the apartment are suitable. Hanging varieties that are sown in hanging containers and flowerpots are also perfect.
To please your family with balcony strawberries all year round, you should pay attention to the following well-proven remontant varieties:
Carefully considering each stage of cultivation is exactly what will increase the chances of fruitfully growing strawberries in winter at home. Properly selected varieties tolerate low light levels well, but are demanding temperature conditions, as well as fertilizing and soil quality. Our tips for growing strawberries will help you avoid common mistakes and get a great harvest the first time.
The best place for planting will be southern windows, but eastern and western windows in the apartment are also suitable. Only the northern ones are not suitable, since daylight still plays an important role in the growth of bushes. Artificial supplementary lighting only partially solves this problem when growing strawberries at home. Also, the plant is extremely sensitive to drafts, so it is better not to use an uninsulated loggia.
In addition to window sills and hanging containers, flowerpots, you can try using multi-tiered floor flowerpots. They have only one drawback - to approach such a bed from all sides it requires a lot of space.
Strawberries in a pot on the balcony The rapid ripening of berries directly depends on the length of daylight hours. Ideally, it should be 12 hours. In summer this is not difficult to achieve, but in winter you will need a phytolamp. You do not need to turn it on all day, but only in the morning from 8 to 11, and in the evening from 16 to 19. It is most convenient to set this mode using a special timer, with which such lamps are sold.
The temperature regime is selected quite loyally. It is important not to fall below the acceptable minimum. For strawberries it is + 18 0 C. Optimal humidity is in the range of 50-75%. During the heating season, the air in apartments can be very dry. Spraying the bushes with a spray bottle in the morning helps solve this problem. clean water room temperature.
Considering that a bush lives in one pot from 2 to 5 years, it is best to use clay containers of at least 3 liters in size rather than plastic ones. There should be enough holes at the bottom for drainage, and the pan should not be too shallow. If hanging boxes are used to grow strawberries on the windowsill, then it is optimal to take 10-15 liters, in which 4 bushes can be planted at once. Small stones, expanded clay, and crushed eggshells must be placed at the bottom of boxes and pots.
Pot for indoor strawberries However, it is important to consider the type planting material. Only bushes with several leaves can be planted in large pots. If you germinate seeds, then first they are sown in small cups. This approach is quite justified, since the weak root system seedlings are not able to draw enough moisture from the soil to prevent its stagnation and the appearance of mold.
If you go to a specialized store to buy soil, you can look for a special substrate, or purchase a universal one for vegetables or flowering plants. indoor plants. However, you can prepare soil for growing strawberries in boxes yourself. To do this, take sand, coniferous soil, and humus in equal proportions. The second option is to prepare a mixture of vermicompost and peat. The result should be an airy and slightly moist mixture, into which phosphorus fertilizer is immediately added.
Advice: you cannot take soil from the garden. It may contain pests and fungal diseases. If there is no other way out, then the entire volume of soil is thoroughly steamed in the oven for at least half an hour at a temperature of 180 0 C.
Planting material can be purchased at specialized markets and stores. You can buy seeds, but with them there is a lot more work, because you need not only to sow, but also to nurture young strawberry plants in a pot for a very long time until they gain sufficient strength to bear fruit. Of all the bushes, the strongest ones are selected, which are thoroughly washed in a disinfecting solution (for example, Fitosporin). This will prevent you from worrying about root rot.
If the seed method is nevertheless chosen, then stratification is required for all varieties. The seeds are placed on damp gauze, rolled up and placed in a sealed bag. They place it on the top shelf of the refrigerator, where they need to stay for 2-4 weeks.
Seedling bushes for growing strawberries on the balcony should be planted in pots very carefully, carefully straightening the roots so that they reach their full height. If the spine is too long, it can be shortened.
Stratified seeds are planted in a common box, where they are planted to a minimum depth. Then the box is wrapped in film and placed in a warm place. There it stands until shoots appear. Only after this the film is removed and the box is transferred to a bright place. Transplantation into pots can be done at the stage of 2 true leaves. The ideal time to grow seedlings is early spring or late summer.
Don't forget about fertilizing:
Comprehensive mineral fertilizer It is recommended to fertilize the soil twice a month.
IN natural conditions Strawberries can be subject to a wide variety of diseases and pests. And on the windowsill in an apartment it is most often threatened with gray rot and spider mite. Rot often appears due to thickening of the planting or hypothermia of the bushes. Following recommendations for planting density and monitoring room temperature will help avoid the occurrence of the disease.
But spider mites are a frequent visitor to window plantations. Garlic tincture will help get rid of it. Crush two cloves and pour a glass of water. You need to infuse the mixture for two days, and then pour the expressed liquid into a spray bottle and spray all the bushes.
The exact ripening time depends on the variety. The peculiarities of growing strawberries are that the timing of flowering and appearance of berries is influenced by many factors: frequency of fertilizing, length of daylight hours, room temperature.
Ideally, 2 months should pass from planting the seedlings in the pot until the first berries appear.
Then it all depends on the variety, because many bloom and bear fruit continuously, while others require a month to rest between fruitings. If you see that there are no flowers or berries on the plant, then it’s time for rest. It is necessary to stop intensive watering and fertilizing until the strawberries have rested and resumed their growing season.
Knowing how to grow strawberries on the balcony, we must not forget about pollination. Under natural conditions, bees do this. And now you will have to work instead of them.
Take a watercolor brush and carefully brush the bristles over the flowers, not forgetting any. If this is not done, then there will either be no berries at all, or they will be deformed and tasteless.
Now you see that growing strawberries all year round is not that difficult. It’s quite possible to try, especially if you have the opportunity to buy seedlings.
Strawberries are the most long-awaited and in demand in middle lane berry for most consumers. Unfortunately, the season of its mass ripening is very short. It is usually only 2-3 weeks at the end of May and beginning of June. But amateur gardeners often grow homemade strawberries at home, right on the windowsill at any time of the year, obtaining small harvests of this beautiful berry.
Home cultivation of any crop is characterized by small areas due to the limited size of window sills and a number of difficulties in maintaining the required lighting and air humidity. However, those who are seriously interested in this usually build small greenhouse for strawberries, or adapts the balcony for this.
The best option with this method is to dig up a strawberry bush in the fall and store it in the cold until mid-December. Next, the bush is awakened, forced to grow actively and produce a harvest in early spring.
The dug up bush is planted in a pot that matches the size of its root system. The soil can be prepared from 1 part humus, 1 part soil from a coniferous forest, 1 part sand. But store-bought soil for strawberries or universal soil is also suitable.
The pot is placed on a balcony or in another cold room and stored at a temperature no higher than +10 degrees, watering infrequently. In this case, you don’t have to worry about the lack of lighting, since in this mode the processes of photosynthesis in plants stop.
To awaken strawberries, they are brought into a room at room temperature (you can go straight to the windowsill) and wait for the first new leaves to appear. When this happens, it is necessary to add additional light to the bushes. In December and January, on cloudy days, the duration of illumination is usually 3-4 hours a day; on clear days, 2-3 hours is enough. In February you can reduce it by 1 hour, and in early March you can turn it on only in cloudy weather for 1-2 hours. From mid-March, additional lighting is no longer required.
A more difficult way is strawberries from seeds. In this situation, the first harvest can only be obtained in May, and for this you will have to try.
Seeds are sown in January-February in shallow containers with sandy soil. A mixture of commercial soil for seedlings and coarse sand is suitable. The seeds do not need to be covered with a layer of soil, just spread over the surface. After this, the soil is sprayed with a spray bottle, and the container is covered with a plastic bag or mini-greenhouse.
Shoots appear after 3 weeks. They are kept on the windowsill at room temperature and be sure to highlight it, preferably with phytolamps or DNAT or DNAZ lamps.
Important! The seedlings are planted after 2-2.5 months, when they reach a sufficient size, and a fertile soil mixture is already provided for the grown seedlings.
The easiest way for those who are willing to spend money is to purchase a ready-made automated system for growing strawberries. On Russian market The Fazenda Green system is popular.
It is a wall-mounted shelf with three shelves, each of which contains 7 pots. Each shelf is illuminated by a phytolamp with an ideally selected radiation spectrum. Also, each container is connected to a compact drip irrigation system.
The system is equipped with sensors that monitor the level of illumination on the shelves, humidity in the pots and independently regulate the switching on and off of lamps and water supply.
Growing strawberries in bags is no fundamentally different from growing them in pots. A special feature of this technology is the possibility of planting bushes in several rows. This allows you to save space in a cramped balcony or small greenhouse.
To do this, a polyethylene or burlap bag is tightly filled with soil, sealed, and placed vertically. Then, holes are carefully cut in it with a knife for planting bushes. The distance between the holes is 10-15 cm. They can be cut into many rows along the entire height of the bag.
Seedlings (taken from the garden or grown from seeds) are planted in the cut-out cells. Further care behind them is the same as when growing in pots.
Hydroponics is an advanced method of growing crops indoors. With this method, the yield sometimes increases several times than with traditional cultivation in the ground.
The hydroponic method requires special equipment, which you can either purchase or make yourself.
To make a hydroponic setup, you will need PVC pipes with a diameter of 10-15 cm. Holes are made in them at a distance of 10-12 cm to suit the size of the pots. The pipe system can be placed in several rows horizontally one above the other. At the highest point there is a container with a working nutrient solution.
Often such a system is equipped with a pump and an automated system that allows liquid to be passed through pipes 2 times a day for 5-10 minutes, pumped into the upper reservoir and circulated again. For home use, a reservoir is sufficient, and the solution can be circulated manually by opening the valve 2-3 times a day.
Important! It is preferable to use plastic pots with large drainage holes. Their size should correspond to the volume of the root system of the grown strawberry bushes.
Strawberries are placed in pots and fixed either with a special hydroponic substrate or with pebbles or expanded clay.
The pots are inserted into the pipes and a test run of the liquid is carried out for 5 minutes. As a result, the strawberry roots in all containers should be moistened by at least 2/3 of their height. If this condition is met, then the system is ready for use.
Only remontant hanging varieties of strawberries are suitable for home use. This will provide constant harvests of berries throughout the year, since these varieties are able to bloom and bear fruit regardless of the season. Also, the bushes of such strawberries are very decorative, so they will also serve for aesthetic purposes.
Remontant strawberries are represented by a great variety of varieties, and new ones appear every year. But the requirements for them are home grown remain unchanged.
Here are just a few possible options for growing at home: Pineapple, Selva, Crimean remontantnaya, Queen Elizabeth, Garland, Geneva, Darselect, Moscow delicacy, Sakhalin.
All flower growers, summer residents, gardeners who are wondering what is preferable: growing remontant strawberries from seeds or propagating them with mustaches - you need to remember one thing once and for all important point. Remontant varieties reproduce only by seeds!
However, if we are talking about growing strawberries at home by forcing them, then, of course, it makes sense in the fall to dig up a bush from the garden bed, which at one time was obtained precisely from seeds. In other words, growing a bush from seeds at home is a longer and more labor-intensive process, which, however, is also practiced.
The main factor allowing remontant strawberries To bear fruit throughout the year, and not just at the height of the season, requires timely application of fertilizers.
Strawberries at home often suffer from lack of light and drafts (in winter), dry air (in midsummer), and fungal diseases.
Practice shows that at home it is very difficult to preserve a bush until next season. Even if this is successful, the strawberries do not bear fruit as abundantly as in the past. That's why The best decision- plant it in the garden, and next year - take a bush from open ground or stock up on seeds.
If strawberries do not bear fruit, then it is obvious that some mistakes were made in growing them. But which ones?
Growing strawberries at home is not too easy, but not too easy either. difficult task. This is a demanding and vulnerable crop that produces extremely valuable fruits. Probably everyone would dream of getting the long-awaited berries at a time when the strawberry season has long passed or has not yet begun. Well, everyone now has such a chance. Armed with knowledge and patience, anyone can succeed in this field.
