How to grow strawberries at home?

Every year there are more and more people who want to taste their own grown fruits in their home garden. In addition to the usual tomatoes, cucumbers and various greens, you can grow strawberries all year round on the windowsill of the house. In winter, it is especially pleasant to enjoy homemade berries.

how to grow strawberries at home

Features of growing on a windowsill

Having decided to grow strawberries on a windowsill, you first need to choose the right planting material. The fact is that indoors it is better to grow varieties that are unpretentious to environmental conditions.

how to grow strawberries at home

In addition, a special microclimate must be created in the room where the containers will be located. So that the strawberries do not hurt and grow quickly, you need to set a comfortable temperature in the room. It is equally important to control the level of lighting and humidity throughout the growing season.

Which varieties are suitable for growing on a windowsill

It is necessary to choose planting material very carefully, contrary to common misconception,greenhouse strawberry varieties are not suitable for growing in an apartment... When choosing seedlings of indoor strawberries, you need to pay attention not to the appearance of the plant, but to its characteristics.

Strawberry seedlings, for growing at home on a windowsill, should be renovation, unpretentious to the length of daylight hours and temperature. The ampelous bushes that hang from hanging containers look especially beautiful in the apartment.

how to grow strawberries at home

For year-round cultivation of strawberries on a windowsill at home, it is best to choose varieties such as Supreme, Geneva, Queen Elizabeth. The cultivation of the mustache-free variety Home Delicacy, Tristan, Selva, shows good results.

Video: how to grow strawberries (garden strawberries) from seeds on a windowsill

How to plant and grow on a windowsill - features, conditions and step-by-step instructions

To successfully plant and grow strawberries at home on a windowsill, certain rules and conditions must be followed. Let's talk about them in more detail below.

A place

The best place to grow remontant strawberries is a south- or east-facing windowsill. It is possible to grow a culture on the eastern and northern windowsill only under the condition of constant supplementary lighting.

Daylight hours

For rapid growth and ripening of garden strawberries, the duration of daylight hours should be 12-14 hours. If in the summer the bushes have enough sunlight, then in the fall and winter, when the light part of the day is very short, strawberries need supplement with fluorescent lamps. Lighting devices are turned on 2 times a day: from 8 to 11 hours and from 16 to 19 hours.

how to grow strawberries at home

Temperature

It is important to maintain the temperature when growing strawberries at home. + 18- + 20 C. If the temperature is a few degrees lower, the plants begin to ache. To prevent such unpleasant consequences, it will be necessary to turn on the heaters in the fall and spring.

Humidity

Strawberries will feel good if the humidity does not exceed 70-75%. In the midst of the heating season, in winter, when the air in the apartment is very dry, bushes sprayed from a spray bottle with settled water at room temperature. However, even in this case, it is worth adhering to the measure: due to the high humidity in strawberries, resistance to fungal diseases decreases.

What container to plant

Suitable for planting bush seedlings small pots. Ampel species feel great in hanging pots. Seedlings, which have formed 5-6 leaves, are planted in a 3 liter pot. The seeds are planted in small cups, and as soon as they release the first pair of leaves, they are transplanted into spacious permanent containers.

how to grow strawberries at home

You can also plant plants in long boxes with a volume of 10-15 liters... When landing in such containers the distance between the bushes must be at least 20 cm... Regardless of the size, there should be holes in the bottom of the planting container for excess water to drain.

What kind of soil (substrate)

You can buy potting potting soil at a specialist store or make your own. Suitable for indoor strawberries any substrate intended for growing vegetables and flowers.

To prepare the soil with your own hands, coniferous earth, sand and humus are mixed in equal parts in a container. Also, strawberries grow well in a substrate of peat and vermicompost.

how to grow strawberries at home

The main condition that should be met when preparing the substrate isthe potting mix should be airy and slightly damp. At the end of the preparation of the substrate, phosphorus fertilizers are introduced into it.

Important! It is highly undesirable to use soil from the garden for planting strawberry seedlings at home: it can be infected with nematodes and other dangerous larvae. If there is no other option, you need to check it before using the garden soil, and then spill it with a low-concentrated solution of potassium permanganate. You can start planting bushes a week after disinfection.

Preparation of planting material

Experienced gardeners recommend growing strawberries at home on a windowsill with seedlings, since growing seedlings from seeds on their own is quite a long and troublesome business. Planting material can be purchased in nurseries or taken from your site, if there are remontant varieties.

how to grow strawberries at home

The preparation of strawberry seedlings for planting at home is carried out as follows:

  1. From the available sockets, only the the largest and healthiest.
  2. Planting material separated from the mother plant and planted in a pot.
  3. To give the strawberries a dormant period, the container is placed in a cool place for 14 days - basement or cellar.

Direct landing

Since strawberries do not like stagnant water and compacted soil, pebbles, expanded clay, small pieces of slate or brick are covered at the bottom of the pot before planting.

how to grow strawberries at home

Saplings strawberries are planted at home like this:

  1. A drainage layer and a little substrate are poured into the pot.
  2. The rhizome is dipped in a weak solution of potassium permanganate for a few minutes.
  3. Plants are placed in a pot and the roots are spread. The root must be full-grown in the pot. The rhizome must be shortened if the tip has to be strongly bent during planting.
  4. In order for the cut bushes to recover faster, they are immersed in a weak solution of heteroauxin for 3-4 hours.To prepare the mixture, a crushed tablet of the drug is dissolved in 5 liters of water.
  5. They fill up the missing soil to the point of growth and crush it a little.
  6. To improve the survival rate, the bushes are moderately watered with a solution of heteroauxin

You can use seeds to grow strawberries at home on a windowsill. Despite the fact that the harvest will have to wait longer than when planting seedlings, this does not scare off gardeners who do not see their life without their favorite business.

how to grow strawberries at home

In order for the seeds to sprout together, they need to be hardened. The planting material is laid out on a damp cloth, then it is folded in half and placed in a bag. The bookmark is then sent to the top of the refrigerator for 30 days.

The sequence of planting strawberries at home on the windowsill seeds:

  1. A shallow box is covered with prepared soil for most of it and slightly moistened.
  2. Keeping a distance, the seeds are laid out in rows.
  3. The planting material is sprinkled with a thin layer of soil.
  4. The seedling container is covered with polyethylene or glass and placed in a warm place.
  5. As soon as the seedlings germinate, the shelters are gradually removed, and the container is placed on a light windowsill.
  6. Plants with a pair of real leaves are transplanted into a spacious pot.

The optimal time for planting strawberry seedlings in an apartment is early spring or the period from August 15 to September 20.

Video: how to care for and grow strawberries at home in a pot

How to care after planting and before harvest

Watering. For watering strawberries, like other indoor plants, use only settled water at room temperature. In order not to wait for the chlorine to settle to the bottom of the container, water can be passed through a filter.

how to grow strawberries at home

Adhering to the technology of cultivating strawberries at home on a windowsill, the soil in containers is moistened 2 times a week. It is best to moisturize the soil in the afternoon. After watering, the soil in the planting container is loosened.

Important! Despite the fact that the growth of strawberries after the next moistening is activated, it is impossible to get carried away with watering. Overflowing plants is fraught with the appearance of rot on the roots and fungal diseases. Stagnant water is especially dangerous for bushes.

Top dressing. It is recommended to feed indoor strawberries once every 14 days. As fertilizer, you can use conventional houseplant feed or special strawberry nutrient mixtures. Top dressing is applied in accordance with the manufacturer's recommendations. They begin to be brought in after the 5th leaf appears on the bush.

how to grow strawberries at home

If you do not want to use industrial mixtures, you can prepare food for indoor strawberries yourself according to this recipe:

  1. A 3-liter jar is covered by a third of crushed eggshells.
  2. Then 1 glass of ash is poured and the jar is filled to the top with slightly warmed water.
  3. At the end of 5 days of infusion, the solution is filtered.
  4. Before making the top dressing is diluted with water 1: 3.

You can also fertilize strawberries on the windowsill with weak solutions. mullein, chicken droppings.

Note! It is impossible to overfeed strawberries with fertilizers: a large amount of nutrients stimulates the active growth of leaves and has a bad effect on the setting and formation of fruits.

During fruiting, the bushes need a lot of iron. According to the reviews of experienced gardeners, in order to enrich the soil with a chemical element, a rusty nail must be driven into the pot a few centimeters. Admirers of the use of commercial mixtures spray the plantings with solutions containing iron compounds.

After harvesting, the bushes are rarely fed or not fed at all.

Pruning. Many will be surprised, but strawberries need to be pruned in order to increase yields. How to prune strawberries grown at home on a windowsill?

  1. On seedlings grown from seeds, the first few flowers are plucked. It is not necessary to cut off the flower stalks on strawberries, divorced from seedlings.
  2. If further expansion of indoor plantings is not planned, and it is not necessary to replace adult bushes, the antennae must be cut off.Also, cropping is recommended when there is a lack of lighting. As a result of shearing, the plants will not be wasted on the formation of unnecessary outlets, but will direct all the nutrients to the fruits.

Pollination. In order for berries to set after flowering, the strawberries need to be pollinated. There are several ways to artificially pollinate at home:

  1. By the blossoming flowers one by one holding a paintbrush throughout the entire flowering period.how to grow strawberries at home
  2. A fan is directed at the plants. Under the flow of air, pollen from one flower is transferred to another and the strawberries are pollinated.

Video: growing strawberries in winter

Diseases and pests

During fruiting, strawberries are affected gray rot and spider mites. To get rid of the worst enemies of sweet berries, plantings are sprayed garlic tincture. To prepare the solution, 2 vegetable slices are crushed and 100 ml of water is poured. The mixture, infused for 2 hours, is filtered, poured into a spray bottle and the plants are treated.

Terms of germination and harvesting

Strawberry seeds planted in an apartment sprout for a rather long time: the first seedlings make their way to the surface 20-30 days after sowing.

Repaired strawberries, grown at home on a windowsill, bloom in 30-35 days, and ripe berries begin to be picked 60-65 days after planting.

Video: strawberries on the windowsill in winter

The year-round cultivation of remontant strawberries on the windowsill is an exciting activity that does not require so much time and effort. All troubles and difficulties will pay off a hundredfold with ecologically clean and tasty fruits.

how to grow strawberries at home

Ripe, juicy, amazingly tasty strawberries on the table, while a blizzard is sweeping outside the window - this is a real luxury! In the middle of winter, not every supermarket can find fresh berries, and if you can find them, their cost will be prohibitively high.

Create favorable conditions for growing berries

But after all, someone grows mouth-watering strawberries at home on the windowsill, some enterprising gardeners even benefit from this activity, turning the cultivation of berries at home into a profitable business. Breeding strawberries at home - myth or reality, accessible to anyone?

Now there are various methods of how to grow strawberries in an apartment of any size. You can effectively use the free space in your home by planting strawberry seedlings in plastic bags filled with substrate, or growing bushes with berries in traditional flower pots and boxes. It all depends on the purpose for which you plan to grow strawberries at home, and how much space you can allocate for this.

how to grow strawberries at home

Opt for remontant strawberries that bear fruit multiple times

What do strawberries need for normal ripening? Room temperature, good ventilation and suitable soil. These conditions are easy to fulfill, because the apartments are warm at any time of the year (and if there are problems with heating, you can always buy an additional heating device), air circulation can be provided using a window, a special inexpensive substrate can be purchased in the store. This means that you can also start growing strawberries at home, if you take into account the most important points:

  • Opt for remontant strawberries that bear fruit multiple times. The most popular varieties: Yellow Miracle, Queen Elizabeth, Mount Everest.
  • When growing strawberries from seeds, purchased seeds should be placed in the refrigerator for 4 weeks, wrapped in a damp cloth and placed in a plastic bag - then the hardened seeds, when planted in the ground, will give friendly shoots within a week.
  • Prepare a spacious pot with a good drainage layer for seedlings, as strawberries like frequent, abundant watering, but they cannot tolerate stagnant water.
  • It is recommended to plant strawberry seedlings at home in prepared soil either in the fall from August 15 to September 20, or in early spring.
  • Since this berry is afraid of the cold, do not keep it on the balcony, and protect it from frost.
  • From time to time, do potassium-phosphorus fertilizing, and to form the ovaries, treat the plants with a special preparation "Ovary".

how to grow strawberries at home

Ideal for growing homemade strawberries - southern, well-lit windows

The ideal option for growing homemade strawberries is the southern, well-lit windows. If there is a lack of sunlight, plant growth may slow down and the taste of the berries will deteriorate. However, you can create artificial lighting for your strawberry plantation using fluorescent lamps. Strawberries will begin to bloom and bear fruit earlier with a long daylight hours, and the quality of the berries will increase significantly. Therefore, if you are concerned about how to grow strawberries at home in the shortest possible time, provide the plants with a continuous day of light for about 14 hours.

Video about strawberries in January

How to pollinate strawberries at home?

Since strawberries at home are devoid of natural pollination, you will have to provide plants with artificial pollination during the flowering period, which can last several weeks. To produce artificial pollination flower stalks on strawberries at home, you can in two ways:

  • direct a fan in the morning towards the peduncles (under the influence of the wind, strawberries are pollinated in the open field);
  • pollinate each flower by hand, brushing it daily with a soft paint brush.

As you can see, growing strawberries at home is affordable even for inexperienced gardeners and does not require significant financial costs. Difficulties can arise only with pollination, especially if you decide to breed extensive berry plantations, because it is not so easy to brush every small flower every day, and with a fan, successful pollination is difficult to guarantee.

Video on how to get strawberries in January

However, you shouldn't give up! Try, plant seedlings, take good care of them - strawberries at home can bring several harvests a year, delighting you and your loved ones with ripe berries in late autumn and frosty winter.

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Strawberries are one of the most delicious and popular berries in our country. To get a rich harvest of sweet fruits, you need to know many of the nuances of growing. There are many ways to cultivate berries. How to grow strawberries correctly?

When is the best time to grow?

how to grow strawberries at home

Strawberries can be planted permanently in early spring or fall. Autumn planting is preferable, since fruiting will begin in the coming season. Plants planted in spring will only yield a year later. However, there is a risk of plant death after the onset of return frosts.

Autumn-planted strawberries will have time to take root and get stronger before winter. The optimal time for planting is from August 10 to September 25. You should not delay planting, because late planting can greatly reduce the volume of the crop.

How to choose a seat?

For strawberries, it is advisable to choose a flat area with enough sunlight, not blown through by drafts. Before planting, it is recommended to check the soil for the presence of pest larvae: wireworm, nematodes and the Colorado potato beetle, and also to make sure that there are no roots of perennial weeds in the soil.

If there are large trees in the garden that cast shadows on the berry bushes, the strawberry will not develop well. Such a neighborhood is also dangerous for the health of those who will consume berries, because when spraying trees, some of the chemicals can get on the fruits. Currants and gooseberries are good companions for strawberries, so you can place bushes between these crops.

Strawberries are considered to be an unpretentious plant that can adapt to life in almost any area.However, it has its own preferences: the culture develops best in light soils, loamy, chernozem and sandy loam soils. Strawberries feel comfortable in dark gray forest soil on a small southwestern slope. On sandy, clayey, peaty and soddy-podzolic soils, strawberries bear fruit worse.

When choosing a site, determine its acidity: for strawberries, pH 5 to 6.5 is normal. Groundwater should not pass close to the surface, the optimal depth is 60 cm. In winter, a 25 cm thick soil layer should not freeze more than -8 degrees Celsius.

One plot is suitable for growing strawberries for 3-4 years, then it must be transplanted to a new place. You can return the culture to the previous site after 2-3 years. The principles of crop rotation should be followed. Strawberries are planted in areas where garlic, herbs, cereals, marigolds and petunias previously grew.

Site preparation and seedlings

how to grow strawberries at home

If a spring planting is planned, the soil begins to be prepared even before the onset of winter. It is dug up and applied to each m2 of soil, 10 kg of humus (you can replace 5 kg of manure), up to 100 g of superphosphate and 50 g of potassium salt. If in the autumn the holes were not fertilized, then 3 handfuls of humus and one handful of wood ash are introduced into each hole.

Before planting, the seedlings must be left for 3 days in a cool place, and immediately before lowering into the hole, the roots must be treated with a clay chatterbox so that they take root more easily and do not dry out.

The chatterbox is prepared as follows: half a bucket of orange clay is poured with water so that it slightly covers the clay layer. The mixture will infuse and soon turn into a mass similar in consistency to sour cream. To get rid of undissolved lumps, the clay is mixed well.

Before planting, pinch the longest root of the bush. In order for the root system to take root faster, the green mass of the seedlings is also cut off, leaving 3-4 large leaves. If autumn time is chosen for planting strawberries, the soil is prepared in spring according to the above scheme.

How to choose seedlings?

how to grow strawberries at home

It is necessary to plant only healthy and strong seedlings. The root system should be fibrous, and the length of the juicy white roots should be at least 3-5 cm. The diameter of the root collar is preferable 6 cm. The green mass of a quality seedling consists of 3-5 leaves and a whole apical bud.

The acquired seedlings must be planted quickly. If it is not possible to plant immediately, strawberries can be buried in damp ground, after wrapping the roots with moistened moss. Place the seedlings in a cold room or in a dark corner of the garden.

How to plant strawberries?

how to grow strawberries at home Open field strawberry cultivation scheme

Strawberries are planted during cloudy and damp weather.

The planting process includes the following steps:

  1. A bush is lowered into the prepared hole.
  2. The root system is gently straightened so that it is located throughout the space.
  3. The hole is gradually covered with earth, periodically tamping the soil so that voids do not form.
  4. The root collar is buried in line with the ground.
  5. The young plant is watered abundantly.

Cultivation and reproduction methods

There are several ways to grow and propagate strawberries. The culture is grown in vertical beds using flower pots, pipes and bags, under agrofibre, film tunnels are built. The plant is propagated using seeds, whiskers and dividing the bush.

String method

how to grow strawberries at home

If the line method is chosen, it is necessary to prepare six hundred bushes of seedlings per 100m2. There are one-line and two-line planting methods. Popular is the classic two-line fit. This placement option assumes a distance between lines of 30cm, between rows - 70cm, and between bushes - 20cm.

One-line planting method implies 70cm distance between lines and 20cm distance between bushes. The beds are arranged in a north-south direction, and two strawberry rows are planted along the edges.

The planting process includes the following steps:

  1. If the area is small, it is advised to use a cord for planting. Using a tape measure, marks of future rows are made at the two ends of the selected area.
  2. Pegs are installed along the edges of the rows, on which a cord is pulled, indicating the future line.
  3. Observing the recommended distance, along the stretched cord with a stick in the ground, they indicate the places of future planting holes, which are then dug out to such a depth that the root system can freely fit in the hole.
  4. A liter of water is poured into the hole.
  5. After absorbing water into the soil, a well-spread root system is placed in the mud.
  6. The hole is covered with dry soil, regularly tamping the soil to avoid the appearance of air pockets.
  7. The young plant is watered using half a liter of water for each shrub.

To save plants from pests, it is recommended to lay lutrasil or roofing material with holes made for bushes on the soil.

Using film tunnels

how to grow strawberries at home

A cover made of film material will help the strawberries ripen faster, the gardener can even win several weeks if he creates such a structure. Most often, this method is resorted to when growing early strawberry varieties.

The easiest to create and operate are film tunnels, which are installed in early May:

  1. To begin with, support arcs are installed, which are placed at a distance of one meter from each other. They should rise half a meter above the ground.
  2. At the ends of the arcs buried in the ground, a film is fixed, which is then pulled onto the supports.
  3. The result is a kind of film tunnel. If the film sags from above or from the side, it is necessary to secure the arcs with twine.

It is necessary to regularly look after the plantings in the film tunnel (mulch, harvest), as well as arrange periodic ventilation. For this reason, one side of the greenhouse must be deaf, and the gardener must be able to get inside from the other side.

One side of the film is sprinkled with earth or fixed with heavy objects, and a rail is attached on the other side. From the end of the structure, the film is collected in a knot and tied to pegs driven into the ground. Planting care is easy. A thermometer must be placed inside to monitor the temperature. If the thermometer rises above 25 degrees, urgent ventilation is needed.

In vertical beds

how to grow strawberries at home

For gardeners who do not have large plots, the vertical growing method is popular. Strawberries are planted in special containers placed vertically and filled with soil. Pipes, bags, flower pots, and car tires are used as containers. Any vertical arrangement will do.

This method is also suitable for growing strawberries if there is no suitable soil on the site. The big advantage of this method is obtaining a rich harvest when using a small area of ​​the site.

The distance between the planted plants should be about 10cm. The capacity in which the root system will grow must be at least one and a half liters in volume. Each container is filled with a soil mixture consisting of turf, humus and peat in equal proportions.

As soon as the containers and seedlings are prepared, planting begins from the lowest tier, gradually moving to the very top. Strawberries grown in vertical beds are watered 2-3 times a week using warm water.

She needs regular feeding, which is carried out during watering. With the onset of cold, the culture needs protection. If the structure is prefabricated, it is disassembled, and the containers are placed on the ground and covered with agrofibre.

Benefits of using vertical beds:

  1. Easy maintenance (no need to get rid of weeds).
  2. Less likelihood of disease.
  3. Saving the area of ​​the site.
  4. Easy to harvest and saves time.

There are also some disadvantages:

  1. Less supply due to small land volume.
  2. Fast drying and frequent watering (potted strawberries dry much faster, so frequent watering is required).
  3. Freezing in winter (if you do not cover the plant and bring it into the room, the strawberry will die).

Under agrofiber

how to grow strawberries at home

The use of agrofibre can shorten the ripening period of the crop by a week. After the snow has completely melted, the bushes are covered with agrofibre. A comfortable temperature is created under this material for the development of culture. It is protected in case of recurrent frosts and cold winds. After establishing a comfortable temperature, the shelter is removed.

Growing from seeds

The seed method has several advantages, since the seeds are stored for a long time and there is no possibility of transmission of fungal diseases. Seeds are harvested on their own or purchased in a store.

For self-harvesting, strong bushes are chosen on the site and seeds are collected from ripe berries. The planting material is dried and stored in glass containers until the next season. 3 months before the intended planting in open ground, the seeds are wrapped in wet gauze and placed in the refrigerator.

Seeds are sown in January:

  • drainage and soil mixture are poured into the container;
  • in the ground, rows are made half a centimeter wide;
  • the earth is watered;
  • sow seeds, which are lightly sprinkled with earth.

The soil in the box should always be moist. The first shoots will appear in a month. Young plants are transplanted into a large box, and at the end of April they are moved to open ground.

Growing with a mustache

how to grow strawberries at home

Propagation of strawberries with whiskers is popular. The sturdy mustache is detached from the mother plant and planted in a peat pellet, which is placed in a tray filled with water. A shelter is organized from above to create greenhouse conditions. After a week, the mustache will sprout. To avoid injury, the mustache is transferred to the open ground directly in a peat tablet.

Reproduction by dividing the bush

By dividing the bush, remontant strawberries are propagated, which practically does not give a mustache. A three-year-old plant with strong roots is chosen. In autumn or spring, the mother plant is dug up and divided into parts so that each new bush has roots and a leaf rosette. The resulting delenki are planted in a permanent place.

Care after landing

how to grow strawberries at home

After planting, strawberries require attention. It is necessary to regularly water it, feed it, remove weeds and prepare it for wintering. In the spring, the site is cleaned with a rake. All debris, fallen leaves, mustaches and dry bushes, which can transmit diseases to new plants, are removed from the site.

Throughout the entire period of strawberry development, the soil should always be loosened, without weeds and moderately watered. After the formation of ovaries, the strawberries are no longer loosened and mulched using wheat or rye straw. If there is no such material, you can purchase a special mulching cloth in the store.

Watering and feeding

The soil should always be in a moist state, so watering is done as the soil dries up. After the end of fruiting, the strawberry begins to grow new roots, leaves and whiskers. During this period, mineral and organic fertilizing is introduced. Three kilograms of humus, 30 grams of superphosphate, 15 grams of nitrate and 20 grams of potassium salt are added per square meter of land.

Winter care

Strawberries need special preparation before the onset of winter time. After cutting off the leaves and whiskers, the ground is loosened, well spilled with potassium permanganate and fed. Until young foliage appears, the site is well watered.If the bushes can build up a lush green mass before the cold weather, they will cope with any frost. To save the plant from severe frosts, it is covered with pine needles.

Sweet strawberries are considered the queen of our gardens, so every summer resident should know the secrets of its cultivation.

We are looking forward to the onset of May to feast on the most delicious, perhaps, berry -

strawberries

... It has already become customary for us to receive harvests from spring to late autumn, but sometimes we really want to taste the sweetness of our favorite berry on a cold winter day!

how to grow strawberries at home

How to grow garden strawberries at home Alternatively, you can, of course, purchase a pack of strawberries for the price of gold in a supermarket. But the doubts that this berry will be useful are very large - the thought of the presence of chemistry that our body does not need at all leaves less doubt. I suggest another option: grow garden strawberries by the window and give yourself and your children a piece of summer in the middle of winter.

Is it possible to harvest garden strawberries in the room?

In this case, I really like the saying, which I am often grateful to in my life: "If you really want to, you can fly into space." So with a strong desire, guided by these recommendations, you can get wonderful sweet berries at any time of the year.

This requires:

  • high-quality live (not frigo!) seedlings of varieties of neutral daylight hours (hereinafter NSD), which we get from the first row of whiskers;
  • lamps (better phytolamps) for supplementary lighting of plants;
  • place on the windowsill;
  • This article.

How to “move” strawberries from the garden to the house?

In any case, the preparation of seedlings for home cultivation should be done long before the onset of winter.

Option 1

  1. When the strawberry bushes form a mustache, fill a container with a drainage hole (for example, a disposable glass or a soft plastic pot) with earth and sand in a 1: 1 ratio.
  2. We dig it in level with the ground (but so that the edges of the container rise slightly), direct the first outlet into the container, pin it with an ordinary hairpin or wire bent in the form of a hairpin, and water it constantly. The earth should never dry up, otherwise the plant will quickly die.
  3. After 3 weeks, when the young plant has taken root, we cut it off from the mother liquor and continue to water. At this point, watering is even more important; he should be at least once a day, it is better in the evening, and on hot sunny days, you can water it 2 times - in the morning and in the evening.
  4. As soon as buds are formed on the plant, they must remove so that the outlet gains maximum strength
  5. Cups with seedlings we we leave in the ground until the onset of the first frost, and as soon as it froze, we take them out of the ground, fill the resulting holes with earth and slightly compact them.
  6. We completely immerse the containers with plants in a slightly pink solution of potassium permanganate for 20 minutes, let the water drain, and bring them into a room with a temperature not higher than + 10 ° C for 2-3 days. Then we bring the sockets into the room and put to the south window
  7. Additional lighting is required, since the length of the day is too short. The plant will need additional lighting from 6-7 in the morning until 19-20 in the evening, that is, the daylight hours for the plant should be 13-14 hours. For this we use a phytolamp.

how to grow strawberries at home

Backlight

Option 2

This method is much simpler and less laborious.

1. Before the onset of frost, we dig out rooted young rosettes, remove substandard foliage (that is, leaves that are mechanically damaged, old ones), but so that the plant must have 2-3 true young leaves.

how to grow strawberries at home

Left: garden strawberry seedling. Right: aging in potassium permanganate 2. Next, we keep the seedling in a slightly pink solution of potassium permanganate (potassium permanganate) and plant in a container with ready-made soil mixture purchased at a flower shop and mixed with sand in a ratio of 2: 1.

Why a purchased soil mixture? This is more reliable: the garden soil must be heated in the oven to destroy pests and pathogens, and the finished soil is sterile (of course, if we talk about high-quality purchased soil).

how to grow strawberries at home

Planting strawberries 3. It is very important when planting not to deepen the heart (apical bud), which is located in the center of the rosette, otherwise the plant will simply rot.

how to grow strawberries at home

Heart 4. Water the seedlings and bring them into the room, but for the first few days do not put them on the sunny south window, but set them in more benign conditions (north, east). After 3-5 days, we rearrange it to the south. Just as in option 1, we must use additional lighting.

Which strawberry varieties are suitable for home growing?

Experimental practice, which I described earlier in my article, has shown that the NSD ‘Albion’ and ‘Aisha’ varieties are the easiest to care for and the most resistant to diseases in indoor conditions.

how to grow strawberries at home

The ‘Albion’ variety I told you more about these and other varieties of garden strawberries in this article.

What conditions need to be created for plants to grow and bear fruit at home?

1. Lighting

As I already said, we need a phytolamp for daily supplementary lighting for 13-14 hours a day. If we neglect this point, then a well leafy plant will grow, but we will not see flowering (and harvest) in this case.

Why phytolamp? You can, of course, supplement the illumination with an ordinary fluorescent lamp, but the plants in this case will be weaker. Article Choosing a phytolamp for seedlings

2. Temperature conditions

The temperature on the windowsill should be at least + 20 ° С. It is on the windowsillrather than in the room. If the temperature is not observed, then our plants can weaken and get sick with fungal diseases.

3. Watering

It is important to choose the watering mode so that so that the earthy ball does not dry out, but in any case do not allow stagnation of water.

4. Mandatory transshipment of plants

In 25-30 days after "relocation" to the house, the plants need to be transplanted into a large container (1 liter in volume), since the root system has already developed greatly, and the outlet has become cramped in a small glass. This is what the plant looks like before transplanting:

how to grow strawberries at home

... and so - after:

how to grow strawberries at home

Plant transplanted into a large container

5. Artificial pollination of flowers

Pollination is an important condition for the formation of the ovary and the development of a full-fledged berry. We make it by hand using an ordinary soft brush.

how to grow strawberries at home

Pollination If this procedure is neglected or not performed well enough, we will get deformed berries:

how to grow strawberries at home

Deformation of the berry with insufficient pollination

Do you need feeding strawberries?

Like any plant, garden strawberries need nutrition. Under natural conditions, plants receive it from the ground in which plant residues have rotted. In a room, in a limited amount of soil, strawberries do not have such an opportunity, therefore, feeding should be taken care of without fail.

  1. We apply the first top dressing ("Strawberry" or other complex fertilizer for garden strawberries) at half dose (100 grams of solution during watering), when did the first buds appear
  2. We carry out the next feeding after the first berries have been removed, with the same fertilizer at the same dosage.

Do not be embarrassed and worried that the berry will accumulate nitrates or other harmful elements, since this fertilizer will go to the plant itself, and not to the berry.

When to expect the first harvest?

Experience shows that in winter in indoor conditions the period from planting to flowering is 30-35 days, and the first berries ripen in 30-35 days from the beginning of flowering. It turns out that from the moment of planting to the ripening of the berries, an average of about 65 days pass.

how to grow strawberries at home

First harvest Here are our first berries:

how to grow strawberries at home

Home harvest of ‘Albion’ strawberries

What is indoor strawberry sick with and how to treat it?

If we adhered to all the recommended planting rules, and the houseplants in the house are not affected by pests, then the strawberries are not in danger of suffering from them. But besides pests, there are no less dangerous fungal diseases - such as powdery mildew, for example.

Why might problems arise? The air in the room during the heating period is dry and warm, and we, knowing that it is unhealthy, begin to increase the humidity. This is correct for us, but for garden strawberries, which are not blown by the wind at home, but is under the influence of cold from window glass, high humidity can cause powdery mildew. This is a white fungal bloom on the leaves, stems, and then the berry.

For the prevention of the disease, you can use the drug Fitosporin, which is safe for humans. We spray the plants with it once a week. Of course, white traces form on the leaves, but the plant will be reliably protected.

how to grow strawberries at home

Garden strawberries It is not difficult to grow garden strawberries on the window, the main thing is to want very much! Good luck and excellent harvests!

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