What berries can be grown at home?

Anyone can grow strawberries, blueberries and figs, no matter how good a gardener they are. Almost all fruits and berries can be grown in flower pots, but these three are the easiest, so it is best to start with them.

"So simple!" prepared for you detailed instructions on growing blueberries, strawberries and figs on the windowsill. If you want delicious berries and fruits to be at hand, use these tips!

1. Strawberry
2. Blueberry
3. Fig

Try grow fruiting plants on my windowsill. They look no worse than any houseplant, but they will bring you much more benefit. After all, strawberries, blueberries and figs are not only tasty, but also very healthy berries and fruits!

Rednasty

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We know perfectly well that you cannot save on health, so it is very important to constantly pamper yourself with a high dose of vitamins that we can get from fruits, berries and vegetables. The only pity is that the price of most of them is approaching the "space" mark every year.

But do not despair, and you certainly should not give up the beneficial fruits.

To enjoy delicious homemade strawberries, you don't have to go to the country house

In addition, I found an excellent way out of the situation, which I will gladly share in this article. What do you think about the idea of ​​self-breeding some crops right on your balcony? Personally, I was delighted with her!

General rules and features of planting berries

Despite the fact that below I will describe only two examples of planting berries on the balcony, the list of crops that you can experiment with at home is extensive. But, regardless of the selected berry variety, there are several basic rules that must be followed in the process of breeding them (for more information, see the video in this article).

A lot of tasty and healthy crops can be grown on the balcony

1. The best option for breeding on the balcony are varieties with small fruits.... There is a great chance that they will ripen to the desired state even with a small amount of land and a "balcony" sun.
2. Drainage is the first thing you should take care of... Stagnant water in a small container will have a detrimental effect on the grown berries.
3. You should not save space on the loggia by planting two crops in one pot... This will definitely not get you the results you want.
4. Plants need sunlight, but make sure that the glazed balcony is not too dry.

Personal garden on the loggia: convenient and practical

Of course, this is not a complete instruction for growing berry crops on a loggia or balcony. But for starters, and she can greatly facilitate your task and increase the chances of a rich harvest.

Two popular varieties of berries for growing on the balcony

Growing berries on the balcony is not such a difficult task, especially if you approach it wisely and choose the right crops.

I have selected two of the most delicious and healthy types of berries that can be easily planted at home.Below you will learn about the features of their planting and the nuances of proper care.

Strawberry

Self-grown strawberries will delight you and your household

For growing strawberries on the balcony, it is better to select ampelous or small-fruited varieties that give berries within 2 months after planting. Caring for such a berry consists of the following steps:

1. Choice of land. It is easy to find ready-made substrate in a specialized store. Choose any versatile soil used for planting flowers and vegetables.

If you want a rich harvest, do not skimp on quality land

You can prepare the substrate yourself. To do this, it is enough to mix in equal parts the earth from the forest (best of all from coniferous), sand and humus.

After choosing the soil, you should prepare good drainage, as strawberries do not tolerate stagnant water well. River pebbles, expanded clay or small-sized bricks will perfectly cope with this role.

2. Landing. Seedlings can be bought at any specialty store. Just make sure that you are not sold a variety that is not suitable for growing at home.
3. Lighting. It is worth planting strawberries on a balcony or loggia, whose windows face south or southeast.

Strawberries require a lot of sunlight to grow.

The berry is very demanding on lighting, it needs at least 8-hour daylight hours... In winter or in cloudy weather, provide additional lighting to the strawberries using fluorescent lamps.

4. Temperature conditions. Strawberries are not picky enough to the ambient temperature; 18-22 degrees is quite enough for its ripening.

However, one nuance arises here. On an unglazed and non-insulated balcony, this temperature cannot be reached in cold weather. Therefore, there are two options: either install an electric heater in the room, or move the strawberries into the apartment.

Proper plant care will provide you with delicious berries.

5. Watering. Strawberries do not like waterlogging, so the beds should be watered only as they dry out... If the air on the balcony is too dry, periodically spray water around the plant with a spray bottle.
6. Top dressing. In order for the strawberry to mature successfully, it should be fed at least every two weeks.... For these purposes, I can recommend using both universal fertilizers and special ones.

But overfeeding the plant is definitely not worth it. This will provoke the growth of greenery, but will go to the detriment of the fruit. To increase the number of ovaries, shake the bushes lightly during the flowering period.

There is no longer any need to buy sweet berries previously treated with harmful chemicals. Now it will just grow on your balcony!

And finally, one more secret that will help you successfully grow strawberries on the balcony with your own hands. During the fruiting period, the berry needs an increased iron content in the soil. Someone may recommend sticking a rusty nail into the soil, but I advise you not to experiment and use iron-containing solutions specially created for this.

Blueberry

Cross-pollination is a prerequisite for successful fruiting of blueberry bushes. Therefore, I strongly advise you to stock up on several different varieties of this wonderful berry for growing.

Blueberries are another incredibly healthy berry that grows well at home.

1. Choice of land. If you are expecting a rich harvest, then do not be lazy to find a special earth for blueberries called ericaceous compost (aka heather compost).

To start, fill the pot about 2/3 full with soil that is sold for azaleas, camellias, or rhododendrons. Top with a mulch made from chopped pine bark and compost. It is she who will help maintain the required level of moisture in the container.

2. Landing. Should be held at the same depth as the blueberries were grown in the nursery.

A special land and a little diligence will help to achieve the result as in the photo.

The next step is watering, moreover, it is necessary to pour water until excess moisture flows out of the holes at the bottom of the pot... After that, you will need to compact the soil and, if necessary, add more.

3. Lighting. Just like strawberries, good lighting is very important for blueberries. You need to provide the plant with at least 6 hours of daylight hours.
4. Temperature conditions. Blueberries feel comfortable at 18-22 degrees.
5. Watering. This berry is incredibly moisture-loving, therefore it requires frequent watering.... In the middle of summer and in hot weather, the amount of moisture provided should be increased.
6. Top dressing. Blueberries should only be fed twice a year (in autumn and spring). For this purpose, use organic fertilizers that acidify the soil.

Finally

When choosing which berries to plant on the balcony, it is better to give preference to the above-mentioned strawberries and blueberries. These plants perfectly tolerate growing at home, in addition, they are incredibly healthy and tasty.

And who said that only flowers can be planted on the balcony?

How many of you have experience planting berries on the balcony? Be sure to share your secrets and tell us about your results in the comments below.

September 18, 2016

If you want to express gratitude, add clarification or objection, ask the author something - add a comment or say thank you!

The time has come for planting, the migration of seedlings from the windowsill to the garden and painstaking worries about the future harvest. Fresh, without unnecessary additives, fruits delight much more than purchased ones. And for those who do not have their own land, advises not to get upset, but to try to grow fruit directly from the seeds at home or even at work.

Of course, the fruit will have to wait, and in some cases more than one year. Growing fruit, however, is a good anti-stress and also a reason to get closer to colleagues.

Citrus

Citrus fruits like lemon, tangerine, orange, grapefruit, etc. have a rich aroma and can be experimented with almost all year round. The seeds for sowing must be fresh. Planting them is quite simple: we wash the seeds and plant them in a moist mixture of garden soil, peat and river sand or special soil for citrus fruits. It is best to immediately plant each bone in a separate pot or glass.

It is very important to provide plants with sufficient light, but protect them from the midday sun and dry air. In addition, citrus fruits must be kept at a temperature of 12-16 degrees in winter.

Date fruit

Even a dried date bone can grow a palm tree. It is better to soak it for several days before planting. Plant it in a mixture of peat and sand, and remember to moisten it with a spray bottle every 2 days. In about a month, the future palm tree should emerge. Like citrus fruits, dates require a lot of light and a cool winter.

Feijoa

The seeds of this exotic plant should be selected from the ripe and soft fruit. If the purchased feijoa is not yet ripe, you can put it in a warm place and wait a few days. The seeds should be washed from the pulp and dried. Without digging deep, we put the seeds in the ground with sand.

The plant can rise and germinate quite quickly. Therefore, do not forget to plant the sprouts, pinch the main root and transplant it together with the old soil into a larger pot.

Fig

To grow a non-fig tree, you need to do the same as with feijoa seeds: rinse, dry and put shallow in moist soil. Sprinkle a little sand on the soil and cover with foil. Find a warmer place for figs. The first shoots will appear in about 3 weeks, if you regularly moisten the ground and ventilate the room. In the warm season, keep the temperature at least 20 degrees, and in winter, no higher than 14 degrees.

Passion fruit

If you plant passionfruit seeds, most likely, not a fruitful tree will grow, but a liana, which will delight you with its luxurious flowering.However, who knows, maybe it is you who will be able to achieve a juicy fruit at home. Passion fruit loves everything that tropical plants like: bright light, a lot of air, warmth and high humidity.

Avocado

There are two ways to grow this storehouse of vitamins from the bone. In the first case, we remove the shell from the bone, set the wide side to a depth of 2-3 cm so that the tip protrudes above the surface. The second method is called open: we leave the shell and at the level of the middle of the bone we drill 3 small holes at an angle of 120 degrees. 3 matches are inserted into them, which will be supports along the edges of a glass of water. The water level must be maintained exactly below the bone. Once there are enough roots, the seed can be planted in a pot.

Before the leaves appear, the plant needs an air temperature of about 18 degrees, and in winter the avocado loves coolness.

A pineapple

Pineapple has no seeds, but you don't need them to grow it. It is enough to cut off the top of it with 2 cm of pulp and plant it in wet sand, for example, river sand. Pineapple loves water and will need to be watered frequently. In a winter garden, this fruit does not always yield the same fragrant fruits as its southern comrades. But it is quite possible to grow it at home.

Garnet

A safe option is the dwarf pomegranate, which bears fruit quite well even in mid-latitudes. He will calmly endure aridity, but not a lack of heat. A dwarf pomegranate will delight with flowers and bear fruit almost all year round even with a growth of 40 cm. The average yield is 7-10 edible fruits up to 5 cm in diameter.

Preview photo credit Galina Savina, Locrifa

We are looking forward to the onset of May to enjoy 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 garden strawberries at home Alternatively, you can, of course, purchase a pack of strawberries for the price of gold in a supermarket. But doubts that this berry will be useful are very large - the thought of the presence in it of chemistry that is not at all necessary for our body 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 (phytolamps are better) for supplementary lighting of plants;
• place on the windowsill;
• This article.

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

In any case, you should start preparing seedlings for home growing 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 before 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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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 in this case we will not see flowering (and harvest).

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:

... and so - after:

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.

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

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 were 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.

First harvest Here are our first berries:

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. For us, this is correct, 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.

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!