How to properly 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.

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".

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 the 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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Foreword

Almost every summer resident asks how to grow strawberries at home and still get a good harvest, large and sweet berries. The main task in this case is not to use any pesticides and substances harmful to human health, so that the berries contain only useful substances at the time of harvest. It takes a lot of effort to propagate and care for strawberries, especially if you want to get a lot of bushes next year and still enjoy a sweet harvest this year. How to do everything correctly, what planting and care technique to choose, how to cook strawberries for winter so that all the bushes remain "alive" in the spring, and much more is read further in the article!

How to grow strawberries in the country - we select the right variety and hybrid, depending on the conditions of care

The first step is to decide what you need strawberries for, for yourself or for sale. If you grow it only for your own needs, then it is best to give preference to domestic selection - the berries will be much tastier, do not require special care, but their size is an order of magnitude smaller.

For sale, it will be best to grow strawberries of the Dutch and American selection - a very large mass of fruit, but the taste is always inferior to our strawberries.

Among the main varieties bred in Europe are very popular:

• Queen Elizabeth - the variety is unpretentious to the soil, grows even on sandy and clay soils, has a very high yield - it bears fruit 2 times per season, and the second time is no worse than the first in the number of berries harvested and their weight. The only big disadvantage of the variety is that the berries are very juicy, but have a "sourness" that does not satisfy the requirements of many buyers. That is why Queen Elizabeth is grown exclusively for her own needs and by lovers of such berries. It goes well for jam if you add more sugar.
• Zenga Zengana is a very good German variety, which in many European countries is No. 1 in the garden beds. Its main advantage is great for freezing. It bears fruit well, but the first berries are large, up to 80 grams alone, and the subsequent ones are very small, so only the first "wave" of the harvest is often harvested.
• Hani - despite its name, the berry has very little similarity to honey, as it has a "sourness" even at the stage of technical ripeness. The greatest "plus" of this grade is transportability. This strawberry can be transported over long distances, it lies very well and does not lose either its external aesthetics or its properties.The berries are small, but the bushes bear fruit well.

These are the most famous varieties that plant on the territory of Russia, but are the result of plant breeding in Europe and America. As for domestic varieties, there are many of them, but only a few are especially popular, namely:

• Daryonka - very tasty and large berries. The main advantage is early ripeness, the first berries weigh up to 40-50 grams, the next 15-20 grams. It has a strawberry flavor at full technical ripeness, very sweet, juicy. Berries come in different shapes depending on the amount of light and fertilization.
• Divnaya is an excellent variety of the Leningrad selection, it has a very powerful bush, large and dry berries, which are very conveniently transported. The advantages include the increased sweetness of the variety, its resistance to frost and drought, as well as long-term fruiting - the berries ripen evenly for several months in a row. Despite the fact that the plant is very fond of pests, the labor of eliminating them will be generously rewarded with a good harvest!
• Maryshka. The main advantage of the variety is the driest berry known in Russia. It is very well stored, transported, and its taste is superior to many well-known domestic and foreign varieties - the berries are extremely sweet, taste like strawberries and have a strong smell. Does not require special care and watering, unlike Daryonka and Divnaya.

A lot depends on the variety, in particular the yield of your berries and their sweetness. But it is worth remembering that, to a greater extent, the taste is influenced by the care of berries and watering. Even the best variety will have a "sourness" if it is constantly poured with water and used a lot of leaf dressing, and with a lack of moisture, the berries will be very small and irregular in shape, but extremely sweet. It is necessary to provide the plant with the optimal ratio of moisture and fertilizers, and only then the berries will be large and tasty.

We plant seedlings correctly

After you have selected the strawberry seedlings and brought them to the place, it will be for the planting. The process must be given due attention, because not only the yield, but also the possibility of subsequent processing and reproduction of strawberries will directly depend on how you place the bushes.

When landing, you must adhere to the following rules:

1. Plant strawberries only in a row or in cells, especially if you are placing several varieties at once in the same area. This is necessary in order not to confuse the bushes when they throw out the antennae, it is convenient to weed during fruiting, and also to collect strawberries without damaging new bushes. It grows very much and one bush (if you are engaged in the propagation of strawberries, and not getting a harvest in the first year) can occupy up to 1 m2 of area!
2. Plant seedlings only with the land in which it was before. You can pre-place the roots in water for a couple of hours to absorb as much moisture as possible. After disembarking, be sure to fill the hole with water - strawberries are sensitive to drought in the first days and often disappear if the soil is not thoroughly moistened right away.
3. Plant in holes or make furrows for water, so that when watering under the root, water collects and saturates the earth with moisture as much as possible.
4. Do not damage the roots, do not prune and do not carry out any operations that violate the integrity of the plant - you must first let the roots harden for 1 week, then weed, loosen, and the like.

Planting correctly is half the battle, as strawberries are resistant to droughts, pests and other troubles, but very sensitive to any changes in planting or replanting. As for the temperature, it is necessary to plant it when the thermometer is at least +7 0С at night, since the roots need to quickly strengthen and grow, and at temperatures below this, there is a risk of plant death immediately after planting.

Strawberries in the country - care and weed control

Strawberry care is difficult. More precisely, it is laborious, since you will have to perform certain actions almost every week to improve the conditions for the growth and development of the bushes. First of all, special attention is paid to weeds. They can be dealt with in several ways:

1. Weeding and pulling out weeds is the most common method and involves manual labor. Suitable for small areas of strawberries. It is necessary to ensure that the strawberries are as pure as possible, and nothing interferes with their development. Even in the absence of weeds, it is necessary to carry out periodic weeding - it kills the "threads" (the remnants of the root system of weeds and young seedlings that are contained in the upper ball of the soil and suck out useful substances).
2. Agrofibre or black film. This is a relatively new technology, which involves covering the entire area with a film or a special black fiber through which light does not pass. Weeds do not grow, and a hole is made in place of the bushes through which the bush is pulled out. Thus, only strawberries have access to light. The advantages of this method:

• berries are not in the ground, they are always clean;
• more moisture accumulates, strawberries should be watered less often;
• weeds do not need to be removed - they do not grow under the film.

3. Pesticide. This method implies treatment with continuous herbicides such as Hurricane or Roundup before planting strawberries, but we will not consider it, since any pesticides have a bad effect on human health.

Watering also plays an important role. If you can't make a drip, you need to provide watering using sprayers. Keep the top layer of the earth constantly moist. Watering is best at night or in the evening, about 1 time for 3-4 days.

Strawberries love the sun, but with an excess of it, the leaves can "burn". They turn orange. If possible, then you need to cover the area with a "shade" - a special grid that reduces the amount of light transmitted to the area.

Growing technique "for antennae" and "for berries"

If you start growing strawberries, you need to immediately decide what you want to get this year. The yield of strawberries directly depends on the number of tendrils (reproductive organs of strawberries). If there are a lot of antennae, do not expect a good harvest, since all the energy of the plant will go to throwing out additional shoots and forming new bushes. If you break off the antennae before the end of the fruiting of the bush, you will not get healthy and strong new bushes for the winter.

There is only one way out - to divide the site and choose the bushes that you will have for fruiting, and others for reproduction. The first bushes (on which you plan to grow large berries) should be absolutely without antennae - they must be cut off immediately when they appear and the plant should not be allowed to spend nutrients on them. It is best to leave no more than 10 berries on each bush in the first year - then they will be large, juicy and sweet. With a large number of berries, the bush does not have enough energy for fruiting, and the strawberries will be small.

Other bushes that you plan to propagate should be left without berries so that the antennae develop faster. After a new bush appears at the end of the antennae (2-3 pairs of leaves) and it bends to the ground, it must be stuck a little into the soil and poured abundantly with water. After a few weeks, when the bush takes root, the shoot will go further from it - it needs to be cut off with a pruner so that the first bush develops better. As a result, at the end of September you will already have a full-fledged one more bush, in size as the first. Everything, you can cut off the pruning shears from the "mother" and transplant to the place you need. When transplanting, it is better to dig it up and pull it out of the soil with the ground in which the root has taken root - the bush will take root much faster.

Processing strawberries from pests and diseases - what is needed and what not to do

Strawberries practically do not suffer from the invasion of any pests, its diseases are more the cause of a lack of fertilizers or abundant sunlight.

In any case, it should be remembered what should not be done in the process of growing strawberries:

• Never treat with strong pesticides, as many harmful components then remain in the plant and in berries... There are more gentle ways to eliminate insects: treatment with copper sulfate, soapy water, salt mixture - this does not harm a person, but insects will never attack the treated bushes!
• Do not use any preparations containing acids, as well as fertilizers. Do not use phosphoric granules, additives containing sulfur or other similar ingredients.
• When processing BI-58 or derivatives of pesticides, make sure that the harvest is carried out no earlier than 2 weeks after the last treatment.

Very often, strawberries turn yellow and lag behind in development - this is the first sign that the plant is receiving excess sunlight or lack of fertilization. If it is not possible to make a shade over the strawberries, just water it every day for the evening and, after watering, add foliar top dressing, best of all - carbamide (30 g / 1 bucket). As soon as the bush turns green, top dressing is stopped.

Brown spotting is a major problem in strawberry cultivation. The old leaves of the bush have brown spots, and then they completely become that color. These bushes reproduce and bear fruit very poorly. Treatment is carried out with Bayleton (15 g / 10 l of water) after flowering plants, the spotting will disappear after 1-2 weeks.

White spot - both young and old leaves are exposed to it, white spots are formed. Soon, these spots can destroy the leaf blade, the plant's metabolism will stop. Treatment with Bayleton (15 g / 10 l of water) is also carried out immediately after flowering and 2-3 weeks after the first spraying.

Powdery mildew. Many varieties of strawberries are exposed to it, as a result of which the leaf blade curls up into a tube, and there is a white bloom on the bottom of it. The leaves soon die, the bush lags behind in development, and in some cases dries up completely.

Different types of aphids are rare, but it happens that strawberries are exposed to an aphid infestation, especially when the year turned out to be very humid. You can fight it before harvesting with Aktofit (1 g is dosed per liter of water).

What should be done with berries before winter and how to protect bushes from freezing at -30 0С?

Preparing a plant for the winter is quite simple and does not require any special knowledge and effort. The main thing is that the plant does not become icy and freeze, otherwise there is a high probability of its death. If the winter is snowy and the snow falls before the ground cools down to -10 ° C, then there will be no problems at all, and the strawberries can easily wait out long frosts of 30-40 degrees under a white carpet. But you should not rely on weather conditions, and it is better to protect your crop from freezing. This can be done in the following ways:

1. Falling asleep with needles of strawberries. The most effective method, which involves throwing a layer of needles 6-7 centimeters on top of the strawberry leaves, which are bent to the ground for the winter. Such a shelter will reliably protect the plant from any frost, and under the snow the strawberries will be even warmer.
2. Wood sawdust. At any woodworking plant, you can take a lot of sawdust for a penny and cover the entire area of ​​strawberries with them. They not only protect it from the cold, but also become an excellent fertilizer, after the wood rotted in the spring rains. In the spring, the "coverlet" can be removed from the bushes with a rake and left in the aisles.
3. Sprinkle with earth. The method is very laborious, since in the spring you will have to pull each bush out of the ground, clean, level the ground.

If you do everything right and follow the instructions, you will not only get tasty and large berries in a couple of months, but also multiply the bushes and get 4-5 times more plants next year! Growing tasty and healthy berries at home is not only easy, but also pleasant, as they are natural and healthy!

If you are fond of growing home plants, tenderly and carefully caring for flowers on the windowsill, then the article on growing strawberries at home will certainly interest you. Still, because we are talking not only about beauty, but also benefit!

Introduction

Just imagine, fragrant berries will ripen in your apartment all year round, with which you can pamper yourself on a frosty winter day, when a blizzard is spinning outside the window.

Repair beauty

Sowing seeds

Even in a small apartment with the help of modern technology, you can get a good harvest of strawberries. Proper care will ensure you receive up to 4 harvests per year.

Strawberry bushes should be rejuvenated. Therefore, it is recommended to grow them from seeds.

You can use peat tablets for planting strawberries:

• Place peat-distilled tablets in a plastic container and cover with water at room temperature. Leave to swell for five minutes.
• After five minutes, plant the seeds in the swollen peat tablets. It is convenient to carry them with a toothpick moistened with water.
• Place each seed in the center of the peat tablet. It is not recommended to deepen and cover the seeds with earth.

Seedling of garden strawberry in peat tablets

• Close the plastic container and sign the variety name and sowing date with a marker. Transfer the impromptu greenhouse to the windowsill and leave it there until the seeds germinate.

The seeds should be left on the surface of the peat pellets, not covered with earth or buried.

On the eighth day, the seeds will begin to germinate.

Picking

• If the seeds have sprouted densely in 3 - 5 pieces, it does not matter. Do not touch them while they are small, let them develop in small groups.
• When the seedlings grow up, several real leaves will appear and the seedlings will look like a small bush, then you can cut off the excess plants with scissors.
• Do not try to pull out the plants, as this can damage the root system of neighboring seedlings, remember that strawberries are a rather capricious plant.

Seedling picking

• If the surface of the soil is covered with mold, then the plants can be saved with calcined sand. Sprinkle dry river sand around the young bushes to prevent mold growth.
• Do not overdo it with watering, the soil should not be waterlogged. The best watering is from the bottom through the holes in the cups. While the plants are very small, you can water by spraying or from a syringe without a needle.
• For the normal development of seedlings, light is needed. In the absence of proper lighting, the seedlings stretch out and turn yellow.

Root system development examples

In the evening and at night, containers with plants are recommended to be transferred to a cool place, for example, closer to the window glass.

An important trick in

growing seedlings

strawberries, allowing you to get strong plants -

this is adding earth. The root system of strawberries is of a surface type, therefore, pouring loose soil with sand under young bushes stimulates the growth of additional lateral roots.

Once a week, it is advisable to spill the surface of the soil with a weak solution of potassium permanganate in order to avoid fungal diseases.

Secrets of a successful pick:

• It is not recommended to use deep glasses for picking, as plant decay is possible in them. The roots of garden strawberries are shallow, a 100 ml glass is quite suitable.
• Finished seedlings should braid the roots of the entire clod of earth in a glass.
• Looseness of the soil is a prerequisite. Use additives: sand, vermiculite, perlite, coconut substrate.Make a recess in the center of the glass with a peg, pour the energen solution (3 drops per half liter of water). Plant two plants per hole.
• Very small plants with two cotyledonous leaves should not be dived, such seedlings will not take root.
• Long roots should be trimmed to stimulate the formation of additional lateral roots, which will ensure good nutrition for your seedlings.
• Do not bury the plant in the ground; leave the top center bud above the surface of the soil.

Good seedlings are the key to success

First you need to get seedlings. If you do not have time to grow from seeds, buy seedlings, this will bring the timing of the harvest closer.

Repaired hybrids will produce berries in the first year of cultivation. It is beneficial to plant several varieties or hybrids at once, so you can provide yourself with a harvest all year round.

Do not buy seedlings from your hands, it is better to contact a specialized store, overpay a little, but you will get the variety you wanted.

The Koketka variety has proven itself well. This is a garden strawberry of constant fruiting, which is ideal for pot cultivation. The pot must be at least 15 cm in diameter. This volume of soil will be enough to get a good winter harvest.

First of all, you need to decide on the variety. The plant should be of a neutral day, that is, it should be of constant fruiting. Varieties that can be grown in pot culture all year round - Elizabeth, Geneva, Coqueta.

Yoke - This is a large-fruited remontant strawberry without a mustache, capable of bearing fruit in winter.

Important conditions for winter growing:

• loose, well-drained soil;
• good drainage to the bottom with a layer of 2 - 3 cm (expanded clay), the root system of strawberries does not like to be locked;
• holes to remove excess moisture.

If you use commercial soil mixtures, it is recommended to add a small amount of river sand to these substrates. Strawberries grow very well in sandy soils. The addition of sand will have a good effect on the development of the plant.

Seed germination container

Transplanting strawberries from open ground to room conditions

In August - September, it is necessary to choose well-developed bushes, remove damaged leaves, flower stalks, and set berries.

If you leave all the flowers and the set berries, then the weakened root system will not feed the transplanted plant. After transplanting, the plant should be watered abundantly and protected from direct sunlight.

• If the plants are well formed, then some of the leaves can be removed. Do not worry, the bush will have time to cover with new foliage before the onset of winter.
• It is very important not to miss the moment when the temperature drops.
• If you do not have time to bring the plant into the house, and it will spend the night at a temperature of 3-5 degrees, although it will not die, it will go into a state of dormancy. Such a plant will not bloom in the current year and, accordingly, will not yield a harvest.

Avoid hypothermia of plants. Remember, coming out of dormancy will delay harvest by 60 days. The whole point of growing on the windowsill is lost. Why grow strawberries in winter without harvesting?

In general, growing on a windowsill is not difficult. The temperature regime at night is not lower than 10 - 12 degrees, in the daytime 15 - 18, during flowering 20 - 22 degrees.

Watering

The air humidity should not exceed 70%, with a higher air humidity, the fruits will be worse to set and rot.

Watering should be done occasionally, but the soil should not dry out. At home, transpiration is not very strong, since there is no direct sunlight, which provokes rapid evaporation of moisture from the surface of the leaf blades. In winter, plants are not demanding for watering, but make sure that the soil does not dry out.

Lighting

In winter, there may be a lack of light on the windowsill. Strawberries and strawberries at this time require 16 hours of daylight. Supplementary lighting with phytolamps is recommended.

Artificial lighting of seedlings

Pollination

Pollination will have to be done manually using a delicate brush or feather. It is possible to pollinate by ventilation, directing the air stream with a fan.

Pollination with a brush

Growing in winter on a windowsill makes no commercial sense. But how nice it is to pick a red ripe berry when there is snow outside the window or a blizzard is sweeping. Certainly worth a try.

Room strawberry care

To achieve the maximum yield, you need to follow a number of rules:

• It is best to place plants on windows that face southeast.
• In winter, additional lighting should be provided using phytolamps.
• Normal development of strawberries occurs at 16 hours of daylight hours.
• The temperature should be at least 20 degrees. If the room temperature is lower, then heating is required.
• This plant is responsive to moisture. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure regular watering, avoiding stagnation of water in containers. It is good to apply spraying from a spray bottle.

Fertilization

• The introduction of dressings will intensify the physiological processes in the body.
• You should apply universal and complex fertilizers for indoor plants once a month.

Don't overdo it with nitrogen fertilizers. Otherwise, you will end up with an abundant green mass without fruit.

• In order to increase the amount of ovary in the soil, there must be enough iron.

Stick a rusty iron object into the plant pot. This is an old proven method. For a greater effect, it is recommended to apply special fertilizers, which include iron.

Diseases

A common disease of this culture is spider mites, as well as gray rot. As soon as you see signs of damage, immediately treat the plants with garlic tincture.

Spider mite on garden strawberries

Garlic tincture recipe:

• Chop 2 cloves of garlic and pour a glass of boiling water.
• After insisting, filter.
• Process the plants from the Pulverizer with the resulting extract.

A well-growing plant will produce a mustache:

• In no case cut them off, tie them to a trellis or a wooden rod stuck in a pot.
• Whiskers take part in photosynthesis, so you should not get rid of them - this is an additional feeding for the plant.
• In addition, with the help of layering, you can propagate your plants vegetatively.
• To do this, sprinkle young rosettes with a damp substrate. After a while, you will find small roots on them.

Thus, having mastered the simple techniques of growing garden strawberries at home, you can provide your family with fresh, fragrant, vitamin-rich berries in winter.

Technology for growing strawberries in plastic bags

It doesn't take much space to grow a small strawberry plantation at home. It is best to use a pantry or closet.
In these rooms it is possible to place bags of plants on specially designed racks. These structures can be placed in several tiers in order to save space.

Temperature conditions, illumination must comply with the standards described above.

Growing in plastic bags

It is desirable to install a fan to move air masses.Plants can be placed horizontally and vertically. Based on the availability of space.

Growing in plastic bags

• First of all, you need to prepare the bags. They should be made of dense polyethylene with a diameter of up to 20 cm.
• The prepared bags are filled with a soil mixture with additions of vermiculite, perlite, coconut substrate, sand and tied tightly.
• They can be hung or laid horizontally.
• Next, they start making cuts 8-10 cm long in a checkerboard pattern. Seedlings of garden strawberries are planted in the incisions.
• Watering seedlings in such bags is quite laborious, it is difficult to control the level of soil moisture.
• It is recommended to design a simple irrigation system. This will require plastic bottles. They should be fixed over the bears.
• A branch is made of bottles from several tubes. You can use a medical drip.
• The ends of the dropper tubes are threaded through the walls of the bags.
• Such drip irrigation provides the plant with regular moisture access.
• Just remember to add water to plastic containers.
• One bag per day will need one and a half liters of water.

Repaired variety Koketka grown at home

Strawberries in bags are looked after in the same way as for a pot crop.

All she needs is light, warmth, moderate humidity, plus fertilization and artificial pollination.

9 Overall Score

This activity can captivate not only an experienced grower, but also a novice amateur from a city apartment, deprived of the opportunity to grow plants in the open field. Provide yourself and your household with a delicious vitamin product throughout the year. We have tried to give you a complete picture of this issue. If you disagree with these ratings, leave your rating in the comments with the reasons for your choice. Thank you for your participation. Your opinion will be useful to other users.

9.4 Editor's rating

Relevance of information

Availability of application

Reliability of information

9.5 User rating

Relevance of information

9.3

Availability of application

9.3

Reliability of information

9.6

pros

• It is pleasant to have a source of vitamins at home at an unusual time for a given fruit.
• Having strawberries will diversify your daily diet.

Minuses

• No matter how simple caring for a strawberry is, it will still require constant attention to itself.

Add your review | Read reviews and comments

Can strawberries grow and yield in the house - on the balcony or in the room on the windowsill? It is quite possible if you provide her with proper care, which is not at all difficult.

Conditions for growing strawberries

In order for the strawberries on the windowsill to feel almost like on the garden bed, you first need to place them correctly. Since this culture is photophilous, it is best to choose an unshaded southern window, but in this case, additional illumination is needed, providing 14-hour daylight hours throughout the year. A regular supply of fresh air is important, so a window that does not have a vent is not suitable. On an open balcony, these conditions are created by themselves, but you can keep strawberries here only in the warm season. There are no temperature problems in the apartment: room temperature 20 ° C is what you need. Watering should be moderate, it is impossible to overmoisten. The conditions are so common that if you have a separate room, you can organize a whole plantation and grow a valuable berry for sale. For this, boxes or plastic bags filled with soil with notches are suitable. A small number of bushes on the windowsill feel great in ordinary flower pots.

to the content ↑ Soil and fertilizers for strawberries

To grow full-fledged plants, you need loose, fertile, moderately moist soil. This requirement is best met by a mixture of peat (60%) with agroperlite (40%). Peat is a source of nutrients. Perlite improves the structure of the substrate, makes it porous and friable, absorbing water, it contributes to its uniform and gradual distribution during watering. You can make up the soil for strawberries from forest land, humus and sand in equal proportions, a mixture of earth with peat is also used.The soil taken from the garden can be infected with nematodes, for disinfection it is calcined or kept over steam, then a weak solution of potassium permanganate is passed through it, and then kept for a week before planting.

Strawberries on the balcony or in the room need regular feeding and respond well to them, they need to be done twice a month.

Complex fertilizers, universal or specially designed for this crop, can be purchased at a flower shop. The condition of the plant dictates what it needs. A strongly overgrown green mass with poor fruiting indicates that the balance is shifted towards nitrogen, the content of potassium and phosphorus should be increased. Sometimes the berries are not tied due to a lack of iron, it can be replenished with a special iron-containing solution, the necessary compounds are absorbed by the leaves when spraying. Practitioners recommend a simple and affordable, although less effective way - to stick a rusty nail next to the bush.

The developed root of each adult plant needs a volume of approximately 3 sq. Dm. Do not forget about drainage, water stagnation is unacceptable. The drainage layer can be laid out from pebbles, fragments of broken dishes or expanded clay.

to the content ↑ Ways of planting strawberries

Strawberries growing in the open field reproduce vegetatively throughout the season: they release long tendrils, at the ends of which young plants grow in contact with the ground. A good place to start growing strawberries at home is to use these new outlets as seedlings. They need to be watered, sprinkled with earth, wait for rooting and transplanted into pots on the windowsill. Vegetative offspring, including those obtained in the room, can be used to replace old, 4-year-old plants.

The optimal time for planting is early spring or late summer - early fall. Not only newly formed, but also mature bushes take root well when transplanted into an indoor "vegetable garden" if you provide them with a dormant period in a dark, cool place for 2 weeks after digging up. Root treatment with heteroauxin accelerates rooting.

Growing strawberries from seeds is more difficult, the process is longer. The method can be preferred if the seeds are more affordable than seedlings. Anyone who picks them from berries himself knows exactly what will happen as a result, in the case of seedlings this is not always the case. The seeds are sown in moist soil, in wide flat containers, sprinkled with a thin layer and kept under a film until germination. Then they open it, put it in a well-lit place, at the stage of 2 - 4 leaves, they dive (transplant) into separate small cups for growing.

to content ↑ From seedling to harvest

The appearance of flowers is not yet a guarantee of the future harvest. Pollination is necessary for the ovary to develop into a fruit. In the external environment, insects do this work, to a lesser extent - the wind. If strawberries on the balcony are partly susceptible to these factors, then indoors you have to completely take on the role of pollinators: alternately touch all mature flowers with a soft brush, pollination with this method is almost 100%. Another way is to create artificial wind from a fan directed at flowering plants. Less efficiency, but less labor.

The drug "Ovyaz" helps to stimulate fruit formation, accelerate ripening and increase the yield of homemade strawberries by 15 - 30%. Plants are sprayed when the first peduncles appear, twice at weekly intervals.

back to contents ↑ How can strawberries on the windowsill get sick?

The biggest danger in home growing is gray mold. Like other fungal diseases, it develops in high humidity and affects leaves, stems and fruits. First of all, weakened plants are sick. The best way to protect yourself from this misfortune is prevention: proper watering, ventilation, temperature not lower than 18 ° C.If, nevertheless, the plants get sick, treatment with a solution of copper oxychloride (a tablespoon per liter of water) will help. It is not difficult to define the disease, the name speaks for itself. The appearance of white bloom on the leaves is a sign of powdery mildew damage. To combat it, plants are sprayed with a solution of soda ash (5 g per liter) or "Sulfaride" specially designed to combat this disease.

Such funds can be used only in the absence of flowers and berries, that is, before flowering and after fruiting. Aphids can start on homemade strawberries, spraying with garlic tincture helps against it, against spider mites - washing the leaves with soapy water. The invasion of slugs, from which strawberries in open ground suffer, do not threaten domestic plants.

back to content ↑ Indoor cultivars

At home, it makes sense to grow a strawberry that does not give a one-time harvest, but bears fruit throughout the year, that is, a remontant one. It is impossible to choose a variety only according to the quality of the fruit you like; in the specific conditions of a closed room, not very light-loving varieties resistant to fungal diseases are good.

The Festivalnaya strawberry, which is popular among plant breeders, is suitable for home, which gives berries of excellent quality both in the open field and on the windowsill.

Unpretentious in care and variety Evi or in another way Charlotte. Breitor is appreciated for its good yield and early maturity. Some varieties are specially bred for growing strawberries at home. As a rule, these varieties grow poorly with the help of whiskers, but reproduce well by seeds. One of the best representatives is "Supreme". It not only gives large berries of excellent quality, but is also very decorative, since it belongs to the ampel type, which is rare for strawberries: when planted in a suspended flowerpot, it hangs beautifully in long, lush bunches. The appearance of the bush in the interior is important.

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