Is it possible to grow strawberries at home on a windowsill?

Every second gardener or just a lover of home plants wants to grow not only a beautiful, but also a useful plant. And almost every housewife will not mind strawberries being such a crop. This is beautiful too - the flowering plant emits a pleasant aroma, has a beautiful appearance, and you can get healthy and tasty berries all year round.

General concept of remontant strawberries

In order to enjoy delicious berries all year round, you need to know what species and varieties are required for reproduction. We have already written in detail about what remontability is.

Homemade strawberries all year round is quite possible if everything is organized correctly.

Experienced gardeners use for similar purposes exclusively remontant varieties, however, you should know which varieties are capable of bearing fruit continuously, and which ones - only two harvests.

Can strawberries be grown on a windowsill?

The answer is yes!

Remontant crops differ from the usual species not only in that they are able to bear fruit several times during the warm season, but also in the duration of daylight hours. Ordinary crops, as a rule, are characterized by ripening with a short daylight hours, that is, they ripen even in the dark, if the temperature allows.

Strawberries have bloomed on the windowsill, we are waiting for the first berries.

Differences in varieties

Repaired crops are divided into maturation of long daylight hours and neutral daylight hours - DSD and NSD.

DSD repairmen are able to develop and lay buds only in the presence of long-term illumination - yield twice a season... At the same time, as a rule, the second crop is distinguished by larger fruits and a higher overall level of yield. However, in this case, this species does not differ in particular endurance, as a result of which many bushes die after the season - dries up.

NSD repairmen are characterized by stronger endurance, fruiting is characterized by continuity, does not depend on the length of daylight hours... If favorable conditions are created, they are able to give a high level of yield for about ten months in a row. If grown at room temperature, with sufficient light, the weather and climate are not affected either.

Classification of varieties

If you decide to grow strawberries on the windowsill, you should ask the store what kind of seedlings they are, what are they called.

Decorative strawberry variety "Tristan".

Large-fruited strawberry "Brighton".

Repaired early ripening variety "Roman".

The main popular names of NSD remontants:

• Queen Elizabeth;
• Queen Elizabeth II;
• F1 novel;
• Tristar;
• Brighton.

Queen Elizabeth

Periodic yield.

It is believed that Queen Elizabeth refers to a species of long daylight maturing, however, many gardeners still prefer to grow it in an apartment due to the large size of berries and high taste..

The main advantages of the variety:

• ease of grooming;
• large whisker formation for breeding;
• the size of the berries is 50 grams;
• beautiful flower stalks - nice decor on the window;
• pleasant aroma;
• long-term storage in fresh and processed form.

In most cases, the first Elizabeth is grown in the house by those owners who are satisfied with such a period of strawberry productivity due to employment... The rest of the varieties are bright representatives of their species, they are distinguished by regular fruiting, pleasant aroma, beautiful peduncles, and a high level of endurance.

Rules for planting strawberries at home

When choosing a variety, it should be borne in mind that the plant will live in the selected container for about three years, since frequent transplantation is harmful to the crop - it reduces immunity and productivity, and lengthens the adaptation period.

In order not to transplant strawberries once again, you need to immediately choose a larger pot.

In addition, adult seedlings may well die due to the fact that they are not able to adapt to new conditions as much as possible.

For one bush, you can use a container with a volume of no more than three liters.... The flowerpot should be wide and medium in height - at least twenty centimeters. Balcony boxes can be used for group planting. Depending on the size of the box, the number of seedlings is calculated. If the approximate volume of the container is from ten to fifteen liters - four bushes, the distance between them is twenty-five centimeters.

Tank preparation

The seedling container must be properly prepared.

Drainage holes in the bottom of the pot.

Expanded clay or pebbles at the bottom of the container.

Loose and nutritious soil.

• At the bottom of the pot or box, holes should be cut out for the drain of excess water, and the bottom of the container should be filled with a drainage mixture - expanded clay, pebbles, broken brick or pebbles.
• As a substrate, you can use a universal ready-made mixture from a store, which is used for indoor plants.
• But it is also permissible to use a mixture prepared by yourself - forest land, humus, humus, peat, sand.
• The dose is selected on the basis of two parts to one part.

Planting a seedling

We keep the rhizome in potassium permanganate.

Place the seedling in the pot.

We add fertile soil.

Checking the location of the heart.

Top dressing

Top dressing is applied several times during the entire active period - before flowering, during flowering, during fruiting.

• It is recommended to feed approximately once every fourteen days..
• The frequency and amount of dressings will depend on the condition of the seedlings, the stage of development, and the season.

It should be remembered that there is a so-called "dead period" when the plant rests - it does not bloom, does not bear fruit, does not throw away its stepsons. At this time, all the functions of the culture freeze - the plant thus rests - you can not make any dressings and fertilizers... Can be used monofertilizer, or you can - a complex consisting of several substances.

Growing algorithm

Landing begins, as a rule, in July.

Around the second week after transplanting the seedlings, new leaves should appear.

This is due to the adaptation period - so that the seedlings can adapt to the winter, and show the result in the spring. It is planted in a large pot, can be placed on the balcony, on the sunny side - on the south or southeast side of the balcony.

The appearance of the results - the first additional leaves - is expected on the eleventh day... If young leaves appear, the plant is firmly rooted and took root.In this case, the old leaves gradually die off and crumble. On the thirtieth day, the first ear of flower stalks can be expected to appear, which should be removed in order for the second flowering to bring better results.

Peduncles

Approximately thirty-seventh day - flower stalks open.

The first flowers appear on the bushes planted more than a month ago.

Several disclosures appear first - roughly from two to four inflorescences... The duration of flowering varies within three days, then the petals crumble and the first fruits are tied.

The conditional end of flowering, if the strawberry belongs to the period of a long day of ripening, falls on about fifty-second days after planting.

Helping flowers to pollinate.

The first berries

At the same time, the first berries increased in size, and the peduncles bloom and fade in turn.

It is necessary to monitor the stems due to the fact that the first berries are extremely large - the stems may break.

To prevent such a phenomenon, a fabric roller or foam rubber can be placed under the stems. And you should also remember about systematic watering as needed. The first sample of ripe berries usually occurs on the sixty-first day, if all the measures of correct agricultural technology are followed.

Deformed berries appear with insufficient pollination of peduncles.

Fruiting all year round

For winter fruiting, strawberries need additional lighting, as a result of which the length of the day will increase to about twelve hours.

Extra lighting for homemade strawberries.

The temperature regime is maintained at the level twenty degrees centigrade... If the DSD variety is used for indoor cultivation, it is worth remembering that the duration of the active productivity of this species is two or three years.

If a decision is made to grow NSD remontants, you need to be prepared for the fact that a decline in productivity may occur in a year, and then you will need to carry out a new planting and breeding of young seedlings.

Video on how to plant strawberries from seeds at home

Every year there are more and more people who want to taste self-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.

Features of growing on a windowsill

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Adhering to the technology of cultivating strawberries at home on the windowsill, the soil in the 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.

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.
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.

To many novice summer residents and gardeners, strawberries seem to be grown only in a garden bed. Although in fact this fragrant and tasty berry takes root well in an apartment, subject to simple rules. Learn to care for strawberry bushes at home, and you will no longer be worried about the high cost of berries in stores, especially in winter. Let's find out together all the intricacies of how to grow strawberries at home on a windowsill.

Specific features of strawberries and variety selection

Botanists who know well the peculiarities of plants, hearing about strawberries, will immediately recall the erroneous names of different species that are common in colloquial speech.

In fact, the most common cone-shaped berry today is called garden strawberry (or pineapple).

Strawberries, on the other hand, are a completely different species with round berries, obtained from the natural crossing of forest and oriental strawberries. There is also nutmeg strawberry, so named because of its special piquant aroma.

Let the wrong names remain in everyday life, but when buying seedlings it is important not to miscalculate with the type and variety in order to ultimately get the desired harvest.

For growing on a windowsill, remontant strawberries are ideal. Reparability is a type of fruiting in which a plant is capable of producing crops throughout the year. There is also a minus: a short lifespan due to the constant abundant yield - from 1 to 3 years.

The following have proven to be the best remontant varieties:

• "Queen Elizabeth";
• "Tristar";

  Berries of remontant strawberry variety "Tristar"

• "Lyubasha";
• "White Dream";
• "Geneva";
• Brighton and others.

Which is better - seeds or ready-made seedlings?

For growing strawberries on the windowsill, bushes dug out in the country, purchased seedlings, purchased in a store or seeds prepared on their own are suitable.

Seedlings from a summer cottage are good because you will be sure of the quality of the future harvest. To prepare the bushes for living conditions in an apartment, they are dug up in the right amount, preferably in the fall, and placed in boxes for a couple of weeks, providing rest time in a dark and cool place. This is followed by the landing stage, the nuances of which will be discussed later.

If you want to get young strawberry bushes, vegetative division of the plant is carried out in the garden. So, how to grow real strawberries from thin tendrils? Antennae with daughter leafy rosettes are cut off from the parent bush, for which special care is needed: they are planted in flower boxes, they are abundantly watered and shaded from the sun for 3 weeks.

Propagation of strawberries with antennae

It is risky to take purchased seedlings, but if there is a trusted supplier of seedlings, there is no need to doubt. Just make sure that the strawberry twigs have developed leaves and white juicy roots.

Grown strawberries from seeds are no different from seedlings. To get seeds from berries, take some pretty ripe fruits, wipe them with a sieve, let stand in a glass of water, and then drain the pulp. Dry the remaining seeds, and you can start sowing. It is best to do this in the summer, but you can also traditionally - from January to April.

How to plant seeds:

1. Strawberry seeds are sown in a box with nutrient soil - on the very top of the soil, without sprinkling.
2. The box is left in a dark place covered with a cloth.
3. For 2 weeks there is regular watering with warm water, but you need to make sure that the seeds are not washed off.
4. With the emergence of shoots, the box is already placed on the window, closer to the light. You can equip a greenhouse with film or glass if the room is pretty cool.
5. When the seedlings grow to 10 mm, they are transplanted already at a distance of about 5 cm from each other.
6. And when the sprouts form at least 5 leaves, each of them is already transplanted into its own pot. After that, it is undesirable to transplant them somewhere else, since an adult plant does not tolerate this well.

Seeds germinate well in peat tablets, the soil mixture in them increases the germination of seeds even in the most capricious species. Another plus of this invention: an elementary transplant of immature seedlings into the ground, in which the risk of damaging the delicate roots is minimal.

Self-harvested seeds are stored for 3-4 years.

Where to plant strawberries

For good growth of strawberries, summer residents derived the formula of the soil mixture:

• 3 pieces of leafy land (leaf turf);
• 5 parts of humus;
• 2 pieces of sand.

Option two: a mixture of equal amounts of humus, sand and peat.

Ready-made commercial universal soil is also suitable if there is no time to prepare your own soil base.

In order to 100% exclude soil contamination by pests, a week before sowing, it is disinfected with a hot solution of potassium permanganate or steamed. This is especially true for land that was dug out by yourself or bought more than a year ago.

For processing with potassium permanganate, the proportions are taken: 1 gram per 200 ml of water, a weak pink solution is obtained. The steaming technology is as follows: a colander with soil is placed on a pot of water and under a lid at 100 degrees, hot steam is processed from 1 to 2 hours. Some people manage to steam the earth in the oven on a baking sheet and even in the microwave.

Preparing the soil for sowing strawberry seeds

It is imperative to pour drainage under the soil layer. Despite the fact that the berry is hygrophilous, excess water can damage the roots and destroy the plant. The drainage layer is especially important if the plant is planted in boxes or pots without holes to drain excess moisture.Then it is necessary to pour up to 5 cm of the drainage layer, otherwise a couple of centimeters are enough. Coal, crushed stone, broken brick, expanded clay, small pebbles are suitable as raw materials.

Depending on the number of bushes planted, the best containers for enhanced growth and fruiting of strawberries will be: a wooden box or several pots of sufficient volume - from 15 cm in diameter.

Now choose a sunny spot for the seedling pots. The best option is a balcony on the south side, but the southeast sector of the house is also not bad.

Strawberries are quite light-requiring, but at the same time shade-tolerant. It's just that in low light, the bushes will give less sweet berries than possible.

Even when located on the south side, the heat may not be enough. For those who want to get the most of the fruit, you can use fluorescent lamps, achieving the necessary 12-hour lighting.

It is better if the balcony is glazed, as strawberry bushes are sensitive to drafts. But an open balcony is also suitable, only the boxes must be supplied from the inside. It is important to ventilate the closed loggia daily to enhance the development of plantings.

Secrets of proper care for homemade strawberries

Let's start by watering the future strawberries. There are two ways to saturate the soil with moisture: watering from the top or from the bottom. Most owners of unpretentious indoor plants are used to the first option. This is a common use for a watering can: water pours until it starts to appear in the sump. The second method is more sophisticated, but it is just more suitable for our home strawberry. For watering from below, the liquid is poured into a pan or the pot is placed in a bowl of water, then waiting for the soil to be saturated with moisture. Then the plant is put in place, allowing excess water to drain.

• Strawberries need standard timely watering 2 times a week. The best time to quench the plant's thirst is in the afternoon.
• Excessive watering is not allowed.
• The water should be well separated and at room temperature.
• The tap water for irrigation is settled so that chlorine, which is harmful to plants, evaporates from it. One day will be enough for the evaporation of chloride impurities.

After each watering or once a week, the topsoil should be carefully loosened.

The following guidelines apply to shearing the plant for higher yields:

• For this, the first flowers on a young bush are immediately cut off. Saplings taken from the garden already strengthened do not need this operation.
• In addition to removing the first peduncles, antennae can be cut off from strawberries. The worse the balcony is illuminated, the more they need to be cut. In the presence of natural and additional artificial lighting, let the antennae grow and form rosettes for planting future plants.

There is such an interesting and important procedure as pollination. After the flowers have formed, they are alternately touched with a simple drawing brush. A simple procedure was performed, and there is no doubt about the appearance of a sweet strawberry harvest on the windowsill all year round.

Additional care for strawberries on the windowsill

Like all living things, a homemade berry needs constant care. Regular feeding will be the key to the plant's reciprocal love for you, its lush flowering and fruiting.

You can start feeding strawberry sprouts after 5 leaves appear. The frequency of the procedure is 2-3 times a month. You can buy ready-made liquid concentrated fertilizers and follow the instructions.

You can prepare mineral dressing yourself according to this recipe:

1. Take a three-liter jar and fill 1 liter with eggshells.
2. A glass of wood ash is added to the jar.
3. The rest of the hollow space of the container is filled with water at room temperature.
4. The mixture is infused for 5 days in a dark place and then filtered.
5. The solution is ready to use: it is diluted with water in a 1: 3 ratio.

Humus is suitable as a nutrient fertilizer.It is made liquid, diluted with water, and then the bushes are watered.

Ask the consultants of the store for summer residents about the optimal complex or organic fertilizers for remontant strawberries, they will definitely give the right advice.

• It is better not to skip the feeding procedure during the active development of seedlings and their flowering. During winter dormancy, it would be good to exclude fertilizers, providing the strawberries with a good rest.
• Do not allow an excess of nitrogen fertilizers, so as not to provoke excessive growth of leaves and an insufficient amount of long-awaited fruits.
• The presence of such a trace element as iron in the soil will improve fruiting. There is an elementary way to achieve what you want - to place a rusty nail in the ground. A more modern option is to buy a special iron-containing solution at a flower shop and spray it on the leaves.

An integral point in plant care is disease prevention and pest control. To destroy aphids, a garlic solution is prepared: for one head of garlic - a liter of water. The prepared mixture is infused for about a week and poured into a spray bottle, with which the bushes affected by aphids are processed.

For preliminary flowering, the figure on the thermometer should reach 15-17 degrees Celsius. The optimum temperature for the successful ripening of berries in the room should be kept within 18-20 degrees. At lower values, additional heating by an electrical appliance is turned on.

Garden strawberries are hardy enough and can survive even at -30. But at home, this can be avoided by providing more comfortable conditions and bountiful harvests.

When asked whether it is easy to grow strawberries on a windowsill, you can without a shadow of a doubt give an affirmative answer. The process of preparing seedlings, caring for them and obtaining a long-awaited fragrant harvest is not difficult and will captivate any avid gardener.

The first delicious berries from the windowsill can please you in 2 months. And all the subsequent baskets with strawberries and the amazing decorativeness of this miniature plant will only convince you of the correctness of the idea of ​​arranging a garden by the window or on the balcony.

Growing strawberries on the balcony - video

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To date, strawberries have become one of the fashionable cultures of the windowsill. However, often, once in the house, it stops blooming, and then completely fades, thereby greatly upsetting its owners. What's this? Just cheating? Strawberries can't survive in a room? Or are there secrets that allow a delicious berry to delight with its fruits all year round, even in an apartment? Let's figure it out.

Potted strawberries

Strawberry varieties for growing on the window at home

Firstly, what flower shops offer as strawberries for a window is often an unsuitable option for our climatic conditions. So, for example, large-fruited strawberry Albion. Its appearance is simply impressive: large green leaves, giant mouth-watering berries ... However, this variety absolutely does not tolerate either high temperatures, or cold weather, or lack of moisture, or the slightest excess of it. Therefore, it can be grown only in greenhouse conditions, which cannot be created on the windowsill. So what do you do?

Experienced gardeners recommend not buying beautiful strawberry bushes that attract with their berries from the windows of flower shops, but taking into the house proven remontant varieties intended for the area in which you live. They are not demanding on the length of daylight hours, they have the potential for year-round fruiting, and the ampelous options also hang beautifully from a suspended planter, delighting with an exotic appearance.

Strawberry, grade "Queen Elizabeth 2"

However, if you are at a loss in making your own choice, take a look at the variety “Homemade delicacy”, “Geneva”, “Queen Elizabeth”.According to fans of window beds, they work best on the windowsill. Some recommend growing strawberries from seeds, but here it is worth thinking carefully, since this process is quite troublesome, takes a lot of time and requires careful adherence to agricultural practices.

Soil for strawberries at home

If you have decided on the variety, start preparing the soil in which your strawberries will be planted. For many, the simplest solution is to buy a ready-made universal soil mixture in the store. But you can prepare the substrate yourself. To do this, in equal proportions, it is necessary to mix humus, sand and earth from ephedra. You should not go the simplest way - take land from the garden. Usually it does not have enough friability, and is often infected with diseases, which leads to the rapid death of plants.

Preparation and selection of strawberries for the windowsill

If you decide to plant seedlings taken from your garden in pots, do not rush to plant. Select beautiful full-fledged sockets, without signs of disease, dig them into a small flowerpot and place them in a cold, dark place for two weeks, providing the strawberries with a dormant period. If you want to plant young bushes from cuttings, then remember that the largest number of flower buds are laid in the sockets formed from the second and fourth tendril buds (the first and third remain dormant in case of damage to the cuttings). And the further, the less the plant has the potential to yield.

Planting strawberries in a pot

Since strawberries do not like stagnant water, the first thing to start planting with is drainage. At the bottom of the pot, with a volume of at least 3 liters per bush, it is necessary to lay out expanded clay, broken brick or pebbles, into which the remnants of excess water will drain. Then, view the seedlings prepared in advance for the length of the roots. If the root system is too long, it must be shortened. The planted root should fit freely in the pot, without bending in the hole.

After the strawberry is planted, it is watered. Some flower growers and gardeners recommend using growth stimulants when watering, but experience shows that this culture has excellent survival rate without them.

Potted strawberries

Home strawberry care

In order for the strawberries planted in pots to feel good, they must be placed on the sunniest windows. Usually these are window sills of the southern and southeastern location.

In winter, it is good to organize illumination with daytime lamps for plants to provide 12 hours of full illumination. Maintain temperature around 20 ° C.

Water, feed and spray regularly. Moreover, it is necessary to spray not only with settled water, but also with preparations containing iron, since it is this element, accumulating in the sockets, provokes the greatest laying of the crop.

Strawberries in a flower box

From ovary to berry

If done correctly, the first crop will appear in two months. However, even here you cannot leave strawberries unattended. Unripe berries like to infect spider mites. To destroy the pest, you need to make a tincture of garlic (soak 2 chopped cloves in 100 g of water for 2 hours) and spray the plants.

In addition, many remontant varieties are very fond of giving a mustache, of course you can leave them, for decorative purposes, however, if your goal is berries, then it is better to immediately break out the appearing antennae or cut off with scissors, since they very much pull off nutrients from the mother plant , thereby significantly underestimating the yield.

That's all the tricky advice on how to harvest strawberries on the window. Observing them, you will not only collect ripe berries throughout the year, but also admire your strawberry bushes, since what could be more beautiful than a combination of greenery, unpretentious white flowers and bright berry lights ?!