Lovers of sweet strawberries would gladly eat them all year round, but the harvest season is not that great. Fortunately, growing strawberries all year round is possible at home. It is only necessary to arm yourself with the knowledge of the nuances of such gardening and recommendations on how to do it correctly, in order to get a strawberry harvest even in winter.
Did you know? In Soviet times, the technology of growing strawberries all year round was developed, which, due to certain circumstances, did not spread in the agrarian sector of the country of that time.
How to choose seedlings for growing strawberries
To grow strawberries at home, you need to choose suitable seedlings. You can grow it yourself from seeds, but this difficult task may be beyond the power of many gardeners. In addition, the use of seedlings allows you to get a harvest faster.
For growing at home is popular remontant strawberry, which bears fruit in winter. Some of its varieties bear fruit for 10 months a year, while not too dependent on the length of daylight and weather conditions. Among the varieties of non-durable daylight we can distinguish the following: Queen Elizabeth, Queen Elizabeth II, Tristar, Byron, Roman F1 and so on, but precisely Queen Elizabeth II is the most fruitful and gives large berries.
Saplings are better to take in specialized stores, and not in the markets from random people. Store seedlings are more likely to be exactly what they wanted to buy.
What should be the soil, the choice of capacity for seedlings
Having received a positive answer to the question of whether it is possible to grow strawberries at home in the winter, it is worth learning more about the difficulties of organizing a home garden and the requirements for it, as well as about the features of the seedlings.
Choosing a container for seedlings is not difficult: pots and drawers will do. If there is no place to put such containers, you can build a polyethylene cylinder for strawberries from a thick film that is suitable for a greenhouse. These cylinders can be placed on the floor or hung. Filling them with soil, you need to make cuts for seedlings in a checkerboard pattern: each at a distance of 20-25 cm.
Important! In tanks for growing strawberries are required openings for water flow. At the bottom you need to lay a layer of drainage, in which you can use pebbles, expanded clay, broken brick.
Soil for strawberries at home should have the correct composition, which will ensure yield. It should consist of a mixture of peat, fertilizer and soil. You can independently make such a substrate by purchasing all the components separately.
Superphosphate can be used as a mandatory mineral fertilizer.
Important! If you yourself are making a substrate for growing strawberries at home and for this you are gathering land in the garden, pay attention to what was growing on it. The land on which strawberries, potatoes, tomatoes or raspberries were grown is not suitable, as they may contain spores of some diseases typical for these plants that can spread to young bushes. The best option would be the land, resting three years.
Creating a microclimate for strawberries
For the cultivation of strawberries all year round is required to provide favorable conditions. Although strawberries grow in warm home conditions, this is not all winter care that is required.
A good harvest of strawberries requires the creation of a particularly microclimate. Favorable is the air temperature of 20-25 ° C. Humidity should be high enough - 80%. Naturally, in such conditions good ventilation is necessary.
Lighting is very important for the process of photosynthesis. High pressure lamps with reflector can be used. It is recommended to set the 16-hour daylight hours. Properly created microclimate will help strawberries to develop properly and, as a result, bear fruit well.
How to pollinate strawberries yourself
After preparing the conditions for growing strawberries to relax early. It is necessary to remember about such an important stage of development of a flowering plant as its pollination. At home, alas, it can not occur naturally. Therefore, it is necessary to resort to artificial pollination of peduncles during those few weeks when strawberry bushes are blooming.
Dust strawberries themselves in two ways:
- in the mornings in the direction of the peduncles direct the included fan. The wind from it will help to pollinate strawberries in the same way as it happens on open ground;
- manually pollinate each flower with a soft paint brush. A brush is necessary to drive on each flower daily.
On small home plantations pollination will not cause significant difficulties. But if we are talking about extensive plantations, such methods of self-pollination of strawberries will become too time-consuming and ineffective.Secrets of growing strawberries at home
Strawberry is a demanding plant to grow it at home, you need to be patient. To grow strawberries on the windowsill in the winter, we offer the following tips:
- The first peduncles need to be removed. This is done so that the seedlings take root faster. After the appearance of a sufficient number of leaves, the newly appeared flower stalks can be left;
- Stimulating compounds can be used to process strawberry bushes. This contributes to the rapid formation of ovaries;
- Strawberry seedlings should be periodically fertilized with biohumus and organic fertilizers. In this case, it is important to know the measure, because if you overdo it, the harvest will be small, and the foliage much;
- Several rusty nails can be buried in the soil under the seedlings so that they give iron ions to the soil during the oxidation process. Remember that for proper development the plant needs fertilizer containing iron.
Did you know? At home, the strawberry harvest can wait about 60 days from the time of planting seedlings.
