Strawberry at home: how to equip the garden at home

Ripe, juicy, fragrant strawberries are the most desired delicacy on our tables. No matter how much we like jams and compotes, but nothing beats the taste of fresh berries. Unfortunately, in winter it is hard to find even in supermarkets, and the price for it is simply sky-high.

What strawberries can be grown at home

Today, many summer residents in a less busy winter period independently organize a kind of mini-farm for growing strawberries at home. And some gardeners manage not only to feast on their own berries in the winter, but even get financial benefits from the sale of a scarce product.

Only cultivating strawberry varieties are suitable for growing a house. They bear fruit more than twice a season. But such species, in turn, are divided into DSD and NSD.

Ordinary strawberries lays flower buds closer to autumn, when daylight is short. And plants of repairing varieties can form buds both during neutral (LSD) and during long daylight hours (LSD).

Strawberry DSD bears fruit only with a long daylight and gives only two crops per year: in July and in August - September. Moreover, most of the bushes die after the second fruiting. Creating an artificial long daylight is not difficult using the backlight. But still, for home breeding, NSD varieties that lay kidneys with a neutral daylight are better suited. They bloom for 10 months and bear fruit almost continuously.

Planting strawberries at home

For normal development, plants will need a warm, well-lit area and suitable soil.

Choosing a place to grow

Before you start growing strawberries at home, choose the best place for this. Of course, if you have a greenhouse or a separate heated hotbed, then this question is not before you. But, most likely, you do not have such wealth. But for the same purpose, a glazed loggia, window sill or a separate room are perfect. The main thing is that the chosen place meets the following minimum requirements:

• Constant temperature 20-22 ° C.
• Good light.
• Air circulation.

Maintaining a temperature suitable for strawberries at home is not difficult. An additional heater easily compensates for the lack of heat.

Lack of light is the most serious problem when growing strawberries at home in our climatic conditions, especially in winter. For fast and full growth and development, plants need about 14 hours of lighting per day. In the room, choose southern, well-lit windows for landing. To compensate for insufficient lighting, fluorescent lamps or special phytolamps will help. Also, foil reflectors are often used in the kit.

Provide additional air circulation will help air conditioning or a fan. Although the open window will cope with this task. But be extremely careful. In winter, a window closed at the wrong time will destroy your strawberry plantings and you will have to start all over again.

Lighting

In residential houses, even we sometimes lack light, and even more so will suffer sharply from insufficient illumination of strawberries, for which the sun is also a source of energy.

To create optimal conditions, you need to choose a lighting source with a spectrum that is closest to the solar. In stores, these are discharge lamps for daylight. The best choice for our agronomic purposes is 40-60-watt lamps. They will provide enough light and will not affect the electricity bill too much. One meter lamp is enough to illuminate 3-6 square meters of landings.

Fluorescent discharge lamps - the best option for highlighting strawberries

The amount of light is measured not only by the duration, but also by the degree of illumination. The norm for strawberries is 130-150 lux for 12-14 hours a day or 2-3 lamps (F7) for 13-20 square meters. To measure the degree of illumination it will not be superfluous to have a device at home - a luxmeter.

The light meter will help determine if there is enough light in the room

Lighting directly affects the speed of development of bushes and ripening of berries. With a day duration of 15 hours, strawberries begin to bloom in 10, and bear fruit in 35 days, and with a daylight of 8 hours - after 14 and 48 days, respectively.

Soil preparation

It must be remembered that at the disposal of homemade strawberries there will always be a very limited amount of soil, so it must be very fertile. There are two ways: purchase a ready-made soil mixture in the store or prepare the soil yourself. If the choice fell on the second option, then you will need such components in equal quantities:

• garden land;
• humus;
• expanded clay or sand for drainage.

Do not take from the garden plot the land on which tomatoes, potatoes, raspberries or strawberries grew. Together with the soil, you can bring on the home garden and pathogens.

It will be useful to measure the acidity of the soil. The best indicator for strawberries is pH 5.5-6.5.

Seed stratification

Strawberry seeds are very small and do not rush to germinate at all, so they need to be further stimulated.

1. Seeds are planted in pre-soaked peat tablets, two in each.
2. The tablets are cleaned for four weeks in a room with a temperature of 0-1 ° C, for example, on the veranda.
3. Four weeks later, they are transferred to a room with a temperature of 10-15 ° C.
4. After a week, they provide the seeds with a constant room temperature of 24-25 ° C.

Germination is stimulated by a gradual change in temperature, simulating real environmental conditions.

There is a simpler but less effective way. Wrap seeds before planting in a damp cloth, then in a plastic bag and put in the refrigerator for four weeks.

Video: Stratification of Strawberry Seeds

Sowing seeds

Now that the seeds are ready, it’s time for sowing. Different sources offer different planting times for strawberries for home growing. It seems that when creating artificial conditions there should be no dependence on the time of year. But still, most "window sill" gardeners believe that seed planting should be carried out from August 15 to September 20 or in early spring in early March.

1. Take a shallow box, fill it with 3/4 prepared soil.
2. We plant strawberry seeds in shallow grooves. The most common mistake at this stage is the excessive penetration of seeds. They should not even be sprinkled. And the soil during planting should be dense and moist, then the sprouts will not fall into the cavity and suffocate there.
   

   Strawberry seeds should be laid out at a distance of 1-2 cm from each other

3. From above we tighten the container with polyethylene or cover with a transparent lid, the role of which can be played by ordinary glass.
   

   Optimum humidity is kept under the film in the seedling box

4. We remove our mini-farm in a warm place until the first shoots appear.
5. We transfer the container to a well-lit place and gradually get rid of the shelter.

Remember that even prepared seeds will not rush to germinate. The first shoots of strawberries appear only 20-30 days after sowing. Do not be upset prematurely.

Picking strawberry seedlings

The time for a pick begins when the seedling has two true leaves.

1. Carefully remove the root system from the ground, trying not to injure it.
   

   The sprout must be removed from the ground with a lump of soil.

2. Gently pinch the longest roots. They can be cut off with scissors or broken off with a fingernail.
3. We transfer the seedlings for permanent residence in spacious pots.

When filling seedlings with earth, you need to ensure that the growth point is at the level of the soil

Seedling & Pollination Care

Water strawberries twice a week. Like any other indoor plant, strawberries are recommended to be moistened with standing warm water. It should be very careful, the culture does not tolerate stagnation of water and quickly perishes.

The first time you need to feed strawberries is necessary only after the appearance of the fifth leaf. This should be done once every two weeks, using specialized feeding for strawberries. Be careful with the amount of fertilizer: their excess will lead to active vegetative growth, but then the berries will have to wait a long time. After the first harvest, it is better to refuse feeding for two months.

Video: care for strawberry seedlings

There are no problems in nature or in a garden plot with strawberry pollination. Everything happens in a natural way with the participation of wind, rain and insects. But in isolated conditions of the apartment there is a high probability of receiving empty flowers. The easiest way to carry out the procedure is with a regular brush. In order not to miss anything, pollinated flowers are recommended to be marked, tearing off one petal, this will not cause any harm to the plant.

A fan is used to simulate pollination by wind, but this is a less efficient method.

For artificial pollination of strawberries, it is convenient to use a regular brush

At home, strawberries bloom 30-35 days after a pick. And the first ripe berries can be expected in about a month.

Varieties of strawberries for growing at home

Today, there is already a proven list of strawberry varieties that are well established for growing at home. Here are the most popular ones.

Variety Elizabeth II

Large-fruited repairing dessert variety. The bush is erect, semi-spreading. The weight of berries under favorable conditions reaches 50-60 g. The taste is sweet, rich, with a honey tint. The pulp is dense, which allows the berries to be perfectly stored and transported. The variety is resistant to most diseases, including gray rot, brown spotting and powdery mildew. The productivity of one bush under favorable conditions reaches 1-1.5 kg. It does not require artificial pollination. Grade of neutral daylight.

Variety Tristar

A popular remodeling variety of Dutch selection. The bush is compact. Berries weighing 25-30 g, conical shape, dark red, glossy. The pulp is dense. Due to the high sugar content, the fruits are sweet, dessert. NSD grade, self-pollinated.

Grade Brighton

The fruit weighs up to 50 g. The berries are sweet, with a rich taste and a unique pineapple flavor. Do not deform during transportation. Bushes are compact. The variety has proven itself when grown in greenhouses and on window sills. Strawberries do not require artificial pollination. A plant of neutral daylight.

Grade Baron Solemacher

At home, not only strawberries (garden strawberries) are grown, but also its smaller counterpart - strawberries. Bezelless species that can only be obtained from seeds are especially popular. Baron Solemacher is a very popular variety, great for home use. In addition, it is officially included in the "State Register of Breeding Achievements Approved for Use in the Russian Federation." It is a remontant, beardless variety. The weight of one berry is about 4 g. The bushes are compact, the fruits have a sweet and sour taste and have a high tasting index. Plants are self-pollinated, resistant to temperature extremes, have a high resistance to diseases.

Photo Gallery: Popular Varieties for Home Growing

Reviews about growing strawberries in the apartment

I think that it is possible to grow repairing varieties on the windowsill, now a sufficient number of them have been bred. For example: Albion, Brighton, Temptation, as well as the well-known Queen Elizabeth. But the main problem that you will encounter when trying to grow strawberries year-round on the windowsill is the lack of heat and light in the winter. Can you provide the strawberries with adequate lighting? After all, she is very warm and photophilous. If the answer is yes, then it's worth a try. But you also need to consider that in the winter in our dry heated rooms, plants are often affected by pests. You may have to carry out the processing.

Tani

// agriculturalportal.rf/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2579#p6569

Strawberries can be grown at home. To do this, you need to purchase high-quality seedlings, self-pollinated varieties that can bring crops all year round. These include Tristar, Selva, Symphony, Queen Elizabeth, Darselect and others. Almost everything is suitable for planting, pots, glass jars and even plastic bags. The land for strawberries is better to take chernozem, with a small admixture of sand and humus. Strawberries love loose soil. The temperature for growing strawberries should be at least 20 degrees, the ideal temperature is 20-25 degrees Celsius. Strawberries need to be watered little by little every day; they must have access to sunlight.

Ratro

// agriculturalportal.rf/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2579#p6751

Of the 12 bushes, 3 are still blooming and all of the same variety are Yummy, the rest are nothing. Three bushes withered. Maybe I in vain cut off the first flowers on the bushes - on the Internet I read that it seems like the first ones must be cut off so that the bush gains strength. And now they don’t bloom at all.

Knista

//mnogodetok.ru/viewtopic.php?f=102&t=41054&start=15#p1537333

This year I decided to try growing strawberries in an ordinary pot on the balcony, and the seller encouraged me to do it in the greenhouse. At first I saw absolutely wonderful strawberry bushes with flowers and fruits, well, I could not pass by and again persuaded me. The experiment was a success, we all summer dabbled in strawberries, though not so much from one bush, but still harvested.

Svetik

//www.orhidei.org/forum/79-6160-520448-16-1379844569

I had such an experience - when my daughter was small, they planted a couple of bushes for exotic at home, for the joy of the child. Only cultivar varieties are suitable for growing a house. You need a spacious pot, always a good layer of drainage, since strawberries like very plentiful frequent irrigation, but can not stand stagnant water. Necessarily need additional light, potassium-phosphorus top dressing and in order for the berries to be tied, it is necessary to process the preparation "Ovary". Naturally, you won’t harvest the buckets, but the child will be pleased.

Zosia

//chudo-ogorod.ru/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=253#p1085

Strawberry at home in the winter is an achievable goal. Juicy bright berries will paint gray winter weekdays and will remind you of the past summer. Fresh vitamins will strengthen the body and help resist the epidemic of colds. A self-grown berry will save the family budget.