We grow strawberries at home on the windowsill all year round. Ways to grow strawberries year-round at home

15.03.2019

To date, strawberries (strawberries) have become one of the fashionable window sill crops.
Strawberries are one of the most popular types of berries, which differ not only in their taste, but also in their beneficial properties. It is enough to make delicious jam from strawberries, as any colds will easily evaporate.
For 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 apartment conditions with appropriate care and observance of some simple rules.
Learn how 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 time. If everything is done correctly, then homemade strawberries in pots can regularly bring a good harvest, which will happen throughout the whole year.
Let's learn together all the subtleties of how to grow strawberries at home on the windowsill.

Species and variety selection

Strawberries are divided into bush and ampelous. Ampel strawberry ‒ this is a special variety of strawberry varieties with curly shoots that form a kind of cascade of green lashes with spectacularly alternating leaves, flowers and berries during growth.
Also, there is a difference in the type of fruiting: one-time fruiting and remontant. Ideal for growing on a windowsill remontant strawberry . It is in demand among many gardeners, because every fan of eating sweet and sour berries is eager to get a crop several times a season. Remontant is literally translated from French as "re-blooming". The uniqueness of this type of fruiting lies in the fact that the strawberry bush can produce crops throughout the year. Some varieties of raspberries, citrus fruits and strawberries have the same properties.
If you are interested in a good harvest throughout the year, then you should choose remontant ampelous strawberries . Such strawberries will need a minimum amount of light, so they can be placed almost anywhere. One has only to plant strawberries in a flowerpot - as the first harvest can be met in two months.
Variety selection is also important. The following have proven themselves to be the best remontant varieties:
● "Queen Elizabeth-2",
● " homemade delicacy",
● Tristar,
● "F-Sh1",
● "White dream",
● "Lyubasha",
● "Geneva",
● "Brighton" and others.
However, if you find it difficult to choose on your own, take a closer look at the variety "Homemade delicacy", "Geneva", "Queen Elizabeth-2". According to the reviews of fans of window "beds", they work best on the windowsill. For example, the variety "Geneva" is ideal for homemade strawberries in pots. He contributes accelerated maturation and a splendid harvest. Among the others useful varieties it should be noted "F-SSh1", "Homemade delicacy", as well as "Queen Elizabeth-2", which is considered to be a popular country variety.
Many varieties of strawberries are also resistant to low temperatures, a brighter and more expressive taste, as well as a taste of other fruits and berries. But no matter which variety you choose, multiple harvests throughout all seasons will become a familiar reality for you.
Botanists who know the characteristics of plants well, having heard about strawberries, will immediately remember the erroneous names common in colloquial speech. different types. In fact, the most common now cone-shaped berry is called garden strawberry (or pineapple). Strawberries, on the other hand, are a completely different species with round berries, obtained from a natural crossing of wild and eastern strawberries. There is also nutmeg strawberries, so named because of the special spicy aroma.
Let the wrong names be preserved in everyday life, but when buying seedlings, it is important not to miscalculate with the type and variety in order to eventually get the desired harvest.

Pros and cons of remontant strawberries

Despite its popularity and good yields, remontant strawberries cannot boast exclusively positive characteristics. Let's consider everything in detail.
Advantages:
✵ rich harvest throughout the year;
✵ the first harvest of fruits is possible in a couple of months;
✵ Requires a minimum amount of light.
Disadvantages:
✵ needs proper care;
✵ fragility of the variety due to the constant abundant yield (life span - from 1 to 3 years);
✵ Relatively small berries.
As gardeners rightly point out: the harvest will be more frequent, but less, and the time spent will take more. However, remontant strawberries provide everyone with the opportunity to enjoy delicious strawberries at any time of the year, so its shortcomings should not become an insurmountable barrier to it.

Which is better: ready-made seedlings or seeds?

For growing strawberries on the windowsill, seedlings purchased (bought) in a store or bushes dug up in the country are suitable.
Purchased seedlings it is risky to take, but if there is a proven supplier of seedlings, there is no doubt. Just make sure that the branches have developed leaves and white juicy roots.
What flower shops offer as window strawberries is often the wrong option for our climatic conditions. So, for example, large-fruited "Albion". His appearance simply impressive: large green leaves, giant mouth-watering berries ... However, this variety absolutely cannot stand either high temperatures, or cold weather, or lack of moisture, or its slightest excess. Therefore, it can be grown only in greenhouse conditions, which cannot be created on the windowsill.
Experienced gardeners recommend not to buy beautiful bushes strawberries alluring with their berries from the windows of flower shops, and take proven ones into the house remontant varieties for the area in which you live. They are not demanding on the length of daylight hours, have the potential for year-round fruiting, and the ampelous options also hang beautifully from a hanging planter, delighting with their exotic appearance.


Saplings from their summer cottage 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 below.
If you want to get young bushes, vegetative division of the plant is carried out in the garden. How to grow real strawberries from thin antennae? Antennae are cut off from the parent bush with child leafy rosettes, behind which you need special care: they are planted in flower boxes, watered abundantly and shaded from the sun for 3 weeks.


Strawberries grown from seed is no different from seedlings. But here it is worth thinking carefully, because. process self-study seed production is quite troublesome, takes a lot of time and requires careful adherence to agricultural practices.
To get seeds from berries, take a few nice ripe fruits, rub them with a sieve, let them 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.

Soil preparation

If you have decided on a variety, start preparing the soil in which your strawberries will be planted.
For many, the easiest solution is to buy a ready-made universal potting mix in the store. But you can prepare the substrate yourself. For good strawberry growth, summer residents brought soil mixture formula:
● 3 parts of leaf ground (leaf turf);
● 5 parts of humus;
● 2 parts sand.
Option two: mix in equal proportions humus, sand and forest soil (preferably from conifer).
Option three: a mixture of an equal amount humus, sand and peat .
Choose one of the options - and you will have excellent soil for growing strawberries.
You should not go the simplest way: use land from the garden for this purpose. Usually it does not have sufficient friability and is often infected with diseases and microorganisms, which leads to the rapid death of plants.
If there is no time to prepare your own land base, you can use ready-made purchased soil mixture(universal primer) for flowers.
But in any case, before planting, it will be useful to thoroughly shed the soil. weak solution of potassium permanganate pale pink.


In order to 100% exclude contamination of the soil with pests, a week before sowing, it is disinfected with a hot solution of potassium permanganate (1 gram per 200 ml of water) or steamed. This is especially true for land dug out independently or purchased more than a year ago.
Soil steaming technology is as follows: a colander with soil is placed on a pot of water and under a lid at 100 ° C hot steam is processed for 1 to 2 hours. Some manage to steam the earth in the oven on a baking sheet and even in the microwave.
Under the soil layer (at the bottom of the tank) it is necessary to lay drainage and only then fill up the nutrient substrate. Despite the fact that the berry is moisture-loving, excess water can damage the roots and kill the plant. The drainage layer is especially important if the plant is planted in boxes or pots without drain holes. excess moisture. Then it is necessary to pour up to 5 cm of a drainage layer, otherwise a couple of centimeters is enough. Coal, crushed stone, broken brick, expanded clay, small river pebbles are suitable as raw materials.

Pot for strawberries

For home growing strawberries fit any spacious containers, multi-tiered flower pots, baskets, planters.
Buy 3-4 pots in the same style but different sizes. No need to buy expensive containers, it is better to purchase plastic ones, because. in addition to being economical, they are light and hold moisture better.
You should also not chase after very beautiful pots, because. foliage will still cover most of them. Stack several light pots filled with special soil, starting from the largest to the smallest. This design can grow about 10 plants.
Strawberries love moisture, but at the same time they do not tolerate stagnant water, so there must be drainage holes in pots, boxes or flowerpots.

Based on the fact that many have summer cottages, they are used to growing remontant strawberries using seedlings. If you decide to plant strawberry seedlings taken from your garden in pots, do not rush to plant. Select a few beautiful full-fledged strawberry bushes (sockets) without signs of disease damage, place them in a special small container (flowerpot) and lightly sprinkle with earth. The next two weeks for them should take place in a dark room with a sufficient level of coolness, providing the strawberries with a dormant period. Such a sedative procedure for bushes is extremely important.
If you want to plant young bushes from layers, then remember that the largest number of flower buds are laid in rosettes formed from the second and fourth tendril buds (the first and third remain dormant in case of damage to the layer). And the further, the less the plant has the potential to return the crop.

planting strawberries

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 remaining excess water will drain.
Then view the pre-prepared seedlings on root length . Ideally, the planted root should fit freely in the pot without bending in the hole. The rhizome should be half buried in the ground. But if the root system is too long, then it is best to cut it off.
In order for the bush not to suffer after such an operation, it is recommended to prepare a special solution "Heteroauxin" . The proportions should be as follows: 1 tablet per 5 liters of water. The temperature of the finished solution should be at the level of 20 ° C. It is enough to hold the bush for 3-4 hours.
After the planting of strawberries in the ground is carried out, it watered. Some flower growers and gardeners recommend the use of growth stimulants when watering, but experience shows that this crop has excellent survival without them.

There is also another option for growing strawberries associated with seeds. The most common seed variety is "Supreme". Self-harvested seeds are stored for 3-4 years.
It will be more difficult to care for the seeds, but this way you can recreate the purity of the variety used.
1. You should prepare a special container (box) with nutrient soil. At the very top of the soil, without sprinkling, strawberry seeds are sown.
2. The box is left in a dark place, covered with a cloth.
3. There is regular watering with warm water for two weeks, but you need to make sure that the seeds are not washed off.
4. With the advent of seedlings, the box is already placed on the window, closer to the light. If the room is rather cool, you can equip a greenhouse made of film or glass.


5. When the seedlings grow up to 10 mm, they are seated 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, transplanting them somewhere else is undesirable, because. an adult plant does not tolerate it well.
In just 4 months after germination, the ovary is formed. The average weight of one berry is 5-7 grams.
Peat tablets. Seeds germinate well peat tablets. The soil mixture in them increases the germination of seeds even in the most capricious species. Another plus of this invention is the elementary transplantation of immature seedlings into the ground, in which the risk of damaging delicate roots is minimal.

In order for strawberries planted in pots to feel good, they must be placed on the windowsills of the sunniest windows that face south or southeast. This will allow the seedlings to receive the necessary amount of daylight.
In some cases, even with the location of the grown strawberries on the south side, heat and light (especially in winter) may not be enough. Therefore, for those who want to get the maximum fruit, you can use the backlight with fluorescent lamps to provide a full 12-hour illumination.
Strawberries are quite photophilous, but at the same time shade-tolerant. It's just that in low light, the bushes will produce fewer sweet berries than is possible.
Strawberry bushes can also be grown on the balcony, but it is desirable that it be glazed, because. young shoots are sensitive to drafts. But an open balcony is also suitable, only the boxes should be placed on the inside. It is important to ventilate a closed loggia daily to enhance the development of plantings.

Temperature regime

Together with lighting, it is necessary to take into account the room temperature.
For pre-flowering strawberries, the optimum room temperature should be between + 15 ° C to + 17 ° C, and for successful ripening of berries - from +18°С to +20°С.
At lower rates, an electric heater should be used.
Overheating is not as bad as cold. garden strawberry(strawberry) is quite frost-resistant and able to survive even at a temperature of -30 ° C. But at home, this can be avoided by providing more comfortable conditions and abundant harvests.

Requirements for watering strawberries

Strawberries are a very moisture-loving plant that does not tolerate drying out of the soil. For a good harvest, the main thing is proper and regular watering.
There are two ways to saturate the earth with moisture: watering from above or from below.
To the first way accustomed to most owners unpretentious indoor plants. This is the usual use of a watering can: water is poured until it begins to appear in the pan.
Second way more sophisticated, but it just suits our homemade strawberries more. For watering from below, the liquid is poured into a pan or put the pot in a bowl of water, then waiting for the soil to soak with moisture. Then the plant is put in place, allowing excess water to drain.
As for the regularity of watering, the strawberries on the windowsill are watered in winter period Once a week, and from spring to autumn - 2-3 times a week. The best time to quench the thirst of the plant is in the afternoon. Excessive watering is not allowed, so as not to cause fungal diseases. Water should be at room temperature and well settled. Tap water for irrigation is settled so that chlorine, which is harmful to plants, evaporates from it. One day will be enough to evaporate chlorine impurities.
If the air in the apartment is too dry, additional spray humidification . To do this, use a sprayer so that the moisture evenly moistens the plant and does not create huge earthen craters. Moreover, it is necessary to spray not only with settled water, but also with preparations containing iron, because. it is this element, accumulating in rosettes, that provokes the greatest laying of the crop.
After each watering or once a week, you need to carefully loosen the topsoil.

Like all living things, a homemade berry needs constant care. Regular feeding will become a guarantee of the reciprocal love of the plant for you lush flowering and fruiting.
Usage the right fertilizer and special solutions plays a very important role. First, it will prevent the plant from unnecessary fruiting problems. Secondly, the plant will be saturated with all the necessary components, which contributes to the faster appearance of berries.
Pay attention to universal complex fertilizers for houseplants and quality foliar spray solutions. Ask the consultants of the store for summer residents about the optimal complex or organic fertilizers for remontant strawberries (strawberries), they will definitely give the right advice.
start feeding strawberry sprouts can be already after the appearance of 5 leaves. The frequency of the procedure is 2-3 times a month.
You can buy ready-made liquid concentrated fertilizers and act according to the instructions. Or cook mineral supplement on one's own according to the following recipe:
1) take a 3-liter jar and fill 1/3 of the eggshell;
2) add 1 glass to the jar wood ash;
3) fill the rest of the hollow space of the container with water at room temperature;
4) insist the mixture for 5 days in a dark place, and then strain;
5) before use, the prepared solution is diluted with water in a ratio of 1:3.
Suitable as a nutrient fertilizer humus. It is made liquid by diluting it with water, and then the bushes are watered.


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 strawberries with a good rest.
Do not allow an excess of nitrogen fertilizers, so as not to provoke excessive leaf growth and an insufficient number of long-awaited fruits.
The presence in the soil of such a trace element as iron, will improve fruiting. There is an elementary way to achieve what you want: place an ordinary rusty nail in the ground. More modern version‒ buy a special iron-containing solution in flower shop and spray the leaves.

Trimming primroses and strawberry tendrils

The following recommendations relate to cutting the plant for higher yields. To do this, immediately break first flowers on a young bush. Saplings taken already strong from the garden do not need this operation.
In addition, many remontant strawberry varieties are very fond of giving a mustache. You will notice them as soon as you harvest the first crop. tendrils- these are shoots that can give life to a new plant (bush). Of course, you can leave them, for the sake of decoration. However, if your goal is berries, then it is better to immediately break out or cut off the appearing antennae with scissors, because. they pull very hard mother plant nutrients thus significantly reducing the yield. The worse the lighting, the more they need to be cut. In the presence of natural and additional artificial lighting, let the tendrils grow and form rosettes for planting future plants. They need to be cut off immediately after they reach a length of 2-3 cm, and planted in another pot.

Pollination of strawberry flowers

When strawberries bloom, they will need to be pollinated. For such an interesting and important procedure there are two ways: 1) lightly shake the flower stalks over each other; 2) with a soft brush or cotton swab, alternately transfer pollen from one flower to another.
In general, every day you need to work a little as a "bee", moving from one bush to another. And then in a week it will be possible to see the first ovaries.
If this simple procedure is performed regularly, then in the appearance of a sweet strawberry crop on the windowsill all year round there can be no doubt.
To make new ovaries appear faster, plants can be treated with special stimulating drugs.
Strawberry bushes of remontant varieties look good and bear fruit for the first two years.

An integral point in caring for strawberries on the windowsill is disease prevention and pest control. Do not leave the plant unattended.
Fusarium and late blight wilt
With it, necrosis occurs on the edges of the leaves, later the leaves turn brown and die. With late blight wilt, the bushes grow very poorly, the leaves become grayish. Then the roots die.
If you plant strawberries with seedlings in pots, then for prevention, before planting, wet the rhizomes with solutions of "Potassium Humate" (with a concentration of 15 g / 1 l) and "Agata-25K" (with a concentration of 7 g / 1 l).
Gray rot
It is detected by the fact that light brown spots with a fluffy coating are visible on the berries. Berries dry up and mummify. For prevention, you need to mulch the ground in pots with finely chopped straw or pine needles. In the spring, at the beginning of leaf growth, spray the bushes with 2-4% Bordeaux liquid.
Brown leaf spot
Brown spots appear on the leaves and sepals, then they increase.
White leaf spot
Brownish and purple spots appear on the leaves. When the first leaves grow on the new seedling, spray them with 2-4% Bordeaux mixture. When the berries are tied, it is no longer possible to carry out processing until the end of fruiting.
powdery mildew
With this disease, the leaves curl, acquire purple and have a powdery coating. In case of damage, the plant must be sprayed with the following composition: pour 30 g of soap, azocene, blue vitriol and 15 g of Topaz into 15 liters of water. But you can use the composition only before the strawberries bloom.


Spider mites and aphids
Unripe berries love to hit the spider mite. A web on the leaves is the first sign of a pest. Then the leaves turn yellow and dry. To destroy the pest, you need to make an infusion of garlic (soak 2 crushed cloves in 100 g of water for 2 hours) and spray the plants with fresh infusion. It helps well against spider mites and aphids.
strawberry mite
If you planted diseased bushes, then, as soon as the first leaves appear, spray them with Colloidal Sulfur or Karbofos. 10 days before the buds open, spray with "Neoron".

1. If you spray strawberries (strawberries) with dandelion infusion every 7-10 days, then it will practically not be affected by diseases and pests. To do this, grind fresh dandelion leaves and pour water at 40-50 ° C (70-80 g of leaves are required for 1 liter of water). Let it brew for 4 hours (while shaking it several times), strain and start spraying.
2. Until the buds open, the bushes are sprayed from midges and other insects with a composition of herbs. Nettle leaves, celandine, pods hot pepper pour boiling water and leave overnight. In the morning, strain the infusion, dilute with water and spray the bushes.

Conclusion

To the question: is it easy to grow strawberries on the windowsill, you can give an affirmative answer without a shadow of a doubt. Anyone who decides to grow it at home can enjoy ripe and juicy strawberries. The process of preparing seedlings, caring for them and getting the long-awaited fragrant harvest is not difficult and will captivate anyone, especially children.
The first delicious berries from the windowsill can please you in 2 months. And all subsequent baskets with strawberries and the amazing decorativeness of this miniature plant they will only convince you of the correctness of the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bdeveloping a garden near a window or on a balcony.
Growing strawberries can become not only your hobby, but also a new type of income. Use the experience gained, learn new techniques and experiment with strawberry varieties!
Following simple tips on how to achieve a strawberry crop on the windowsill, you will not only pick ripe berries throughout the year, but also admire your strawberry bushes, because what could be more beautiful than a combination of greenery, unpretentious white flowers and bright berry lights? !
Choose the right variety for your unique features, and you can already learn the rest from this article. With the right approach to growing this berry, strawberries on the windowsill will delight the owners. Especially in winter: when everything around is white and white, and bright, red and sweet strawberries sing on the window of the house.

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At home, one should take into account the fact that not all varieties are suitable for cultivation in closed ground. In order to grow at home not only a beautiful and strong, but also the most productive plant, it is recommended to give preference to the most unpretentious and shade-tolerant remontant varieties of garden strawberries.

Variety name	Botanical description	Characteristics of the berry	Advantages	Varietal disadvantages
"Everest"	High-yielding and very promising French variety, forming medium-sized and compact plants	Medium and large sizes, light red color, pleasant sour-sweet taste	High level of winter hardiness, good yield and taste quality characteristics of the berry	Average level of resistance to pests and diseases
"Cardinal"	Very powerful bushes, with large glossy leaves	Large size, spindle-shaped, red with a shine, dessert flavor	Resistant to gray fruit rot and blotch. The crop is well transported and stored. Variety suitable for vertical cultivation	Risk of injury powdery mildew, the difficulty of breeding with rosettes at home
"Queen Elizabeth II"	Plants are powerful, compact type, quickly entering into flowering and fruiting.	Large or very large, bright red, with firm and tasty flesh, suitable for transportation	Possesses sufficient winter hardiness and high productivity	Needs proper care and uninterrupted application of nitrogen and potassium
"Forest fairy tale"	Plants of medium size, quite compact, with a significant number of peduncles	Small size, dark red color, conical shape, with juicy and pleasant pulp	High palatability of the berry and pronounced berry flavor	Almost completely absent
"World Debut"	Pink-colored variant of remontant garden strawberry with long peduncles	Large, with an attractive red color and excellent berry aroma	High yield and large-fruited, as well as decorative	Insufficiently high level of resistance to certain diseases and pests

Rules for growing from seeds

To obtain high-quality seedlings of garden strawberries from seeds, you should prepare planting pots or boxes with drainage holes, as well as nutritious soil and choose the right place for growing. The soil for sowing should be loose, and also well pass not only moisture, but also air to the root system of plants. You can make the soil mixture yourself by mixing turfy soil, peat and coarse sand in equal proportions. To disinfect the soil, it is calcined in an oven for 1/2 hour at a temperature of 150-160 ° C.

Strawberries: growing on the windowsill (video)

To obtain the highest quality seedlings, it is recommended to soak the seeds for 48 hours on a damp cloth before planting. Then the seeds should be spread over the surface of well-moistened soil, which is filled with seedling containers. Ready planting containers with crops must be covered with plastic wrap and placed in a warm and well-lit place, at a temperature of 20-22 ° C. Until the germination stage, it is necessary to keep the soil moist by regularly irrigating with warm water from a spray bottle.

Subject to the technology of sowing and temperature regime the first sprouts of garden strawberries appear in about two to three weeks. Before the appearance of five true leaves, daily airing and systematic watering should be carried out. After the formation of five or six true leaves, the seedlings are picked into separate containers, the volume of which should not be less than 2.5-3 liters.

Summer and winter care

In order to get the most out of the strawberry crop when grown on the windowsill, it is very important to create the most suitable conditions for the berry crop for full growth and normal development. Garden strawberries are recommended to be placed on windows facing south or southeast. In winter, plants need to be provided with artificial lighting in the form of additional illumination with fluorescent lamps. The full development and fruiting of a berry crop is impossible without creating lighting at the level of 12-14 hours a day.

It is important to adhere to the optimal temperature regime, which cannot be below 18-20 ° C throughout the entire growing season. If necessary, electric heaters and devices for humidifying the air are used. However, it should be remembered that excessive moisture often causes plants to be damaged by various fungal infections. For strawberries in home gardening, top dressing is very important, which is due to the limited feeding area of ​​the berry crop. Fertilizers should be applied twice a month, using for this purpose universal complex fertilizers without a high nitrogen content.

When grown indoors, attention should be paid to the fact that strawberries need artificial pollination. For this purpose, you can use a regular watercolor brush with the softest bristle possible. Through such a brush, a simple pollination event is carried out, which consists in transferring pollen from one flower to another. The procedure is best done in the morning.

Reasons for the lack of fruiting

It is easy to guess that the conditions for growing strawberries at home are far from ideal, and it will take the use of all agricultural practices to achieve decent fruiting. The complete absence of fruiting when growing a berry crop at home can be the result of the following violations of the technology and botanical characteristics of the plant:

• untimely planting does not allow plants to lay full-fledged flower buds to form a crop;
• the lack of full-fledged irrigation measures often negatively affects the fruiting capacity of garden strawberries;
• insufficiently correct procedure for artificial pollination of plants;
• violation of the temperature regime or humidity indicators in the room for growing garden strawberries.

How to plant strawberry seeds (video)

The reason for the lack of fruiting can also be the acquisition of low-quality planting material, represented by a weed variety of berry crops. Such plants form an abundant amount of barren flowers in the complete absence of the formation of ovaries.

Ripe, juicy, amazing delicious strawberry on the table, while a blizzard sweeps outside the window - this is a real luxury! In the middle of winter, you will not find fresh berries in every supermarket, and if you manage to find them, then their cost will be prohibitively high.

Create favorable conditions for growing berries

But after all, someone grows delicious strawberries at home on the windowsill, some enterprising gardeners even profit financially from this activity, turning growing berries at home into profitable business. Breeding strawberries at home- a myth or a reality available to anyone?

Now there are various methods for growing strawberries in an apartment of any size. You can effectively use the free space in the house by planting strawberry seedlings 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 start growing strawberries at home, and how much space you can allocate for this.

Opt for remontant strawberry varieties that can bear fruit multiple times

What do strawberries need for normal ripening? Room temperature, good ventilation and suitable soil. These conditions are easily met, because the apartments are warm at any time of the year (and if there are problems with heating, you can always buy an additional heater), air circulation can be provided with the help of a window, a special inexpensive substrate can be purchased at the store. So, you can also grow strawberries at home, if you take into account the most important points:

• Opt for remontant strawberry varieties that can bear fruit multiple times. Most popular varieties: Yellow Wonder, Queen Elizabeth, Mount Everest.
• When, purchased seeds should be placed in the refrigerator for 4 weeks, wrapped in a damp cloth and put in a plastic bag - then the hardened seeds, when planted in the ground for a week, will give friendly shoots.
• Prepare a spacious pot for seedlings with a good layer of drainage, as strawberries like frequent abundant watering, but they do not tolerate stagnant water.
• It is recommended to plant strawberry seedlings at home in prepared soil either in autumn 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, make potassium-phosphorus top dressing, and to form the ovaries, treat the plants with the special preparation "Ovary".

The ideal option for growing homemade strawberries is southern, well-lit windows.

The ideal option for growing homemade strawberries is southern, well-lit windows. With a lack 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 lights. 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 light day of about 14 hours.

Video about strawberries in January

How to pollinate strawberries at home?

Since strawberries at home do not have natural pollination, you will have to provide plants with artificial pollination during the flowering period, which can last several weeks. Produce artificial pollination flower stalks on strawberries at home, you can in two ways:

• send a fan in the morning towards the flower stalks (under the influence of the wind, strawberries are pollinated in open ground);
• pollinate each flower by hand, running over them daily with a soft paint brush.

As you can see, growing strawberries at home is available even to inexperienced gardeners and does not require significant financial costs. Difficulties can only arise with pollination, especially if you decide to plant 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, don't give up! Try it, plant seedlings, take care of them - strawberries at home can bring several crops a year, delighting you and your loved ones with ripe berries in late autumn and frosty winter.

One of the most delicious, healthy and loved by all berries is strawberries. It is rich in vitamins and microelements, thanks to which we can increase our immunity and protect the body from colds and various infections. In this article, we will take a detailed look at how to successfully grow this useful berry at home, get acquainted with the main secrets of agricultural technology.

Strawberries have found their application in folk and official medicine. It helps in the treatment of various diseases. Strawberries are also widely used in cosmetology for nourishing masks and creams, as well as in the development of various types of dietary nutrition.

In cooking, strawberries are used to make preserves and jams, desserts, various pastries, and wines and liquors are also made from it. Strawberries are especially useful in the cold season, when we are prone to colds. Strawberries successfully compensate for the deficiency of vitamins in the body, and tea with strawberry jam can immerse you in the euphoria of happiness and bliss!

Strawberries can also be called a universal plant, because with the right agricultural technology, you can achieve its fruiting throughout the year. Therefore, this plant can be successfully grown at home on the windowsill.

There are two ways to help grow strawberries at home: 1 - in various containers on the window, 2 - in plastic bags in rooms specially designed for this purpose.

Let's take a closer look at each of these methods and find out what needs to be done for the proper development and fruiting of this plant at home.

All the wide variety of strawberry varieties known today is divided into two main types - bush and ampelous. According to the type of fruiting, strawberries can be remontant and one-time fruiting.

Remontant varieties of strawberries favorable conditions are able to bear fruit all year round, as they are little dependent on daylight hours, and varieties of one-time fruiting give only one crop per season.

Naturally, for growing strawberries on a windowsill at home, a remontant ampelous strawberry variety, which is not too picky about light, is best suited. Bushes of such strawberries planted in flowerpots begin to bear fruit in two months. For growing at home, the Geneva variety is best suited, which is characterized by high yields and fast ripening. The beardless varieties “Homemade delicacy”, “F-SSh1”, etc. also feel good on the windowsill. You can also grow the well-known garden variety "Queen Elizabeth".

For strawberries, any universal ground mixture for flowers or vegetables, bought in a store, will work. You can also cook suitable soil on one's own. To do this, you need to take in equal parts forest land (preferably coniferous), humus and sand.

The main requirements of strawberries for the soil are friability and sufficient moisture. It should be noted that if you take the earth from the garden, then it may be infected with a root nematode. Therefore, before use, it must be steamed to kill pests, and also carefully shed with a pink solution of potassium permanganate. After this procedure, in a week it will be possible to start planting plants.

Drainage should be poured at the bottom of containers for planting strawberries, as the plant does not like stagnant water. Drainage can serve as a broken brick, small pebbles or expanded clay.

If you grow remontant varieties of strawberries in the garden, then they can be used for planting on the windowsill. To do this, in the fall, you need to dig out the required number of bushes and place them in a container, sprinkled with earth, and keep in a cool dark place for two weeks to provide the plant required period rest. After that, strawberries need to be planted in pre-prepared containers with soil. Planting should be done so that the rhizome of the plant is half buried in the ground.

Too long roots can be cut off so that they do not bend in the hole, and after this procedure, the plant can be placed in a warm 20-degree heteroauxin solution for 3-4 hours for quick recovery. To prepare the solution, use 1 tablet per 5 sheets of water. Plants are watered with the same solution after planting in the ground, which contributes to better survival and stimulates the growth of the root system.

Strawberry seedlings can also be purchased from special strawberry farms, or you can grow strawberries yourself from seeds.

Bred by modern breeders special varieties room strawberries, seedlings of which are grown from seeds. The most suitable variety for such cultivation is the Supreme variety. The mass of the berries of this strawberry is 5-7 grams, the ovary appears 4 months after germination.

For sowing seeds, prepare special bowls with well-moistened soil. The sown seeds are lightly sprinkled with earth, lightly tamped and covered with a transparent film. When shoots appear, the film is removed and the seedlings are placed on the southern or southeastern windows.

After the appearance of two true leaves, the plants dive into a large bowl. For the normal development of the plant, a volume of dishes of at least 3 liters is required.

In order to collect the maximum yield of strawberries from the windowsill, it is necessary to create suitable conditions for its normal growth and development.

Plants must be placed on the southern or southeastern windows, and in winter the plants should be illuminated with fluorescent lamps. For the normal development of strawberries, it needs 12 hours of daylight. You can read in detail about how to properly create artificial lighting in the article "".

The optimum temperature for growing strawberries is 18-20 degrees. If the temperature is lower, then it is necessary to provide additional heating with electric heaters.

Strawberries are demanding on soil and air moisture, so they need to be watered regularly, avoiding waterlogging, and sprayed from a sprayer. However, it is important not to overdo it - waterlogging can lead to fungal diseases.

Strawberry seedlings respond well to various types of dressings. They need to be done at least twice a month. For top dressing, you can use a universal complex fertilizer for indoor plants or use a special fertilizer for strawberries. In the case of an excess of nitrogen fertilizers, the plant will produce only green mass to the detriment of the fruits.

In order for the plant to develop berries, the soil must contain a sufficient amount of iron. To increase it, you can stick a rusty nail into the soil, but to be sure, it is better to use a special leaf spray solution containing organic iron compounds, which can be bought at a specialized flower shop.

When strawberries begin to ripen, they can be attacked by spider mites or gray rot. At the first signs of plant damage, it is necessary to spray garlic tincture, which is prepared as follows: crush 2 cloves of garlic, pour 100 g warm water, leave for 2 hours, then strain and apply to plants with a spray bottle.

During active growth, the plant acquires a mustache, which must be tied to a nylon mesh or specially installed trellises to provide young plants with a normal amount of light. You can successfully grow seedlings from strawberry whiskers. To do this, a young rosette of leaves is sprinkled with earth and moistened, and after rooting, it is separated from the mother plant.

Having mastered the simple techniques of growing strawberries at home, you can try to grow this berry not only for your own needs, but also for sale, using the technology of growing strawberries in plastic bags.

A lot of space is needed to create a strawberry plantation. For such purposes, the pantry is best suited. The number of bags with seedlings that can be placed there will depend on its size. You can design special racks to place the bags in several tiers and save space. The room must be maintained at the required temperature and illumination in the norms discussed above. To ensure the movement of air in the room, ventilation must be installed.
The beds can be arranged both horizontally and vertically, it all depends on the amount of free space in the room.

Preparing seedling bags

For bags, we need dense polyethylene, better reinforced. The bags should be 16-20 cm in diameter.

Polyethylene bags are filled with a specially prepared earth mixture, the composition of which was mentioned above. The bags are tightly tied at the top. Further, at your discretion, they are either hung vertically or laid horizontally, as you prefer.

In polyethylene, cuts 6-8 cm long are made in a checkerboard pattern with an interval of 20-22 cm, and strawberry bushes are placed in them.

Watering a strawberry plantation

Watering plantations in bags is extremely inconvenient, besides, the soil moisture level is not visible through them. Therefore, for irrigation, you can use a special irrigation system of a very simple design.

For its manufacture, you need to take two-liter plastic bottles, which are fixed over bags with seedlings. 4-5 tubes are taken from each bottle (you can use a medical dropper), the ends of which are pierced through polyethylene in bags every half a meter. Water is poured into the bottles, which gradually penetrates the ground through the tubes. In order for water to flow freely from the bottles, additional holes must be made in them from above. Such an irrigation system perfectly provides the beds with regular moisture, the main thing is not to forget to add water to the bottles. As practice shows, for one standard bag 1 meter long, up to 2 liters of water is required per day.

Care for strawberry beds in bags is exactly the same as for plants on the windowsill. They must be provided with sufficient light, moisture and heat. Feeding is done twice a month, and during flowering it is necessary to provide artificial pollination. This can be done either manually or with a fan, turning it on at the lowest power, and directing a stream of air at flowering plants.

Conclusion

Growing strawberries at home is a very entertaining and useful activity, thanks to which you and your family will be provided with fresh vitamins in the winter season, and flowerpots with berries placed on the windowsills will decorate the interior of your apartment, bringing a special zest and aroma of summer into it.

Having mastered the principles of agricultural technology for growing strawberries at home, you can also get an additional source of income, which over time can turn into a good business. After all, strawberries are in demand all year round, as they are a good source of vitamins and a tasty berry, and they are not at all cheap, even in summer during seasonal ripening in the open field.

We wish you success and a bountiful harvest!

Strawberries on the windowsill. Video

Strawberries on the windowsill in 60 days

Even if you are not a summer gardener, but a simple lover of indoor plants, then you will probably also be interested in the article "Strawberries on the windowsill in 60 days." You wouldn’t refuse to enjoy your own home-grown strawberries, would you?

What is a remontant strawberry?

To grow strawberries at home, you need special varieties - remontants. The remontant strawberry differs from the usual one in that it bears fruit not once a year, but during the season it can bring 2 or more crops.

But she also makes appropriate demands - she needs high-quality fertile soil and frequent watering. In addition, she is divided into two groups: 1. One group of remontant strawberries lays flower buds only with a long daylight hours - such a group is abbreviated as DSD.2.

The second group is able to lay buds with a neutral light day - it is abbreviated as NSD. DSD varieties produce 2 crops per year - in July and in August-September. At the same time, the second crop is almost twice as large as the first - its share is 60-90% of the total weight.

Unfortunately, not all bushes can endure such a load, many die after harvesting. NSD varieties bear fruit almost continuously for most of the year - up to 10 months. Moreover, their fruiting is not particularly affected by weather conditions, the time of year and day, which is why they are called neutral-day varieties. It is these NSD strawberry varieties that are most suitable for growing at home. Therefore, when buying, ask the seller which group this or that variety belongs to.

Varieties of remontant strawberries

To date, breeders, both here and abroad, have bred a huge number of varieties of this berry. I will list you a few, perhaps the most popular. Each of these varieties has its own advantages and disadvantages, and any of them can bring a good harvest.

But “Queen Elizabeth II” surpasses all others in terms of yield and size of berries. It is better to buy strawberry seedlings (and they can also be called strawberries) in a specialized store, and not from people in the market. It will cost a little more, but you can be sure of the name of the variety and the quality of the planting material. Pay attention to the “development” of the seedlings - the bushes should have 3-5 healthy green leaves and preferably a large bud (heart).

Landing

When planting strawberries, keep in mind that they will have to stay in this pot or container for 1-3 years (depending on the variety). It is not recommended to transplant it from pot to pot, because. already adult plants do not tolerate transplantation well. Any containers can be used for planting, given that one bush requires a volume of at least 3 liters. For example, in long containers, balcony boxes (volume 10-15 l) you can plant no more than 3-4 bushes with a distance between them of 20-25 cm. Pots, containers must have holes for water drainage, and at the bottom - good layer drainage (expanded clay, pebbles, broken bricks). Store-bought universal soil mixture for flowers is suitable as a substrate. Or cook it yourself by mixing forest soil, humus or biohumus, peat, sand in proportions of 2: 2: 1: 1, respectively. For planting dates, focus on March-April.

top dressing

It is necessary to feed, especially during flowering and fruiting. Feeding frequency - approximately 1 time in 2 weeks. It depends on the state and stage of development of the plant, as well as the time of year.

For example, you do not need to feed in winter, you can let the strawberries rest, unless they bloom. Fertilizers can be used mineral complex or organic.

Personal experience

In early June, they gave me a bush of strawberries straight from the garden. The owner, unfortunately, did not know the name of the variety. But he said that over the summer this strawberry brings him 3 crops, and at home it generally bears fruit all year round. I very much doubted that I could grow strawberries on my windowsill. But I decided to try it anyway.

And that's what came of it. I bought a universal soil mixture in the store and planted a bush in a fairly large pot. Since it was summer outside, the pot was sent to the balcony. Fortunately, it is not glazed with us, so strawberries on fresh air it was just wonderful.

Moreover, the side is sunny - the sun shines through the windows almost all day. It is better to place pots with strawberries on the southern and southeastern windows. The first new leaf has appeared - this means that the plant has taken root.

In general, the new leaves came out noticeably shorter than the old ones, but were healthy. But the old leaves gradually died off: they lost their elasticity, lay down and turned black at the base of the petiole. But this did not last long, maybe the change of conditions affected. The first peduncle came out.

Moreover, I was impatient to wait for the berries. The first flowers bloomed. In total, 2 flower stalks came out, each with 4 flowers. The flowers lasted 2-3 days, then the petals fell off and the berries began to grow.

The flowers were not pollinated. The last flower has bloomed. And by this time, other berries have already grown.

The flowers bloom and fade in turn, so the size of the berries is different. Accordingly, the largest berries at the moment are the very first flowers. One peduncle broke under the weight of the berries, I noticed it too late. I propped them up with a jar.

To prevent this from happening to you, place a cloth roller or a piece of foam rubber under the flower stalks. I watered it approximately every 3 days. At a temperature of +30 °C - every 2 days. First test! As you can see, the strawberries are a very decent size.

One of them was very rich red and very sweet. And the other is lighter and with sourness. Probably broke early. The rest are still ripening. Despite the fact that not all the berries have ripened from the first harvest, the bush has already released the third peduncle.

And about 40 days have passed since the appearance of the first. That is, the second harvest has already started. Then you can sum up the results of the first harvest: only 8 berries were formed, 2 of them withered (maybe watered a little, there were very hot days +33 ° C), 3 grew large and 3 small, which are still ripening For some reason, the third peduncle turned out to be shorter than the first two and the berries are smaller. Around the middle of September, I removed a pot of strawberries from the balcony. The remaining berries from the first harvest and from the second ripened already in the room.

Wintering

In order for strawberries to bear fruit in winter, additional lighting is needed, which will increase daylight hours to 12 hours. After all, the more light, the sweeter the berries. An ordinary HPS lamp is enough to get a crop. The temperature must be maintained in the region of 18-20 ° C.

Life span of remontant strawberries

Since these strawberries bloom and bear fruit more often, they naturally age quickly. DSD varieties can last you 2-3 years. And the NSD varieties are only 1 year old, then it will be necessary to plant new bushes. Well, the experiment was successful.

As you can see, growing juicy strawberries at home is not so difficult. It took me almost 2 months to do this, i.e. 61 days passed from the moment of planting to the ripening of the first berry. But in the video, one friend grew strawberries at home even in 30 days!

Apparently, the age of the bushes also affects the precocity. He had young seedlings, and my bush does not even know how old.

Video. Growing strawberries at home

So, go for it, you will definitely succeed too! And if you already have experience growing strawberries on the windowsill, share with us in the comments. All components are wonderful, except for the last one - mineral fertilizers. Still, I want the strawberries on the balcony to be an environmentally friendly product.

It is so? If you agree, then start compiling the soil yourself. The substrate can be made according to the above "store" method, excluding fertilizers from the list, or according to the following "recipes":

• high-moor peat + sod land + sand (6:3:1) high-moor peat + sod land + humus (1:1:1) high-moor peat + sawdust (1:2)

Any of these substrates can be made more fertile by adding vermicompost to it. This is a product of the vital activity of Californian worms, which will successfully replace any expensive mineral fertilizer.

It contains: humus, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, humic acids, etc. The introduction of vermicompost into the soil contributes to a high survival rate and better growth strawberry seedlings, as it provides plants with a supply of food for a long time.

Planting strawberries for seedlings

Sowing strawberries for seedlings is carried out superficially. Strawberry seeds mixed with calcined fine sand are laid out in a seedling container on moistened and disinfected soil.

If you want to follow the manufacturer's recommendations, then place the container with the crops in the refrigerator, closer to the freezer, where the temperature is quite low - 3-5 ° C. Stratification of strawberry seeds is carried out within 3-5 days, after which the crops can be placed in a warm and bright place - on a windowsill or balcony. To some extent, cold stratification can be replaced by crops in the snow.

For this, on the ground in landing capacity a layer of snow is laid, on which strawberry seeds are sown. The snow will gradually melt, the seeds will fall to the ground. Despite the high popularity of stratification, we will not recommend it as a mandatory means for the germination of strawberry seeds.

In practice, it has been proven that the seeds of remontant varieties germinate remarkably even without this manipulation. Therefore, most lovers of balcony strawberries neglect the rules, sow the seeds in a planting container, cover with foil and immediately put on the windowsill. Seedlings of strawberries from seeds can hatch after 3 days or after 30.

Therefore, do not worry if after a week the seeds lie on the ground in their original form. Wait some more. If there are no shoots in a month, most likely, the seeds are not viable. Strawberry seedlings grow for a long time, about 5-6 months pass from sowing to flowering

How to grow strawberry seedlings: basic rules for caring for sprouts

Raising immunity, adaptation

Young seedlings of strawberries from seeds need a lot of moisture and in large numbers light (but not in direct sunlight!). Therefore, as soon as shoots appear, it is not worth rushing to open the film on the planting container, the sprouts need to gradually get used to the air with normal humidity and changing temperatures. Open the film a couple of times a day. The first time, a minute is enough, then gradually increase the time of “walks” and, in the end, remove the shelter for good. Greenhouses with strawberry seedlings should be regularly ventilated

Picking seedlings of strawberries

When the seedlings have 2-3 true leaves, they are transplanted into separate cups - dive. Carefully, together with a clod of earth, the sprouts are transferred to new containers. Strawberries react painfully to root damage and do not recover well, so picking with damage to the central root is not practiced when growing remontant strawberries. When transplanting, it is very important not to bury or sprinkle with earth root collar(the place where the branches of the outlet depart). Such an action leads to rotting and death of the plant. Strawberry picking is carried out after growing 2-3 true leaves

Transplanting into pots, baskets and boxes

Good yields can be obtained from balcony strawberries only if the bushes receive sufficient nutrition from the soil. Therefore, ready-made seedlings can be planted in any containers, but so that each bush has at least 2-3 liters of soil.

In ordinary balcony boxes, seedlings of remontant strawberries are planted at a distance of 15-20 cm from each other. In large flowerpots, pots and buckets (10-15 l), you can plant 3-4 bushes. Good drainage is necessary in boxes and planters where strawberries will grow.

Remontant strawberries on the windowsill

Bays for this berry are detrimental. Strawberry containers should have drainage holes and a good drainage layer (expanded clay, pieces of foam, shards, etc.), 3-5 cm thick. Caring for strawberries involves regular fertilizing, preferably organic. Fertilizers for strawberries will allow it to develop faster, quickly grow a lush bush, bloom profusely and bear fruit.

Wintering of remontant strawberries

As already mentioned, remontant strawberries do not die after the first year of life. If she create optimal conditions for wintering, then it will begin to bear fruit next spring. Leaving strawberries to winter in an apartment is not the best option.

On a dry, warm windowsill, the plant will start to hurt, it is more likely that it will pick up a spider mite. Wintering strawberries should be cool!

It is optimal if you take the bushes out on a glazed balcony (insulated, where the temperature does not drop below 0 ° C in winter) or on the window to the entrance in November. Water it moderately, only after the soil has dried out by two phalanxes of your fingers, you do not need to feed it.

In the spring, strawberries will give new shoots, begin to develop intensively and produce new leaves. The first berries after a cold winter appear in May-June.

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2

If you think that it is impossible to grow juicy scarlet berries of homemade strawberries or its relative - wild strawberries on the windowsill in winter, then you are mistaken. With some effort, you will get beautiful decorative bushes and quality harvest. The main thing is to comply with the basic conditions: provide a microclimate suitable for plants: high humidity, warmth, absence of drafts and temperature changes, extend daylight hours with the help of phytolamps, purchase high-quality seedlings (if you are going to cultivate strawberries or strawberries not from seeds). Selection of planting material There are two main ways to grow strawberries: from seeds or seedlings. if you have country cottage area, then seedlings can be dug up there or purchased at a specialized store. Remontant varieties are optimally suited for the balcony (Seyanets Sakhalin, Lizonka, Floriana, Homemade delicacy). Bushes are usually dug up in early September and placed in a dark and cool room. This period is called the dormant period of strawberries. After some time, the plant can be planted in prepared containers. The second option is seeds. They can be purchased at any gardening store. For a window sill, the Supreme variety is suitable. Preparation of the substrate and containers In the store you can buy a soil mixture for vegetables and flowers, or mix the earth, humus and sand in equal proportions yourself. If you take the earth from the garden, then do not forget to carry out an antimicrobial treatment: ignite it in the oven or microwave, spill it with boiling water, potassium permanganate solution or a special solution. Seeds can be planted in small plastic containers and then dived. For ready-made seedlings, voluminous flower pots made of plastic or unglazed ceramics are suitable. Do not forget about drainage holes and a layer of drainage (expanded clay, broken bricks, pebbles). Strawberries cannot stand standing water. We plant plants So, it's time to plant our strawberries. Each seedling bush should have a volume of at least 3 liters. Too long roots of the plant should be cut in advance, and then lowered for several hours into a solution of heteroauxin (2 tablets per 10 liters). After that, the plant is planted in the ground so that the rhizome does not protrude to the surface, but is not too deep. Provide seedlings with sufficient lighting, regular watering and humidity. It is better to cut off the first flower stalks, so the seedlings will quickly take root in a new place. Periodically it is worth feeding the plant with special fertilizers for strawberries. If you are sowing seeds, then they can be pre-germinated by holding them in a humid environment. Land for planting should be moist (but not wet) and dense. Do not deepen the seeds too much. To prevent the soil from drying out and create a favorable microclimate, cover the pot with plastic wrap and place in a warm place. Spray seedlings periodically with a spray bottle. As soon as the seeds give the first sprouts, the film can be removed. If the apartment is cool, then cover the container with a voluminous polyethylene lid, so the strawberries will be “in greenhouse conditions”. After the appearance of 2 leaves, the seedlings must dive. Remember that strawberries need quality watering, but don't overdo it. Optimum temperature- not lower than 18 °. Strawberries and wild strawberries on the windowsill all year round Here are a few more useful tips so that your strawberries and strawberries are constantly pleasing to the eye: feed the plants once every two weeks with biohumus or other organic solutions; during fruiting, water the soil with iron-containing solutions or stick an iron nail into the pot; make sure that the plants are not affected by rot or spider mite, when symptoms of the disease appear, spray with garlic infusion; periodically shake the bushes to increase the number of ovaries; trellises are suitable for tying a "mustache". For more information on how to grow strawberries at home and how to properly care for them in our video: You will also be interested in articles:

Garden strawberries on the windowsill - detailed instructions for growing strawberries at home

• How to care for strawberries on the windowsill

When the window is gloomy autumn or winter weather, nothing will revive the memory of sunny summer days better than the red strawberries growing on your windowsill. Do not think that growing strawberries at home is a hopeless undertaking, from which there will be no use other than a decorative effect.

Some enthusiasts manage to arrange a whole strawberry plantation on the windowsill or on the loggia and harvest from it ripe berries throughout the year. Of course, you will have to work hard and provide the plants with suitable conditions. The main difficulty that immediately frightens off many interested people is the need to supplement the illumination of strawberries on rainy days. Considering that garden strawberries require a rather long daylight hours (about 12 hours), electricity costs can be significant. But if you are not embarrassed by what the cost of a berry will turn out to be, and you want to treat yourself to delicious homemade strawberries in the “off season”, do not waste time in vain! In order to grow excellent strawberries at home, you will need:

• create an optimal microclimate on the balcony, veranda or on the windowsill (ventilation, heating, additional lighting), prepare containers for planting seedlings, mix a suitable soil mixture from autumn or buy ready-made, prepare with own site seedlings or purchase it in the store.

Planting strawberry seedlings ^

If you have a cottage or a plot where you grow strawberries, it will be more convenient to dig up well-developed healthy bushes in September and, having cut off all the leaves from them, immediately transplant them into flower pots. If you don’t own the plot, but don’t want to buy expensive strawberry seedlings, you can purchase seeds - high-quality strawberry bushes will grow from them, you will only see the first berries much later.

In the corresponding article on our website you will find detailed technology growing garden strawberries from seeds. It is advisable to choose strawberries for home cultivation repairing- berries appear on it throughout the year and ripen quickly. There are different varieties of remontant garden strawberries: with pink, white or cream flowers, ampelous and bushy, large-fruited and small-fruited, with yellow, cream or red berries.

Strawberries at home can become a real decoration of the interior, especially if you grow several varieties of different colors and sizes at once. Try the high-yielding varieties Seyanets Sakhalinskaya and Sakhalinskaya, pink-flowered Floriana or World Debut, Lizonka F1 with fragrant berries and dark pink flowers, as well as large-fruited Home Delicacy. So, take containers or flower pots that are spacious enough for strawberry seedlings and put good drainage on their bottom a layer of small pebbles or expanded clay, since although strawberries need regular watering, they cannot withstand waterlogging of the soil and stagnant water in a pot. Pour soddy soil on the drainage layer with the addition of wood ash and humus and move the strawberry bush into the pot.

Strawberries - Garden on the windowsill

How to care for strawberries on the windowsill ^

It is advisable to arrange the pots with garden strawberries on the windowsills of well-lit windows, this will help you save on additional illumination of plants. The option with window sills is preferable, because in winter, strawberries on the balcony can only grow if the balcony is insulated. These delicate plants need to be carefully protected from frost! The following tricks will help you achieve a good harvest:

• In order for the planted strawberry seedlings to take root faster, remove the first flower stalks that appear on it. When enough fresh leaves grow on the bushes, new flower stalks can be left. For the rapid appearance of new ovaries, treat the plants with special stimulating preparations. From time to time, add liquid extracts from biohumus and organic fertilizers. Just don’t overdo it, otherwise the bushes will grow a lot of lush leaves, and few berries will appear. Strawberries need iron for normal development, but you don’t need to fertilize with iron content - it’s better to bury or stick rusty nails into the soil of the pots. Oxidized, they will transfer iron ions to the ground. You can pollinate plants with a cotton swab or a drawing brush, daily touching each flower with them.