How to grow strawberries on a windowsill in winter, what is the secret of getting a full harvest?

Business on strawberries (garden strawberries) is successful not only in the warm season - in specially equipped greenhouses, abundant harvests are removed without interruption. Noticing delicious berries on store shelves, some are wondering if it is possible to grow strawberries in an ordinary apartment on a windowsill all year round. Since this plant belongs to low-volume container crops, it is not difficult to domesticate some varieties.

Varieties

If you dig up an adult bush of ordinary strawberries in the country and plant it in a pot at home, then the growing experiment is likely to fail. To really remove ripe berries from the bush, you need to choose the right varieties. Not all strawberries are ready to bear fruit all year round. Only special species of plants of neutral daylight hours (NDM) are capable of such a "feat". This characteristic means that the process of bud formation does not depend on the number of light hours in the day. Such strawberry varieties are also not particularly sensitive to the temperature regime - the buds develop in the range from +6 to + 30 ° С.

Important!

Some believe that the concepts of "remontant" and "NSD" are one and the same. In Europe and the USA this is exactly the case, but in many domestic specialized sources it is indicated that remontability is the ability to produce from 2 to 4 fruiting waves per season, and NSD implies continuous fruiting. Therefore, when buying strawberries, it is important to clarify what type of daylight hours the variety belongs to.

Caring for strawberries belonging to the LMD does not present any technical difficulty, since they do not need lighting and additional heating. In the beds, the bushes go for the winter with flowers and berries, not recognizing the seasonality of fruiting.

A lot of space is also not required, since the bushes are compact, there are few mustaches (except for ampel varieties), instead of them, peduncles are formed in the leaf sinuses.

The following strawberry varieties are suitable for home cultivation:

• Tristar;
• Monterey;
• Supreme;
• Everest;
• Albion;
• Brighton.

There are also recognized champions in yield and unpretentiousness.

• Thelma. Conical berries, very large. The bush bears fruit at intervals of 2-3 weeks.
• Felice. Differs in bright fuchsia colors, which provides high decorative qualities. The berries are small but very sweet. Little mustache. Strawberries bear fruit continuously.
• Queen Elizabeth. The berries are large (50 g), often of irregular shape, ripen in just a day. Peduncles are strong, do not break. The mustache gives quite a lot, they take root easily.

Advice

The neutral day strawberries will have to be renewed every 2 years. The bushes do not withstand the heavy load of year-round fruiting.

Alpine strawberries (small-fruited strawberries) are distinguished by their special aroma and sweet taste. Her berries are really small, but numerous. It does not form a mustache at all, but it is easily propagated by seeds.

Popular varieties:

• Alexandria;
• Veles;
• Rügen;
• Baron Solemacher.

If you plant strawberries with a mustache, then the first berries can be removed after 2 months. That is, the bushes of autumn planting will begin to bear fruit stably in winter.

Planting material

Autumn is the most favorable period for planting homemade strawberries. Gardeners take with them from their dachas a "piece of summer" in the form of a stronger mustache, and nurseries at this time of the year have the largest selection of inexpensive seedlings.

If a strawberry NSD grows in the garden, giving a mustache, then they begin to prepare planting material for sending to the windowsill in the summer. Only the first wave of "babies" is selected for rooting.It is believed that the second and fourth bushes (buds) have the greatest fruiting potential. It is them that are carefully added and marked. You can immediately press a small planting container with a nutritious substrate into the ground next to a strawberry bush and send the "kids" directly into it. Thus, the root system of the seedlings will not suffer at all when transferred to the pot.

Reproduction strawberry seeds - a troublesome and lengthy occupation, which makes sense in cases where you cannot get a mustache. The most suitable for seed breeding at home is the "Supreme" variety. It takes 4 months from germination to the ovary of the first berry.

Strawberry seeds should be sown in a loose substrate (can be mixed with fine sand). After sowing, it is enough to simply water without sprinkling with earth. The water will sink the seed to the desired depth without blocking the path for germination. The container is covered with glass or a bag. Strawberry seeds are recommended to be stratified monthly on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator, then they are removed and exposed to light. Strawberry sprouts are very small and tender, therefore, at first, before the appearance of 2 true leaves, the shelter is not removed, but only raised for a while for airing.

Planting capacity and soil

Adult strawberry bushes do not tolerate transplanting well, so the pot should be chosen immediately with the expectation of the full life cycle of the plant - 2-3 years. Ideally, a container with a volume of approximately 3 liters is required. If the area of ​​the windowsill allows, then you can use flower balcony containers. For group planting, the distance between the bushes should be at least 20 cm.

Strawberries do not tolerate stagnant moisture and quickly evaporate, therefore 2-3 cm of drainage is poured onto the bottom of the planting container. It is also important to ensure an unobstructed uniform flow of water by making the required number of holes in the pot.

As for the land, it is not recommended to take it from garden beds: there is a great risk of picking up not only the fungus, but also soil inhabitants, who, for lack of other nutrition, will take up the roots of strawberries. It is safer to buy a universal soil in the store.

If there is a desire and opportunity to prepare the substrate yourself, then you can use the following composition:

• forest land - 2 parts;
• humus - 2 parts;
• peat - 1 part;
• sand - 1 part.

It is recommended that a home-made mixture for growing strawberries be pre-calcined in the oven, and then "revived" by sprinkling with a solution of the biological product "Fitosporin". The roots of seedlings (can be together with seedling pots) is also desirable to process by immersing for 20 minutes in a weak solution of manganese. These measures will give a guarantee that the strawberries will not be covered with fungal spots, will not die from fusarium and will not be constantly sick due to damage to the root system by worms and other soil organisms.

If the root system of the strawberry seedling is too long, then it can be pruned and then immersed for 3 hours in a solution of "Heteroauxin" (2 tablets per 10 liters). This is a root formation stimulant that will allow the bush to quickly restore the underground part. The same solution is poured over strawberries after planting.

Advice

A strawberry bush should be planted in such a way that the main bud (core) is at ground level and is not too deep.

Landing in bags

There are craftsmen who successfully grow homemade strawberries in plastic bags all year round. The method is original, effective, but suitable for those who are ready to give the entire windowsill for seedlings. The bag should be strong, better reinforced, with a diameter of 20 to 30 cm. You can buy ready-made ones - for tomatoes. You can arrange the strawberry "bed" both vertically and horizontally.

The bag is filled with a nutrient substrate, cuts are made in it in a checkerboard pattern, the number of which depends on the position of the bag. The length of the hole is 6 to 8 cm, the distance between them is 20 cm.It is easier to grow strawberries in a horizontal position, since you do not have to organize a complex drip irrigation system. But for drainage, you will have to make a series of holes in the bottom and put a pallet.

If the bags are placed vertically, then a system of a plastic two-liter bottle of water and several medical droppers can be organized for irrigation. One end of the tube is inserted into the bottle, the other into the bag next to the strawberry bush. It remains only to regularly add water, and the required amount of it will enter the soil, eliminating the risk of overflow and root decay.

Care

Growing strawberries at home requires no more effort than caring for regular flowers. Additional lighting can be added to improve the yield. For this, the best option would be special phytolamps such as "Bicolor", but a regular table lamp will do.

The optimal temperature range for ripening strawberries is from 18 to 25 ° C. Varieties that need a dormant period can be taken out to the loggia, and to activate fruiting, they can be brought back into the apartment.

Advice

So that there are more berries on the bushes and they have the same regular shape, you can pollinate the flowers with a soft brush (preferably from a squirrel bristle). Ampel varieties are slightly shaken.

It is better to remove the first buds from young strawberry bushes. This will give the plant the opportunity to grow stronger and gain weight. In adult bushes, whiskers are removed to enlarge the berries, as well as several flowers on the peduncles. Watering is required in moderation, mail should always be moist.

Top dressing

It makes no sense to grow strawberries on a windowsill if they are full of nitrates, so fertilizers must be applied carefully and in dosage. The amount of nitrogen and organic fertilizing should be minimized, otherwise the bush will begin to gain green mass, and you can't wait for flowers and berries. Biohumus is considered a harmless fertilizer.

For active fruiting of strawberries, potassium supplements, boron, magnesium, calcium, phosphorus and iron are especially necessary. For the purpose of its uninterrupted supply to the roots, it is recommended to stick a rusty nail into the ground near the bush. Specialty stores sell chelate solutions that can be periodically used to spray the bushes. Complex fertilizers ("Solution", "Kemira-Lux", "Crystallin") are applied up to 15 times during the entire growing season.

Diseases and pests

There are not many enemies on the windowsill that can get to the strawberries. Occasionally, it is affected by aphids or spider mites. Both can be dealt with with soapy water or with a special Green Soap solution. An infusion of garlic is also effective: 5 chopped cloves in a glass of warm water, leave for 24 hours and drain. Instead of garlic, you can use a handful of onion peels. These funds are not only effective but also safe.

In winter, cold blows from the window, condensation often accumulates on the glass, and these are the conditions for the appearance of powdery mildew on the strawberry leaves. To avoid problems with fungal diseases, it is better to carry out preventive spraying and watering with the "Fitosporin" preparation in advance. Enough once a week. Hay stick, which is the basis of the product, multiplies well in heat and will reliably protect the plant. The drug is harmless, the berries are simply washed before use.

To prevent gray mold infestation, you can mulch the soil under the strawberry bush with chopped pine needles or chopped hay. The top layer must be permanently dry, porous, not caked. To do this, it is recommended to slightly raise the litter when watering.

The most dangerous disease for strawberries is fusarium wilting. The bush begins to wither "for no reason", then dries up. It is no longer possible to save it, all that remains is to throw away the soil and disinfect the container. But at home, fusarium is rare.

Experience shows that strawberries on the windowsill are a very real way to enjoy delicious, full-fledged berries throughout the year, regardless of the season. To do this, from all the varietal variety, you need to make the right choice, guided not by the beauty of the advertising picture, but by the specific characteristics. If the purchased strawberries are suitable for home cultivation, then it will be quite simple to provide optimal conditions for fruiting.