Strawberries on a windowsill

My family has been growing home-grown strawberries for six years. We grow them on agro-fiber, in long 70-meter raised beds with drip irrigation. The principles are always the same whether you grow them in a greenhouse, in a vegetable garden, or in a room.

Is it possible to grow strawberries on a windowsill

Many people think that growing strawberries at home is a hopeless business. Once you understand the peculiarities of the crop, you will stop thinking that way.

Yes, the plant is very sensitive to the length of the day. However, the brightness of light has little effect on yield. The University of California's experience proved this: the plants were kept in 60% shade for the entire season, but the yield was only 20-45% lower.

Therefore, strawberries in a pot on a windowsill grow even without additional lighting. But that's not all. The type of plant is of great importance. It is the right type of crop that affects the success of this business.

Strawberry varieties for growing on the windowsill

Plants are divided into 3 types according to their day-length requirement:

• Short day - which sets buds in late summer with a day length of 12 hours or less. It bears fruit once in late spring and early summer.
• Long day, or remontant - in which buds are laid in the first half of summer with a day length of 16-17 hours. It yields a crop 2-3 times a year.
• Neutral day - does not depend on the length of the daylight hours at all stages of growth. Under indoor conditions, this species is capable of producing 4 waves of fruiting.

For growing strawberries on a windowsill, neutral day varieties are more suitable. Indoors, they bear fruit almost without interruption. They do without dormancy periods. And young bushes can give the first berries already at the age of 2 months. Therefore, before buying strawberry seedlings, focus not only on the variety, but also on its variety.

Here are the most popular neutral daylight varieties: Selva, Ostara, Everest, Brighton, Siskape, Tristar, Ava.

Soil for strawberries at home

The plant prefers neutral and weakly acidic, loose, nutritious soil. To ensure that strawberries on a windowsill grow well all year round and do not get sick, do not take for its planting a clay heavy soil. Make a mixture based on garden soil or universal soil. Add decomposed manure, coarse sand or perlite.

Important: It is advisable to steam the soil in the oven before planting.

It contains disease spores and small pests, which will negatively affect the growth of seedlings.

Strawberry Pot

Homemade strawberries must fit freely in the pot. It is important that its root when planting is not bent, but placed vertically along its entire length. Therefore, take tall, up to 20-25 cm pots with a volume of 3 liters. If there are no drainage holes in the planting container, make them with a nail or knife heated over a fire. At the bottom of the pot be sure to lay a drainage layer of broken bricks, expanded clay or pieces of Styrofoam.

If you plant seedlings in one long container, keep a distance of 15-25 cm between them.

Planting strawberries at home step by step

If possible, buy strawberry seedlings with a closed root system. Such a plant can be transplanted at any time of the year, and it will acclimatize faster in its new place.

If you have to plant bushes with open roots, follow this procedure:

• Before planting, immerse the roots in hot water about 45°C for 15 minutes. This will increase the immunity of the plant and promote its growth. You can add any rooting stimulant to the water, such as Cornevinus.
• Cut the long roots to ⅓ of their length with scissors. After cutting they should not be longer than 8-10 cm. This way the seedling will be easier to plant and you will additionally stimulate the growth of the roots.
• Remove any dry, diseased leaves. Leave 2-3 leaves, and if the remaining leaves are very large, it is advisable to cut them half as well. If you do this, the plant will evaporate less moisture during growth, which is important at this point.
• When planting in the ground, spread out the roots and place them vertically in the hole. Bending the roots inhibits development - the bush will grow weak and diseased.
• Plant the plant so that the root neck, the boundary separating the roots from the rosette, is at ground level. That is, the roots are in the ground, the rosette of leaves is outside. Neither deepening, nor placing it above the soil in any case. If buried, the point of growth will rot in the ground, and if planted above ground level, the roots will wither up.

If you follow these rules of planting, you can grow strawberries on the windowsill, which will be no worse than in the garden.

How to Care for Home Strawberries

One of the secrets of strawberry yields is the number of leaves on the bush. A lush bush, large leaves means a good harvest. And vice versa.

The bush changes its leaves three times a year. Each of these changes affects the yield in its own way:

• leaves growing from April to July are responsible for the current harvest;
• The summer leaves, which form after fruiting, provide for the establishment of flower buds for the next season and accumulate nutrients;
• Autumnal - protect the roots and rosette from freezing in winter.

When the bush begins to bloom, make sure that the temperature in the room does not rise above +25°C. At high temperatures, the pollen becomes sterile, which means you won't get any berries, or they will be small and stubby.

Strawberry flowers are bipolar, and berries can set on their own. But, it is not for nothing that hives with bees are placed in greenhouses - pollination increases the yield and quality of the berries themselves. At home, this can be done with a brush, transferring pollen from one flower to another.

Strawberry seedlings begin to produce whiskers after they finish fruiting. If you are not going to propagate it, the whiskers should be removed immediately. They take a lot of energy from the bush.

Old leaves are cut back as they wither. Neutral day varieties can do without a dormancy period in the winter, so there is no point in cutting all the leaves for the winter.

Watering home strawberries

Home strawberries are moisture-loving plants. Even small periods of drought negatively affect its growth. But also excessive overwatering threatens root rot and leaf diseases.

Water it moderately as soon as the top layer of soil dries out. For watering, take water at room temperature. During the fruiting period, watering is reduced so that the berries are sweet and not watery.

Home strawberry seedlings will respond well to spraying from a sprayer if the room is dry.

Feeding home strawberries

For strawberries to grow well all year round, you will need regular fertilizing. There are a lot of fertilizers and schemes how to do it. Which of them to choose, everyone decides for himself. We used the Ukrainian mineral fertilizer "Plantator", which contains all the necessary vitamins, macro- and microelements. It is designed specifically for each stage of development and has a different composition of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium:

• 30-10-10 - for vegetative mass growth at the beginning of growth;
• 10-54-10 - for the bud setting period;
• 5-15-45 is in the final stages of the fall.

This fertilizer is used for watering and for foliar application by spraying.

Perhaps these are the basic secrets. Love your plants and everything will work out!

Have a good harvest!

Photo: taken from the internet