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Strawberries are the favorite summer berry of most children and adults. Probably everyone, at least once, has succumbed to temptation and bought fresh strawberries in winter. However, not everyone can buy sweet berries in the store: winter strawberries are very expensive, and one can only guess about their taste and usefulness, because in industrial conditions growth stimulants are often used and genetically modified varieties are chosen.
Growing strawberries at home in a greenhouse all year round will eliminate doubts about the quality of the product and significantly save the family budget. In addition, year-round cultivation of strawberries in a greenhouse can be an excellent business or source of additional income.
This article is about methods of growing strawberries in a greenhouse and all stages of the process.
Features of greenhouse strawberries
Professional gardeners note a slightly worse taste of greenhouse berries, a weak aroma and a lack of vitamins and microelements. However, such a berry is still healthier than jam or compote, because it is a fresh fruit. And in cold winter conditions it is also truly exotic.
As a rule, summer residents and gardeners in the northern regions of Russia know firsthand about greenhouses. After all in the Urals, in Siberia and in the Far East, the climate is harsh and changeable; here it is difficult to grow good vegetables and berries simply in open ground. Often, gardeners in these regions plant strawberries in a greenhouse, preferring not to risk the harvest and protect the plants from cold, high humidity and other problems.
But you can use a greenhouse for growing strawberries not only in the warm season, but also for all twelve months in a row. For this to be possible, plants need to be provided with suitable conditions.
For normal development and abundant fruiting, strawberries need:
- warm;
- light;
- water;
- nutrient soil;
- strong seedlings;
- pollination.
Having provided all these conditions, you can grow strawberries in a greenhouse all year round (video on this topic):
What should a greenhouse for strawberries be like?
Today, three types of greenhouses are most common::
- Wooden frame with coverings made of dense polyethylene film.
- Aluminum or steel base with walls made of polycarbonate sheets.
- Metal frame with glass or plexiglass ceilings.
Construction made of wood and film is the most popular because it is cheap and very easy to build. But such a greenhouse is not suitable for year-round cultivation of winter berries.
Polycarbonate greenhouse it is more reliable, retains heat and moisture better, transmits sunlight quite well, and is affordable, so it can be considered the best option for growing sweet berries at home.
It will be possible to grow a good harvest in glass dome greenhouse conditions – a suitable microclimate is maintained here, such a greenhouse warms up quickly and has a minimum of heat loss. But building a glass greenhouse will not be cheap - this is the most expensive option.
However, it is still not worth building a film greenhouse for year-round use. It is suitable for growing strawberries in a greenhouse only from March to October; a video about this method can be seen below:
Which strawberries are suitable for planting in a greenhouse?
To get a seasonal strawberry harvest, that is, to pick berries from May to September, you can plant ordinary strawberry varieties or garden strawberries. Extended fruiting in this case is ensured by different ripening periods of strawberry varieties.
In order to always have fresh berries in the greenhouse, you need to choose early, mid- and late-ripening varieties for planting - then the harvest will be constant.
When you plan to grow strawberries all year round, you cannot do without hybrid and remontant varieties. In industrial conditions, Dutch strawberry hybrids are usually chosen for year-round cultivation.
The technology for growing strawberries in a greenhouse using the Dutch method is extremely simple:
- Seedlings are renewed every two months or a little more often, that is, each bush bears fruit only once.
- Strawberries are planted in a special substrate that can absorb moisture well along with complex additives. Coconut fiber with peat, for example, is suitable for these purposes. They also use mineral wool or other inorganic materials in which pathogenic microorganisms do not develop.
- Regularly moisten the soil using a drip irrigation system and adding mineral additives and stimulants to the water.
- They maintain the temperature and humidity conditions required by strawberries and provide the seedlings with sufficient light.
Dutch technology allows you to grow strawberries in a limited area. Indeed, according to this method, the best containers for the substrate are plastic bags. Compact, narrow and long, the bags are filled with the mixture and small diameter holes are made in them, arranged in a checkerboard pattern. Seedlings are planted in these holes, so the berries do not come into contact with the ground, and the soil in the greenhouse does not dry out and always remains moist.
Another way to grow year-round is to plant remontant varieties in a greenhouse. Remontant strawberries or, as they are more often called, strawberries are able to bear fruit continuously or bear fruit several times a season.
If in garden conditions varieties with short daylight hours are usually grown, that is, ripening in conditions of eight hours of natural light, then for the greenhouse they use strawberries with neutral or long daylight hours.
Remontant varieties of strawberries with neutral daylight hours have several advantages:
- extended fruiting throughout the year (subject to the conditions necessary for the development of strawberries);
- self-pollinating;
- unpretentiousness to the quality of light and the duration of its exposure.
Taking all this into account, it is the remontant strawberries of neutral daylight hours that are most often used for planting in a greenhouse for year-round fruiting.
Preparation of substrate and containers for seedlings
It is more efficient to grow greenhouse strawberries on a hill, arranging hanging containers or shelves. When growing strawberries at floor level, the risk of seedlings becoming overcooled is much higher, and such plants will receive less light.
The hanging system allows you to significantly save space in the greenhouse; boxes with strawberry seedlings can be placed in several tiers, leaving half a meter between them and providing each “floor” with light.
As soil for strawberries, it is best to use the soil on which cereal crops grew. You should not take soil from the garden, from under potatoes or tomatoes - growing strawberries this way will be ineffective.
Alternatively, you can select an area in the garden specifically for these purposes and sow it with wheat, oats or rye. You can also take land from the fields.
Turf soil is also suitable for strawberries, but it needs to be loosened by adding sawdust, peat or humus.
Strawberries in a greenhouse will bear fruit well all year round and produce tasty fruits if you prepare a very nutritious substrate for it. The best and most proven “recipe” for strawberry substrate is as follows:
- chicken droppings;
- cereal straw (chopped);
- urea;
- chalk;
- gypsum.
Chicken droppings and straw must be laid in several layers, each of which should be watered generously with warm water. In a few days this mixture will begin to ferment, and in a month and a half it will turn into excellent compost. Urea, chalk and gypsum are added to the substrate, thereby enriching it with nitrogen, phosphates and calcium. In such soil, strawberries will feel great, and you will have to feed them less often.
The substrate chosen for strawberries is poured into containers and seedlings are planted there.
How to grow strawberries in a greenhouse
You need to plant strawberries in a greenhouse in the same way as in open ground - there are no significant differences. Suitable for planting are seedlings grown from whiskers, parts of mother bushes or seedlings obtained from strawberry seeds. But for the proper development of plants in the greenhouse, it is necessary to maintain a suitable microclimate.
The rule here is this: as the strawberry bushes grow, the temperature in the greenhouse should increase and the humidity should gradually decrease. So:
- during planting of seedlings in the ground and before they take root, the temperature in the greenhouse is kept at 10 degrees, and the humidity is maintained at 80%;
- when the strawberries begin to grow, flowers begin to form on the bushes, the temperature in the greenhouse is slowly raised to 20 degrees, and the humidity, accordingly, is reduced to 75%;
- the berries will simultaneously ripen and be tasty if, at the stage of their formation and development, the temperature in the greenhouse is 22-24 degrees, and the humidity drops another 5 notches (70%).
At all stages of strawberry development in the greenhouse, it is necessary to maintain temperature, humidity and light. Everything is clear with the first two factors, there remains light. Remontant varieties with neutral daylight hours, as mentioned above, do not need a lot of light, but this does not mean that such strawberries can grow in the dark.
The best sources of artificial light for strawberries in a greenhouse are high-pressure sodium lamps. The power of such lamps should be at the level of 400 W. Their number is determined by the square footage of the greenhouse: every three square meters must be illuminated by at least one 400 W lamp.
If it is not possible to illuminate the strawberries in the greenhouse around the clock, you should provide them with additional light on a schedule so that the plants are illuminated for at least 8-10 hours every day.
In the warm season, you need to turn on the lamps in the greenhouse with strawberries in this mode:
- from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.;
- from 17:00 to 20:00 in the evening.
Cloudy or rainy weather, weak winter sun - further increase the need for additional light for strawberries. In such cases, the lamp switching schedule must be adjusted.
Strawberries of remontant varieties also need regular feeding. Therefore, strawberries are fertilized every two weeks using mineral, organic or complex fertilizers.
Where to get strawberry seedlings
Gardeners who plant strawberries for sale, as a rule, do not spend extra money on purchasing seedlings from nurseries, but grow them themselves.
This is not difficult to do, but it will take time. First of all you need to monitor the bushes after the first harvest, select the healthiest, strongest plants, which will bear more berries, and they will ripen earlier than the rest. These will be the mother bushes.
Next year, strawberries should produce tendrils; if on other plants these shoots are removed, then on the mother bushes, on the contrary, they are left and rooted.
Only the first five tendrils need to be rooted; it is better to remove the rest, otherwise the mother bush will not have enough strength and it will disappear along with the shoots.
Growing strawberries in a greenhouse in winter can indeed be an excellent family business option. Even with a small scale, using a small greenhouse, you can not only feed your family with sweet berries, but also profitably sell a certain amount of the harvest. After all, strawberries in winter are a rarity that is always in demand, and the technology for growing strawberries in a greenhouse all year round is simple and accessible to everyone.
