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Strawberries are the favorite summer berry of most children and adults. Probably everyone, at least once, succumbed to the temptation and bought fresh strawberries in the 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, 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 growing strawberries in a greenhouse can be an excellent business or a source of additional income.
About methods of growing strawberries in a greenhouse and about all stages of the process – this article.
Features of greenhouse strawberries
Professional gardeners note a slightly worse taste of greenhouse berries, a mild aroma and a lack of vitamins and minerals. However, such a berry is still healthier than jam or compote, because it is a fresh fruit. And in the conditions of a cold winter – also a real exotic.
As a rule, summer residents and gardeners of the northern regions of Our Country know firsthand about greenhouses. Indeed, in the Urals, Siberia and the Far East, the climate is harsh and changeable, it is difficult to grow good vegetables and berries here just in the open field. 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 all twelve months in a row. For this to be possible, plants need to provide suitable conditions.
Strawberries for normal development and abundant fruiting need:
- heat;
- shine;
- water;
- nutrient soil;
- strong seedlings;
- pollination.
Having provided all these conditions, it is possible to grow strawberries in the greenhouse all year round (video on this topic):
What should be a greenhouse for strawberries
To date, the most common three types of greenhouses:
- Wooden frame with overlappings made of dense polyethylene film.
- Aluminum or steel base with polycarbonate sheet walls.
- Metal frame with glass or plexiglass ceilings.
Construction of wood and film is the most popular, as 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, is affordable in terms of price, so it can be considered the best option for home growing sweet berries.
It will be possible to grow a good crop in greenhouse glass dome – a suitable microclimate is maintained here, such a greenhouse warms up quickly, has a minimum of heat loss. But the construction of a glass greenhouse will not be cheap – this is the most expensive option.
However, a film greenhouse for year-round use is still not worth building. It is suitable for growing strawberries in a greenhouse only from March to October, a video of this method can be viewed below:
Which strawberries are suitable for planting in a greenhouse
In order to get a seasonal strawberry harvest, that is, to pick berries from May to September, ordinary varieties of strawberries or garden strawberries can be planted in a film greenhouse. Extended fruiting in this case is provided by different ripening periods of strawberry varieties.
In order to always have fresh berries in the greenhouse, you need to choose early, medium, and late-ripening varieties for planting – then the harvest will be constant.
When it is planned to grow strawberries all year round, hybrid and remontant varieties cannot be dispensed with. In industrial conditions, Dutch strawberry hybrids are usually chosen for year-round cultivation.
The technology for growing strawberries in a greenhouse according to the Dutch method is extremely simple:
- Seedlings are updated every two months or a little more often, that is, each bush gives fruits only once.
- Strawberries are planted in a special substrate that can absorb moisture well along with complex additives. For these purposes, coconut fiber with peat, for example, is suitable. 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 necessary for strawberries, provide seedlings with a sufficient amount of light.
Dutch technology allows you to grow strawberries in a limited area. After all, according to this method, the best containers for the substrate are plastic bags. Compact, narrow and long, the bags are filled with a mixture and holes of small diameter 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 all year round is to plant remontant varieties in the greenhouse. Remontant strawberries or, as it is more commonly called, strawberries, are able to bear fruit continuously or yield several crops per season.
If varieties with short daylight hours are usually grown in garden conditions, that is, ripening under eight hours of natural light, then strawberries with neutral or long daylight hours are used for greenhouses.
Remontant strawberry varieties with neutral daylight hours have several advantages:
- extended fruiting throughout the year (subject to the conditions necessary for the development of strawberries);
- self-pollination;
- unpretentiousness to the quality of light and the duration of its exposure.
Given all this, 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 the 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 hypothermia for seedlings is much higher, and such plants will get less light.
The suspension system allows you to significantly save space in the greenhouse, you can arrange boxes with strawberry seedlings 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 land on which cereals grew. You should not take soil from the garden, from under potatoes or tomatoes – such cultivation of strawberries will be ineffective.
Alternatively, you can select a plot in the garden specifically for these purposes and sow it with wheat, oats or rye. Also, land can be taken from the fields.
Sod land is also suitable for strawberries, only it needs to be loosened by adding sawdust, peat or humus.
Strawberries in a greenhouse all year round will bear excellent fruit and produce delicious fruits if a very nutritious substrate is prepared for it. The best and proven “recipe” for strawberry substrate is as follows:
- chicken manure;
- cereal straw (shredded);
- urea;
- a piece of chalk;
- gypsum.
Chicken manure and straw must be laid in several layers, each of which is poured with plenty of warm water. After a few days, this mixture will begin to ferment, and after 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 they will have to be fed less often.
The substrate chosen for strawberries is poured into containers and seedlings are planted there.
How to grow strawberries in a greenhouse
It is necessary to plant strawberries in a greenhouse in the same way as in open ground – there are no significant differences here. Suitable for planting are seedlings grown from mustaches, as well as parts of mother bushes or seedlings obtained from strawberry seeds. But for the proper development of plants in the greenhouse, you need 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 the planting of seedlings in the ground and until they take root, the temperature in the greenhouse is kept at around 10 degrees, and the humidity is maintained at 80%;
- when the strawberries begin to grow, flowers will begin to form on the bushes, the temperature in the greenhouse is slowly raised to 20 degrees, and the humidity, respectively, is reduced to 75%;
- the berries will ripen at the same time and will 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 divisions (70%).
At all stages of strawberry development in a greenhouse, temperature, humidity and light must be maintained. With the first two factors, everything is clear, there is light. Remontant varieties with neutral daylight hours, as mentioned above, do not need much 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 watts. Their number is determined by the quadrature of the greenhouse: every three square meters should be illuminated by at least one 400 W lamp.
If it is not possible to illuminate the strawberries in the greenhouse around the clock, it should be provided with additional light on such a schedule 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 am to 11 pm;
- from 17:20 to XNUMX:XNUMX in the evening.
Cloudy or rainy weather, weak winter sun – further increase the need for strawberries in additional light. In such cases, the lamp switching schedule must be adjusted.
Even strawberries of remontant varieties are vital for regular feeding. Therefore, every two weeks, strawberries are fertilized using mineral, organic or complex fertilizers.
Where to get strawberry seedlings
Growers who plant strawberries for sale usually do not spend extra money on purchasing seedlings from nurseries, but grow them on their own.
This is easy to do, but it will take time. First of all you need to follow the bushes after the first harvest, select the most healthy, strong plants on which more berries will appear, and they will ripen before the rest. These will be the mother bushes.
Next year, strawberries should give a mustache, if on other plants these processes are removed, then on the uterine bushes, on the contrary, they are left and rooted.
Only the first five mustaches 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 the winter in a greenhouse can indeed be a great option for a family business. Even with a small scale, using a small greenhouse, it will be possible not only to feed the family with sweet berries, but also to profitably sell a certain amount of the crop. After all, strawberries in winter are a rarity, always in demand, and the technology of growing strawberries in a greenhouse all year round is simple and accessible to everyone.
