Strawberries at home on the windowsill all year round: how to plant and grow a crop of homemade berries

Every year there are more and more people who want to taste their own grown vegetables and herbs in their home garden. Besides the usual tomato, cucumbers and varied greenery, on the windowsill of the house you can grow strawberries all year round (even in winter).

This article will discuss the peculiarities of growing strawberries on the windowsill, how to choose the right varieties, not miscalculate with the timing, plant and grow a healthy berry correctly.

Features of growing on a windowsill

Having decided to grow strawberries on a windowsill, first of all you need choose the right planting material... The fact is that it is better to grow indoors varieties that are unpretentious to environmental conditions.

In addition, in the room where the containers will be located, you need to create special microclimate. So that the strawberries do not hurt and grow quickly, it is required to install in the room comfortable temperature and humidity... It is equally important to control during the growing season illumination level.

Which varieties are suitable for growing on a windowsill

It is necessary to choose planting material very carefully, as contrary to the common misconceptiongreenhouse strawberry varieties are not suitable for growing in an apartment... The fact is that it is unlikely that you will be able to create "greenhouse" conditions, because in winter there is enough dry air due to central heating.

When choosing seedlings of indoor strawberries, it is recommended to pay attention not to the appearance of the plant, but to its characteristics.

Strawberry varieties, for growing at home on a windowsill, must be repairing, unpretentious to the length of daylight hours and temperature. The ampelous bushes that hang from the hanging containers look especially beautiful in the apartment.

For year-round cultivation of strawberries on a windowsill at home, it is best to choose the following varieties:

• Homemade delicacy F1;
• Eternity S1;
• Temptation;
• Pink dream;
• Grandian F1;
• Elan F1.

It is also believed that varieties such as Albion, Aisha, Selva, Queen Elizabeth, Geneva, Russian giant, Supreme and Tristan can be grown in the apartment.

How to plant and grow on a windowsill - features, conditions and step-by-step instructions

In order to successfully plant and grow strawberries at home on the windowsill, certain rules and conditions must be observed. Let's talk about them in more detail below.

A place

The best place to grow remontant strawberries is a south- or west-facing windowsill. It is possible to grow a culture on the eastern and northern windowsill only under the condition of constant supplementary lighting.

Daylight hours

For rapid growth and ripening of garden strawberries, the duration of daylight hours should be 12-14 hours. If in the summer the bushes have enough sunlight, then in the fall and winter, when the light part of the day is very short, strawberries need supplement with fluorescent lamps. Lighting devices are turned on 2 times a day: from about 6 to 9 o'clock (in the morning) and from 16 to 20 (in the evening).

Temperature

When growing strawberries at home, it is important to keep the temperature in the range+18 .. + 20 C. If the temperature is a few degrees lower, the plants start to hurt. To prevent such unpleasant consequences, in autumn and spring it will be necessary to turn on additional heating devices (heaters).

Humidity

Strawberries will feel good if the humidity is in the area 70-80%. In the midst of the heating season, in winter, when the air in the apartment is very dry, bushes sprayed from a spray bottle with settled water at room temperature. However, even in this case, it is worth adhering to the measure: due to too high humidity in strawberries, resistance to fungal diseases decreases.

What container to plant

Initially, the seeds are sown in small cups, and as soon as they release the first pair of leaves, they are transplanted (dived) into larger containers. When the strawberry seedlings have already formed 5-6 leaves, they can be transplanted into a pot for further home cultivation.

For growingbush seedlings fit small pots. Ampel species (e.g. F1 Homemade Delicacy) feel great in hanging pots.

You can also plant plants in long boxes with a volume of 10-15 liters... When landing in such containers the distance between the bushes must be at least 20 cm... Regardless of size, the bottom of the container for planting should be drain holes to drain excess water.

One plant requires a pot of volume 3 liters.

What kind of soil (substrate)

You can buy potting potting soil at a specialist store or make your own. For indoor strawberries, in general, suitable any soil (peat-based) intended for growing seedlings (vegetables and flowers).

Of course, if you can find it, it would be ideal to purchase special soil for growing garden strawberries (strawberries).

To prepare the soil on your own, sod soil, sand and humus are mixed in equal parts in a container. Also, strawberries will grow well in a substrate of peat, humus and sand.

The main condition that should be met when preparing the substrate isthe soil mixture should be loose, airy and slightly damp.

Important! It is highly undesirable to use soil from a vegetable garden or garden for planting strawberry seedlings at home: it can be infected with a nematode and other dangerous diseases. If there is no other option, then you need it before using the garden land disinfect.

Preparation of planting material

Experienced gardeners recommend growing strawberries at home on a windowsill as seedlings, since growing seedlings from seeds on their own is a rather long and troublesome business. Planting material can be purchased from nurseries or taken from your site if you grow remontant varieties.

Preparing strawberry seedlings for planting at home is carried out as follows:

By the way! Naturally, it is most convenient to plant strawberry seedlings for growing indoors in the fall (after you breed it with a mustache in the summer).

1. From the available rooted sockets, only the largest and healthiest.
2. Planting material separated from the mother plant and planted in a pot, and first remove all leaves from them, except for the youngest 1-2.
3. To give the strawberries a dormant period, the container is placed in a cool place for 14 days, - basement or cellar.

Direct planting of seedlings

Note! Since strawberries do not like stagnant water and compacted soil, before starting planting, a drainage layer is laid on the bottom of the pot, using crushed stone, pebbles, expanded clay, small pieces of slate or brick.

Saplings strawberries are planted at home like this:

1. A drainage layer and a little substrate are poured into the pot.
2. The rhizome is dipped in a weak solution of potassium permanganate for several minutes.
3. The seedlings are placed in a pot and the roots are spread. The root must be full-grown in the pot. The rhizome must be shortened if, when planting, it is necessary to bend its ends strongly (it is impossible for them to be twisted).
4. To make the cut bushes recover faster, they are immersed in a weak solution of heteroauxin (according to the instructions). To prepare the mixture, a crushed tablet of the drug is dissolved in 5 liters of water.
5. They fill up the missing soil to the point of growth (heart), while it is important not to deepen it.
6. Next, they carefully compact the earth and water it.

Advice! To improve the survival rate of the seedling in a new place, you can spill the plant with a special solution of one of the growth stimulants, for example, again, "Heteroauxin" or "Kornevin".

Sowing seeds

You can grow strawberries at home on a windowsill using seeds. Despite the fact that the harvest will have to wait longer than when planting seedlings, this does not scare off gardeners who cannot see their life without their favorite business.

In order for the seeds to sprout together, they need to be hardened. The planting material is laid out on a damp cloth, then it is folded in half and put into a bag. Next, the bookmark is sent to the top of the refrigerator for 30 days.

The sequence of planting strawberries at home on the windowsill seeds:

1. A shallow box is covered over most of the prepared soil and slightly moistened.
2. Keeping a distance, the seeds are laid out in rows.
3. The planting material is sprinkled with a thin layer of soil.
4. The seedling container is covered with polyethylene or glass and placed in a warm place.
5. As soon as shoots appear, the shelters are gradually removed, and the container is placed on a light windowsill.
6. Plants with a pair of real leaves are transplanted into a spacious pot.

The optimal time for planting strawberry seedlings in an apartment is early spring or the period from late summer to early autumn.

How to care after planting and before harvest

Caring for strawberries on the windowsill consists of the following basic steps: watering, feeding, pruning, pollination and pest control (if the last two measures are necessary).

Watering

For watering strawberries, like other indoor plants, use only settled water at room temperature. In order not to wait for chlorine to settle to the bottom of the container, water can be passed through a filter.

Advice! It will be very good if you regularly spray the strawberry bushes with a spray bottle to increase the humidity in a dry room.

As a rule, it is enough to moisten the soil in the strawberry containers on the windowsill 2 times a week. It is best to moisturize the soil in the afternoon. After watering, the soil in the planting container is loosened.

Important! Despite the fact that the growth of strawberries after the next moistening is activated, you cannot get carried away with watering. Overflowing plants is fraught with the appearance of rot on the roots and fungal diseases. Stagnant water is especially dangerous for bushes. However, the soil should not be allowed to dry out either.

Top dressing

It is recommended to feed indoor strawberries once every 2-3 weeks, after the first leaf appears on the bush. As a fertilizer, you can use conventional complex fertilizing or special nutritional mixtures for strawberries. Top dressing is applied in accordance with the manufacturer's recommendations (according to the instructions).

If you do not want to use mineral mixtures, you can prepare food for indoor strawberries yourself, according to this recipe:

1. A 3-liter jar is poured into a third of the crushed eggshell.
2. Then 1 glass of ash is poured and the jar is filled to the top with slightly warm water.
3. At the end of 5 days of infusion, the solution is filtered.
4. Before making the top dressing is diluted with water in a ratio of 1: 3.

You can also fertilize strawberries on the windowsill with weak solutions. mullein (1 in 10), chicken droppings (1 in 20).

Note! It is impossible to overfeed strawberries with nitrogen fertilizers: a large amount of nutrients stimulates the active growth of leaves and has a bad effect on the setting and formation of fruits.

During fruiting, the bushes need a lot of iron, because it is required for the formation of ovaries. According to experienced gardeners, in the folk way, in order to enrich the soil with this chemical element, a rusty nail must be driven into the pot a few centimeters. Of course, the use of special purchased mixtures and preparations, which include iron, will be more modern, and they need to spray the plantings 1-2 times a month.

After harvesting, the bushes are rarely fed or not fed at all.

Pruning

Many will be surprised, but strawberries need to be pruned to increase yields. How to prune strawberries grown at home on a windowsill?

• On seedlings grown from seeds, the first few flowers are picked.

Important! But you don't need to cut off the flower stalks on the strawberries planted with seedlings.

• If further expansion of indoor plantings is not planned, and you do not need to replace adult bushes, you must regularly remove the mustache. As a result of shearing, the plants will not be wasted on the formation of unnecessary outlets, but will direct all the nutrients to the fruits.

Pollination

So that after flowering berries set, it is recommended to pollinate the strawberries. There are several ways to artificially pollinate at home:

1. By the blossoming flowers one by one holding a paintbrush throughout the entire flowering period.
2. A fan is directed at the plants. Under the flow of air, pollen from one flower is transferred to another, and the strawberries are pollinated.

Diseases and pests

If you have dry air and high temperature indoors (on the windowsill), then strawberries with a high degree of probability will be attacked spider mite.

To get rid of this worst enemy, plantings can be sprayed with such folk remedies as garlic tincture. To prepare the solution, 2 cloves are crushed and filled with 100 ml of water. The mixture, infused for 2-3 hours, is filtered, poured into a spray bottle and the affected plants are treated

... But it is much more efficient to use special insecticidal preparations (eg, Fitoverm, Bitoxibacillin - these are all biological agents, they are not phytotoxic and do not accumulate in plants and fruits).

Advice! And against powdery mildew summer residents recommend using Fitosporin.

The year-round cultivation of remontant strawberries on the windowsill is an exciting activity that does not require so much time and effort. To do this, you need to choose a suitable planting material, observe the rules and conditions of growing on the windowsill, skillfully care for, and also fight pests (especially with spider mites). And in the end, all the troubles and difficulties must pay off with environmentally friendly and tasty fruits (albeit just a few).

Video: growing garden strawberries (strawberries) in winter

Note! At home on the windowsill you can also growtomato, cucumbers, spicy pepper, radish, ginger, green onions and other assorted greens (spinach, basil, rosemary, parsley), and, of course,mint.