Many lovers of this delicious berry would not mind eating it all year round.
If you are not lazy and able to properly care for the plant, then you can grow large and juicy fruits at home even in winter.
Growing strawberries on the balcony: choose a variety
From stores or in the market, you can be offered special seedlings of strawberries that are specifically designed for growth at home. This is all a hoax, in the apartment you can plant the most ordinary varieties. When choosing, it is worth considering whether the plant is resistant to diseases and pests, what fruits it gives and how much.
Strawberries can be of three types:
• matures once - in the spring;
• berries appear in spring and autumn;
• remontant - bears fruit several times a year.
If you properly care for plants, you can achieve excellent results. Please note that one variety can produce the first berries immediately after planting, and the other only after a couple of years. Therefore, by negligence, do not throw strawberries if it does not bear fruit in the first year.
“Roksana”, “Festivalnaya”, “Queen Elizabeth”, “Zagornaya” - these are some varieties that can safely be planted in an apartment.
How to grow strawberries on the balcony? Choose a pot and soil composition
It doesn’t matter where you plant the plants. It can be pots, plastic containers or special bags. The main thing is that the container is spacious enough (diameter - 20 cm, length - 200 cm).
But you have to prepare a good soil, if you want to get large and sweet berries. Strawberries love loamy soil. A combination would be ideal: 10 parts of chernozem, peat and humus; 3 parts sawdust and 1 part sand. How are they useful?
• Peat holds water well. For the best effect, you can mix it with ash.
• Humus makes the substrate fertile.
• Sawdust loosens the kidney. Proper preparation: first soak in urea for several hours, then add a glass of chalk and mix. For 10 kg of sawdust - 2 tbsp. urea and a liter of water.
• Sand should be without clay.
When you fill the selected containers with soil, pour it with a solution of a glass of mullein, half a teaspoon of copper sulfate and 3 liters of water.
Growing strawberries on a balcony from seeds
If you do not want to buy ready-made seedlings, you can get them yourself from seeds. In order not to bother with the “mustache” and to be able to harvest all season, get seeds of repair strawberries. However, you can choose the varieties of ordinary strawberries, the most unpretentious in care.
Sowing begins in late March or early April. But at the same time in the first year of the berries you will not see. If you want strawberries to bear fruit, plant the seeds in February.
The soil should be loose, light and well fertilized. Stock up on a large plastic container, at the bottom of which make holes. Do not fill the soil to the edges of the container, leave 2-3 cm. The soil should not be hard packed too. After leveling, it must be carefully watered.
Plant seeds evenly, cover the container with a lid and refrigerate or subfloor. After creating the “winter” conditions, the sprouts will appear in 2 weeks, but it all depends on the particular variety. After 2 weeks, place a container with seeds on the balcony, avoid abundant and frequent watering, wait for seedlings.
When the sprouts appear, holes must be made in the lid of the container so that the soil breathes. Sometimes open the container for ventilation, make sure that the soil is always moist enough.
If seedlings have sprouted too often, the extra need to be removed. As soon as real leaves grow, starting from the fourth, make a pick. Do not fertilize until you plant the plants in the main pots.
Growing Strawberries on the Balcony: Proper Planting
You need to plant plants either in early spring or late autumn. We do not place them deep in the ground, but we must not allow the roots to crawl out. After planting, gently loosen the topsoil. Seedlings will not grow in the soil where other plants were already located, so be sure to prepare fresh soil.
Do not plant strawberries in the shade, because he loves the light, and in pots hanging outside the balcony, because the wind is contraindicated to plants. If you bought seedlings, prune the roots before planting. It is harmful for them to be in the air, death may begin.
Proper care of strawberries growing on the balcony
It is not so difficult to grow strawberries, you just need to take care of high-quality watering, put daylight lamps to illuminate seedlings daily for 14 hours. It is better if you place containers with strawberries on the south side. Since there will be no bees, bumblebees and other insects in your apartment, you will have to pollinate the plants yourself using a fan or a draft. Twice a month, it is necessary to apply mineral fertilizers, slurry to the soil, first dilute it with water in a ratio of 1:20.
The optimum temperature for the normal growth and development of the plant: during the day - 25, at night - 17 degrees. If it is below 14, then flowering and fruit formation stops. Above 35 is also not allowed, immunity is weakened.
If you planted a variety in which “whiskers” are formed - organs of vegetative propagation, then they must be cut off in time. If this is not done, they will take root and fill the entire container. When the first flower stalks appear, they also need to be plucked so that large and strong flowers begin to grow.
Do not forget to spray the seedlings with clean water every other day so that the berries are juicy and sweet. So that the soil does not acidify, and the roots do not rot, it is advisable to make drainage and holes in the pots.
For the winter, it’s worth putting strawberries in the apartment if the temperature drops below 5 degrees. If the balcony is glazed, the plants are only sprinkled with sawdust. In the cold season, strawberries are watered very rarely so that the roots do not freeze or rot.
How to grow strawberries on the balcony? Pest protection
If you properly care for the seedlings, then they acquire immunity and are not exposed to the invasion of pests and diseases. To prevent the development of powdery mildew, seedlings must be treated with sulfur. You will not notice gray or red rot on the bushes unless you water the strawberries excessively. Collect berries in time so that they do not begin to deteriorate directly on the plant.
Many are interested in the question of how often bushes need to be changed. Basically, in the fourth year they advise planting new plants. If the strawberry is ordinary, having a "mustache", it is worth choosing those that are best rooted. Do not make the mistake of many people who simply share the bush and plant halves. This way you will not achieve anything good. You can plant strawberries with seeds or buy ready-made seedlings in specialized stores.
Strawberries are not only a delicious dessert that is loved by both children and adults. It is the basis of many homemade preparations: preserves, compotes. It has a positive effect on health: it contains beauty vitamins (A and E), fiber, carotene, and useful elements. We hope that you can grow a rich harvest, and from then on, growing strawberries on the balcony will become your serious hobby.
