Growing strawberries in a greenhouse makes it possible not only to get an earlier harvest, but also to distill the plants for further transplantation into open ground. For the cultivation of strawberries, small containers are used for distillation in order to make it more convenient to transplant it. If you need to get an early harvest, strawberries are grown in the ground. Both stationary heated structures and film shelters can be used.
Growing strawberries in a greenhouse in our countries has not yet become widespread, while in neighboring countries, for example, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, this type of business is quite common and brings good profits. To get a quick payback it is necessary to use the potential of greenhouses as intensively as possible.
Growing strawberries in a greenhouse has its own characteristics and one of them is the need for artificial lengthening of daylight hours. Most strawberry varieties respond to its length, and the larger it is, the faster the crop will appear.
To understand the dependence of strawberries on the length of daylight hours, we can give an example, if the day is 16 hours, then the strawberries bloom on day 10 and fruiting starts at 35, and if the day is reduced to 8 hours, then flowering will come 4 days later and it will begin to bear fruit 10-13 days later.
How to grow strawberries in a greenhouse
As a planting material, usually used mustache sockets, which were formed in the previous season. The better the planting material, the more likely it is to get a friendly and plentiful crop.
Growing strawberries in a greenhouse takes place in several stages. On the first - the mustache is rooted in the open ground, this is usually done in July-August, and then in October-November, rooted plants are transplanted into the greenhouse, which is additionally heated. If you use portable film greenhouses, then the beds with strawberries are covered in November-December and you can get the crop only in May. If there is heating in the film tunnel, the crop can be obtained much earlier, already in late March or early April.
Any strawberry in the greenhouse feels good and develops well, but in our time, many greenhouse varieties have been created. The most common of them are: Cambridge, Will, Sayvetta, Glasa, Gorella, Zenga Prekosa, Red Gauntle, Vigee, Glima, Zenga Lentessa, Red Capulet and others.
To constantly obtain your own planting material, you must have a mother plantation. It must be periodically watered and fertilized. To calculate the size of the mother plantation, it is necessary to take into account the fact that one plant is able to produce 8-10 seedlings. The highest quality planting material is obtained from biennial plants. The mother plantation needs to be updated periodically.
To get seedlings, you must root the mustache on the mother plantation, after they get stronger, they are planted in the nursery, planting is carried out 15x15cm. You can also plant in boxes that are brought into the greenhouse with the onset of cold weather.
The soil in the greenhouse must be fertilized; humus and peat are used for this. Also, before planting seedlings, which is carried out from November to December according to the 25x30 pattern, mineral fertilizers are applied.
Strawberries love regular watering, but you should not direct water to flowering plants. Recently, when growing strawberries, they began to use a film that prevents the berries from touching the ground and prevents the growth of weeds.
The disadvantage of greenhouses is the need for artificial pollination; in the presence of large plantations, hives with bees are placed in the greenhouses. It is also necessary to organize additional lighting so that daylight hours are at least 8-10 hours. Humidity must be constantly regulated and not allowed to be too high.