Content
Every gardener dreams of planting as many plants as possible on his site. But more often than not, the small area allotted for the garden interferes with the implementation of the plan. A large part of the precious land is devoted to strawberries. This berry is loved by everyone, so it is found on almost every site. But even the most productive varieties do not yield more than 6 kg of berries per square meter.
To get such a crop, the gardener will have to work hard. Strawberries are not a labor-intensive crop. Repeated weeding, watering in dry weather, mandatory feeding, removal of the mustache - all this makes the gardener bend over to the cherished bushes more than once.
There are many ways to reduce labor costs and save space. For example, growing strawberries in a pyramid from car tires or also in a pyramid, but already built of planks. Each of these methods has its own drawbacks. Tires are unsafe for humans, and their use can make the grown berries unhealthy. Wooden pyramids have their own minus - the tree is short-lived, in conditions of high humidity it serves only a few years.
Benefits of horizontal beds
The method practiced by many gardeners is growing strawberries in tubes horizontally devoid of these disadvantages. Polyvinyl chloride at open ground temperatures is absolutely safe for humans, and its service life is more than 50 years.
With this method, laborious weeding is eliminated. Top dressing is carried out purposefully and gives the maximum result. If you install drip irrigation, efforts to care for such a strawberry plantation can be minimized. When planting strawberries in PVC pipes, it is much easier to collect berries horizontally, the process of removing the whiskers is quite simple. The construction itself takes up little space. It can be easily moved to any new place, and it can be installed where, in general, nothing can grow. Horizontal pipes can even be reinforced against a fence.
Strawberries have certain biological characteristics that allow them to be grown in an enclosed space. She has a fibrous compact root system. The maximum length of the roots of strawberries is 30 cm. Very rarely, their length reaches 50 cm. The feeding area of this berry is also small. All this allows you to successfully grow strawberries in pipe of a sufficiently large diameter.
It is possible to grow this berry completely without soil - hydroponically. This method is suitable for indoor and artificial lighting.
Strawberries and hydroponics
Principle hydroponics - growing plants with nutrient solutions without using traditional soil. Artificial soil based on coconut substrate, expanded clay, vermicult and even ordinary gravel is often used.
When growing strawberries using hydroponics, you can do without it. The nutrient solution can be supplied to the plants forcibly using a special pump or without it by capillary.Strawberries grown in this way in Holland and Spain are eaten with pleasure in the off-season.
There are ready-made mixtures on sale designed for growing strawberries using hydroponics. It is enough to dilute these mixtures according to the instructions with settled clean water and ensure their supply to the roots in the required mode.
Forced feed is provided by a pump with a capacity suitable for the number of plants available. To use hydroponics, strawberries must be grown in containers of any kind. Large diameter PVC pipes are most suitable for this. It is easy to circulate the nutrient solution in such a tube. They are also good for growing strawberries in regular soil.
Horizontal bed - instructions for creating
Required materials and tools: PVC pipes of two diameters - large, with a diameter of 150 mm and small, with a diameter of 15 mm, a drill with a large nozzle, plugs, fasteners.
- We decide on the length of the pipes and their number. We cut the pipes into pieces of the required length.
- On one side of the pipe, cut out in a row holes with a diameter of at least 7 cm.The distance between the edges of the holes is about 15 cm.
- We install plugs on each end of the large pipe. If the tubes are to be used for hydroponically growing strawberries, you will need nutrient inlet and outlet devices. Their joints with a large pipe must be sealed so that the solution does not leak out.
- We assemble the bed by connecting the pipes to each other with the help of fasteners.
- If the structure is intended for growing strawberries using a nutrient solution, install the bush pots and check the system for leaks.
- If we grow strawberries in such pipes using soil, we fill it in the pipes.
The soil taken from the garden will not work, especially if plants from the Solanaceae family, for example, potatoes or tomatoes, were previously grown on it.
Sod land preparation
We cut pieces of turf on the virgin soil. We fold squares of turf with grass to each other, constructing a cube. Each layer must be moistened with a solution of ammonium nitrate at the rate of 20 g per 10 liters.
We cover the pile with a black spunbond, which allows moisture and air to pass through, but does not allow the grass inside the pile to grow. In one season, a wonderful sod land will be ready, which is not only perfect for growing strawberries in horizontal or vertical beds, but also for sowing any seeds for seedlings.
If there is no opportunity or time to make sod land, you can limit yourself to a mixture of peat and forest land from under deciduous trees. Such soil is fertile and slightly acidic - just what you need for strawberries.
- In a hydroponic growing method, a pump is connected to the pipes, which will supply the nutrient solution to the roots of the plants. An artificial substrate is placed at the bottom of each pot and strawberry bushes are planted. Then a nutrient solution is fed to them.
- In the usual way, soil is poured into the pipes, a drip irrigation system is connected and the plants are also planted.
How to grow strawberries in winter at home is shown in the video:
Selection of varieties
For growing strawberries hydroponically varieties of a neutral day are suitable. Such strawberries will grow throughout the year and will not require intensive additional lighting in winter. Strawberries, even remontant ones, cannot bear fruit continuously. Plants require at least a short rest period. Therefore, these strawberries bear fruit in waves.Warning! With this intensive growing method, plants are quickly depleted and need to be replaced frequently.
Varieties for year-round cultivation
Elizabeth 2
Produces very large, tasty and transportable berries. Can bear fruit on young rosettes. The variety is quickly depleted and needs to be replaced annually.
Honey
The variety is specially adapted for greenhouse cultivation. The taste lives up to the name - the berries are very sweet. Stored for a long time and well transported without changing the quality of the berries. You need to pick the berries when they are fully ripe.
Albion
Large-fruited variety with berries of high taste. Very aromatic strawberry. This variety is resistant to diseases and undemanding to growing conditions. It is considered the most suitable for indoor cultivation.
To grow strawberries in a pipe filled with soil, these varieties are fine too. But the more winning ones will be ampel varieties of strawberries.
Geneva
An excellent American variety, tasty and very productive. With proper care, it can produce 3 kg of berries.
Alba
An Italian variety that appeared in Russia relatively recently. It has spindle-shaped bright red berries, tasty and juicy. An interesting feature of this particular variety is that the berries are the same size throughout the season, they do not shrink even at the last harvest.
Horizontal bed care
Care for strawberries planted in horizontal beds made of PVC pipes consists of watering as needed, feeding once every two weeks with a weak solution of a complex mineral fertilizer.
Plants must give all their strength to the formation of the crop.
For the winter, it is better to remove the horizontal beds from the support and lay them on the ground so that the strawberries do not die from frost.
Conclusion
The cultivation of strawberries in horizontal beds made of PVC pipes is a promising method that increases the yield per unit area and facilitates the work of the gardener.
