Welcome to our guide here on GardensOfMine which will teach you everything you need to know about growing and cultivating your own strawberry plants. They are really some of the easiest berry plants one could get started with.
The process more or less comes down to making sure the plant gets enough sunlight each day and the soil is never left to dry out completely. These things work in harmony and when everything goes right, the strawberries will be delicious.
Follow along and we will dive even deeper into the world of growing strawberries. Expect to come out the other end a more well-informed gardener, and perhaps even a little bit inspired.
How To Grow Strawberries Indoors
The first stop in this article will be about growing strawberries indoors. Not all of us have the privilege of owning vast amounts of land or even just a small garden. So growing your plants indoors might be the only option.
Thankfully this doesn’t really matter in the case of the strawberry plant. It is rather common to grow this in pots, which is what you would do indoors. The tricky part comes when you need the flowers to get pollinated.
The flowers need bees in order for them to get pollinated and small berries to start growing there. We find that you can still do this if you leave a window open and place the strawberry plant there. This will hopefully attract our insect friends. But if you have a balcony, then you could keep the plant there instead during the summer to further increase the chance of it getting pollinated.
There really isn’t a clear sign the flowers have been pollinated, instead, you will just have to wait and hope for the plant to start developing small berries eventually.
How Long Does It Take Strawberries To Grow
The strawberry plant is actually a really fast-growing plant, if you look at the time it takes for it to be planted from a seed and then able to produce the first berries. No more than 2 years is the timeline.
In the first year the plant will likely not even flower, instead, the plant will just start furthering it’s root system even more and establishing itself. This is a very important process and you need to care for the plant during this time.
Make sure it gets enough sunlight each day and also never let the soil dry out either. You might ask what the magic number of sun hours is each day. We always say that most plants will want between 6 – 8 hours if grown outdoors. Indoors it increases slightly to 8 – 10 hours instead since the sun is sort of losing its power through the windows.
If you are wondering when the best time to grow strawberries might be depending on where you live then check out our guide right here, When To Plant Strawberries In.
How To Grow Strawberries Indoors Year-Round
You can absolutely grow a strawberry plant indoors the whole year. This is actually more common than you might think. Especially in places where the access to land and a place to grow is limited, cities or urban areas in general.
The plant will need a fitting pot to be grown in. This means one with enough size the plant won’t struggle to expand its root system during the years of growing and developing.
But also making sure the plant gets pollinated is important. This is most likely the hardest part, as there is not a large number of bees in cities or densely populated areas.
So keeping the plant outside on a window or balcony will be essential in order for it to get pollinated and you eventually be able to harvest berries from it.
How To Grow Strawberries From Seed
Growing a strawberry plant from a seed is a really fun project you could get started with at home if you are looking to get into gardening. The plant is more or less foolproof when it comes to growing it.
The plant will only need about 8 – 10 hours of sunlight and soil that is never kept too dry or too wet. Getting that right is the secret to succeeding in growing strawberries.
In the beginning, you can place the pot with the newly planted seed in a sunny window. This will encourage quick growth. If you are wondering about cutting or trimming the plant, this is rarely done actually. It’s more common in those places that grow strawberries for the volume and not the taste.
How Big Can Strawberries Grow
Strawberry plants are not really that large once they have had a few years to establish themselves in whichever area they might be growing in. They tend to max out at about 8 – 10 inches tall or 20 cm.
They will each year start to wilt down and come back just as strong or even more the next year. Because of this, the plant is referred to as a perennial. Meaning we need to do very little in terms of cutting the leaves or trimming any stems.
As for the berries on the plant, they won’t grow massive, unless that is the variety you have bought specifically. The best, ones are in our opinion slightly smaller to medium-sized. They seem to be packed with the most flavor.
If you are wondering about the difficulty of growing strawberries then we recommend you read our article right here, Are Strawberries Hard To Grow.
How To Grow Strawberries In Winter
Growing strawberries in the wintertime will be very difficult if you are living in an area that gets snow and plenty of it during the colder months. The plant could be moved indoors in order to be protected. But as we have revealed in this article here before.
The strawberry plant will usually start wilting down at the end of the season. During the winter the entire plant can completely be frozen and it will still come back the next year. It’s a very hardy berry plant that you can always count on.
So moving it indoors might not serve a lot of use as the plant will not produce any berries in the off-season anyway. The best way to go about it might be to just leave the plant outdoors and let the seasons take their place.
How To Grow Strawberries Seeds In A Pot
Growing a strawberry bush in a pot from a small seed is the most common way to get started with this amazing berry plant. There is such a large amount of different pots in different sizes and widths and whatnot. The only thing you need to care about is whether you will keep it like that or not.
A pot can be a great utility to first grow the plant in a safe environment and then replot it to a free land where the established and grown roots will quickly start to take root.
How To Harvest Strawberries
Harvesting the strawberries might arguably be the most exciting time in growing strawberries. This is the time when you finally can enjoy your hard labor. But getting it right might be difficult and even intimidating.
The last thing we want is to pick berries that are not quite ready yet. Look at the color of the berries. The redness should cover the entire berry, all the way up to the part where it connects to the rest of the plant. This indicates a good level of ripeness. But to get the extra mile, look at the richness of color. Is it a deep red? Then the berry should be absolutely amazing right now. Harvest away.
