Tower Growing
Day-Neutral Strawberry Plants for The Longest Strawberry Season! This is important for getting your strawberries to flower and produce fruit. If you stick them in the same system as lettuce, the lettuce may become bitter.
Pinch off blooms if you don’t have at least 6 true leaves so strawberries grow large.
Remove runners. So all nutrients go to fruit not new propagation. You can propagate these in water for new plants.
Ready to eat in about 80 days if starting with bare roots.
Strawberries:
Sunlight: Strawberries need at least 8 hours of direct sunlight per day. If using grow lights, you may need to keep them on for at least 14 – 16 hours.
pH: Keep the pH of your Tower Garden between 5.5 and 6.5.
Ventilation: Keep your Tower Garden in a well-ventilated area to avoid fungus. You can use an HVAC system or fans to circulate air.
Watering: Set an automatic timer for the pump to run for 15 minutes on and 45 minutes off. Strawberry roots don’t like to be too wet.
Planting: Soak the roots of bare-root strawberry plants for an hour before planting. Trim away any dead roots, but be careful because they might just be dormant. You can also protect the plant with a rock wool cube wrapped around the crown or just below it. Cut a hole in the bottom of the net pot so the roots can come through easily.
Strawberries from Bare Root
How to Grow Strawberries from Seeds
Strawberry seed is tiny. The small seed requires special care at planting time. Get a good start and build a productive berry patch by following these 5 steps for growing strawberries from seed.
- Start Seeds Indoors
Alpine strawberries will produce fruit the first summer after planting if the seeds are started indoors about 8 weeks before the last frost. Sow the tiny seeds in a seed-starting flat or shallow container filled with fine seed starting mix. Sprinkle the seeds on top of the starting mix. Barely cover the seeds with soil; they need light to germinate. Mist the soil daily to keep it moist but not wet. Be careful not to water too intensely; too much water will disturb the seeds, pushing them down into the soil where they will not be able to germinate.
Provide a strong light source above the seeded flat. A grow light or a shop light positioned about 6 inches above the flat will help seeds germinate. Maintain a moderate air temperature around the flat. Strawberry seeds germinate best at 65 to 70℉. Alpine strawberries can also be seeded directly in the garden after the last frost.
- Let Seeds Germinate
Strawberry seeds are slow to germinate. Expect to wait at least 14 days to as long as 45 days for tiny leaves to pop out of the soil. Continue to mist the soil, not allowing it to dry out, and providing plenty of light as you wait. The long germination time adds to the importance of planting seeds at least 8 weeks before the last frost in spring to ensure berries are produced the first year.
- Prepare Seedlings to Be Planted
Help berry seedlings transition from consistently warm indoor growing conditions to more unpredictable outdoor weather by making the move slowly. When seedlings have multiple sets of leaves and are at least 3 inches tall, acclimate them to outdoor growing conditions by setting seedlings outside for several hours each day and bringing them inside at night. After seedlings are acclimated to the outdoors for a week or so, they are ready to be planted in the garden.