How to grow strawberries in a greenhouse? Let me teach you the planting method
I think everyone must know strawberries; in my impression, strawberries are only available in winter each year. Anyone who has eaten strawberries knows that they taste excellent, sweet, with a faint fragrance, and once you start eating them you simply cannot stop; a plate is gone in no time.
How to grow strawberries in a greenhouse
This fruit, the strawberry, originally grew mostly in the northern plains regions. Later, as market demand increased, some growers appeared in the south as well. Later still, in order to bring it to market in all four seasons, people began growing strawberries in greenhouses. But doing all this requires a certain amount of skill. Many people want to grow them but do not know how they should do it. “The greenhouse strawberry growth and fruiting period coincides with the winter of low temperature and weak light, so poor coloring, sour taste, deformed fruit and smaller fruit easily occur. But as long as management is strict and care is meticulous, fruit quality will not decline. Just like this, our strawberries now sell for more than 100 yuan per kilogram.” On January 2, the reporter came to Yongxing Village, Huangyi Town, Jiangyang District, Luzhou City. Deng Hongfang and Wang Cailian, who were managing strawberries in a solar greenhouse, happily introduced: “For strawberries to be high-quality and high-yield, a few new methods work well.”
Techniques for planting strawberries Strawberry roots are relatively shallow, so you should choose to cultivate them on sandy loam soil that is loose, contains more organic matter, has flat terrain, is convenient for irrigation and drainage, and has a pH of about 5.5—6.5. Because strawberries have the characteristic of tolerating sun, they can also be intercropped or relay-cropped with tall-stem crops or young fruit trees, and are suitable for courtyard cultivation. About 15 days before planting strawberries, the land should be prepared. First spray the herbicide trifluralin, using 200 grams per 667 sq m. Then carry out deep plowing to prepare the land, plowing 30—40 cm deep, and with the plowing apply 4000 kg of high-quality farmyard manure, 15 kg of diammonium phosphate, and 10 kg of potassium sulfate per 667 sq m. Finally, rake the soil fine and level, laying the foundation for making beds or forming ridges. When making beds, the bed is 10—20 m long, 60—70 cm wide, and 10 cm high. When forming ridges, the ridge is 50—55 cm wide, 15 cm high, and the furrow is 20 cm wide. Once this early groundwork is done, the key step is planting. Select disease-free seedlings of excellent varieties that grow vigorously and have many fibrous roots. Generally, seedlings should have at least 4 leaves and a stem about 1 cm thick. If seedlings are purchased from a distant place, the large outer leaves of the plant should be cut off at planting time, leaving only 2—3 small central leaves. This can reduce water evaporation from the leaves, and this trick can increase the survival rate.
Methods to note when planting
It is best to choose a cloudy and rainy day or the evening of a sunny day to plant the seedlings. Plant deep enough not to bury the crown, and in shallow soil do not expose the roots; the root crown of the seedling should be exactly level with the ground. Many people do not pay attention to the method when planting. If buried too deep, it will press down on the seedling's growing point and the seedling will easily rot; if the soil is too shallow, the roots are exposed and the seedling easily dries up and dies. When transplanting, first dig a hole, then place the seedling into the hole so that its root system spreads out, then fill with soil and water, until the seedling grows new leaves. Autumn planting can be carried out in mid-to-late August, because at this time the temperature and humidity are relatively suitable, and after planting the strawberries can quickly establish and enter normal growth and development. When cultivating on flat beds, plant 2 rows per bed, with a row spacing of 20 cm, about 10,000 plants per 667 sq m. Leave a 30 cm passage between two beds. When planting on ridges, plant 2 rows per ridge, with a row spacing of 20 cm and a plant spacing of 15 cm, planting 9000 seedlings per 667 sq m.
To make the seedlings grow and develop well after planting and to promote flower bud formation, first, promptly remove aged leaves and runners from the plants; second, apply a nitrogen fertilizer topdressing once in late September, applying 15 kg of ammonium nitrate per 667 sq m, and it can also be combined with an appropriate amount of phosphorus; third, irrigate promptly, and after each irrigation carry out one intertillage to keep the soil loose and raise the ground temperature, which helps the seedlings take root. During the growth and development of strawberries, gray mold, powdery mildew, leaf spot, and damage from red spider mites often occur. For the control of gray mold, generally spray 0.3% lime sulfur mixture at the early stage of the disease; when controlling powdery mildew and leaf spot, spray 800-times dilution of Tuzet or 800—1000-times dilution of thiophanate-methyl; when red spider mite damage occurs, spray 1200-times dilution of 40% omethoate emulsifiable concentrate.
How strawberries avoid “soil-borne diseases” Implement crop rotation by changing land. Like many melon and fruit crops, strawberries will be affected by “soil-borne diseases” after being planted continuously for several years, threatening strawberry quality and even causing plant death. Strawberries must also avoid continuous cropping; implementing rotation can improve the strawberry's disease resistance and reduce the number of deformed fruits and diseased or insect-damaged fruits. You can make full use of the open space between greenhouses for cyclical rotation, and only after several years can it be planted again. To overcome continuous cropping obstacles, it is necessary to block the spread of “soil-borne diseases” and kill harmful pathogens in the field soil. For strawberries, if the land cannot be changed, then “rest the field”, that is, use the method of “sealing and sunning” during the high summer temperatures, covering the strawberry field that has been irrigated with fertilizer water with plastic film. In this way, under the scorching sun, the soil temperature under the film rises and can even reach sixty or seventy degrees, killing harmful pathogens.
Precisely because strawberries are deeply loved by everyone, and because the market price of strawberries is not expensive, among all kinds of fruits, strawberries are a relatively best-selling fruit. Moreover, strawberries are far more than just a fruit; we all know that many kinds of milk, candy, drinks and so on have strawberry flavors, which shows how broad the strawberry market is!