Detailed Explanation of Key Management Techniques for Greenhouse Strawberries in Winter

Do a good job of insulation and cold protection, strictly control the temperature, and prevent it from being too low or too high. Methods such as covering the greenhouse with straw mats, heating with coal stoves, and smoking around the perimeter can be used; humidity should be controlled at around 40%, and after watering, attention should be paid to ventilation to reduce humidity; regularly clean the dust off the greenhouse film, and plant supplemental grow lights can be used for supplemental lighting to strengthen light exposure.

How to Manage Greenhouse Strawberries in Winter

1. Do a good job of insulation and cold protection

The temperature has dropped sharply recently. Although strawberries have relatively strong adaptability to temperature, freezing damage will occur when the temperature is below -7°C. If the temperature drops below -10°C, the plants will directly freeze to death. Therefore, cold protection measures must be taken well. You can refer to the following methods.

Covering the greenhouse with straw mats

Since straw mats are poor conductors of heat, they can reduce heat loss inside the greenhouse and prevent the temperature from dropping. Therefore, crop straws such as rice straw, corn stalks, and wheat straw can be made into straw mats, and as long as there is no sun, they can be covered over the greenhouse.

Precautions: When sunlight appears, remove the straw mats in time. Before a cold wave approaches, adding straw mats or corn stalks around the greenhouse at night can increase the greenhouse temperature by 2°C——3°C. When the temperature drops sharply, a layer of ordinary agricultural film or old film can be added on top of the straw mats, which can both improve the insulation of the straw mats and prevent rain and snow from wetting the straw mats.

Heating with coal stoves

Place 3——5 coal stoves per mu in the strawberry greenhouse to light fires for heating, starting at 6 p.m. and ending at 6 a.m., and repeat this for the following days.

Precautions: This heating method causes the temperature inside the greenhouse to rise quickly, so a thermometer must be hung inside the greenhouse, and attention must be paid to temperature changes in the greenhouse. When the greenhouse temperature reaches around 20°C, heating can be paused. To prevent the effect of coal gas on strawberries during heating, a smoke exhaust chimney should be added to the coal stove to ensure that coal gas is discharged outside the greenhouse, or smokeless charcoal should be used.

Smoking around the perimeter

Before a cold wave arrives, light crop straws, firewood, and grass around the outside of the greenhouse, and use the smoke produced to drive away the cold air, raising the air temperature around the greenhouse, thereby ensuring that the temperature inside the greenhouse increases and achieving the purpose of resisting the cold wave.

In addition, when the temperature drops below 0°C, a middle greenhouse and small arched greenhouse film can be added over the greenhouse to protect against freezing damage. Before a cold wave hits, watering with frozen water and spraying the leaves with Sea Elf biological stimulant + high-purity phosphorus and potassium source library can play a good role in insulation and freezing resistance.

2. Humidity management

The humidity inside the greenhouse is closely related to temperature. When the temperature is low, the relative humidity is high; when the temperature is high, the relative humidity is low. Especially during flowering, low humidity is required, and the suitable relative humidity is 40%. Too high or too low will affect the quality of pollination.

Humidity control measures

● Choose high-quality drip-free greenhouse film. When the daytime temperature inside the greenhouse is above 10°C, appropriately uncover the film to reduce humidity, and keep it closed at night.

● On sunny days, uncover early and cover late; on cloudy days, uncover late and cover early.

● Cover the bed surface and furrows with black plastic film. Black plastic film helps maintain soil moisture and reduce humidity inside the greenhouse.

● After watering, attention should be paid to ventilation to reduce humidity.

3. Light management

Insufficient light in winter will hinder the growth and development of strawberries. Over time, it will cause slow growth and development of strawberries, slow fruit enlargement, poor coloring, and more deformed fruits.

Supplemental lighting measures

Regularly clean dust off the greenhouse film and promptly clean snow off the greenhouse film after snowfall, which can enhance light exposure and also increase the greenhouse temperature. After late November, plant supplemental grow lights can be used for supplemental lighting, with supplemental lighting in the morning and evening every day, ensuring that during the flowering and fruiting period of strawberries, daily light reaches 12——15 hours.