The easiest potted fruit to grow: toss it in soil and it survives, blooming and fruiting year after year
Introduction
Potted green plants are a must-have accent for home life. Keeping some flowers and plants at home has many benefits: it beautifies your living space and lifts your mood. "Flower Sound Potted Plant Diary · Issue 1284" introduces you to the easiest potted fruit to grow.
Today's star
If you are a gardening expert who has mastered plant-care techniques and already has plenty of flowers and plants at home, you might as well grow some potted fruit plants: they are both ornamental and give you fruit to eat. Today we introduce the fruit best suited to balcony pot cultivation - the strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa). Plant it once and you will have fruit to eat year after year.
Potted strawberries
In fact, many fruits are not easy to grow in pots, such as apples and pomegranates. Most of the pictures online of plants laden with fruit were grown by professionals, whereas the strawberry is a herbaceous plant with a short, compact habit, white flowers and red fruit, offering high ornamental and edible value, and a cultivation process that is both fun and rewarding.
Long flowering and fruiting period
The strawberry has a very long flowering and fruiting period, lasting 6-8 months. In the subtropical regions of the south, plant in late September or early October, and the fruit ripens in two months; it flowers and fruits at the same time, and can be harvested until March of the following year. In the north, if grown indoors in winter with heating and plenty of light, it can also be harvested several times a year.
Flowering and fruiting
To get strawberries to flower and fruit, a few things need to be done: sufficient nutrients - during the growing season you can apply a little phosphorus and nitrogen compound fertilizer, not too concentrated, best diluted with water and poured on together; after flowering, because there are no bees on an indoor balcony, manual pollination is needed - use a brush or cotton swab to dab the flowers against each other, or simply let two flowers touch each other; it is best done in the morning.
Plant once, fruit year after year
The daily care of strawberries is very easy. This herbaceous plant has extremely strong reproductive capacity. If grown in the ground, one seedling can spread into a whole patch in a year; in pots, divide the plants promptly. Place it in a spot with light, water thoroughly once the soil has dried out, and give it rough-and-ready care. It is a perennial: plant it once and it blooms and fruits year after year, offering excellent value for money. Gardeners with the right conditions can give it a try.