How to grow strawberries in pots, when to plant them, and what to do if they don't bloom?

Strawberries are one of everyone's favorite everyday fruits, rich in vitamins and very beneficial to the body. In fact, strawberries can be grown in pots, so how do you grow potted strawberries? Which month is best for planting? What should you do if they don't bloom?

I. How do you grow potted strawberries?

1. Choosing the pot, soil and variety

For pot growing, a ceramic pot with a rim diameter of 20-30 cm is ideal. Choose soil with a relatively high humus content for the potting mix. As for varieties, excellent everbearing strawberry varieties such as European Sijihong, Changhong No. 2 and 83-38 are good choices for pots. They can bloom and fruit several times throughout the year.

2. Cultivation techniques

Potted strawberries can be planted in any of the four seasons. However, when lifting seedlings from the garden bed to pot them up, it is best to do so in autumn. Select sturdy seedlings, lift them with plenty of soil around the roots, remove old and damaged leaves, and trim the roots to leave about 10 cm. Let the roots spread out and plant them into the potting soil. The planting depth should follow the principle of not exposing the roots and not burying the crown. Firm the soil to fix the seedling in place, keeping the soil surface 3-4 cm below the rim of the pot. After planting, water thoroughly, place in a shady spot for 3-5 days, then move to a spot with plenty of light.

3. Fertilizer and water management

Everbearing strawberries bloom and fruit many times a year, consuming a lot of nutrients, so nutrient supplementation must be strengthened. You can use animal hooves, fish bones, poultry innards, soybean cakes and the like, add water and let them decompose and ferment, then brew them into liquid fertilizer, or apply a compound fertilizer as a top dressing. Generally, apply fertilizer once a week. For outdoor pot growing, water once each morning and evening. When watering, let the water warm up in the sun first; never water directly with well water or tap water.

4. Plant management

Potted strawberries should be managed carefully as plants. First, thin buds, remove leaves and remove runners at the right time. That is, remove an appropriate amount of ineffective high-order flowers during the bud dispersal stage. Remove old leaves, damaged leaves, diseased leaves and excess runners to reduce nutrient consumption and improve fruit quality. Second, build supports for the fruit. That is, use wire or bamboo skewers to make fruit supports of different shapes, place them in the pot and prop up the fruit clusters, prompting the clusters to get good ventilation and light, so the fruit colors evenly, soil contamination of the fruit is prevented, and disease and pest damage is reduced. At the same time, runners can also be used for artistic shaping to increase ornamental value. Third, use corresponding integrated control measures to prevent and control pests and diseases.

5. Repotting

After potted strawberries have fruited for 2 years, you should repot them or change the potting soil after fruiting. When repotting, first take the plant out of the pot, cut off aged roots, dead roots and the lower aged rhizomes, then plant it into fresh potting soil.

6. Temperature and humidity

Generally, potted strawberries require a temperature of 20-25°C, and in winter the room temperature should be kept above 15°C. The pot should be placed in a ventilated, sunny spot, and the potting soil should be kept moist at all times.

II. When is the best time to plant potted strawberries?

In fact, strawberry seeds do not have a very obvious dormant period; generally, if planted at a suitable time, they will all germinate. However, because the climate and environmental conditions differ from region to region, the specific planting time still varies.

Generally speaking, the main factor affecting strawberry planting is temperature; as the region changes, from south to north the temperature gets lower and lower, and the sowing time also gets earlier and earlier. The suitable sowing time for strawberries is concentrated between August and October. According to the strawberry's growth cycle, starting in January of the following year, you can gradually begin picking strawberries.

However, if you are growing strawberries in pots at home, the sowing time is actually fairly flexible. This is because growing strawberries in pots at home is only meant to meet your own needs, and the growing environment is relatively easy to control, so as long as you can create an environment suitable for strawberry growth, you can sow at will.

Basically, once you know the key points of sowing strawberries, when sowing you should try to follow the times above, as that will be more suitable for strawberry growth.

III. What should you do if potted strawberries don't bloom?

If strawberries fail to bloom during our care, in most cases it is because of our own care practices.

1. Variety issues

If strawberries fail to bloom, first of all we should understand their variety, because different varieties of plants bloom differently, and failure to bloom may also be because the growing time is not long enough.

2. Plenty of sunlight

The strawberry plant is fairly shade-tolerant, but if we want it to grow and bloom better, it must get plenty of light. Generally, during care we can let it receive full sun or short-day conditions, as only this can effectively help promote flower bud differentiation.

3. A temperature suitable for its growth

If you want strawberries to produce flowers, inadequate temperature management also won't do. Generally, during care we keep the temperature below 20°C, because this lets flower buds differentiate faster; by contrast, too high a temperature is unfavorable for blooming.

4. Water appropriately

Whether we water too much or too little, it will affect blooming, because too much water leads to waterlogging and root rot, while too little water leads to a shortage of water, so during care we must ensure the potting soil stays in a moist state.

5. Fertilize it reasonably

Plants need a large amount of nutrients to bloom and fruit, but because the nutrients in our pots are limited, at this point we need to supplement nutrients through fertilizing. Before strawberries bloom, we can increase the amount of phosphorus and potassium fertilizer used, which can more effectively promote flower bud differentiation.

6. Remove leaves to promote blooming

During our regular care, we need to remove some of its leaves, which can more effectively induce blooming; especially removing old leaves before it blooms is very helpful for blooming.