How to Grow Strawberries Indoors (Complete Guide)

If you’re looking for an easy and delicious fruit to grow indoors, strawberries are just perfect. These are the best tips on how to grow strawberries indoors, regardless of whether you’re buying seeds or growing them from seed.

Strawberry cake is the ultimate way to celebrate summer! Freshly picked strawberries are delicious and can be used in various ways. You can bake with them, make jam from them, freeze them or simply eat them right off the vine.

The annual production gap for strawberries is a problem crop. Restaurants and grocery stores often have a hard time finding enough good-quality strawberries in November, December, and January (or June and July, and August if they live in Australia or New Zealand).

Strawberries grown indoors need at least 6 hours of direct sunlight or 12 hours with an LED plant light. You can either start plants from strawberry seeds or buy potted plants. Combine a mixture of coconut/peat moss with perlite. If each strawberry flower is not pollinated manually, indoor pollination is often ineffective.

Strawberry recipes can be more delicious than store-bought. A sweet, juicy homemade snack right from your window is the best.

It is possible to grow summer strawberries even if you don’t have much space. This is what you need to know to grow strawberries indoors and outdoors.

How to Grow Strawberries Indoors

1. Get supplies for growing strawberries indoors

You have two options when it comes to acquiring supplies for your indoor strawberry farm: either purchase a ready-made kit or you can buy supplies individually. Kits are usually only available with strawberry seeds (not cultivated plants). For strawberry plants with leaves or flowers, the stock must be purchased separately. But you’ll get strawberries much sooner! ).

These garden sets are for strawberries and include a list with stocks that can be collected separately.

Sets of indoor gardens for strawberry cultivation

Buy strawberry plants or seeds for indoor growing

• Strawberry seeds
• Strawberry Plants

Baby strawberry plants packed with “bare roots” can be easily grown.

The quickest time to harvest strawberry seeds from a potted plant is when they are ready for use.

Indoor strawberry grow stocks.

• Organic soil for pots: organic soil purchased in the store for starting seeds
• Container for strawberry plants
• Pure water: Filtered water or non-chlorinated
• Watering can (or glass, pyrex wet measure, sauce boat, etc.)
• The sun! This compact LED lamp is great for growing strawberries indoors. Growing strawberries indoors is easier with more light.
• Brush. You can use a makeup brush, paintbrush, cotton swab, or even a camera lens brush
  

2. Place Strawberry Plants in the Container

• Pre-plant seeds or freeze them for up to a month. This trick will fool the seed into believing it has been through winter. Make sure to follow the instructions on your package for freezing. You may not need to freeze fresh strawberry seeds that have been taken from a ripe strawberry.
• The potting soil should be added to the pot. Finally, moisten the soil with filtered water. You should add enough water to compact the soil but not enough to make it mud.
• After thawing the seeds lightly, you can plant them in room-temperature soil. They will think it’s spring because of your clever freeze trick. Hey! When growing strawberries indoors, be sure to follow the instructions on the seed packet. You should not plant smaller seeds higher than recommended. Sometimes it is easier to simply place the seed on top and then dust the seeds with some soil.
• Water the seeds after they have been planted. Water the soil lightly, but not so much that it becomes too dry. Light watering is necessary for strawberry plants.
• Place the container of seeds in an area that gets at least 6 hours of sunshine daily.
• If the soil is dry, water the seeds every 2 or 3 days. It is important to water the seeds regularly during the process of germinating and the first germination. The best conditions for seed germination are created when the soil is kept moist and warm.

NOTE: If something goes wrong, such as your baby seedlings drying up and dying, you can always start again with fresh seeds. You can order some strawberry seedlings with bare root or get some potted strawberry seedlings. There is nothing to be afraid of.

Pin

Strawberry seedlings or cut runners will produce fruit faster than seeds. For strawberry plants grown from seeds, it takes between 5-6 weeks to bloom. Strawberry plants grown from cut runners or seedlings can take up to 6 months.

3. Take care of strawberry plants that have been established and are indoors.

• When the plants are mature, reduce watering. Cultivated strawberry plants are fond of water but don’t like soil that is soaked in water. After the plant has been established, it is a good idea to let it dry out for at least a few days before watering again.
• Use a cotton swab or a brush to pollinate each flower. Mix the pollen starting from the outer ring in the center of each flower until it reaches the center. This will combine the outer male and inner female parts of the flower. You can rub the flowers together to transfer pollen from the male to female parts of the flower center.
• Any paths that are escaping from your container should be cut or replanted. The plant won’t produce any runners if it is an alpine variety.
• Harvest the berries when they turn a bright red color. Enjoy all the hard work you put into growing strawberries indoors.
• Regularly fertilize your plants with high-quality organic fertilizer.

Share the image below to your Pinterest board if you find these tips on how to grow strawberries indoors helpful!

Pin

Growing Strawberries Indoors: Tips

Strawberries grown in open areas have full access to sunlight, natural humidity, and insect pollination. To ensure a healthy strawberry crop, bees can’t reach your houseplants, so you must pollinate them yourself.

You can find a sunny window sill with direct sunlight for at least 4-6 hours. Make sure you water the plants when they dry. Strawberry planters are lighter than normal.

How Much Sunlight Strawberries Need Indoors?

Indoor strawberries thrive with at least 6 hours of direct sun and 12 hours of artificial lighting per day. Six hours of sunlight is sometimes possible for indoor plants with high sun exposure.

However, it might be difficult to get this much light during winters and with less than ideal lighting conditions. You can provide artificial light, such as an LED compact light, if you don’t have a sunny window to grow strawberry plants.

A fluorescent tube or compact LED light is sufficient to grow healthy strawberry plants indoors. Many home strawberry growers prefer to have the light on for 12 hours (day), and off for 12 (night). Many plant lights have circuit breakers and timers built-in.

Pin

What is the average time it takes to grow strawberries indoors?

The ripeness of indoor strawberries grown from seeds is usually between 5-6 months after germinating. Buy strawberry seedlings for faster results.

The seedlings might already be ripe or have flowers when you purchase them (see image below). Although it takes about 4-6 weeks for flowers to mature, berries that have already begun growing may be ready in a few days. Growing strawberries indoors from seedlings purchased can be done in a few days if you choose the right plant.

How much water do strawberries need?

Although strawberry plants don’t require much water, they appreciate being tended to from time to time. Although they don’t like being soaked in soil, established indoor strawberries do not need to be watered as often. After the strawberry plant has been established, it is a good idea to let it dry out for at least a few days before watering again. The plant should not be kept too moist.

When is it best to fertilize strawberries in pots?

Healthy strawberries indoors require high-quality organic fertilizer. Use light fertilization if you are using generic organic fertilizer. You can apply pre-mixed organic fertilizers according to the directions on the package.

Recommended: Granular organic fertilizer made from berries (indoor/outdoor).

Containers for growing strawberries

Because of their small size and sturdy roots, strawberries make excellent container plants. Container gardens have drainage openings that are similar to those found in indoor strawberry plants. It will not hurt to add a little bit of perlite to the watering solution.

Hydroponic strawberry cultivation

You can grow hydroponic strawberries by using a hydroponic indoor gardener. Hydroponic strawberries can be grown in an inert medium rich in nutrients and fed with a high-nutrient solution. Because I don’t know of any reliable organic hydroponic nutrition solution, I prefer to grow organic strawberries from the potting soil. Learn more about hydroponic strawberry farming.

Conclusion

I hope this article helped you learn how to grow strawberries indoors. I’ve tried to cover everything. However, if you still have any questions on growing strawberries, please let me know in the comments section, and I will reply. Thanks!