Can You Grow Strawberries Indoors?
Ever wondered if you can grow strawberries indoors? Turns out, the answer is yes!
In fact, despite what you may have heard, it's actually fairly easy to grow strawberries inside your home. They’re a hardy plant that grows a lot of runners (depending on the species) that can be cut and planted for new plants.
Here’s what you need to know about growing strawberries inside.
Why grow strawberries inside?
Although you can probably find strawberries throughout much of the year at the grocery store, strawberries are always freshest and taste their best when they're grown locally rather than going through days of shipping.
The problem with that, of course, is that strawberry harvesting season is a relatively short season, lasting only a few weeks in June in much of the Midwest.
But when you grow strawberries indoors, you can control the environment to match what the strawberries need any time of year.
How to grow strawberries indoors
You have two primary options for growing strawberries indoors. You can either start from seeds or start with seedlings that have already sprouted. If you start with seeds, you’re looking at about 5 to 6 months before you can start harvesting strawberries from your plants. With an established seedling, it’s only about 5 to 6 weeks until harvesting.
For the most part, growing strawberries is like any other plant. You’ll want a container with drainage filled with potting soil. You can also add peat moss, coco coir, or perlite to aid with drainage, or purchase a potting soil with these ingredients already included. The soil should cover the roots but not the stem or leaves of the plant.
Here are some good potting soils and soil additions we sell at The Tye-Dyed Iguana:
Bush Doctor Coco Loco Potting Mix
FoxFarm Light Warrior Seed Starter
Happy Frog Potting Soil (for container gardens)
Pollinating indoor strawberries
Strawberry plants grow flowers that require pollination in order to make berries. Outdoors, wind, bees, and other insects help out with this process. However, if you do nothing at all, your strawberry plants will likely still pollinate sufficiently to grow fruit.
If you would like to help the process along and ensure that pollination happens, you can simply use a soft makeup brush or paint brush, or even a toothbrush, to gently brush the pollen from the yellow parts of the flower toward the cone-shaped bud at the flower’s center.
Doing this maximizes the number of berries that mature and creates better, healthier berries.
Can you grow strawberries hydroponically?
You do not have to grow indoor strawberries in potting soil. They do very well in hydroponic growing mediums as long as you provide the plants with plenty of water.
Talk to the friendly team at The Tye-Dyed Iguana in Fairview Heights for tips on indoor growing and hydroponics.