Grow strawberries in AeroGarden-The strawberries from the AeroGarden taste great. When they are fresh, sweet and juicy.
Strawberries can be grown in an AeroGarden at any time of year because they are not affected by the weather outside.
One of my favorite plants to grow in an AeroGarden is strawberry. You can enjoy the taste of summer all year long.
Let’s talk about the three things you need to do to grow AeroGarden strawberries.
Table of Contents
How to Grow Strawberries in AeroGarden
Choose strawberries and plant them.
Strawberries take a little more work than most other crops to grow in an AeroGarden. There are no ready-made Aerogarden fruit pods, so you can’t grow strawberries in an AeroGarden from seeds. You have to make them yourself.
It can take two to three years for strawberry plants grown from seeds to be ready to bear fruit. But if you put in some time and work, you can still get great results from your AeroGarden. By putting strawberry crowns in Grow Anything pods and planting them.
To grow strawberry plants in your AeroGarden, you will need the following:
- Grow Anything Seed Pod Kits.
- Strawberry “crowns”
- AeroGarden Indoor Garden Kits
Strawberry crowns are not sold directly by Aerogarden, but they can be bought at garden centers or online.
On the AeroGarden website, you can find many different seed pod options for growing fruits and vegetables. You can also make your own package of 6, 9, or more seed pods.
Now that you have everything you need to grow strawberries in your Aerogarden, let’s take a look at how to plant them.
Putting in a Strawberry Plant
If you have used your Aerogarden before and want to grow a new plant, you will need to clean it before you start. This gets rid of any pathogens in the roots that could hurt your crop.
To clean the AeroGarden, just follow the steps below.
Fill the reservoir with fresh water and either 1/4 cup (0.95 liter) of chlorine bleach or 5 cups (1.18 liter) of white vinegar.
For at least 5 minutes, use an air pump to move this mixture through the Aerogarden system.
Then, clean the water reservoir and fill it with cool, fresh water. Run the water through the system for 5 more minutes.
Take the water tank away.
The nutrient timer needs to be turned back on.
You have everything you need to grow strawberries.
Since you’re growing strawberries from crowns instead of seeds, you don’t need to use the grow sponges that come with the Grow Anything pods unless the roots are very small. Most of the time, you can throw away or save the grow sponge for another time.
Follow the steps below to learn how to plant strawberries in an AeroGarden grow basket.
Get the strawberry crowns out.
Since these are usually clumped together in dirt, carefully separate the crowns and get rid of as much of the dirt as you can.
The best way to get rid of this is with clean water at room temperature.
Tap water at room temperature or distilled water can be used to fill the water tank up to the “Fill to Here” line.
Mineral or softened water should not be used because it can slow or even stop plant growth.
Take out the grow sponge and gently feed the strawberry roots through the plastic grow basket. The top of the sponge or basket should be higher than the top of the plant’s head. Most of the time, the sponges won’t be able to get to the plant’s roots.
If the roots are small, you need to make a grow sponge. Use scissors to cut a wet grow sponge in half. If the roots are longer, cut the sponge a little lower to fit the length of the roots. Then, carefully put the roots into the sponge.
Put the grow baskets, with or without the sponge, into the AeroGarden’s grow deck’s seed pod slots.
Before you use a sponge, run it through the label on the grow basket.
Add the liquid plant food to your AeroGarden to give the plants food. Follow the directions on the bottle to put the right amount of nutrient liquid in the AeroGarden.
It’s important not to overfeed or underfeed plants at any stage of their growth, but it’s especially important at this stage. Too much or too little food can affect how the roots grow.
Reduce the grow light on the AeroGarden so that it is 2 to 4 inches (5.08 to 10.16 cm) above the top of the plants. Adjust the height of the grow light so that this distance stays the same throughout the entire growth cycle for the best growth.
How to Plant and Care for Strawberry
Let’s talk about how to grow and take care of your strawberry plants after you’ve planted the crowns. If you take good care of your plants, they could start making fruit in less than a month.
It is very important to make sure that the AeroGarden system has enough liquid plant food and water.
Some tips include not refilling the container until the water level is dangerously low. Clean, fresh water is good for plants. Fill it up often to keep the water with nutrients at the right level.
As was already said, adding nutrients to the grow bowl is also very important. You have to use exactly what is written on the bottle. This should be done every two weeks, and the AeroGarden’s Nutrient timer should let you know when it’s time to add nutrients.
Since you’ll be adding liquid nutrients often, 1 liter of Liquid Plant Food can feed your AeroGarden more than 100 times.
Liquid Nutrients for AeroGarden (1 Liter)
A pH buffering system is in liquid plant food so that plants can grow quickly and consistently. It works great for indoor plants and all kinds of hydroponic gardening.
When you grow plants indoors with an AeroGarden growing system, the plants get reminders to water and eat.
Plant fertilizer is immediately available to plants and makes it easier for them to absorb micronutrients.
One liter of plant food keeps for a long time and can be used to feed more than 100 AeroGardens.
Aside from keeping an eye on the water and nutrient levels, the following things can affect the quality of your plants:
Strawberry Plants Need Lights to Grow
It is important to give your plants as much light as possible. Keep the light about 2 to 4 inches from the crown of the plant.
If you have taller plants, you might want to do some light pruning to make sure that all of the plants get the same amount of light. Because it is too hot, leaves that are too close to the lights or touch them will quickly die.
Temperature for the Strawberry’s Growth
Always use fresh tap water or distilled water that is at room temperature.
Strawberries can live in temperatures as low as 22 °F (-5.56 °C). The temperature should always be between 60 °F (15.56 °C) and 80 °F (26.67 °C). Since they are grown inside, frost damage is unlikely, but if it does happen, the plants will probably die.
If the leaves are dry, it means that the environment is not good for growth. If the leaves are dry, check the temperature, the amount of light, and the amount of water. Make sure to take the right precautions and change the levels.
Strawberries Pruning
Strawberry plants don’t need much care or cutting back. Most of the time, you should leave all of the healthy leaves alone and only take off the ones that are turning brown or have died completely. Taking the leaves off the grow surface also keeps mold from growing.
The only other time you might need to cut back leaves is if one plant is much bigger than the rest. If you don’t prune, you might be blocking a lot of light. In this case, you should cut these back as little as possible so that the light can reach all parts of the grow deck.
Pollination of Strawberry
In contrast to strawberry plants that grow outside, you will have to hand-pollinate your indoor strawberry plants by moving across the strawberry flowers. Strawberry plants can make their own pollen, which is a good thing. Helping the process along, on the other hand, leads to bigger harvests of tasty strawberries.
As soon as you see flowers on the plants, use a soft paintbrush or a make-up brush to pollinate them. The petals on the outside of the flower are the male part, and the center is the female part.
The process of pollination is simple. Before you brush the plant, give the male and female parts of the flower a light brush. AeroGarden also has a useful tool for pollination that is made for the job.
Rinse and fill up your AeroGarden system once a month. Every other feed, empty the water tank completely and fill it back up with fresh water and food.
This keeps the roots healthy and prevents the plant from getting too much food because of leftover nutrients. That’s the extra food that the roots weren’t able to take in before.
The Strawberry Picking
During the growing time, you can pick strawberries from your indoor garden in as little as a month.
If you take good care of the previously mentioned “everbearing” strawberry plant, you’ll get a second harvest.
Follow the steps below to make sure you pick your strawberries in the healthiest way possible, without putting stress on the plant.
When berries are fully ripe is the best time to pick them.
Try not to pick too often; if you can, wait at least three days between pickings.
Instead of pulling the berries off the stem, you can cut them off with gardening shears or scissors.
Depending on the type of strawberry, the harvest can last up to three weeks.
The great thing about the AeroGarden system is that you can always pick fresh fruit. One of the best things about AeroGarden systems is that the food is fresh from the plant to the plate. But if you need to save some fruit for later, I have some ideas for how to do that below.
Last Thoughts
To get a good crop of fresh strawberries, you have to put in a little more work. No matter where or how strawberries are grown, this work is needed.
AeroGarden systems can be grown in an indoor hydroponic system, which shows how flexible they are.
Once the strawberries are planted, the process is the same as with any other AeroGarden grow system.
Before you buy strawberry crowns for your system, you should learn more about them. Choose everbearing plants if you want to keep growing after the first fruit crop.
Fresh strawberries will be enjoyed by everyone in the family. With a little care, your AeroGarden can give you a lot of food in just a few weeks. It lets you eat fresh berries for up to three months after picking them.
