Sunday, April 5, 2009

Seascape strawberries

The seascape strawberries that I yanked from their winter's nap on March 7th. are not only flowering, but also setting berries . If they follow the same pattern as last year, they will send out runners while flowering.

Instead of growing them in an ebb and flow system, I decided to plant them in pots using coco coir and perlite for a medium. As I think about it; this is as valid approach to hydroponic gardening as any other. The medium is completely inert, and the only nutrients they will receive will be the nutrients I either drip through, or provide by bottom watering.

To give them an extra boost I used a general purpose nutrient solution to soak the coco coir, and also when I mixed in the perlite. This approach has also proven to be quite successful in raising flowers to be planted around the yard. We usually make a trip to the local greenhouse each year and spend about fifty dollars on plants. That will not be happening this year though.

Searching online for the best strawberries to grow hydroponically last year I found several growers writing that the only berry to even consider was quinault. I could not find the quinault, and settled on the seascape as an alternative. Later I did manage to find a quinault plant and grew them along with the seascapes.

I found the seascape to be a much easier plant to grow, and they produced larger, sweeter berries, and were much more prolific than the quinault.

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