Ask Erik

Eric,
Sounds like things are progressing along well on your new endeavor; very excellent to hear! Admittedly, strawberries are not my strongest area of expertise although I am pleased to offer the following advice:

I think that with cultivating the ever-bearing varieties indoors you won’t need to concern yourself so much with the notion of seasons. I suspect that the ever-bearing varieties begin to build-up flowering and fruiting co-factors as they begin their life cycle. Once the flowering and fruiting hormones inside the plant reach the critical level, they begin to flower and produce fruit.

However, with that said, you can influence the rate of development and fruit qualities by manipulating the growing environment. For example, cooler day/night temperatures will likely increase sugar contents in the berries, so once a lot of berries have developed; you could drop the temperatures to sweeten them up before a harvest. After harvesting the fruit, you could encourage more plant growth and production of fruiting sites by increasing temperatures and applying kelp-based products that will stimulate cell division. Although the plant is growing and flowering at the same time, you can manage harvests and growth in “waves.” Experiment with day lengths too. Some auto-flowering varieties of plants produce best with about 20 hours of light and four hours of darkness.

Outdoor growers have a limited season, and want to have as big a fruit load as possible. Indoors you can create the perfect environment year-round, and re-plant as often as you need with fresh starts to maintain a high rate of plant vigor and continued fruit production. Consider modeling a CPS (Continuous Production System), with plantings staggered a few weeks apart. However, when you run a CPS model, you will be maintaining all of the plants in the same environment, losing some of the control you can have with environmental manipulation at different times in the cropping phase. Mind you, it’s possible to keep one corner of the growing area a little cooler than the other with a bit of ingenuity.

In a hydroponics system, they will continue to produce for longer periods, provided that there are no limitations for root growth; giving you more fruits harvested per plant in an extended fruiting phase. Eventually you will want to replace them with fresh starts to keep production levels vigorous. Again, this makes a great case for utilizing the CPS model (as discussed in previous editions of Maximum Yield).
For this one, consult the book I will recommend!

You can search through previous editions of Maximum Yield or www.maximumyield.com for up-to-date articles on hydroponic strawberry production. You can also look for a book called “Hydroponic Strawberry Production,” which should serve as a useful guide for you in your project. Learn the fundamentals, and then don’t be afraid to experiment with a portion of your crop. Experienced growers will find that there are exceptions to some of the “rules” because no two growing situations are exactly the same. However, you will need to have something to compare to first, so building up a solid growing foundation with your crop of choice is an important first step.

Good luck, and please keep us posted with your progress.
Highest Regards, Erik Biksa