Growing hydroponic strawberries
Clean, pest-free, and at eye level instead of in the mud. Strawberries are the crop that makes a vertical or NFT system pay for itself.
Strawberries suit hydroponics unusually well. Lifting the fruit off the soil removes the slugs, the rot, and the grit, and an NFT channel or vertical tower puts everything at picking height.
| Target | Value |
|---|---|
| First harvest | 8 to 12 weeks from an established crown |
| pH | 5.5 to 6.2 |
| EC | 1.4 to 2.0 mS/cm |
| Temperature | 60 to 75F (15 to 24C) |
| Light | 12 to 16 hours |
| Best systems | NFT, drip, vertical towers |
Pick everbearing, not June-bearing
June-bearing varieties give one heavy crop tied to day length, which is not what you want indoors. Everbearing and day-neutral types such as Albion, Seascape, Tristar and Mara des Bois fruit repeatedly through the year and ignore day length, which suits a controlled environment far better.
Start from crowns, not seed
Pollinate by hand
Indoors there are no bees, and poorly pollinated strawberries come out small and misshapen rather than absent. Brush each open flower gently with a soft paintbrush every day or two, moving from flower to flower.
Runners: cut them or root them
Plants send out long runners with baby plants on the end. Each runner costs the parent energy it would otherwise put into fruit. If you want fruit this season, snip them off. If you want more plants, let two or three root into spare net pots and you have next season’s crop for free.
Need a system to grow it in?
Every plan on this site is free and costs under $50 to build.