Climbing strawberries - hanging strawberries have become a real hit among balcony plants. It is hardly surprising, since throughout the season, from spring to autumn, they are decorated with flowers and delicious strawberry fruits, so liked by most of us. With the onset of autumn and the first cold weather, however, the question arises how to overwinter balcony climbing strawberries? Here are 3 proven ways to overwinter hanging strawberries!
Climbing-overhanging strawberries are becoming more and more popular in balcony cultivation.
The climbing strawberry, also called hanging or hanging, produces long fruiting shoots. These shoots can hang down if the strawberries are planted in a box suspended on a balcony railing or in a hanging pot, or climb up the supports we prepare for them. When these strawberries are blooming and bearing fruit they look great. But, most importantly, these are varieties of strawberries that repeat fruiting, which means that this colorful spectacle lasts throughout the season, and the last fruits can be harvested in the fall, until frost. This explains why growing climbing strawberries on balconies and terraces has become so popular.
Note!These wonderful features of climbing strawberries - hanging, repeated fruiting, however, are also related to the fact that these strawberries are less frost-resistant than ordinary ground strawberries. This is because the varieties of climbing strawberries usually come from countries with a warmer climate. Therefore, these plants require special conditions to survive the winter.We must protect them well against frost, especially protecting their root balls.
Method 1 - winter in the garden
The best way to overwinter climbing strawberries - hanging, planted in pots, is to pave them in the ground. In this way, we can overwinterbalcony strawberriesif we have our own garden. Bury the entire pots with the plants growing in them in the ground, and cover them gently with mulch material from above. It can be leaf, straw or sawdust litter.
Climbing-hanging strawberries can be overwinter by digging pots into the ground.
The entire pot should be under the ground, and on top of
plants are covered with mulch material.
Method 2 - winter indoors
Climbing strawberries - hanginggrowing in pots can also be moved to frost-protected rooms for the winter, but necessarily quite cold, where winter temperatures will be close to 0 ° C.They can be basements or attics, but it is important that the room is bright, with access to light and not damp.
After moving the strawberries to the rooms, gently water them and then throughout the winter we make sure that the soil in the pots is slightly moist (but not wet). Usually, a light watering every two weeks is enough.
In spring, we temper the plants by ventilating the rooms wherebalcony strawberries are storedfirst, then putting the pots of strawberries outside for the day and putting them back overnight. Strawberries may return to balconies and terraces permanently when the risk of night frosts is over, i.e. from the second half of May.
Method 3 - overwinter on the balcony
If we do not have a garden where plants can be pitted in the ground, or a storage room,hanging strawberriescan be successfullyoverwintering on the balconythen place the pots with plants in a suitably large cardboard box.It is good to put polystyrene on the bottom of the carton as an insulating layer. Cover the sides of the pots with crushed polystyrene pieces, sawdust or torn newspapers, so that the entire cardboard box is filled with insulating material. We also cover it from the top, some use additional protection, wrapping the cardboard with agrotextile. It is important that we use breathable materials that allow air and moisture to pass through.
Even a climbing-hanging strawberry growing on a balcony in a frost-resistant
ceramic pot should be protected against frost for winter.
During periods of thaw, uncover the boxes and water the plants lightly. The soil in the pots should be kept slightly moist so that the strawberry roots do not dry out. In this way, we canoverwinter balcony strawberriesuntil spring. When it warms up, we gradually uncover the boxes, initially exposing the plants only for a day to harden them.
Should I prune my strawberries before wintering?
The basic rule is to cut the shoots on which the strawberry has already fructified, because in the following years it will bear fruit abundantly only on new shoots. This can be done in the fall (which will make it much easier to move them to the premises orstoring climbing strawberriesin cardboard boxes) or in spring, when the plants will have to be inspected again and leaves and shoots removed from the cold.
Important!Strawberries should not be stored for more than 2-3 years during the winter, because only young plants bloom and bear fruit abundantly. Older copies should be replaced with new ones.
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