Strawberries in open ground and in the greenhouse.

Strawberry business. Secrets of success.

Growing strawberries is one of the interesting and fairly profitable types of agricultural activity. We all love her and eat with pleasure. This product is constantly in high demand from buyers all year round. Wonderful taste and aroma, rich in vitamins, attractive appearance, all this makes strawberry one of the most attractive products on the market and guarantees stable demand for it at any time of the year.
The variety of varieties, appearance, the color of berries, shape, size, provides additional marketing advantages for these delicious berries. Many farmers have the desire to grow this crop, but it is not so easy to start industrial production of strawberries. Traditional strawberry cultivation technologies are very laborious and complex, and therefore unprofitable. Regular bed - this is not the best option, despite the apparent simplicity.
The existing serious market potential forced scientists, agronomists, and equipment manufacturers to look for new ways and progressive technological solutions to reduce labor intensity, increase yields, and obtain a higher-quality product.

In recent years, this favorite people berry appears on sale almost throughout the year. How to organize the production of these berries so that it is profitable and gives the products of the quality required in the market? What else is needed to organize a successful strawberry business? How to create a successful farm in this industry? Let's try to deal with the task and try to solve it.

To create an effective strawberry industry, it is necessary to take into account additional requirements for the industrial cultivation of strawberries, which include:

 High yield
A high percentage of output
 Good marketability and long shelf life prior to sale and on counters
Fruits must be dry and clean during harvesting and packaging
The harvesting process must be easy, productive, and not laborious
 Independent growing process from climatic and weather conditions

Recently, the main technological and agrotechnical trends in the strawberry industry have been determined:

Open ground - high ridges, drip irrigation, mulch film.
Indoor ground - light film covers, high ridges, drip irrigation, mulch film, cultivation on the soil.
 Indoor ground - film greenhouses, high ridges, drip irrigation, mulch film, growing on the substrate by hydroponic technology.
 Indoor soil - growing on a substrate by hydroponic technology in low-volume containers for the substrate.
Indoor soil - film, glass, or polycarbonate greenhouses for year-round cultivation on the substrate by hydroponic technology in low-volume containers with the substrate.

All these technologies were developed and implemented to achieve the goals we wrote about above. The efficient industrial production of strawberries today is based on these technologies. Much of the described technologies were developed in different countries of the world, but one of the leading leaders in the industry in Israel. All the necessary equipment is made in Israel for local farmers and for export. Our company supplies all types of equipment necessary for the industrial production of strawberries to different countries and we also help our clients to organize and organize production and make it profitable.

Our pride is the fertigation systems we produce (mortar units) for open and closed ground, of various capacities from 1 to 100 cubic meters per hour, with high performance and affordable prices.

Open ground, high beds.

High ridges allow you to create more comfortable conditions for plants for development and harvest.
The soil on such ridges heats up faster, therefore it is possible to get an earlier harvest, which increases the profitability of the farm and increases profits.

Drip irrigation is a required component of technology. It allows you to maintain soil moisture at an optimal level throughout the growing season, save water, and ultimately, while reducing irrigation costs, get the maximum yield of berries.
High ridges are of two types: double-row, 80-90 centimeters wide, and four-row wide, about one and a half meters wide. In the first case, one irrigation line fits on one ridge, in the second two lines. Drip tubes are placed between two rows of plants.

Mulch film. Film mulch allows you to solve several problems:
--- Repeatedly alleviate weed control, eliminate permanent manual and mechanized welding, and eliminate the use of herbicides, which not only reduces the cost of production but also allows you to grow more environmentally friendly products.
--- Initially, the usual black mulch film was used, but it had some drawbacks, the main one of which was a strong overheating of the soil, which created a stressful situation for the root system of strawberries and sometimes, some plants died because of high summer temperatures.
Currently, a two-layer color film of several varieties is used black below and white above, black below and silver above, brown below and silver above. Such a mulch film reduces the temperature of the soil in the root zone and prevents overheating, and due to the white or silver color of the upper surface, increases the illumination of plants, which has a positive effect on the yield and quality of fruits.

The use of a mulch film also reduces irrigation water consumption, due to the fact that water does not evaporate from the soil surface. Saving water when using a mulch film compared to growing without mulch is from 20 to 30%.
The mulch film retains the soil structure and favors good aeration of the roots.

To ensure the nutrition and normal development of plants, the technology of growing strawberries on high ridges involves the use of fertigation systems (mortar nodes for fertilizers), which provide a constant, dosed supply of fertilizers and optimal supply of plants with nutrients during all periods of their growth and development.

Hydroponics for strawberries.

When growing strawberries in greenhouses, low-volume hydroponic technology is used. Strawberries are grown in special containers filled with coconut substrate.
Hydroponic systems have automatic control of the composition of the nutrient solution and the possibility of its adjustment.

Plants are placed in polypropylene containers, which are installed in a plastic drain chute special design. The containers are filled with a neutral substrate, into which water is supplied, containing all the necessary nutrients in dissolved and strictly metered form for plant nutrition.
The system is equipped with all the necessary equipment for preparing a nutrient solution and adjusting the composition of irrigation water. To do this, use the unit of fertigation (mortar unit) and the system of control and automation.
It is possible to grow strawberries in industrial volumes for a year-round supply of products to the market in hydroponic greenhouses equipped with automatic maintenance and microclimate control system. Climate control system.
The projects that we carry out are equipped with everything necessary, including an automation system that supports all the specified parameters for growing plants in automatic mode.
By adjusting the growing conditions, it is possible to adjust the ripening time and other parameters related to production.

The technology of growing strawberries using low-volume hydroponics includes:

• A set of specialized equipment for greenhouses.
• Binding of the project to specific conditions and terrain.
• Optimal selection of varieties and agrotechnical.
• Setting up and debugging the technological mode of the process of growing strawberries.
• Development and implementation of organizational, management, and marketing activities, business optimization.

For all questions related to equipment, projects, and technologies, please contact our design service.

Cleaning and sale

Applied technologies allow obtaining a high yield and berries of very high quality, excellent presentation. For the export of strawberries, when the transportation of products from the place of cultivation to the consumer has a rather long period of time, specially bred varieties of strawberries with dense, well-transported, and shelf-bearing berries are used.

The main costs and difficulties in the industrial cultivation of strawberries are associated with its harvesting.
Pr cultivated in the open field, on high ridges, the harvesting process is slightly facilitated by the fact that harvest workers have to bend down to a lower height, which to a small extent still increases labor productivity and reduces fatigue, but is not a fundamental solution to the problem.
If we grow strawberries in the greenhouse, where the trays and containers with plants are located at a height, then the process of harvesting is changing dramatically!
Pickers do not need to stop. They work standing up and the productivity of each worker increases significantly. The gutters with plants are placed at a convenient height for work, and workers can move freely under them during the berries picking, which reduces worker fatigue and dramatically increases labor productivity.

About technology. Growing strawberries using hydroponics.

Source:
HYDROPONIC CULTURE OF STRAWBERRIES IN PERLITE
by DK Linardakis and BI Manios
Institute of Vine, Horticulture & Floriculture Heraklion, Crete

A series of experiments were conducted on the farm of the Katsambas Institute (USA), which allowed the use of horticultural perlite as a substrate for the cultivation of strawberries using the hydroponics method. The experiments were carried out in a greenhouse covered with plastic wrap. A vertical system was used, and four strawberry varieties were tested: Brighton, Douglas, Tioga, and Tuft

System

The system consisted of polyethylene containers of 3.3 liters each. The containers were stacked diagonally on each other, and a column of containers was obtained. A plastic tube 12 mm in diameter was passed through the containers, which was attached to the horizontal roof structures of the greenhouse. Each column consisted of six tiers of containers, and in the corner of each container, a compartment for four plants was formed. Thus, in one column housed 24 plants.

Irrigation and Fertigation

A drip irrigation system was used to provide nutrients and moisture. Droppers were inserted into the 1st, 3rd, and 5th tier of containers, starting from the top. The nutrient was collected at the base of each column and returned to the system. Meals were served 2-4 times a day, depending on weather conditions. The concentration of the elements in the composition of the nutrient solution is given in the following table.
Variety Brighton was the most productive.

      Harvest strawberries going for 5 months. The earliest harvest was obtained from the Brighton variety. The largest was also obtained from the Brighton variety. The following varieties are arranged in decreasing yields: Douglas, Tuft, and Tioga. The productivity for each of the varieties is given in the following table.

The above data confirm the effectiveness of strawberry cultivation in hydroponics. The results of Israeli farmers are not inferior, and sometimes surpass in yield data obtained in the American University and are shown in the table.
Despite the seeming attractiveness of this method of cultivation, it was not widespread due to the rather complex equipment, its high cost, difficulty in operation and maintenance.
The real yield in terms of square meter also did not give the expected results.

In any case, you need to take care of guaranteed water supply and plant nutrition. In the open ground, temporary film shells are very effective, allowing you to achieve early harvest and protect plants from the cold. A film is used as a cover. In practice, low film tunnel covers are often used on which the film can be opened during the day and closed at night.

The most effective way to grow strawberries

The most effective was the technology developed in Israel, using low-volume hydroponic technology and containers on the suspension. This technology is leading and is used in many industrial greenhouses in different countries of the world as the most productive.

Stable yield in the greenhouses of this design is from 9 to 11 kilograms per square meter. Ease of operation, reliability of equipment, ease of harvesting, and low labor costs have ensured the widespread popularity of this technology throughout the world. It is readily used by the Dutch, it received a great development in China, which is currently considered the main producer of strawberries in the world market in terms of production.