This helps prevent any diseases or pests from infesting your plants.
Preparing the Hydroponic System : Before planting your strawberries, it’s crucial to properly set up and sanitize your hydroponic system. Day-neutral strawberries, such as the ‘Albion’ and ‘Seascape’, are often the best choices due to their ability to produce fruit throughout the growing season. Choosing the Right Strawberry Variety: Not all strawberry varieties are suited for hydroponic cultivation. This method is favored for strawberry cultivation as it acts as a reverse trellis, providing excellent oxygenation and nutrient delivery to the root zone. Due to gravity, the nutrient solution flows down the slope, directly reaching the root system. Choosing the Hydroponic System: NFT – The Nutrient Film Technique (NFT) is a type of hydroponic system where a thin film of nutrient solution is recirculated over the roots of the plants placed in a sloping trough, channel, or tube. Your strawberries will need around 10-12 hours of light per day for optimal growth. Consider using full-spectrum LED lights, which provide the range of light wavelengths necessary for plant growth, are energy-efficient, and do not generate much heat. Depending on your setup, you may need to use artificial light sources. In your indoor hydroponic system, ensure you provide ample light for your strawberry plants. They also need to select the right strawberry variety for their lighting conditions. Therefore, growers must strike a balance between light intensity, yield, and cost. The study concluded that using a higher light intensity led to an increase in yield, but it also led to higher electricity expenses. This finding highlights the potential for optimizing growth conditions and improving yields in hydroponic strawberry cultivation by adjusting light intensity. Specifically, the ripening process took an average of 41 days at a light intensity of 150 W/m2, in contrast to a slightly extended period under a light intensity of 100 W/m2.įurthermore, strawberry plants yielded more flowers and fruits under a higher light intensity, underscoring a positive correlation between light intensity and strawberry productivity. It was further observed that strawberries reached maturity around 5% faster under higher light intensity. Recent research demonstrated that the period from flowering to pollination in strawberries typically spanned 1-2 days. As per a study conducted in Iceland on winter strawberry production, light intensity significantly influences the yield and ripening time of strawberries. Strawberries need adequate light to photosynthesize and produce high-quality fruits. The research concludes that maintaining an EC value of around 1.0 ms/cm is key to ensuring robust root development and maximized yield without negatively impacting the sweetness of the strawberries. So, while an EC level of 2.0 ms/cm may seem more nutrient-rich, it is not optimal for indoor hydroponic strawberry growth. Despite the increased nutrient concentration, the soluble solids content - which includes sugar and other soluble substances - remained consistent across all treatments. Interestingly, this higher EC level didn’t lead to sweeter strawberries. This had a knock-on effect on fruit yield, which was significantly lower compared to when strawberries were grown under lower EC values. You might think that increasing the nutrient concentration, thereby raising the EC to 2.0 ms/cm, would boost growth, but contrary to this expectation, the results indicated a negative impact.Īt an EC of 2.0 ms/cm, the root dry weight was notably lighter, signifying less robust root development. The research found that the most favorable EC for strawberry growth was precisely 1.0 ms/cm. 
Studies have shed light on how varying EC levels can impact strawberry growth, particularly in terms of root dry weight and fruit yield. Understanding and managing this factor is crucial because an excessive EC value can cause nutrient burn in strawberries, which affects their growth and overall yield.
Electrical Conductivity (EC) is an essential metric in hydroponics that indicates the concentration of dissolved salts or nutrients in your water solution.
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