I’ve been growing everbearing strawberries hydroponically since september with lights on 24/7. 3 weeks ago i started to turn the lights off according to its needs (15 hours on and 9 hours off). Should I expect my strawberries to flower some day or they are wasted?
Strawberry flowering
- Thread starter Mojave_cat
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Greetings, welcome to the Forums.
Tell us more. How were the Strawberries growing under 24.7 light? Are you reducing the light now to 15 hours in order to induce flowering? Which cultivar(s) of strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa) are you growing. Are they everbearing or June-bearing?
Tell us more. How were the Strawberries growing under 24.7 light? Are you reducing the light now to 15 hours in order to induce flowering? Which cultivar(s) of strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa) are you growing. Are they everbearing or June-bearing?
They have been growing under 18 DLI artificial light since september for 24 hours a day. In other words - light without turning off for 3.5 months. Yes I am reducinig it to 15 hours to induce flowering. My cultivar is everbearing fragaria x ananassa
Why did you choose 15 hours of light to induce flowering?
Because my cultuvar is LDP and this number was in instruction from the store I bought my strawberries in
Do you know the name of the cultivar or were you just told it was LDP?
All I know is that It is fragaria x ananassa so basically yes, I was told
Long day plants (really short night plants) will bloom as nights grow shorter, but the exact timing in hours of darkness and weeks of short nights required to initiate flowering will vary.
Strawberries (Fragaria x ananassa) are usually classified as short day or day neutral. I would go back to who sold you the plants and told you your protocol and ask for more guidance and also the exact identity of the cultivar you are growing.
Growing plants under 24/7 light can be stressful on them. However some crops and growth protocols report success. Usually these are vegetative crops or whole plant crops rather than flowering or fruiting crops. If you want to try growing strawberries under 24 hour light I would suggest using a day neutral cultivar.
Remember that strawberries are temperate plants. It might be good to grow them under a light regiment that follows temperate seasonal light changes. A long day (short night) plant will normally experience long days as increasing day length in late Spring, not as a sudden reduction fro m 24 hour light.
Strawberries (Fragaria x ananassa) are usually classified as short day or day neutral. I would go back to who sold you the plants and told you your protocol and ask for more guidance and also the exact identity of the cultivar you are growing.
Growing plants under 24/7 light can be stressful on them. However some crops and growth protocols report success. Usually these are vegetative crops or whole plant crops rather than flowering or fruiting crops. If you want to try growing strawberries under 24 hour light I would suggest using a day neutral cultivar.
Remember that strawberries are temperate plants. It might be good to grow them under a light regiment that follows temperate seasonal light changes. A long day (short night) plant will normally experience long days as increasing day length in late Spring, not as a sudden reduction fro m 24 hour light.
I tried to ask if strawberries can recover from 24/7 light and flower some day or they will never flower at all? If they can should I increase day lenght from a certain lenght or carry on with 15/9 and wait
You don't seem to even know what cultivar you're growing. Until you determine what a plant is precisely, you won't be able to accurately determine its needs. I already suggested that you try to grow the strawberry with natural temperate seasonal light variation. If you do that, at some point in the cycle the plants might flower.
Right now you are growing the plants with light that they would only find in midsummer at high latitudes. You could try maintaining that, or you could begin decreasing the light and creating an artificial Autumn, since you are doing this completely opposite to the seasons in the Northern Hemisphere. Do these plants also receive natural might as well as artificial light?
Right now you are growing the plants with light that they would only find in midsummer at high latitudes. You could try maintaining that, or you could begin decreasing the light and creating an artificial Autumn, since you are doing this completely opposite to the seasons in the Northern Hemisphere. Do these plants also receive natural might as well as artificial light?
Only artificial light
Then I suppose you could try to make it any season you want, though it still might be easier to follow the day length that is occurring outside.