Growing strawberries in the greenhouse all year round as a business

Sweet aromatic berry strawberries like children and adults. In the long winter months, people are eagerly awaiting the summer, when it will be possible to enjoy its taste. And why wait so long? You can grow strawberries in the winter in a greenhouse. Moreover, a profitably built business will bring considerable revenues.

What is the benefit of the strawberry business?

So ordered nature that the mass maturation of this tasty and all-time favorite berries falls at the beginning of summer. But, strawberries are grown and sold by many summer residents and farmers, so the competition between them is huge. However, at the end of the season, the berry can not be found. The stores sell frozen strawberries. But it can not be compared with a berry, ripped from a bed.

An enterprising person can start growing strawberries in a greenhouse all year round and will not be disappointed in choosing a business. The main thing is to plant commercial varieties of berries, which will bring profit. For reference: the consumption of strawberries by Russians increases from year to year to fifty percent. This means that growing strawberries in a greenhouse all year round can be a good investment of own funds for the future. Of course, strawberry is a demanding plant. However, with proper care, this crop yields good yields and does not require significant costs.

How to register a business?

If you are convinced that growing strawberries in a greenhouse year-round starts to bring a good income, start registering your business. This business is classified as an individual form of entrepreneurship and has a category of producer of agricultural products. This kind of activity is subject to a single tax, not exceeding more than six percent. To carry out the cultivation of strawberries in the greenhouse all year round as a business, one registration is not enough. It is necessary to stock up several certificates:

• Belonging to a certain class.
• Type of fertilizer with a brief annotation of the composition of the mixture.
• License for the implementation of strawberries.
• Declaration of conformity of the GOST berries with information on the quality of the product and compliance with all required standards.
• Sanitary certificate.

Profitability of berry business

This term means the payback of all costs. This is the ratio between the profit received as a result of product realization and cost. And the profitability of this business depends on the cost of all the funds spent, plus the trade cape. If you for the first time decided to start growing strawberries in a greenhouse all year round, a business plan should be made taking into account all the pros and cons. It is better to contact specialists for help.

The cost price includes all costs: the price of seedlings, fertilizers, payment of salaries to employees for the care of strawberries, rent for the premises and so on. Dutch method of growing berries requires less money, which means that costs will be significantly reduced. If the business is not big enough, you can not hire employees, do it yourself. Due to saving on wages, employees also save money. So, for example, the average cost per kilogram of strawberries in 2012 amounted to one and a half dollars.

You can easily get a significant profit in the period when the berries season ends, if you grow strawberries in a greenhouse year round. The photo presented to your attention, recalls a delicious and fragrant berry, especially in the winter when it is not easy to get strawberries. Therefore, you can put the desired price for the product, and thereby earn a profit.

Implementing Strawberries

The entrepreneur has grown and harvested a good berry harvest, which meets all the requirements. There is a question of its sale. Some do it themselves, having organized several points of sale in advance. But this is not always beneficial. In the winter season, up to eighty percent of strawberries are sold by supermarkets. If you are growing strawberries in a greenhouse year-round as a business, then long before harvesting, look for future customers for your products.

It should be borne in mind that the stores are very high requirements, especially to the appearance of berries: it must be clean, without leaves and twigs, coloring one-dimensional. If you can not realize the strawberries through the store, you can sell it to wholesale processors: the producers of juices, jams and other semi-finished products.

Strawberry growing in bags

How to grow strawberries in a greenhouse all year round in bags. And watering, And lighting and pollination are easier to implement, using Dutch technology. First you need to find and equip a room, the area of which depends on your needs. You can use the balcony if its area allows. A prerequisite is to maintain the temperature regime: in the daytime - twenty-five degrees, at night eighteen. It is necessary to stock up with plastic bags and patience, since it is a troublesome business to grow strawberries in a greenhouse all year round.

In bags of polyethylene, longitudinal holes are made in a staggered order, only four rows. The length of the hole is eight centimeters, and the distance between them is twenty-four. In these holes the planting of young strawberry bushes is carried out. Bags, with a diameter of fifteen centimeters and a height of up to two and a half meters, are put on the floor in one tier. If they are smaller or allows room height, a lot of tier placement is allowed. For a square meter of area, 2-3 bags filled with a substrate of a mixture of peat and perlite are placed.

Sowing seeds directly in bags is inefficient. It is better to buy seedlings or grow it yourself. Before boarding, she must be hibernating. For this use a freezer or a cold cellar. In this matter, the prospect is happy: after the harvest of the first year you will have your own seedlings.

Future planting should be provided with food. For this, an irrigation system should be built. Suitable tubules for droppers, which lead to each bag: from below, from above and in the middle at a distance of 55 centimeters. The ends of the tubes are connected to a pipeline located above the bags, each of which requires two liters of water during the day.

An important role for growing strawberries is lighting. It should be adjusted so as to maximize the natural. During 8-12 hours a day the lamps should be switched on, and the rest of the time - off.

Strawberries in the greenhouse. Benefits

• The ability to grow berries all year round.
• No dependence on weather conditions. It's no secret that rain and dampness reduce yield by 25 percent. Berry in the greenhouse is not subject to these phenomena.
• There is no need for additional land resources.
• Costs associated with growing berries pay off in just one season.
• Strawberries, grown in a greenhouse, are better taken for sale by supermarkets.
• The great demand for berries in the winter time makes it possible to earn decently.
• Care of the culture in the greenhouse is easier than in the garden under the open sky.
• The indicator of profitability of business can be approximated to one hundred percent.

Disadvantages of growing strawberries in a greenhouse

If you decide to build a berry business, there will necessarily be a question how to grow strawberries in a greenhouse all year round for sale. Do not hurry with the answer and do not take hasty decisions. The fact is that here, as in any business, there are problems.

• First you need to solve the issue of heating. If he is not referring to the limited resources, you can immediately forget about the idea of growing strawberries year-round.
• For the cultivation of crops in greenhouse conditions at the initial stage will require funds, and considerable. To begin with, it is necessary to build a greenhouse with a system of artificial lighting, irrigation and pollination. Purchase all necessary equipment and planting material.
• The problem is the constant care of plants. Not everyone can do this by himself. Sooner or later, the question of hiring ancillary workers will arise. And this is additional costs. Perhaps, for someone cheaper to grow strawberries in the open. Everyone assesses their own possibilities.

Types of greenhouses

• Premises with a film covering. Such greenhouses for growing strawberries require a minimum of costs. Probably, that's why they are available for beginning gardeners. But, there is a huge minus: the film does not protect plants from frosts in winter. The greenhouse can not be heated properly. So, in conditions of severe climate, it is very risky to use such greenhouses.
• Glass greenhouses are rather cumbersome structures that need a foundation. But they can be heated, and the walls are transparent.

• Polycarbonate greenhouses are advisable to build to organize a serious business for many years, since such premises have a long service life, they are durable and light, although the most expensive.

How to grow a planting material?

First you need to plant the plant, and then start growing strawberries in the greenhouse all year round. Business directly depends on the quality of planting material. Its preparation has some features. Self-grown seedlings will reduce the cost of its purchase. You can obtain a plant for planting in many ways.

One of them is the use of young rosettes, for which in the fall, before the onset of frost, you need to carefully dig the entrenched young antennae from the uterine plantations. Freshly prepared seedlings with open roots should be stored in a basement or refrigerator, with an air temperature of 0- + 2 degrees. But, some experienced field-breeders-entrepreneurs consider it unprofitable to allocate special areas for the uterine plantation. It brings losses.

Cassette seedlings

Based on the rich experience of Russian plant growers, a more appropriate option is to use cassette seedlings, if you start growing strawberries in a greenhouse all year round. The yield for planting this type of seedling is much greater. The sprouting root system quickly takes root and fully provides useful nutrition to the plant. To get cassette seedlings, it will take about one and a half months.

To do this, the young antennae is separated from the uterine plants and placed for one hour in a cool room, 0- + 1 degree for cooling. Then they are planted in plastic containers with cells, pre-filled with a nutrient earth mixture. Already after 2-3 days the rootlets grow to 3-4 centimeters, and in 10 days the root system is completely formed.

In the first month, you must ensure that direct sunlight does not fall on the seedlings. Only after five weeks the young plants can be carried to the sun. By this time, the cell is filled with roots, and can easily transfer the transplant to a permanent place of growth. Cultivation of strawberries in the greenhouse all year round should begin with the use of self-pollinated repair varieties such as Crown, Kimberley, Florence, Marmolada, Honey, Anannasovaya, Selva, Sakhalinskaya and others. Otherwise, you have to manually pollute each flower. Ideally suited strawberry Festival Camomile, Junia Smides, if you are growing strawberries in a greenhouse all year round in Siberia. These varieties are typical representatives of high-yielding industrial type of this crop.

Berry business in a greenhouse

You can successfully build your business on growing strawberries indoors, having enough money for this. A year before landing in the greenhouse, it is necessary to begin preparing the planting material in the open ground. Soil should be chosen weakly acidic, loamy or neutral. There must be enough humus in it. For reference: in order to occupy 1 hectare of greenhouse area with seedlings of strawberries, you need to lay a uterine plantation in the open ground of 150 square meters.

Experts and horticulturists-amateurs know several ways with which you can get the planting material. But, the most fruitful are seedlings from plants - two-year-olds. They are transplanted into heated greenhouses in autumn, in October-November according to the scheme of 20x30 centimeters. In droughty weather, young plants should be watered.

Care for greenhouse strawberries

When the bloom begins, the greenhouse needs regular airing. Thus, the humidity of the air and associated plant diseases decrease. At this time, a top dressing with carbon dioxide is carried out. After its carrying out, fruiting begins earlier and yield increases.

Strawberry is demanding for moisturizing. But the water should not fall on the plants, watering is carried out at the very root. In Western countries, the soil in the greenhouse is covered with a film of black color. It does not allow the berries to touch the ground, the weeds grow more slowly, and the earth retains heat better than a film of a different color.

In the greenhouse, a procedure for the artificial pollination of strawberries is carried out. In small plantations, this is done manually 2-3 times a day. A few days later the pollination is repeated. If the greenhouse occupies huge areas, then during the flowering period, beehives with bees are put into it.

The harvest of strawberries is collected from the middle of March to the end of April with artificial lighting, without it berries are collected at the end of March - the middle of May.