Indoor Aquaponic Strawberries

My Everbloom strawberry plants didn't do well last summer - too many weeds and not enough hot weather produced few berries. I pulled the strawberry plants from the garden after a few hard frosts in late fall, and let them thaw out for a couple of days indoors.

I separated the 3 plants into 9 smaller plants, removed the dead growth, washed off the dirt and transplanted them into my Aquaponics system. Now, they don't have any weeds to battle and receive regular hours of light...and a constant water source, of course.

Here are some pictures from November.

After only a few days indoors, these tiny plants showed new growth and vibrant color. Incredibly, one of the baby plants even started a flower.

Other Aquaponic gardeners have success growing strawberries vertically in towers and media beds. But, my strawberries are living inside a cool room, under low wattage fluorescent lights. There are challenges ahead. Time will tell...

Fast forward to early April. Obviously, the plants have grown a lot. There are constantly over a dozen flowers in bloom, which I pollinate with a Q-tip.

The Q-tip works! Check out a couple of baby strawberries below.

The baby green strawberries show some hope, but will the temperature and lighting be sufficient for them to ripen? For now, they're alive and doing well, and will have a nice head start on my outdoor strawberry bed when I put them back outdoors next month.