Is it even posible?
Great tasting strawberries in hydroculture / aquaponics / mistponics / aeroponics / astroponics / peeponics. I made two of those up. Spoiler, it's not peeponics.
Improving the taste of my hydro berries will be quite the challenge. Some simple google searches didn't reveal that much, for now I'm looking at brix values. I'll try referencing any scientific papers I find after confirming with my own tastebuds.
Tastebuds, say what?
That's the thing isn't. Trust some random steemit dude's tastebuds. Size, yield, color and even shelflife things easily measured and advertised. To keep things simple I'll compare my hydro berries to my soil berries. I promise to drink some bubbly water in between to reset my palette.
Level one
The first step and most important one is selecting the right variety. The right one for your personal preference.
Admitedly I took most of my plants from some unknown stock growing in the garden left by the previous owner.
I did buy one Gorella plant (if that's even true, from a big box store, I wouldn't know :o ).
Unfortunatly I only had that one berry to taste losing the rest of the blossoms to a late frost. It did taste better than it's unknown neighbors. I'll grow some shoots for next june and the soil comparison.
Wishlist
These june bearers come recommended on the internet
- Lambada
- Vima Xima
Also looking out for this woodland variety
- Mara des bois
Nutrients baby
Next I'll be looking at nutrients since my pH target of 6,8 should already do fine for strawberries.
Gotta catch them all. Send help, dutch buckets or something and pumps and plants. Omg and ideas how am I going to test different recipes. I need like a billion test systems. Maybe individualised leaf fertilisation.
References
I used this article as a starting point, I should be starving my plants or maybe spanking them. Orders form the doc, Lynette Morgan on taste