Why grow strawberry under glass rather than in the field?

Timing and consistency of grade. A protected crop supplies the market in weeks the open ground cannot reach, and a controlled root zone lets fruit quality hold across a long picking period rather than flushing and fading.

Crops · Fruiting vegetable

Strawberry.

Q: Why is greenhouse strawberry grown on suspended gutters?

Picking at waist height instead of ground level, and a root zone entirely under control. Strawberry is a labour-intensive crop, and the gutter system exists as much to make picking sustainable as to manage water and salt for a crop that is sensitive to both.

Q: What separates everbearing from seasonal strawberry types?

How the plant is triggered to flower. Everbearing types crop over an extended period and are the basis of the Dutch fresh crop under glass. Seasonal types follow a short-day rhythm and deliver a concentrated harvest into a defined window. Each is planned as its own crop, because a continuous picking rhythm and a peak week ask different things of labour, cooling and pack capacity.

Soft fruit grown at working height, on gutters that recirculate.

Grow strawberries under glass The varieties

Start with the end product

Fruit worth picking.
A market ready for it.

The buyer specification comes before a growing system: fruit quality, pack format and the delivery window determine what the crop must achieve.

Flavour and appearance

Agree ripeness, flavour, colour, shape and acceptable defects. Fruit that misses the required grade is not equivalent to saleable harvest.

Firmness and handling

Match picking maturity and firmness to the route to market. Pack design, handling and cooling are part of preserving the fruit after harvest.

A season the operation can supply

A short selling window and an extended supply programme create different planting and workload plans. Start with the required delivery period, then test its cultivation feasibility.

The crop programme

A flowering type
is not a harvest calendar.

Plant preparation and the growing strategy determine how the chosen type is used. These programme descriptions need local dates and cultivar-specific management.

Fresh planting · verse teelt

A fresh planting programme starts with a new crop of prepared plants. Plant availability, chilling history and greenhouse conditions determine when it can enter production.

Overwintered crop · doorteelt

An autumn crop can be retained through winter for a spring harvest. This is a crop strategy, not the same thing as an everbearing variety. Rest, regrowth and separate harvest periods belong in the schedule.

Repeat-fruiting programme

Everbearing types form new flower trusses during production, subject to cultivar and growing conditions. Repeated harvest can still have peaks and gaps. Lighting and climate control need to match the intended season.

A business may combine programmes across compartments or planting dates to extend supply. That does not mean every plant produces continuously.

Climate and season

The season is part
of the design.

Choose the intended harvest period before specifying the climate systems. A greenhouse changes the growing environment; it does not remove seasonal limits.

Light and crop balance

Available light changes through the season. Flowering, leaf growth and developing fruit place different demands on the crop. Plant preparation and crop load need to fit the light available during production.

Temperature and flowering

Flower initiation responds to temperature and day length in a cultivar-dependent way. Seasonal and repeat-fruiting labels alone are insufficient for a crop schedule. Excessive warmth also affects fruit quality.

Humidity and water

Humidity control, air movement and crop hygiene help manage the conditions for disease. Heating, ventilation and screens interact with crop temperature, moisture and energy use. Root-zone water management remains a separate task.

How glasshouse strawberries are grown

A gutter supports the crop.
The substrate holds the roots.

In a container-based system, rigid plastic growing troughs sit on suspended or supported gutters. Drippers supply the substrate; the gutter collects the drainage.

Suspended gutter

The greenhouse carries the hanging system. A supported tabletop is another arrangement. Loads and working height belong in the structural design.

Rigid plastic trough

The growing container, or bak, holds the substrate. Container feet, drainage openings and the gutter profile must fit together.

Drip-fed substrate

A drip line delivers nutrient solution through emitters. Excess solution drains from the container into the collection system.

The work behind the fruit

Organise for the picking
day, not just the planting day.

A useful growing plan connects crop care to the movement of saleable fruit.

Prepare and establish

Mother plants supply runner tips, which are rooted and raised into planting material. Nursery irrigation and spacing differ from the fruiting crop. Agree plant format, preparation, chilling or storage history and delivery condition.

Care and pick

Plant establishment, runner and leaf management, crop observation and repeated picking each need an operating routine. Plan access for workers and collection equipment before selecting gutter height or support.

Grade, cool and deliver

Grade fruit against the buyer’s specification and avoid injury during handling. Prompt cooling and a continuous cold chain protect quality. Peak picking, packing and cooling demand should be planned together.

Automation should address a defined task: irrigation control, internal transport or handling. Labour savings and staffing levels need measured work rates from the intended operation.

Picked ripe, or not worth picking

Strawberry carries more vitamin C than most fruit in the produce aisle, and nearly all of it is laid down in the last days on the plant. So is the sugar, so is the aroma, and so is the colour that makes the fruit look worth buying. A strawberry does not improve after it is picked. It only spends what it already has.

That leaves distant fruit one option: pick early and firm. Fruit cut before it is ready survives the journey and arrives red, because the skin colours whether or not the flesh finishes. What never arrives is the flavour and the vitamin content the last days would have added. The berry is also among the most perishable things in the fresh chain, so whatever is not eaten quickly is thrown away.

A greenhouse near the market answers both problems at once. Fruit can be picked at full ripeness because the distance is short, and it can be picked in months when the open field is bare. That is why protected strawberry exists as a commercial crop, and it is the plainest case in the whole crop range for growing close to the people eating it.

Nutrition facts

Strawberries, raw

Per 100 g

Energy: 32 kcal
Fat: 0.3 g
Carbohydrate: 7.68 g
Sugars: 4.89 g
Fiber: 2 g
Protein: 0.67 g
Sodium: 1 mg
Potassium: 153 mg
Vitamin C: 58.8 mg

Source: USDA FoodData Central, FDC 167762

Which strawberry?
The commercial classes.

Fresh fruit in the right market window. The class you sell decides the plant load, the harvest rhythm and the greenhouse.

Everbearing Strawberries

Everbearing strawberry flowers and fruits repeatedly, supplying a market across a long window rather than a single flush.

Seasonal Strawberries

Seasonal strawberry flowers in response to day length and produces a concentrated crop for a defined market window.

Strawberry under glass is a different proposition from strawberry in a field: the crop is grown on suspended gutters at working height, picked standing, and supplied to market in weeks the open ground cannot reach. The premium sits in that timing and in consistency of grade. It is also a labour-intensive crop, and the gutter system exists as much to make picking sustainable as to control the root zone.

What the crop needs

Growing on suspended substrate gutters puts the root zone entirely under control and lets drain water be collected and recirculated. That matters for a crop this sensitive to salt and to water availability at fruiting, and it is the reason a protected strawberry crop can hold quality across a long picking period rather than flushing and fading.

Everbearing or seasonal

The two commercial systems are separated by how the plant is triggered to flower. Everbearing types crop over an extended period and are the basis of the Dutch fresh crop under glass. Seasonal types follow a short-day rhythm and deliver a concentrated harvest into a defined window. Each is planned as its own crop, because a continuous picking rhythm and a peak week ask different things of labour, cooling and pack capacity.

DutchGreenhouses® specifies the structure, climate, screening and irrigation around the strawberry system, its picking window and the local climate, so fruit quality holds across the whole period rather than the first flush. Get in touch to plan a strawberry greenhouse.

The greenhouse behind strawberries