Secrets Of Caring For Garden Strawberries (strawberries). Planting, Growing, Reproduction. Photo

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Secrets Of Caring For Garden Strawberries (strawberries). Planting, Growing, Reproduction. Photo
Secrets Of Caring For Garden Strawberries (strawberries). Planting, Growing, Reproduction. Photo

Video: Secrets Of Caring For Garden Strawberries (strawberries). Planting, Growing, Reproduction. Photo

Video: Secrets Of Caring For Garden Strawberries (strawberries). Planting, Growing, Reproduction. Photo
Video: 10 Tips To Grow The Best Strawberries Ever 2024, March
Anonim

Garden strawberries, or strawberries - the most favorite berry not only for children, but also for adults. It is tasty, healthy, good in preparations. However, many believe that it is not so easy to grow it, and therefore they are in no hurry to breed it in large quantities. But in fact, everything depends on the correct approach to culture. Let's talk about the secrets of garden strawberries.

Pineapple strawberries, or garden strawberries, or large-fruited strawberries (Fragaria ananassa)
Pineapple strawberries, or garden strawberries, or large-fruited strawberries (Fragaria ananassa)

Secret number 1. Only high-quality seedlings

It is not news to anyone that the popular saying "cheap fish is a nasty yushka" says not only about soup. This rule is very well suited to the choice of strawberry seedlings. Unfortunately, in an effort to save money, we often buy low quality planting material, thereby unconsciously delaying the receipt of a full harvest of long-awaited berries, sometimes for a whole year. High-quality seedlings are the key to quick survival, high potential of plants and excellent results of the labor spent on them.

What is worth buying?

When choosing a new variety of garden strawberries, be sure to pay attention to the condition of the offered plants. The best option is annual seedlings grown in individual cups with 2-3 developed leaves and a root system of at least 5 cm.

What not worth buying?

Do not buy seedlings if they have a clearly unhealthy appearance, signs of disease, an open root system. Of course, such planting material is cheaper, but its survival rate is low, and the present diseases guarantee a obviously weak harvest and the need to spend efforts on combating them.

Seedling of garden strawberry
Seedling of garden strawberry

Secret number 2. Choosing a location

Strawberries are a light-loving culture, therefore, the ratio of the cardinal points should be a very important, fundamental principle in choosing a place for it. If you want to get a lot of berries from the plot and have well-developed plants, the beds must be located strictly from north to south.

In addition, the correct predecessor is important for garden strawberries. In no case should it be planted after potatoes or tomatoes (they are loved by common diseases), near or after plums (they are equally strongly affected by weevils and aphids). It is necessary to choose beds for garden strawberries after garlic, onions, dill, peas, as well as after such siderates as lupine, vetch, oats, radish and marigolds.

Warm beds are also a good place to plant strawberries. Usually they are prepared in the fall, however, if time is lost, all operations can be performed in the spring: it is good to fill the structures with manure, compost, ash, organic residues, old leaves. It is easier to look after such beds, they yield earlier, they are easier to cover for the winter.

And remember, garden strawberries love loose soil!

Garden strawberries, berry ovary
Garden strawberries, berry ovary

Secret number 3. Planting young plants

Now that the place is selected and prepared, you need to plant the seedlings correctly. And here, too, there are rules.

Firstly, the location of strawberry bushes relative to each other is important: at least 50 cm in a row and from 50 to 70 cm between rows, and the plants should be staggered. The width of the bed itself with a two-row planting can be from 80 cm to 1 m. This provides not only full access of light to each bush, but also good ventilation of the plants (which is a prevention against many diseases and some pests), and easier access to plantings when pruning mustache and harvesting. For single-row cultivation, the distance between bushes and between rows should be 50 cm.

Secondly, planting time plays an important role in the subsequent care of the crop and the collection of the first crop. If the seedlings are planted in spring, it is necessary to have time before the third decade of May, in summer - in the last days of August - in the first ten days of September. Summer-autumn periods are more preferable, since such plantings require less maintenance and the harvest is guaranteed the next year.

Thirdly, before planting the seedlings in the holes, it must be saturated with moisture. To do this, young plants with an open root system, if you nevertheless purchased such, are placed in water with the addition of 3 drops of HB-101 per 1 liter of water (you can use Kornevin), until the growth bud and leave for 8-10 hours. If the seedlings are in plastic cups, they are placed in water for 10–20 minutes, if in peat pots for 30 seconds. However, plants in cups can be simply watered abundantly with a solution that stimulates root growth an hour before planting.

Garden strawberry rosette
Garden strawberry rosette

And now the most important thing. When planting seedlings in the holes, you must make sure that the roots of the strawberries do not bend! To do this, each plant is taken out of the pot, its root system is straightened and the roots are cut by 10 cm. If this is not done, then everything that bends will rot, and the strawberry bush itself will lag behind in growth, which will affect the harvest. In addition, the spine must initially have firm contact with the ground. To do this, it is planted either on a mound laid out in a hole, straightening individual roots evenly around the earthen embankment, or using the wet method - filling the hole with water and gradually pouring the earthen substrate directly into the water.

And further. When planting strawberries, you need to check that the seedling heart is at the level of the soil, not higher or lower. If it turns out to be buried, the plant will die, if high above the ground, it will be exhausted.

Secret number 4. Quality care

As soon as the beds are planted, the strawberries are immediately mulched. This technique allows you to retain moisture around young plants, protects against weeds and provides them with additional nutrition. Further care, we will consider depending on the age and time of planting.

1st year

If strawberries are planted in spring, then the flowers that appear on it must be removed so that the bushes will build up a good vegetative mass over the summer. Of course, many of us are sorry to carry out this procedure, but it is the key to a full harvest next year.

In addition, to strengthen spring plantings, it is necessary to carry out weekly foliar dressing (spraying on the leaves, including on the lower side) with the Radiance-1 preparation (1 tablespoon per 10 l of water), in combination with the Gumistar preparation (0.5 cups per 10 liters of water), and once a month with the addition of 10 granules of the “Healthy Garden” or “Ecuberin” preparation.

If the strawberries are planted in the fall, the main thing to take care of so that the young plants survive the winter well. For this, the aisles of strawberries are sown with siderates or the beds are covered with agrofibre. The next year, the flowers from such plantings are not removed, allowing the crop to yield.

2nd and 3rd year

The second year of growing strawberries also requires regular feeding and the time for the first of them is even before the onset of stable warm weather. At the same time, it is good to use the same preparation Radiance-1, but already at the rate of 2 tablespoons per 10 liters of water by watering under the plant. This technique activates soil bacteria and starts heating the soil, as a result of which the strawberry harvest can be obtained a week earlier. For the same purpose (obtaining an earlier harvest), you can spray the plants with HB-101 (30 drops per 10 liters of water) and cover the garden with any covering material.

In total, three feeding waterings should be carried out during the season, and all before the ovary appears: the first - after cleaning the beds from withered foliage, the second - when peduncles appear, and the last - when the first flowers appear. In this case, Shining-1 and Shining-2 alternate. If they are not there, the infusion of vermicompost or Gumistar is also good.

Frost-damaged garden strawberry flower
Frost-damaged garden strawberry flower

However, if you trust the folk methods of fertilization more, then the choice for spring feeding is better made in favor of herbal infusions, tincture of horse manure or Orgavit, or chicken droppings - it is he who is best suited for this culture. It is important that it cannot be introduced in its pure form, but it is necessary to insist it for a week at the rate of 1 to 3 parts of water, and then again dilute with water in a proportion of 1 x 20.

In order to give the basis for the next harvest, after picking the berries, it is necessary to make the last dressing, but this time with herbal infusion with the addition of Shining-3, Gumistar, nitrophoska or any other complex fertilizer with 0.5 cups of ash under each bush.

But this is a rule for ordinary strawberry varieties - remontant varieties need feeding every week throughout the season.

Another important step in the spring care of the second year of strawberry life is cleaning the plants from damaged leaves and processing the strawberries against pests and diseases. It is carried out as soon as the weather permits, while it is better not to pluck the leaves with a rake or by hand, but to cut them off with scissors so as not to damage the bush.

It is also good to know the measures to combat diseases of the miracle berry. For this, preparations are suitable: Summer resident (a bottle for 5 liters of water), HB-101 - a drug for raising the immunity of plants, Healthy Garden, Ecoberin (for 10 liters of water 2 tablespoons, 20 granules, 20 granules, respectively).

Garden strawberry
Garden strawberry

In addition, from spring and throughout the summer season, the strawberry bed should be moist ! Different methods are good here - high-quality regular watering (for plants!) With full mulching with straw, rotted sawdust, dried weeds or mown lawn grass; drip irrigation. The second option is more profitable, since it does not require constant investment of labor and provides full blotting of the root zone.

And, no loosening! Strawberry roots are located close to the soil surface and do not like to be disturbed!

Secret number 5. Planting renewal

With good care, strawberry beds with one-time fruiting can bear fruit in one place for 4 years, but practice shows that it is better not to leave strawberries on the same bed for more than 3 years. Repaired varieties are kept in one place for no more than two years.

And a few more clarifications:

Mulch

The importance of mulching in the cultivation of strawberries cannot be overemphasized. Mulch is also good for keeping berries from getting wet, and protecting plants from gray rot, and getting rid of slugs and snails. However, in order for it to work 100%, mulching must be carried out throughout the season, gradually bringing a layer of straw or other material to a height of 10-15 cm. And in order for the release of nutrients from it to be more complete, it is necessary to lay under each bush just a few grains of the preparation "Shining-2".

To make it more convincing, I will add: in Europe, strawberries and straw are inseparable, in some places this culture is called so - "straw berry".

Healthy leaves of garden strawberry
Healthy leaves of garden strawberry

Mustache trimming

Mustache trimming is another exciting issue for many amateur gardeners. For a high strawberry harvest, you need to remove the mustache! This technique provides more convenient maintenance of the garden, easier harvesting, prevention of gray rot, and, more importantly, a larger berry. And for the reproduction of the variety, it is necessary to have a mother plant - flowers are removed from it!

Pruning after fruiting

After harvesting disposable varieties, it is necessary to cut off not only the forks left over from the berries, but also leaves affected by diseases, and the lower tier of old fallen leaves. If the plants are severely affected by diseases, the leaves are removed completely. Repaired varieties are processed in the spring.

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