It is not surprising that garden strawberries are the most common berry crop that grows in our gardens and orchards. Its sweet, juicy and fragrant fruits delight children and adults fresh, frozen, with sugar and sour cream, in the form of jams, juices or compotes.
Description of garden strawberries
Garden strawberry is a perennial plant, undersized, bush height - no more than 25 centimeters. The leaves of large strawberry bushes are located on long petioles. White flowers have five leaves. The fruits are fragrant, with a pronounced sweet and sour taste.
Garden strawberry, described above, is truly an amazing berry. Despite all its sweetness, when consumed, it reduces the amount of sugar in the blood. One glass of strawberry juice drunk in the morning on an empty stomach will help alleviate the manifestations of gallstone disease. And the list of useful substances and vitamins contained in this berry can be enviedany pharmacy vitamin. It contains carotene, phosphorus, acids (malic and citric), sugar, manganese, potassium, iron s alts.
Strawberry varieties
Depending on the ripening period, strawberry varieties are divided into early, middle and late. Fruit sizes allow the following varieties to be distinguished:
- Small-fruited, whose fruit weight is less than five grams. A new and well-established variety in this category is Alexandra. The size of the fruit is one centimeter, which, however, is larger than other similar varieties.
- With a fruit size of five to fifteen grams. In this weight category, Komsomolskaya Pravda has proven itself well, having ribbed shiny berries, well tolerated by cold, but demanding care. Shows itself well in our latitudes Early Makherauha. It has an average winter hardiness and good resistance to diseases. Here it is worth mentioning Vityaz, Zenith, Zenga-Zengana.
- Strawberry large-fruited has berries weighing fifteen grams or more. Of course, everyone's favorite Gigantella and Maxim belong to this category. These powerful dense bushes with matte leaves are difficult to confuse with other varieties. With sufficient watering, the fruits will really be gigantic. Festivalnaya, Relay, Cinderella will please with a large harvest and subsequent smaller berries than the previous varieties.
Moreover, garden strawberries have many remontant varieties, that is, yielding crops several times a year.
Choosing several varieties that differ inripening time, you can extend the fleeting period of fruiting strawberries. A careful approach to selection will ensure a harvest time of six months.
Planting strawberries: choosing a location
Garden strawberries, planting and spring care for which must be thorough, prefers flat, well-lit surfaces, a slight slope is possible. Steep slopes are not suitable, since the wind blows off all the snow from them in winter, and dries up the ground in summer. Hollows and lowlands are unsuitable because of the possible stagnation of water in them, which the strawberry will not tolerate. The groundwater level should be no higher than one meter below the ground. Moreover, cold air accumulates in such places, damaging strawberry flowers during spring frosts.
Precursors for garden strawberries: favorable and not so
When choosing a place and soil, attention should be paid to what has grown on the selected site in previous years. Favorable predecessors for garden strawberries among vegetable crops will be garlic, onions, radishes, parsley, carrots. Strawberries should not be planted after cucurbits and cruciferous crops, as they are prone to root rot.
Potatoes, flax, beets can provoke a nematode infection. Sea buckthorn, raspberries, felt cherries, which are prone to verticillium wilt, will also be unsuitable predecessors.
Suitable substrate for garden strawberries
Growing garden strawberries is possible in almost any substrate, but it must be goodfertilized, not overdried and not too wet. Too acidic soil will require liming. It should also be remembered that the root system of garden strawberries is demanding on oxygen supply, that is, the soil must be breathable, loose.
Preparing the soil for planting
In areas with closely spaced groundwater, it is necessary to raise the beds to a height of 30-35 centimeters. On dry soil, they can not be formed.
Planting garden strawberries in the spring requires preliminary preparation of the substrate, which should be done in the fall. Soil preparation consists in digging it up and applying fertilizers under the top layer. What should be applied depends largely on the substrate. Add compost or manure to loamy soil. Sandy soil requires peat, sawdust, humus, soddy soil, clay and peat substrate - sand, humus, sawdust.
Dig up the soil for one shovel bayonet. Excess weed rhizomes and occurring larvae should be removed. Then the beds are leveled. A thin layer of sand is poured on top of the already prepared soil to protect the planting from pests and rot.
Immediately before planting, the soil can be treated with a solution of copper sulfate and watered.
How do strawberries reproduce?
Garden strawberries propagate, spring care for which cannot be ignored, in the garden in several ways:
- through seeds;
- dividing bushes;
- shoots with mustaches.
Each of the methods has its own nuances. Let's talk about the most simple and acceptable method for most varieties of strawberries. This is reproduction by dividing the bushes.
You need to choose the most fruitful bushes, in which case you can expect a good harvest from the shoots. Seedlings of garden strawberries are taken from a bush aged two to three years. This must be done after harvest. In this case, the sprouts closest to the mother plant should be selected. They are considered the strongest. The mother bush can be additionally fertilized with a growth stimulator.
Planting strawberry seedlings
Suitable planting material should have several leaves and roots five centimeters long. To separate the seedlings from the mother bush, it is better to choose a cloudy cool day. If the weather is hot and dry, then the seedlings should be shaded from the sun with grass, covering material, or, in extreme cases, with newspapers.
Dig a small hole for planting seedlings. Pour water into it, plant a bush before all the water goes into the ground. The roots must be straightened down.
When disembarking, it is important not to bury the heart in the ground. Garden strawberries are planted in the spring. She needs careful care and feeding. Especially if the soil around the bushes is not mulched. The optimal spring landing time is March-April, autumn - August-September. Mulching makes it easier to care for, increase the yield of garden strawberries, and reduce the ripening time. Caring for garden strawberries in early springfurther is to rake the mulch from the garden into the passage when sunny days come. They do this in order to warm up the earth around the bush as soon as possible. During the summer, a layer of mulch is added, its thickness should be an average of 7-8 centimeters.
Shrubs will take two to three weeks to establish. If the bush is grafted, then it must be removed and a new one should be planted in its place, otherwise it may cause illness in other bushes.
Post-plant care for garden strawberries
Generous harvest of garden strawberries can be obtained with good care. The first spring sun, melting snow, warm soil … All plants are awakening, including garden strawberries. Care in the spring, especially early, is simply necessary for the bushes. If you ignore this, then the harvest will not please.
In the first year of planting, care should be aimed at successful development and favorable overwintering. In the case of well-fertilized soil, the bushes will not need to be fed for several more years.
Garden strawberries, care for which in the spring will provide the gardener with a good harvest, requires the removal of dry and drooping leaves, as well as last year's peduncles. This should be done not with your hands, but with garden shears or secateurs. It is better to remove old leaves after the appearance of young leaves.
If you do not plan to grow seedlings, then growing antennae should be cut. Otherwise, the bushes lose their strength, and the beds - a neat look. Carefully loosen the soil between the rows. Otherwise, the yield may decrease.
Wood ash feeds at least two-year-old garden strawberries. Spring care with this fertilizer will protect the bushes from damage by naked slugs.
Roots exposed during the winter must be sprinkled with humus from the leaves or mulch. Garden strawberries, reviews of which are encouraging among gardeners, require good watering at the moment when young foliage is actively growing, and after flowering, since the shallow root system can dry out very quickly.
For spraying strawberries before flowering, you can use Bordeaux liquid, it will help protect the bushes from various fungal diseases and blotches.
Garden strawberries, planting and spring care of which are described in the article, grow in one place for no more than five years. After this period, the bed must be updated by planting young bushes on other beds. Have a good harvest!
