Strawberry
The most common way to grow strawberries is to grow them outdoors without any cover. Our climate allows you to harvest from mid-June.
Content:
- Open ground or greenhouses - all the pros and cons
- Choosing the Right Soil
- Seedling selection
- Strawberry care and disease control
- Difficulties in growing strawberries in the open field
- On a straw bed
- Portable beds
- Growing strawberries in greenhouse conditions
- Seedling preparation
- Planting seedlings in closed ground
Prices at this time, as a rule, go down several times. Growing strawberries in a greenhouse will allow you to get a harvest much earlier than the ripening period of this crop in your area.
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Open ground or greenhouses - all the pros and cons
Strawberries are not only tasty, but also healthy for adults and children. It is rich in various vitamins and microelements, organic acids and fiber. Today, strawberries can be found on supermarket shelves almost all year round, but the most delicious is the one that ripens in your own garden.
Do you know that there are varieties and hybrids of remontant strawberries that bear fruit from June to mid-autumn?
- The main disadvantage of outdoor cultivation is the risk of yield loss due to weather conditions.
- The berries of this crop are sensitive to excessive moisture and excessive dryness of the soil.
- In addition, this culture requires a transplant once every 3 to 4 years.
- Cultivation of strawberries in protected ground is realized by cultivating this berry in greenhouses and greenhouses.
- The film coating gives comfort to plants, protects berries from precipitation, sudden temperature changes, increases the yield of finished products by 25%.
- Specialists in the cultivation of berry crops argue that strawberries that grow under the film are more transportable, can be stored for a long time, and are suitable for export.
- When grown in greenhouses, plants are planted in soil or in a special substrate (peat mixture, coconut substrate, humus). The use of the substrate allows you to grow berries in the same greenhouse for decades.
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Although strawberries are unpretentious in terms of soil type, black soil is preferred, a good harvest occurs when grown on sandy loamy soil types. Strawberries do not like acidic soils, so they are not recommended to be planted on peat bogs.
Well-groomed beds
- Before planting, it is necessary to prepare the soil, cultivate it, because the larvae of beetles and wireworm hibernate in the soil.
- The close location of forest plantations from your summer cottage increases the likelihood of soil contamination with insect larvae.
- In order to disinfect the soil, planting lupine is recommended. Its beans contain an alkaloid substance that has a detrimental effect on insect pests.
Remontant garden strawberry grown on chernozem
If the site is littered with perennial grasses, an ammonia solution is used (2 liters per hectare). A roundup solution (3 liters per hectare) will help get rid of weeds. Weed treatment is carried out in the fall, after which the land is plowed. In winter, the soil covered with snow will retain moisture well.
Before planting in early spring, harrowing should be carried out.
with a depth of 15 cm.
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Seedling selection
If you want to get a rich harvest, then purchase elite varieties, preferably the first reproduction.
- Seedlings should be healthy, calibrated, with good roots.
- The most successful place for planting strawberries are the southern and southwestern slopes with a slope of 2 degrees.
- In such areas, the berries, as a rule, ripen 2 weeks earlier. It is not recommended to grow strawberries. In lowlands, ravines, beams.
Planting material prepared for planting
- The ideal acidity of the soil solution is considered to be a level of 5.5 - 6.0.
- Seedlings can be planted in open ground, both in spring and autumn.
- If you decide to plant seedlings in the spring, then do it as early as possible, as soon as weather conditions permit.
Quality seedlings - a good harvest
- Before planting in the ground, it is desirable to harden the seedlings, accustom them to open ground conditions.
- When planting, do not deepen the neck of the bush, it should be flush with the ground.
- The roots should be placed vertically in the hole.
- If the roots are too long, they can be trimmed. This technique stimulates the formation of additional lateral roots.
planted seedlings
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After planting, the seedlings must be watered and sprinkled with a mixture of humus and soil in order for the moisture to remain in the soil as long as possible.
The first week after planting, it is desirable to shade the bushes and keep the soil moist.
Diseased plants tolerate winter worse, lay fewer flower buds, which ultimately leads to a decrease in yield. In the spring, as soon as the snow melts, you need to cut the leaves on the strawberry bushes. It is to cut, and not to rake with a rake, as many mistakenly do.
What does it give?
- If you rake out the litter and leaves, you cause injuries and wounds to the plants.
- Where the leaves were torn off with a rake, wounds remain, and this is a direct gateway for infections and diseases.
- When cutting leaves on strawberries, remove all unnecessary ones, try not to thicken the plantings.
May beetle larva - the worst enemy of strawberries
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Difficulties in growing strawberries in the open field
The peak of strawberry fruiting is in June, and this, as you know, is the rainiest month of the summer season.
- Heavy heavy rains compact the soil and displace air from it, thereby inhibiting the transition of important elements into forms accessible to plants.
- Moisture from the soil under the influence of bright sunlight quickly evaporates and settles in the form of droplets on the foliage and stems.
- Under such conditions, harmful microorganisms, snails, slugs actively multiply, rot, late blight appear.
- Hot dry winds combined with ruthless rays dry up the soil in a few hours, a dense crust forms on the surface. In such cases, it is necessary to use loosening in combination with weeding.
- During the period of prolonged rains, useful elements, in particular nitrogen, are washed out of the soil. Strawberry roots do not receive enough nitrogen, as a result of which the plant weakens, the leaves turn yellow, the ovary crumbles.
- On the 3rd day after the rain, it is recommended to apply nitrogen fertilizers to the beds with strawberries.
Fruit rot from excessive moisture
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Prepare a strong solution of potassium permanganate and spill the beds with strawberries on them: bushes and the ground around them.
After a week, feed with soaked chicken manure in a ratio of 1:10. And then, after three days, carefully dig everything up. Line the aisles with straw. This frees up time for other cultures.
Bush with straw
- strawberries covered with straw do not overgrow with weeds,
- less need to be watered
- berries grow and ripen clean,
- plants get sick less
Raised on straw bedding
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In the event that you failed to prepare the beds for strawberries in the fall, you can make the so-called "mobile beds".
- You will need a dark garbage bag. By cutting it into three or four parts, and stitching the edges, you will get bags.
- Pour prepared soil into them and leave until spring. With the onset of heat, place the blanks on a sheet of slate in a sunny place in your summer cottage. With a clerical knife, make cuts in polyethylene and plant strawberry seedlings there.
- The soil in such "mobile beds" warms up quickly, your bushes will soon bloom. Harvest from them will be able to get a few weeks earlier than the usual ripening time for strawberries in your area.
Preparation for a mobile flower bed
Berries with this method of cultivation will be clean, and you will not have to fight weeds. The mobility of such beds is the main advantage. They can be easily moved to different places on the site, interleaved ridges with other horticultural crops.
Growing in special bags
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Industrial cultivation in a greenhouse
- When grown in open ground, strawberries please us with berries for a short time; growing this crop in closed ground will allow extending the fruiting period.
- There is an intensive Dutch technology for year-round cultivation of this crop.
- To do this, it is necessary to provide high-quality heating of the greenhouse. If you are the owner of an unheated greenhouse, then you can use it to speed up the ripening period of the fruit.
The following varieties are perfect for growing in greenhouses:
- Roxana, Desna (early)
- Zenith, Nadia, (mid-early)
- Bogatyr, Cinderella (later)
selected sample
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If you decide to start growing strawberries indoors, first of all, you need to take care of the seedlings.
- Seedlings can be purchased at a nursery, a specialized store, but it is better to prepare seedlings yourself.
- To do this, you can take layers of tested varieties that you have already grown before.
- During the summer, root young plants and, after the formation of the root system, transplant into a container with loose soil. Do not allow the soil in the nursery to dry out.
- When the temperature drops, transfer the nursery to the greenhouse. Young plants can be rooted in small disposable pots with a diameter of 9 cm.
- You can dig up young plants in the fall, cut off the leaves, place in the refrigerator and store in a plastic bag until spring.
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Dutch technology of year-round cultivation of strawberries in greenhouses
- You can start planting in an unheated greenhouse from March.The earth should be fertilized with complex preparations.
- Do not forget that the temperature in the greenhouse should be at least 16 degrees.
- Transplanted, as a rule, flowering seedlings. During the flowering period, the plant is especially vulnerable, so the transplant should be carried out carefully, lowering the roots with a clod of earth into the prepared hole.
- The land around the planted plants should be mulched with needles or sawdust.
- The greenhouse must be ventilated to avoid waterlogging of the air. Otherwise, there is a risk of developing microbial diseases.
- Strawberries grown in greenhouse conditions are responsive to watering and fertilizing with potash and phosphorus fertilizers.
- During the flowering period, it is necessary to take care of the pollination of strawberries. Use a soft brush or cotton swab for this.
