Strawberries by the rules

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Gardeners with experience know that strawberries can be planted and transplanted for almost the entire season, using for this purpose the unprotected daughter rosettes formed on the mustache. The exception is 1.5-2 months from the beginning of fruit set to the end of fruiting. However, it should be noted that for different varieties, completely different planting dates are optimal.

Planting time, first of all, depends on the ripening period of strawberries, the number of mustaches, horns formed at the beginning of fruiting, as well as how you finally want to see your strawberry.

It is necessary to take into account the characteristics of each selected cultivar, the method of cultivation, the planting pattern and time, the quality of the planting material, as well as - how many plots - one or more is planned to be taken by strawberries.

If you plan to grow strawberries of different ripening periods, it is better to have at least two sites for planting this plant, since the approach to growing early and late varieties should be diametrically opposite, provided that the task is to get the highest possible yields. If this task is not worth it, everything is much simpler. However, even in this case, the cultivation of early and late varieties separately is more rational. After all, various agricultural practices are carried out at different times.

Varieties of medium ripening by their biological characteristics can be closer to either early or late varieties, and therefore, they are planted on the same site with one or another of them, although a separate placement would, of course, be ideal. This will allow to take care of strawberries without unnecessary visits to the plantation. As a result, the soil is less compacted and pests and diseases do not spread.

It’s good to have at least two varieties on the plot of approximately the same ripening period, since pollination contributes to better setting of berries and their higher quality.

To understand when and how to plant strawberries, you need to know the main features of various varieties. First of all, the ripening time should be taken into account, since the timing of differentiation of flower buds, that is, the laying of the crop, depends on this. Early ripening varieties and planting begin early, which means they have time to lay more flower buds before the end of the season. Even earlier, mustaches and daughter plants form on them. Correspondingly, late varieties start all processes much later, and middle ones in intermediate periods. The later the variety ripens, the later the growth of the mustache begins, and the smaller the variety manages to lay by the first year of fruiting. However, varieties also differ in their mustard ability: some form a lot of them, others - a little, and most varieties - an average amount.

Seedlings of early varieties in the year of formation on the whiskers of daughter plants manage to lay a significant yield per plant and give a decent amount of berries the next year. It is better to plant early varieties at the end of summer - the beginning of autumn (the optimal time is the end of July - the beginning of August with freshly rooted rosettes and preferably in cool weather).

Since early varieties in the first year realize a significant part of their productivity potential, by the third year they will exhaust it, and therefore it is preferable to use them for short-lived compacted plantings. If there are a lot of seedlings in autumn, you can plant the plants in three or four lines with small distances between the lines and between the plants in the line. The aisle needs to be made so wide that it is convenient to pick berries and take care of the plantings. This planting method is best suited for early and medium-early varieties with not very high absorption capacity (Kama, Honey, Relay ) If it, on the contrary, is high (Marshmallow, Kalinka, Kokinskaya early, Ruby pendant, Elista, Southerner ), it is better to plant less densely, in 2-3 lines, with a large distance between plants. In the first year, directing the mustache into the space between the plants, it is easy to form a strawberry "carpet", which is capable of producing a very high yield for two years. Thus, we get a carpet-strip system. The same planting is used if seedlings are few. In this case, having sacrificed one year of fruiting, you can get the maximum possible number of mustaches and plant a highly productive plantation.

Varieties of medium ripening are also better planted in the fall, as they have time to lay a good harvest. If the variety forms a compact bush and many horns by the first year of fruiting (Vityaz, Dukat, Rusich), it is more advisable to use densified planting schemes, since such plants give the bulk of the crop in the first two years and do not form a lot of mustaches, focusing mainly on fruiting. If there are not many horns (Midea, Sudarushka, Festival daisy, Festival), but the plants give a lot of mustache, then they can be planted at a greater distance from each other.

Varieties that form few whiskers and increase productivity by the second year of fruiting, as well as many medium-late and especially late varieties, are more justified to plant in the spring, and the bush method of cultivation is better suited for them. Varieties Alpha, Zenga Zengana, Zenga Tigayga, Lord, Regiment, Redgontlit, Surprise Olympicsto an even greater extent Bogotá, Borovitskaya, Cardinal, Pandora, Trinity, Troubadour are not suitable for autumn planting, since in this case almost no crop is produced in the first year after planting, especially the latest ones. The highest productivity of plants of these varieties is achieved with the bush method of cultivation using mulching film, if the distance between them in the row is 35-45 cm (the second of these values is for varieties with a large bush: Alpha, Cardinal, Pandora, Shelf), between the lines (for a two-line landing with a checkerboard arrangement in a row) - 30-35 cm. In this case, it is better to plant medium or small seedlings in early spring. Such plants during the season practically do not give a mustache, using all the nutrients for the formation of the bush and the future harvest. More powerful seedlings can be used for propagation. If it is supposed not to remove the mustache, but to form a fructiferous strip from them, then, of course, planting with a powerful, well-developed seedling will be preferable.

With the bush method of cultivation, the larger the bush and the more it is loaded with the crop, the less it forms a mustache. This is also why it is important that by the first year of fruiting a sufficiently high yield is laid, and in medium-late and late varieties this is possible only with spring planting. With the autumn planting of such varieties, the yield next year will be small, and a lot of mustaches will be formed, which, in turn, again negatively affects the laying of the crop. It turns out to be a kind of vicious circle: almost every year there is a shortage of berries and you have to intensely fight against vegetative shoots. Shrub cultivation allows you to get very high yields for at least three years, and if you protect strawberries from pests and diseases, the plantation can maintain high productivity and longer, at least when using late varieties.

It is worth talking about repair and neutral day varieties. They can be planted in spring and autumn. Since the second crop is of the greatest value, the flower stalks are removed in spring. The most large-fruited and productive varieties produce few mustaches, often in the first year, so if there are no peduncles, you can get mustaches and daughter plants. Later, when the strawberries enter full fructification, it will be much more difficult to obtain planting material in this way. Naturally, for repairing and neutral day varieties, bush cultivation is practically the only possible way. Do not just forget that these varieties are most demanding on nutritional conditions and care. Leaving more than two years for a plant is not worth it, since during this time they exhaust their potential.

Materials used

D. Shokaeva, candidate of agricultural sciences VNIISPK, Oryol