Growing Earthworms Varieties Penelope

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

The earthworm is a divine berry. Not only I think so. Anyone who once planted a landowner on his personal plot will never give up this culture. What kind of culture is this - a dugout? This is a strawberry-strawberry hybrid obtained by crossing varieties of large-fruited strawberries and Milanese strawberries.

There are many varieties of dwarf worms, but I will tell you about my favorite variety, Penelope, which I have been growing for about fifteen years. What is the difference between a dugout and an ordinary garden strawberry? First of all, of course, taste. Since the earthworm is a hybrid, then her taste is strawberry-strawberry

As for its yield, for the entire time that this variety has been growing on my site, there has not been a single season for it to fail. Judge for yourself. It grows in any soil. It multiplies very quickly. Bushes for the second or third year have up to 20 peduncles.

If we consider that each of them has 10 berries, then 200 is already obtained from the bush! Impressive, isn't it? However, gardeners who grow a dwarf will say that there are a lot of berries, but they are small. But this is a relative concept. Of course, it cannot be compared with the Gigantella Maxim variety.

But, in my opinion, a 3-4 cm berry is no longer a trifle. But what a taste and how much! But perhaps most importantly, this berry requires almost no maintenance. Plants do not get sick with gray rot, since its peduncles are tall and during flowering are above the leaves.

Fruiting is long-term (up to 1.5 months), and the berries are always clean, they do not need to be washed, so this variety is the best treat for children.

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Penelope has one drawback - her buds are very fond of the weevil. But, you see, even if you share with him half of the harvest, then, I think, you will still be satisfied with the harvest. For example, I effortlessly, manually, collect buds damaged by a weevil (of course, not all, but only a part).

I do not want to urge anyone to plant this variety on your site. I just like it very much, and I decided to tell the readers about it.

Penelope bears fruit annually and very abundantly, so I do not process it with anything; those berries that remain after the invasion of pests are quite enough to enjoy yourself, and when they become small, you can make wonderful jam.

Some gardeners believe that this variety of earthworms requires a lot of moisture, but I had no problems with watering, because, firstly, the site is quite low, and secondly, with the carpet growing method, the bushes completely cover the garden, and the soil always remains moist … However, in dry years, additional watering will be very beneficial as the berries will become larger and the harvest will be larger.

And now I will talk about how I prepare a bed for strawberries and how to plant it correctly

Taking the seeds of the well-known and beloved by many lupine, I plant it wherever possible: next to a bush of gooseberries, raspberries, any perennial and even annual flowers, combining a variety of lupine colors (and these are white, pink, blue, purple, melange, etc.) flowers) with the color scheme that is inherent in this piece of your site.

Then, when the plants give a large green mass, I cut it off, freeing neighboring plants from the shade (lupine grows very strongly) and feeding them with nitrogen, which is in the ground on the roots of the lupine. All the green mass will go to the preparation of the strawberry bed, since lupine is a plant from the legume family, it is the best nitrogen fertilizer for it. You will not need to buy expensive manure, because you yourself will not notice how quickly lupine will again give a lot of green mass and the second time will delight you with its beautiful inflorescences.

It remains to make a bed and put lupine in it. To do this, we dig a groove in the middle of the ridge, and then, having laid the green mass, we fill it up. Some gardeners believe that the leaves and branches of lupine should be laid in the garden bed only after having dried them. Well, you can do that too.

So, our garden is ready. Here it is only necessary to clarify that, according to my many years of observation, it is best to plant a dugout after garlic. Why exactly is garlic suitable? The thing is that, as many gardeners know, after digging up garlic, some of it will remain in the ground anyway, so you don't have to specially plant garlic (as many gardeners do) in a garden bed with a dugout trying to protect it from diseases …

Garlic plants grow in the vicinity of this crop so powerful that they are sometimes difficult to dig up. But keep in mind that garlic can cause nematode disease on strawberries. I have not seen this yet, but gardeners with many years of experience claim that this happens.

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Now about the garden bed itself. Its sizes and shapes can be very diverse: rectangular, L-shaped, round (for remontant and trellis varieties), square, long, narrow, wide - it all depends on your imagination, ease of care and the goals of growing.

When you start planting, prepare a "talker" - a mixture of mullein and clay. The solution should be in the form of thick sour cream. If you do not have a mullein, you can get by with clay and earth (in the event that you have sandy soil). Some people think this is wrong. However, when I plant the rosettes in this way, I have never lost a single plant, since the survival rate has always been 100%.

So, having made a hole, pouring water into it, dipping the roots of the rosettes into a "chatterbox" (if the roots are long, more than 7 cm, they are cut off), they are lowered into the hole, straightened along the entire depth (the roots should not be bent). Then, in 2-3 doses, the hole is covered with soil, be sure to compact it and prevent voids near the roots, while it is necessary to ensure that the apical bud (heart) is at the level of the soil. Typically, this planting gives 100% seedling survival. You can put a lupine leaf in the hole, 1/3 teaspoon of granular "AVA" fertilizer, sprinkle it lightly with earth, water and plant a rosette. This will provide additional nitrogen fertilization to accelerate plant development.

Dwarf Penelope variety during flowering

What kind of sockets should be in order for the survival rate to be so high? If you take them from your site, then they can be with small white roots (usually these are plants that have not yet rooted and take a long time when planting), but the sockets should only be of the 1st or 2nd order, and the number of leaves they must have at least three. If you buy planting material, then you need to choose a rosette with three leaves and a good root system.

You can plant sockets by placing them in 2 or 3 rows opposite each other or in a checkerboard pattern. The distance between plants is 30-35 centimeters, and between rows - 40-50 cm.

If you plant rosettes in July, then next summer your garden will delight you with a good harvest of berries. The rosettes, planted in late August - early September, will release 1-3 peduncles next summer, and you can only taste the berries.

As for pruning the leaf mass after fruiting, I do not do this, since this technique should be used only if your dwarf was sick and the leaves were damaged. The Penelope variety does not need this, on the contrary, the leaves will serve as a good mulch in winter, and most importantly - in spring with recurrent frosts so that your plants do not die.

And now about the beautiful.

The dugout can be grown not only as an edible and useful crop that quickly enters the season of fruiting, but also as an ornamental plant

Everyone is accustomed to the need to prepare separate beds for the dwarf, which are predominantly rectangular in shape. But I was convinced from my own experience that, in addition to the beds, a dugout can be grown by planting rosettes around a flower bed (and if you also have a lot of flower beds and varieties of dugout, then a certain variety can be planted around each). So you will save space, help the flower crops growing in the flower bed to successfully winter if the frosts are too strong, and decorate the flower bed, because besides flowers and berries, green leaves remain for a long time, and it even leaves for the winter without dropping them.

You can turn the path leading to the house with the bushes of the dugout, and this technique will also save space and get an additional harvest of berries.

The carpet method of growing earthworms is very good. It has several advantages. Firstly, it is less labor intensive, since it practically does not require weeding. Secondly, the frost resistance of plants increases, since there is little space between them, and the soil is almost completely covered with foliage.

Thirdly, you will not have problems with the destruction of the beds, since strawberries in this way are usually grown in a three-year culture, and it does not have time to form a large root system. At the same time, many gardeners who grow the dwarf in the usual way complain that it can be difficult for them to destroy the garden bed, since the plants develop a powerful root system, and they have to practically "uproot" each plant.

I don't have such problems. As soon as I no longer need the bed, I cut off all the leaves and leave them directly on it (if the foliage is not damaged by the pest), then I cover the bed with a layer of 20-30 cm with straw, freshly cut grass and other organic materials that you have at hand. After that, a layer of mullein should be put on the straw (mullein, especially fresh, accelerates the decomposition process), and then again a layer of hay. If there is no mullein, then add more grass. Then water the bed well (it is better if it is a solution of fermented weeds) and cover with foil. You can use any film - transparent or black - it doesn't matter. The main thing in this case is that the leaves of the earthworm rot very well and quickly.

After a month (and usually two weeks are enough) you can safely dig up the garden. This will be very easy and simple to do, since you do not need any physical effort. You need to dig up only with a pitchfork, you should not do this with a shovel. Working with a pitchfork, you will at the same time get rid of weeds and roots that have not rotted in the garden.

The disadvantages of the carpet method include the fact that the berries become smaller over the years, they are different in size and ripening period (even if you grow the same variety). If you are just starting to develop your site, then plant the landowner in free places in rabatki and in flower beds, around bushes and trees. This will allow you to have a decent harvest of tasty, aromatic berries in the second year after planting.

Good luck to everyone, health and big harvests of this magic berry!

Also read:

How to grow a dugout in the beds, dwarf varieties