Growing Garden Strawberries (strawberries) On Film

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

Mother plant is a guarantee of strawberry harvest

Garden strawberries are a beloved berry crop that has been propagated and grown in Russia for several centuries. With a high content of nutrients, this berry is considered to be a delicacy that adorns any festive table.

Every year, with the beginning of the next summer cottage season, gardeners look forward to the day when the first fragrant strawberries ripen. But, as you know, to get berries it is necessary to grow strawberry seedlings. You can, of course, buy ready-made planting material, but real gardeners like to do everything themselves, especially if there are favorite varieties that you don't want to part with.

× Gardener's handbook Plant nurseries Stores of goods for summer cottages Landscape design studios

To obtain seedlings, it is necessary to lay a mother plant. When laying it, healthy plants or offspring from healthy plants use it. But if you are confident in your varieties, then use what is available. Before planting plants, it is necessary to carry out preparatory work: select a plot of land, add the available organic matter (at the rate of 1 bucket of rotted manure per 1 m²), carefully dig up the garden bed. It is also advisable to use peat, because strawberries are very responsive to fertile soil. It is also necessary to apply pre-planting mineral fertilizers, here it is more convenient to use complex fertilizers, you just need to make sure that there is no chlorine in them, since it has a negative effect on strawberries.

For mulching the soil, you can use dark plastic wrap. When buying, you need to choose a high-quality film not thinner than 0.05 mm with polyvinyl additives. This will ensure its service life of at least five years.

After all, we will use this plantation as a mother plant for no more than two years, and in the future, this preparatory work guarantees a good, high-quality berry harvest for several years with minimal labor costs.

So, all the preparatory work on the garden bed was carried out, perhaps even in advance - in the fall, now on a flat surface we make markings with twine and pegs. In production, the recommended layout of plants is 90x70x30 cm, i.e. the distance between adjacent films is 90 cm - this is the row spacing, which can be further treated with herbicides or kept clean using mulching materials such as sawdust. You can also sow lawn grass in the aisles and mow it periodically. It is also possible to reduce the row spacing to 70 cm.

It is more profitable to carry out a two-line planting on a film with a distance between rows of up to 70 cm. Between plants in a row there is a gap of 30 cm on the mother plantation, on a fruit-bearing plantation 25 cm is enough. The width of the film is, as a rule, 1 or 1.2 m. Therefore, we hammer the pegs and stretch twine at a distance of 80-90 cm from each other. It is necessary to close up the film in very moist soil, which is convenient to do after the spring thaw of snow.

This is where a bayonet shovel comes in handy. We roll out the film over a short distance - about 2 meters - and close it up, preferably simultaneously from both sides, tilted at a slight angle with shovels, stick the edges of the film into the wet soil and press with the sole of the foot. Then we roll out another segment and another. Having reached the end of the intended row, we close the ends of the film along the twine in the same way.

Then we cut holes on the foil for planting plants in them. You can make a cruciform incision, but in this case it is necessary to carefully ensure that the planted plants are not covered with the edges of the film from above. It is more convenient to use a round hole with a diameter of 8-10 cm in the care process, it will be useful later for feeding. In the first year, weeds will need to be weeded in this hole until our plants take up the entire space.

Before planting, it is recommended to dip the roots of the seedlings in a mash made from a mixture of manure and clay 1: 2, diluted with water to the consistency of "thick sour cream". This technique has a beneficial effect on the work of root bacteria. During planting, special attention should be paid to ensuring that the root system is in close contact with the soil.

To do this, press it with four fingers - thumbs and forefingers. The root system should not be bent or folded. It is impossible to deepen the apical bud, the so-called "heart", otherwise it will be difficult for the plant to see the sunlight. The quality of planting can be checked: you need to slightly pull on the leaf, the plant should not easily come out of the ground.

If the planting was carried out in the fall, then in the spring it is necessary to revise the plantings, since the spring moisture bulges out the plants, and they "stand" on the roots. In this case, you need to push the plants - press them back into the soil.

Since the use of the film retains the maximum amount of moisture in the soil, watering is not necessary on such a plantation. But in the event of a severe drought and a noticeable lack of water, you can water the plants and feed them directly through the hole. × Notice board Kittens for sale Puppies for sale Horses for sale

A prerequisite for obtaining an earlier and higher quality planting material on your strawberry mother plant is the removal of peduncles. This agricultural practice has one more positive side - next year, when we transfer this plantation to fruiting, the matured plants will form a larger number of flower buds. The mother plants must be constantly monitored and phyto-purified. If there is a suspicion of any disease, then it is better to immediately remove such a plant by the root and burn it.

It was found that due to the use of the film, the beginning of the growth of vegetative shoots occurs 1.5-2 weeks earlier than without mulching, besides, the number of shoots increases. This is especially noticeable in late varieties, since a direct relationship was revealed between the ripening period of berries in strawberries and the formation of vegetative shoots and rosettes. For example, in the late Borovitskaya variety, the growth of shoots without a film begins on July 10, while when grown on a film - from mid-June.

On the film, the rosettes do not have the opportunity for rooting, therefore, by removing vegetative shoots with rosettes, we allow the mother bush to develop more actively, to lay a larger number of horns. This technique gives us rosettes that do not have time to accumulate infection, in contrast to the open field mother liquor, where the rosettes take root in the soil near the mother bushes.

Harvesting of rosettes can be started when there are two formed rosettes with root rudiments on the shoot. Summing up the number of harvested outlets on average for three years, we found that on the varieties Venta, Sudarushka, Divnaya, Festivalnaya and Junia Smides, already from July 5, cutting of the formed outlets is possible.

The optimal time for the preparation of outlets is from August 10. By this time, up to 24 pieces of standard outlets from one plant are formed, and in this case, in September we will have ready-made seedlings. After the first cut, the active growth of new shoots begins, and after regrowth within 30-40 days, a new portion of the rosettes is ready for rooting. Re-cutting the rosettes will provide ready-made seedlings for the next season, after overwintering, they can be used both as mother plants and for setting up a plantation for fruiting.

In order not to damage the mother plant, it is better to cut the shoots with rosettes with a sharp knife. And then, under shading conditions, cut into ready-made cuttings and lower them into water so that they do not wilt. The stalk is a rosette with root rudiments, 2-3 developed leaves, an apical bud and part of a whip (heel) no more than 2 cm for convenience when planting

After that, it is necessary to plant the prepared sockets on a ridge or in a special nursery made of any material (frame filled with soil). Strong soil moistening is required before planting. We stick the sockets with the heel into the soil and press the place where the roots should begin to grow more tightly to the ground, but do not deepen. In order not to confuse the varieties, they can be separated from each other with any available material (chips, sticks, etc.). Re-cut rosettes can be left for wintering in nurseries.

Plants can be planted according to the 5x5 cm scheme, this is a compacted planting for quick rooting within 3-4 weeks, the 10x10 cm scheme will provide seedlings with a developed root system and a maximum leaf surface. The optimal use of the area with the arrangement of plants 7x7 cm, as well as the sparse scheme, is suitable for overwintering strawberries.

Recently, the use of cassette technology for growing strawberries has been recommended. This is due to the fact that when transplanting seedlings with a closed root system, the plants are less damaged and do not get sick. In Finland and Norway, strawberry seedlings are grown using 5x5 cm cassettes, similar to vegetable seedling cassettes. In cassettes, good results are obtained when rooting apical rosettes, which practically have no root primordia, only emerging root tubercles. Within three weeks, with regular watering, a ready-made seedling is obtained; it is not necessary to keep the plants in cassettes longer, since the limited volume of the cassette retards the further development of the root system.

For the rooting period, for a more active formation of roots and leaves, it is recommended to use white lutrasil or spandbond as a covering material. It is a porous material that allows water to pass through and creates an optimal humidity regime. After planting, water the seedlings regularly, preventing the soil from drying out. During the first week, three to four waterings per day are sufficient, provided the weather is not very hot. It must be remembered: the higher the air temperature and solar activity, the more often you will have to water.

Under these conditions, after 30 days we will receive ready-made seedlings, which can be used for laying a new mother plant, since it is necessary to plant a mother plant every year. Moreover, it is most convenient to use it in this capacity for one year, and then transfer it to the category of a fruiting plantation. As a result, there may be 4-5 different-aged plantations on your site. In the last year, we grub up a fruit-bearing plantation and plant a young mother plant. This method of growing strawberries will allow us to have enough berries and a large number of seedlings, which will be enough not only for your site, but also for neighbors.