Do I Need To Trim The Mustache On Garden Strawberries? When To Do It?

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

The question, as they say, is an interesting one. It's all about what you want from the plant. First of all, I want to say that the mass use of the name "strawberry" is fundamentally wrong. Indeed, there is such a plant, strawberry, they say, even grows wild in forests, for example, in the Urals. Friends told me that they picked the berries of this plant in the forest, they are tasty, fragrant, and have a nutmeg aroma. Breeders have created several varieties of strawberries, but this plant is bisexual: on one bush there are only female flowers - berries will be tied on them after pollination, on the other male ones - for pollination. This fact itself suggests that the yield from such plantings will be lower. But, in addition, strawberries and fruits are much smaller than strawberries. I still have not had a chance to communicate with such a gardener or summer resident,who would grow any sort of strawberry.

And what grows in any garden plot, in the private gardens of villagers and in summer cottages is nothing more than garden strawberries (you can also add - large-fruited). It is this plant that has spread all over the world, many hundreds, maybe thousands of its varieties are known. But gardeners stubbornly call strawberries garden strawberries. Moreover, this term is already found in many gardening magazines and newspapers. Probably, gardeners are afraid that their garden strawberries will be confused with wild strawberries.

Now to the question of the mustache. They are really actively formed on plants of almost all varieties of garden strawberries. There are, however, varieties that drive out very few mustaches, and there are varieties that do not produce them at all. For example, these are large-fruited varieties of remontant strawberries: varieties Ali-Baba, Baron Solemakher, Ada, Ryugen, Sakhalin remontantnaya, Yellow miracle. And these varieties can be propagated either by dividing the bush or by seeds.

But most mustache varieties are kicked out, and quite a few. So what to do with them? There are two options here. The first is to remove all the whiskers, because the plant spends a lot of energy and nutrients on their formation, which means a decrease in the yield of garden strawberries (strawberries - again, as many people incorrectly call them).

The second option is to keep the mustache. For what? For propagation of this variety and creation of a new strawberry plantation. But there are many mustaches, some bushes literally entangle all the space around them. If they allow it, then you will see few berries. What is the way out?

There are again two ways. Very experienced gardeners who are seriously engaged in the cultivation of garden strawberries, and they need a lot of seedlings to plant more and more of its plantations, create special beds in their garden - mother plants, on which they plant the bushes of garden strawberries of the best varieties that they want to propagate. They plant them more freely, not like in the garden, so that there is room for the whiskers to protrude and successfully attach to the soil. Moreover, these gardeners even break off the entire ovary, preventing the fruit from forming, so that the mother plants do not waste their nutrients on this, and all their efforts are directed to forcing the whiskers and providing them with nutrition until the young plants themselves create a powerful root system and will feed from the soil. As a result, such gardeners on the mother liquor get strong,healthy seedlings of garden strawberries of the varieties they need, not only for their own needs, but also for sale to everyone.

As far as I understand, you - Marina - are a beginner gardener, if you are interested in the fate of the mustache on the bushes of garden strawberries. Usually, the first whiskers appear on them with the beginning of flowering, and the main, massive forcing of the whiskers occurs after the end of fruiting. Therefore, if you do not need young strawberry seedlings to renew or expand plantings, then remove the whiskers as they appear. Experts recommend not to cut them off, because you can harm the plant itself, and young bushes can generally be pulled out by pulling the mustache. They need to be cut with scissors or pruning shears, leaving a piece of antennae up to 10 cm long near the bush.

If you want to breed your garden strawberry varieties, then you need to keep the mustache, but not all. Usually, only the first, strong outlet is left, which is next to the mother bush, the rest are remote, weaker sockets and mustaches are cut off. And the first outlet can even be helped to settle down in its place. You can, while it has not formed a tuft of roots and rooted, even move it to the place you want. For example, if a bush died in this row in the neighborhood (frozen out), then in its place you can root this socket, which will eventually fill the free space. Or move the outlet to a free, sunny spot in the aisle, creating favorable conditions for it. In this case, you can even gently press the mustache near this outlet with a wire or wooden slingshot so that it comes into closer contact with the soil, you can add humus to it (without falling asleep with the heart) and even water it from time to time. Then this rosette will quickly form a healthy bush,which can be transplanted in August, separated from the mother plant, with a lump of earth to a permanent place set aside for a new plantation. Before the cold weather, such young seedlings will create a powerful root system, dense foliage and will easily endure the winter, and next summer they will please with the first harvest. But you need to take such sockets only from the very first whiskers, which the strawberries expel at the beginning of flowering and preferably from those plants that were very productive last season. Or, wait until the garden strawberries yield a harvest in the current season and choose the first rosettes from the most productive varieties and bushes of this variety.and next summer will please you with the first harvest. But you need to take such sockets only from the very first whiskers, which the strawberries expel at the beginning of flowering and preferably from those plants that were very productive last season. Or, wait until the garden strawberries yield a harvest in the current season and choose the first rosettes from the most productive varieties and bushes of this variety.and next summer will please you with the first harvest. But you need to take such sockets only from the very first whiskers, which the strawberries expel at the beginning of flowering and preferably from those plants that were very productive last season. Or, wait until the garden strawberries yield a harvest in the current season and choose the first rosettes from the most productive varieties and bushes of this variety.

I repeat, it is advisable to leave only the first rosettes formed near the mother plant, and there should be no more than three such outlets from this bush (from different whiskers). Otherwise it will weaken the plant.

On the timing of pruning: here or you need to constantly prune, preventing the spread of the mustache throughout the plantation (if you do not need planting material), or cut off all the mustache after the end of fruiting.

E. Valentinov

Photo by Olga Rubtsova

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