Strawberry

Of all the above strawberry fruit crops occupies the first place on the content of vitamin C . In this respect, it can be compared only with lemon, which is most rich in this vitamin. Also, like other berries, it has a lot of mineral salts , pectin, cellulose and organic acids (Table 10) .

Sorta . The fruits of strawberries are not suitable for storage, therefore, wishing to ensure their collection at the site for a long time, you need to choose the appropriate grade . Collect the fruit of one species lasts 3 - 4 weeks and the difference in maturation between the earliest and most Late varieties may exceed 3 weeks . Thus, an appropriate choicevarieties able to collect fresh berries for 6 - 7 weeks .

This period can be extended for a further 2 weeks if expedite the receipt of the first strawberries growing under its plastic wrap . Thus, the total duration of the period of collection of strawberries can be more than two months . For fans can be recommended varieties of strawberries, fruiting twice a year: once in summer and once in the fall .

The following features fruits, especially their size and shape, characteristic only of the first fruits of harvest . Later fruits shrinking and their shape and color change frequently .

In the Non-Chernozem zone of the RSFSR zoned 31 grade . The most popular varieties of the following :

Granddaughter - sort of early ripening . Bush tall, compact, densely leafy . The leaves are large, light green . Flower stalks are located at or below the leaves, inflorescence semi-spreading, with long and slender pedicels . Flowers bisexual . The average weight of berries 6.2 g .

The first fruit of conical shape, with a rounded apex, without neck, the next - rounded-conical, bright red, pink on top . The flesh is light pink, tender, sweet-sour . The sugar content of 7.7% acid - 0.95%, Vitamin C - 73.7 mg% . Tasting score 4.1 points .

Zeng-Zengana - sort of medium ripening . Bush tall, compact, densely leafy . The leaves are dark green . Flower stalks are located at the level of the leaves, inflorescence compact, with long stalks . The flowers are medium sized, bisexual . The average weight of berries 10.5 g .

Berries tapered or rounded-conical, often angular, brick-red, shiny, with submerged achenes . Flesh is dark cherry, fairly dense, sweet and sour, with a pleasant aroma. Sugar content of 8.0%, acid - 0.90%, Vitamin C - 51.0 mg% . Grade appreciated for high palatability and good transportability . Tasting score 4.5points .

Talisman (Photo 32) - sort of middle ripening . A bush of medium height, compact, densely leafy . Flower stalks are at the leaf level . Flowers bisexual .

First gathering berries are large, the average weight of 13.2 g, very attractive, rounded-conical shape, red, shiny, often flattened laterally and light on the top . Yellow seeds . Light red pulp, medium density . sugar content of 8.0%, acid - 1.10%, Vitamin C - 52.8 mg% . Tasting score 4.5 points .

Early Maherauha - sort of early ripening . A bush of medium height, compact, densely leafy . The leaves are dark green, dull, plain . Flower stalks are located at the leaf level or below, quite thick . Flowers bisexual . The average weight of berries main collection 6.2 g . conical berries, raspberry-red, lighter on top of the pulplight red, juicy, sweet-sour, sugar content of 7.0%, acid - 1.05%, Vitamin C - 65.0 mg% . Tasting score 4.1 points .

The festival - a variety of medium ripening . Bush tall, compact, densely leafy . The leaves are large, dark green, with a bluish tinge dim . Flower stalks are below or at the level of the leaves, thick, low-spreading . Flowers bisexual . Berry first collection of large - up to 38 g (average weight of 8 - 10 g), oval, wide-neck,slightly flattened on both sides, with a longitudinal groove, bright red, the next - oblong, nearly rounded, lighter on top . The flesh is red, juicy, tender and very tasty . The sugar content of 6.8%, acid - 1 10% of vitamin C - 73.5 mg% . Tasting score 4 points .

Idun - one of the most winter-hardy varieties . The berries are medium or large enough (10 - 12 g), elongated, cone-shaped irregular coloring crimson-red, shiny, flesh is pink, sweet-sour taste. Sort is extremely yields and very long (more than a month) collection period . For processingunusable .

Madame Muto - late-yielding variety . Berries are very large, shapeless, deeply ribbed, brick-red with a green tint on the top, the taste is average, not suitable for recycling . The biggest advantage is the later ripening .

Hell, inexhaustible and Sakhalin - the three most famous ever-bearing varieties . First eat berries produced in summer, during the ripening of other varieties of strawberries, and the second - in the fall, before the frost. Re-abundance of flowering and fruiting is largely dependent on the soil fertility and careful maintenance, especially from irrigationplants during dry periods .

Hell - winter-hardy varieties, berries oblong-conical, bright red color, sour-sweet taste, the aroma is weak, the flesh is loose, to make jams and compotes are unsuitable .

Inexhaustible - winter-hardy varieties, the berries are large, blunt-conical mass of 15 g, red, shiny, flesh is firm, sweet with the fragrance, used in fresh and for making jam .

Sakhalin - winter-hardy varieties, the berries are large, conical, weight up to 17 g, the pulp is creamy with a strong flavor . Slightly damaged botrytis . Eaten fresh .

Soil requirements . Strawberry, especially if you can not provide its watering needs a very fertile soil, the depth of the arable layer may not be very large . This ground can be relatively easy to create (cm . "Preparation of the soil") .

Landing . Strawberries planted as early as possible, as soon as be able to get the earliest seedlings, ie in the second half of July . This will harvest the following year . You can plant strawberries and strawberry and later, before frosts or spring .

There are many systems bookmark strawberry plantations . The two main include: planting in rows and maintenance throughout the life of the plantation constant number of plants or the planting of single parent plants and receipt of overgrown seedlings greatly thickened continuous thickets . The second system allows receivethe largest crop of berries, but relatively small . Deterioration of the berries can not cultivate strawberries on such a system, more than one year . Different systems bookmark strawberry plantations are shown in Fig. 183 . All of them can be applied also in the garden sites .

At ordinary planting strawberries line spacing is 60 - 75 cm. And between the plants in the row - 20 - 25 cm, with a carpet uterine planting plants planted in 1 - 1.2 m, in this case again filled sprouting plants all space . On the industrial plantations, planting on this system, the ranks of parent plantsthrough a 1.2 m, and in the middle is left for the passage of narrow paths in the care and renting berries . This reminds Plantation continuous ridges or beds . When planting in this system over a large area of ​​a garden site should also provide a similar track .

If you have your own seedlings dig her just before landing with a large lump of earth and immediately put in a fairly moist soil, making sure that the roots do not tuck up and turned to the plant at an appropriate depth .

Purchase of seedlings, which are not planted immediately, carefully sprinkle the ground in a cool place, eg in the basement or on the north wall of the house, and watered . Seedlings for fast landing, too, is covered with earth, but not as thoroughly or at least put in the shade and watered . Plants planted a permanent place immediately with plenty ofwatered, and in hot weather cover slightly loosened straw .

Gardening . The most important work to care for strawberries is weeding .

Basic fertilizer manure strawberry is being made prior to planting plants . Mineral fertilizers in the future you do not make or feed the plants with a mixture of garden in an amount of 0.3 - 0.5 kg per 10 m2 . Fertilizing, especially with high doses, should be carried out in two stages: half the norm to make early spring and half after the removal of fruit .

An important work to care for strawberries is the removal of dead leaves in the early spring . Remove leaves and other plant remains should be burned .

Sometimes frost "pushes" the plants, especially the young, planted in the fall . In such cases it is necessary to compress their land .

Before flowering ground surface around the plants must be a way to improve the properties of the soil, rather than to feed garden plants .

With a lack of magnesium in the first place is dying leaf tissue between the veins, resulting from the leaves fall from the base of the shoots .

Magnesium, like calcium leached from the upper soil layers, and deposited in the bottom . To his lack of sensitive young trees that do not yet have a deep root system, as well as trees in the gardens, where in excess of making potash .

Boron and iron are the only micronutrient, a lack of which can be determined visually . The lack of boron results in the fruit pulp seals, which may also crack transversely . In addition, delayed the growth of shoots, there are spots on the bark of bronze, and even fall leaves .

Lack of boron - a rare phenomenon . It is usually small in sandy and calcareous soils . Obese black soil and forest rich in these elements . A large number of boron into the soil with manure .

On carbonate or calcium excess fertilizer trees soils may feel a lack of iron, which is manifested in the form of leaf chlorosis, which lose green color and turn yellow-green and even light yellow . Chlorosis appears on the youngest leaves as iron moves slowly in plants and does not flow into them from the oldleaves . If you find chlorosis caused by iron deficiency, you should stop fertilizing calcium and make the soil acidifying fertilizers such as ammonium sulfate . In the soil contains enough iron, but it is unavailable to plants due to the alkaline environment .

Need fruit trees in nutrient elements should be set on the basis of chemical analyzes of soil and plants and the subsequent selection of appropriate doses of fertilizer simple, ie nitrogen, potash, etc. . N . When the application rates can be guided by the recommendations given at descriptioncultivation of specific tree species . It should apply fertilizer sold in stores for a particular fruit crops .

When a magnesium deficiency or any other trace elements can be applied fertilizer type Riga mixture .

Very good to fertilize the soil with manure or compost . These organic fertilizers, except mineral substances, enrich the soil with humus, which improves its physical properties .

In addition to said organic fertilizers applied before planting trees after planting can be laid underneath a layer of manure thickness of 15 - 20 cm = 1 m or more . This helps the tree was good to take and ensure their subsequent normal development .

After 2 - 3 years after planting trees fed, each tree separately . Fertilizers scatter around the tree within a radius of a few beyond the crown . In subsequent years, the fertilizer evenly dispersed on the entire area of ​​the garden . It is best to make them in early spring or late fall, when the growth of the trees ended .