Garden strawberry is one of the most beloved berries. It is delicious, fragrant and simply beautiful. We often call it strawberries, although these are different plants. Berries appear in early summer, and the season of ripe wild strawberries lasts for one month, during which time you need to have time to replenish the body’s reserves with vitamins, which are especially rich in the fruits of this plant. It is believed that for this it is necessary to eat at least four kilograms of fragrant berries. In recent decades, through the efforts of breeders, many repairing varieties have been obtained that bear fruit throughout the summer.
Each summer resident first of all tries to grow this particular berry on his plot. What are the features of its cultivation, what kind of care is required for garden strawberries?
Breeding and landing
To grow this plant, you need to choose a sunny piece of land with fertile soil. Garden strawberries propagated by individual outlets, so for planting you need to prepare a sufficient amount of seedlings. You can plant seedlings in early spring or in August-September. The soil of the selected area before planting must be prepared: carefully remove all weeds, dig to a depth of 20 centimeters, make fertilizers - superphosphate and humus. After this preparation, you need to make holes for seedlings at a distance of 30 centimeters from each other. Before planting, the seedlings are dipped in a mash box consisting of a clay solution with the addition of heteroauxin. Planted plants are carefully watered from a watering can to compact the earth in the root area and lightly cover it with soil or sand.
After planting, seedlings need care, which consists in daily watering. The soil should be moderately moist at all times. After 2-3 weeks, young plants of garden strawberries take root, as evidenced by the appearance of new leaves in the centers of outlets. The strawberry garden blooms the next year after planting and gives the first crop of berries. Good fruiting occurs for three, maximum five years, after which the plants need to be replaced with new ones.
Care for strawberry garden
In order for strawberries to always please a good harvest, she needs special care. In early spring, after the snow melts, the site needs to be cleaned of dry leaves, loosen the ground, feed the plants with mineral fertilizers. Soon, strawberry garden begins to grow rapidly - there are many new leaves, and after another two or three weeks in the center of each outlet flower buds appear. At this time, a second top dressing with organic fertilizers is done. During the period of active spring growth, strawberries need to be well weeded at least once.
Flowering begins in mid-May, shortly after it, berries begin to sing. Harvest must be done regularly, preventing the appearance of overripe berries. During fruiting, regular watering is recommended to increase yield.
After harvesting, some gardeners advise strawberries to mow. This stimulates subsequent plant growth. Strawberries unfreeze in a vegetative way, growing a mustache with new rosettes. If mowing it is considered optional, then you must always remove the mustache, as this increases the yield. In a dry summer, a site with strawberries should be regularly watered, once a week, drip irrigation gives good results.
In late September - early October, you need to start preparing the site with wild strawberries for the winter. To do this, weeds are removed, the soil is loosened, and with the onset of cold weather the bushes are covered with fallen leaves, which will protect them from freezing. The fallen snow covers the leaves and warms the strawberries even better, which contributes to its good wintering.