Content
- 1 Differences between remontant strawberries and regular ones
- 2 Varieties of remontant strawberries
- 3 Transplanting
- 4 How to prepare remontant strawberries for wintering
- 5 Caring for overwintered bushes
- 6 Propagation of remontant varieties
- 7 Propagation by seeds
- 8 Sowing and growing seedlings
- 9 How to choose the right variety
It's hard to meet a person who doesn't like strawberries. It is good both in its natural form and with cream; It is used as a filling in dumplings, aromatic jams and delicious jams are prepared. Strawberries do not bear fruit for long; in order to enjoy the freshly grown tender berries, you have to wait until the next season.
Have you heard the term “repairability”? The origin of this name is of French origin, translated as “repeated flowering”, and means that the plant is capable of bearing fruit multiple times during the season. Repairers Some varieties of citrus fruits and raspberries show signs. And strawberries have many remontant varieties, among them there are even beardless varieties.If you can get a repeated harvest of berries in a season, then questions arise: remontant strawberries, what does this mean, what are the secrets of caring for these varieties, when and how to plant them, how to propagate them, does the plant need increased watering and fertilizing. In this article, you will learn how to properly care for remontant bushes to get the most out of them.
Differences between remontant strawberries and regular ones
Remontant varieties have common properties with ordinary strawberries: the bushes also overwinter under the snow without shedding their leaves, and their flower stalks suffer from the lightest and shortest frosts. Remontant species require close attention: more frequent watering and feeding are caused by increased load on plants, and constant fruiting accelerates the aging of bushes. All gardeners know the amazing vitality of ordinary garden strawberries; remontant varieties have their own characteristics: they require more care and frequent replacement of bushes, but they delight you with berries until the fall.
Varieties of remontant strawberries
This culture is classified according to several criteria. One of them is the formation of kidneys. Some remontant varieties are capable of forming buds under NSD-neutral daylight hours, while others form buds only under long daylight hours (LDD). Ordinary garden strawberries set buds during short daylight hours (SDD), which is why they differ from remontant varieties. Bags of remontant seeds are marked as NSD and DSD. When choosing, keep in mind that the yield is higher in remontant species with NSD.
Remontant varieties are also classified according to the presence or absence of whiskers. Each type has advantages and disadvantages.
Bearless strawberry
Without a mustache variety (alpine remontant strawberry) is better resistant to diseases, less capricious in location growing, requires replanting less often, bears fruit throughout the season without interruption. The absence of mustaches allows you to get a stable harvest, reduces labor costs for caring for the bed and saves space. Alpine remontant strawberries tolerate lack of moisture and heat worse than usual, so on hot days they should be shaded. You can propagate beardless strawberries either by sowing seeds or by dividing the mother bush, when the rhizome of an old, three-to-four-year-old plant dies and breaks up into several parts.
Mustachioed Strawberry
The mustachioed remontant varieties produce less mustache than ordinary garden strawberries, and are good because they begin to bear fruit already in the year of planting, giving two harvests, the second of which is much more abundant. The berries are larger than those of the beardless remontant varieties, but the bush, depleted by the abundant harvest, may die at the end of the season.
Transplanting
Remontant strawberries feel best on light (loamy or sandy loam) soils with a neutral or slightly acidic reaction. The site for growing remontant species should be located on a small hill to prevent moisture stagnation. Planting can be done both in autumn and spring, having prepared the soil ahead of time: for spring planting in the fall, and for autumn planting in the spring.
Preparing the soil in advance
The rules for preparing soil for planting remontant varieties are simple, but they are important for the subsequent harvest.Dig the ground with a pitchfork, select the rhizomes weedy herbs Add humus, compost or mullein at the rate of a bucket of organic matter per 1 m2 soil and fill with wood ash, five kg per square meter. About a month before planting the bushes, for each m2 add a tablespoon of potassium phosphate or 40 g of superphosphate mixed with 10 g of potassium sulfate.
Rules for planting seedlings
A day before planting seedlings, loosen the soil to a depth of about 15 cm and prepare the holes. Their depth should be slightly greater than the height of the roots. Make a small mound at the bottom of the planting hole to evenly spread the strawberry roots over it, and water it. In cloudy weather, or in the evening, carefully transfer the seedlings from the cups into the hole. You can inspect the roots: cut off any damaged or too long (over 10 cm) roots. Dip the root system of the seedling into a mash of the consistency of thick sour cream, prepared from soil and humus with the addition of stimulants for root formation, such as Epin, Kornevin or similar preparations.
These rules are common for spring and autumn planting of seedlings.
Placing seedlings on a ridge
Depending on the size of the bed allocated for planting remontant strawberries, there are two methods of placing bushes: row and carpet. In the first case, the distance between seedlings is 20-25 cm, each row is located 70 cm from the previous one. The second method involves placing bushes according to a 20x20 cm pattern. After planting, remontant species do not need feeding.
Disembarkation dates
One of the features of remontant strawberries is fruiting in the first year, so in warm regions you can plant seedlings in the spring, mulching the plantings with straw, peat, or agrofibre. Mulching will reduce the number of waterings and loosening of the soil, and will also slow down the growth of weeds. In the middle zone, the spring soil is not warmed up enough, so autumn planting of remontant varieties is becoming increasingly popular. In autumn, planting periods are a month and a half, from late July to early September, depending on the region. If the berries have already been grown on the site, then there is also planting material. Planted in the fall, remontant strawberries will get stronger by the next season and produce their first spring harvest.
How to prepare remontant strawberries for wintering
Young plants planted in the fall have time to take root and grow a foliage rosette before the onset of frost. To help the bushes get stronger, for the first week after planting they need to be watered every two days in the morning with warm water at the root, without flooding the leaves. From the second week, watering is reduced, but the soil should not dry out, make sure it is loose and moist.
Pest protection
Remontant strawberries growing in open ground are affected by pests. To destroy insects preparing for winter in the upper layers of the soil, carefully, without damaging the roots, loosen the soil 6-8 cm deep and treat the soil with a solution of Karbofos, at the rate of 3 tbsp. spoons per 10 liters of warm water, and cover with film for three hours.
Disease Prevention
To combat pathogens, treat the soil with a 2% solution of Bordeaux mixture.You can use copper oxychloride by dissolving one tablespoon of the substance in ten liters of water.
If you are a supporter of ecological farming, then the following composition prepared for 10 liters of water will help protect remontant strawberry bushes from fungal diseases and specific pests:
- Wood ash – 2 tbsp. spoons;
- Heavily overcooked vegetable oil - 3 tbsp. spoons;
- Vinegar 9% – 2 tbsp. spoons;
- Liquid soap – 2 cups.
Mix all the ingredients well and treat the ridge, wetting both the soil and the bushes themselves.
Bush pruning
If the bushes of remontant strawberries planted in the fall have managed to grow a good foliage rosette, then there is no need to prune it until the bushes survive a couple of light frosts. And when the tendrils begin to grow, they should be removed so that the plant does not waste energy on growing tendrils, but strengthens the roots. Check the condition of the soil under the bushes: the roots should be covered with soil. If strawberry roots are bare, add soil on top of them.
Mulching the soil
If you spread mulch around the bushes when planting them, then by winter you will need an additional layer of cover to protect the soil from freezing. For winter mulch, take straw, dry leaves, peat, spruce branches or sawdust and spread a mulch layer about 5 cm thick. Cover remontant strawberries when stable frosts set in, otherwise early covered bushes may rot.
Preparing for wintering adult bushes
The key to a good harvest next year will be the proper preparation of adult bushes of remontant varieties for winter. The plant worked all summer producing berries and became very weak. After harvesting, cut off all late flowers, they obviously will not have time to ripen and will take away the plant’s strength.In the fall, remontant strawberry bushes should be fed so that the formation of buds for the next season is successful. Fertilized bushes will overwinter better and recover faster in the spring. Autumn fertilizing includes a potassium-phosphorus complex in liquid or dry form, but there is no need to use nitrogen fertilizers in the fall so that the remontant strawberry bush does not grow excess green mass. For supporters of ecological farming, we can recommend adding compost.
More detailed information on autumn feeding of remontant varieties is presented in the table:
| Mullein and bird droppings | We only take the fermented one. Dilute 1 liter of organic matter in 10 liters of water and infuse. Before use, add 125 g of wood ash per bucket |
|---|---|
| Slurry | Dilute 1 liter in 8 liters of water and insist until thick sour cream |
| Green fertilizers | Mown grass or legume green manures are placed between the rows |
| Wood ash | Pour into ridges and row spacing, per 1 m² - 150 g; |
| Potassium and phosphorus | In dry form, potassium salt (20 g) and superphosphates (10 g). Scatter between plants, or use as a solution, water between beds. |
| Complex | Mix 250 g of ash, 2 tablespoons of “Nitrophoska” and 20 g of potassium fertilizer, dilute in 10 liters of water. Stir, pour a liter per bush. After two days, mulch with sawdust or peat chips. |
Caring for overwintered bushes
In March, nitrogen fertilizers can be sprinkled over the garden bed, directly on top of the snow cover. In April, the time comes to feed strawberries with mineral and organic fertilizers; they are applied by mulching the soil.During the period of active growth, flowering and fruiting, monitor the condition of the plants, water, loosen and feed in a timely manner. Repairing strawberries are affected by the same diseases, as ordinary varieties, and their pests are the same, so to identify the problem and eliminate it, use the same methods as for ordinary garden strawberries.
Propagation of remontant varieties
The maximum productive life of remontant strawberries is three years. This is due to the high load on the bush, which is depleted by continuous fruiting. If you plan to renew the bushes, then you can safely use your own planting material by rooting first-order tendrils. Select the most promising bushes of remontant strawberries, and do not allow them to bear fruit a second time, i.e., cut off the flower stalks. Dig plastic cups near the bushes, point the tendrils towards them and pin them. After the formation of a young bush and its rooting, you can separate the young plant from the mother bush and plant it in the ground, as described above. Mustacheless remontant strawberry varieties propagated by dividing the bush or sowing seeds.
Propagation by seeds
If you are not afraid of the hassle, then you can grow remontant strawberries from seeds, a wide selection of which can be found in any garden supermarket. If remontant varieties grow on your site that suit you in all respects, then use your own seed material. To collect seeds from your bushes, you need to choose the largest and ripest berries. Place the berries in a bowl and place them in a sunny window. After 4 days, soften the strawberries with your hands and soak in water, changing it several times.Remove the pulp, and the seeds that have settled to the bottom can be used for further sowing.
Sowing and growing seedlings
Sowing seeds for seedlings is carried out in February-early March. The sowing soil must be loose, disinfected, and have a moisture content of at least 70%. Scatter the seeds over the surface, sprinkle a thin layer of sand on top and moisten it with a spray bottle, not allowing the soil to dry out. To reduce evaporation, the box with seed should be covered with glass. Carry out germination in a cool, shaded place. As soon as the seeds of the remontant strawberry hatch, the glass can be removed and the seedlings moved to a lighted place. Before planting seedlings, they should be hardened off in the usual way. The process of spring planting of remontant bushes is similar to autumn planting.
How to choose the right variety
We carefully examined the processes of propagation of remontant strawberries, their planting, and winter care and made sure that the agricultural technology of ordinary garden strawberries and remontant strawberries is similar. The differences lie in a shorter period of fruiting and more frequent watering, fertilizing and loosening of remontant varieties.
By planting remontant strawberries, you will provide yourself with tasty berries at the end of summer, but in the spring there will not be so many fruits. To enjoy plenty of strawberries at the beginning of summer, plant their usual varieties. By combining remontant and regular varieties with different fruiting periods in one area, you will get enough berries for fresh consumption and for preservation for the winter.
Domestic and foreign breeders have created a huge number of varieties of short-, neutral- and long-day strawberries. Short-day strawberries are common garden strawberries, and the other two varieties are remontant species. It is necessary to recommend a specific variety in each specific situation; there are no general rules. Each gardener has his own conditions: the climatic zone of his residence, the location of the plot, and everyone has different taste preferences. Among the variety of remontant varieties, each person will be able to choose the most suitable option for him.
