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The range of varieties of garden strawberries increases every year. Thanks to breeders, new plants appear that differ not only in taste, but also in the color of the berries. There are few gardeners who would not want to have exotic plants on their property.
Strawberry Black Prince is an unusual and promising variety that stands out for its glossy dark burgundy berries. Description, characteristics, reviews from gardeners, features of agricultural technology will be covered in the article.
Description
The Black Prince strawberry variety is relatively young, which is why a limited number of gardeners know about it. The creators are breeders from Italy. Strawberries are intended not only for summer cottages, but also for large agricultural enterprises.
According to the description given by the manufacturers, and according to reviews from gardeners, the Black Prince strawberry belongs to the mid-season varieties. Already in the second decade of June, the first berries ripen.
You can pick strawberries until autumn, since the plant bears fruit for a long time.
Features of bushes
4-5 years after planting, the plants surprise with spreading and powerful bushes that from a distance resemble potatoes or tomatoes. The foliage of medium-sized strawberries is rich green, glossy, with clearly visible corrugation.
Garden strawberries of Italian selection are distinguished by powerful, tall peduncles, on which a large number of ovaries are formed. Already in early June, the bushes are strewn with green berries. Here they are in the photo.
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When the berries begin to ripen en masse, the flower stalks bend to the ground. In the first years after planting, a sufficient number of tendrils are formed for reproduction. But the older the bush, the lower the formation. This must be taken into account so as not to be left without strawberry seedlings.
Berries
The fruits of the variety are quite dark, perhaps for this reason the name appeared. There are many seeds on the dark burgundy surface of the berries. They are also dark, located on the surface, so the berries of the Italian selection are prickly to the touch.
Berry weight up to 50 grams. The dense fruits have the shape of a truncated cone. Inside, the strawberry pulp is deep red, without white streaks or voids. The berries are tasty, sweetish with a subtle hint of sourness.
Application
Strawberry Black Prince, according to the description of the variety and reviews, is a berry of universal use. They can be eaten fresh, made into jam, marmalade, jams, homemade wine, liqueurs.
Productivity
Italian breeders have created a high-yielding strawberry variety, Black Prince, which can be grown throughout Russia both in open and protected ground. Over a long period of fruiting, one garden strawberry bush produces up to 1200 grams of delicious, sweet berries with strawberry flavor.
Farmers highly value the variety, because with the right agricultural technology you can harvest up to 20 tons from one hectare.
Characteristics
It is not only the original taste and external characteristics of strawberries that attract gardeners. But you can better understand the characteristics of the variety by getting acquainted with the characteristics.
First, let's talk about the advantages of the Black Prince:
- High taste, abundant yield.
- The strawberry variety can be grown in one place for up to 10 years, increasing the yield of finished products every year.
- Dense berries can be stored for up to two weeks; they do not leak or lose their shape.
- Excellent transportability contributes to the cultivation of varietal strawberries on an industrial scale.
- The variety is winter-hardy and tolerates frosts down to 20 degrees. A slight drop in spring temperatures does not harm plants.
- Strawberries rarely get sick due to their high immunity.
Despite such an abundance of advantages, the variety has some disadvantages:
- plants can hardly tolerate drought, so soil moisture must be constantly monitored;
- Difficulties arise when obtaining planting material, since adult Black Prince strawberry bushes do not produce mustaches.
The variety of Italian selection is proven and reliable:
Features of the technology
In order for a variety of strawberries to successfully bear fruit for many years, you need to select a good site for planting it.
Selecting a location
- Black Prince seedlings need to be planted in fertilized light soil. It is impossible to obtain a large harvest in heavy clay areas.
- The beds are located in sunny areas protected from cold winds. Plants of the variety do not grow well in places with high groundwater levels.If there is no other place in the dacha, you will have to make high ridges, at the bottom of which reliable drainage is laid.
- When preparing the planting site, a large amount of organic matter is added and the soil is treated with peat-humic fertilizers, for example, Flora, Fitop. This will improve the soil structure. A bed of strawberries should not be located next to potatoes or eggplants.
- The best neighbors are cereals, beans, peas, carrots, onions and garlic. These plants are also planted between strawberry bushes.
Planting seedlings
You can grow seedlings of the variety Black prince from seeds, but this process is labor-intensive. It is best to use seedlings that need to be purchased from reliable suppliers, for example, from the seed company Siberian Garden, Altai Gardens, Becker.
Planting stages:
- after digging, prepare the holes, pour half a liter of warm water into each;
- strawberry seedlings are lowered into a hole, the root system is straightened and sprinkled with soil;
- the heart should remain above the surface at a height of 1-2 cm;
- the soil must be well compacted to remove air pockets;
- After this, the plantings are watered and sprinkled with mulch.
For mulching, you can use rotted sawdust, straw or cut green grass that has not yet formed seeds.
While the Black Prince strawberries are taking root, they need to be watered regularly. The drip irrigation system does an excellent job and is easy to install.
Planting care
The Black Prince strawberry itself is not capricious. But, like any cultivated plant, it requires compliance with cultivation technology.Let's consider this issue in more detail.
Watering and loosening
Plants of this variety, as noted in the description, do not tolerate drought well. Watering is especially important, daily, immediately after planting seedlings, during flowering and ripening.
You should not be overzealous with watering, since if water stagnates, diseases of the root system can develop, and the berries themselves will lose their taste. And such fruits cannot be stored for a long time.
Gardeners who have been working with the Black Prince variety for many years advise in reviews to make grooves between the rows of strawberries in order to water and feed the bushes through them. Plantings should be watered in the evening, after sunset.
Each watering of strawberries is necessarily accompanied by loosening the soil in order to remove the crust that does not allow oxygen to the roots and to destroy emerging weeds.
Feeding rules
Strawberry varieties can be fed with liquid and dry fertilizers. Liquid solutions are used for root and foliar feeding of bushes (the concentration is two times less). You can sprinkle dry fertilizer over the surface of the soil.
Feeding scheme
- The first feeding is carried out in the spring. To do this, use nitrogen-containing fertilizers to increase green mass. You can use ammonium nitrate, ammonium sulfate or urea. Fertilizers are used strictly according to instructions!
- During the period of budding and formation of ovaries, nitrogen fertilizing cannot be carried out, as you may lose the harvest. At this time, plants need phosphorus.It is a good idea to water the strawberry plantings with a solution of wood ash, which contains all the micro and macroelements necessary for the growth, development and ripening of the fruit.
- For the third time, strawberries of the Black Prince variety are fed with complex mineral fertilizer when the berries ripen. Organic followers can use an infusion of green herbs.
The harvest is in...
When the last berry is harvested, the plantings need to be prepared for winter:
- First, cut out the old leaves and remove the mulch.
- The ridges are weeded and the soil is loosened.
- Add organic fertilizers (peat, compost, humus), covering the exposed root system.
- Before the onset of frost, strawberries are covered with a layer of earth to ensure reliable wintering. Some of the Black Prince bushes can be transplanted into large flower pots to have fresh berries in winter.
- If the temperature in the region is below -20 degrees, the strawberry beds need to be thoroughly covered.
