Elsanta strawberries: variety description, photos, reviews

Content

1 A little history
2 Description of the variety
3 Productive properties
4 Features of agricultural technology
5 Reviews from gardeners

It's hard to find a person who doesn't like fragrant strawberries. Almost all gardeners, even with small summer cottages, allocate a piece of land for planting garden strawberries. This means that you need to choose a variety so that several planted bushes will allow you to get a good harvest of berries.

Among the cultivated varieties of strawberries with good yields is the Elsanta strawberry. The attractiveness of garden strawberries is that they can be grown in an apartment, receiving a harvest all year round. Even the New Year's table can be decorated with fragrant berries grown on the windowsill. The features and rules for growing Elsanta strawberries will be discussed further.

A little history

Elsanta strawberries are a product of Dutch selection. The variety is relatively young, created in the late 90s of the last century. Its parents were two varieties - Gorella and Holiday. Its characteristics are the reference for a given crop; strawberry productivity is measured by it.

Attention! Large farms in Holland and Belgium still grow Elsanta strawberries, preferably in greenhouses.

Description of the variety

It’s hard to imagine Elsanta strawberries without a description of the variety, photos and reviews from gardeners. As the popularity of the variety grows, you need to know what it is:

The bushes are powerful, with medium foliage, erect.The leaves with noticeable fluff are large, lush green, and shiny. They are slightly concave inward. Leaves are highly wrinkled.
Elsanta strawberries can be recognized by their thick, tall flower stalks located flush with the foliage. The inflorescence produces many white flowers with a bright yellow center. Flowers of different sizes.
The Elsanta strawberry variety has large berries up to 50 grams. They are red and shiny. They have a cone shape, a medium-sized cup. The inner part is sweet, with a slight sourness (sugar -7.3%, acid - 0.77%).
Inside the berries are without voids, dense, crispy. It's the crunch that some people don't like.
There are a lot of seeds on the berry, they are yellow and clearly visible on the fruit.
In the Elsanta variety, the stalk comes off easily without damaging the berry.
In addition to the large number of peduncles, the variety is distinguished by its ability to produce a large number of mustaches. Elsanta strawberries have virtually no downsides.
Elsanta strawberries are resistant to many diseases characteristic of this crop, but can suffer from root rot and powdery mildew.
The culture is responsive to heat and sufficient moisture. Dry hot weather and insufficient watering lead to a decrease in the size of the berries, which negatively affects the yield.
Can be grown in open ground, but the best results are in greenhouses or greenhouses.
The variety is not frost-resistant, so it requires shelter for the winter.
It is zoned in many regions of central Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus.

The only drawback of the variety is that the bushes need to be replaced after three years.

In the video, the gardener shares his impressions of Elsanta strawberries:

Productive properties

Many gardeners are interested in the question of the remontability of the Elsanta variety.Let us immediately note that it does not belong to the remontant category, although this does not make its attractiveness any less:

The variety is high-yielding; if you follow the rules of agricultural technology, you can collect up to one and a half kilograms of juicy aromatic products from one bush, and up to 7000 kg from one hectare. This is why Elsinore strawberries (as they are sometimes called) are grown on an industrial scale.
Dutch strawberries can be stored in a room for more than 3 days, and in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, without losing their quality.
The presentation of the berries is not lost during long-term transportation, as gardeners write in reviews.
Elsanta strawberries are suitable for fresh consumption, making compotes, jams, preserves, and for freezing. After thawing, it does not lose its shape.

Attention! If you plant seedlings in flower pots on the windowsill, you can get a harvest all year round.

Features of agricultural technology

Landing

When planting Elsanta seedlings, you need to take into account the possibility of strawberry growth. It can be planted in two stripes with a distance between bushes of at least 25 cm, and row spacing up to 40-45 cm.

As a rule, experienced gardeners plant the variety in a new location in September. Judging by the reviews, larger berries ripen on fall-planted strawberries. The soil is well watered and the holes are prepared. The seedlings are crimped after planting. If this is not done, the roots may end up on the surface.

Advice! When planting Elsinore garden strawberries in a new place, the soil is not fertilized in order to preserve the characteristics of the variety.

This is not a simple statement. After all, gardeners have been breeding this variety for decades. According to their reviews, overfed strawberries become less viable. While bushes planted without feeding tolerate heat well.It is better to feed three-year-old plants. They will be working for the last year, and they need replenishment.

Important! Plants harden themselves and develop endurance.

The photo shows strawberries blooming in spring. You can imagine how many berries there will be.

Features of watering

Since Elsinore strawberries are varieties with low drought resistance, they require watering. After planting, the seedlings need to be watered every evening for 30 days. Then once a week. During fruiting, the soil should not be allowed to dry out. When it’s hot, the amount of water per square meter increases to 10 liters. Garden strawberries respond well to drip irrigation.

Warning! To prevent the large-fruited Elsanta from burning under the scorching sun, it is necessary to install a shelter over the garden bed.

All other agricultural techniques, according to gardeners with extensive experience in growing strawberries, are no different: loosening, weeding, pest control, disease prevention.

In general, Elsanta strawberries have positive reviews from gardeners. You need to have such plants on your site at least for variety.

Wintering

Elsanta strawberries will not be able to overwinter without shelter even in the southern regions of Russia. Arcs are pulled over the bed, a layer of straw or peat is poured, and dense non-woven material is placed on top.

Attention! In areas with a harsh climate, the Elsanta variety will have to be thoroughly covered.

Garden strawberry bushes need to be watered right up to the shelter. In winter, the bushes should be pruned and well mulched. Although the attitude towards pruning leaves is ambiguous, according to many gardeners, this procedure is necessary to increase the yield of Elsinore strawberries next year.You only need to trim the leaves, leaving the petioles so as not to damage the growing point. The photo shows how to do it correctly.

Cover the plants only with the onset of frost so that the strawberries have enough time to harden.

Reviews from gardeners

Angelina, 44 years old, Petrozavodsk

We tried Elsanta berries at a friend's dacha. I must say that we were surprised by the number of berries and their sweet and sour taste. We took planting material from them. We will grow it on our plot, because the Elsanta variety fully corresponds to the description.

Yaroslava, 35 years old, Kirov region

We have been growing Elsanta strawberries for a long time. As a girl, I learned how to care for garden strawberries from my mother. I have other varieties of strawberries on my plot, but this is the most unpretentious. Seedlings obtained from tendrils or cuttings can be planted anywhere. It grows and bears fruit. My children cannot be driven away from the beds once the first berries appear. Sweet and sour fruits are good in compote and jam. But we often freeze it. When you take the berries out of the chamber, the apartment immediately smells of summer.

Elena, 60 years old, Balashikha

The Elsanta variety is my favorite. I've been growing it for many years. I would like to give advice to novice gardeners: you should not plant plants densely. They will feel depressed, and productivity will decrease. I plant onions, garlic, and marigolds in between. They repel pests. I advise you to have at least a few Elsanta bushes on your site. There is no such delicious berry anymore.

Elizar, 46 years old, Novosibirsk city

I grow strawberries in a greenhouse all year round. I bought several seedlings of the Elsanta variety and planted them. The harvest was not bad, but the plants did not throw out the tendrils. I was already starting to worry, because buying planting material every three years is quite expensive.My fears disappeared after the last fruits were picked. The mustache appeared immediately, I rooted it and planted it in September. The first berries from the rooted bushes are ripe just in time for the New Year.

Strawberry Elsanta