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There is probably no more desirable berry than a sweet strawberry. Its taste and aroma are familiar to many from childhood. Strawberries are grown on their plots by gardeners in different parts of the world. In Russia, the crop is also widespread: it is grown in the southern, central and northern zones of the country, including in the Urals. The climatic features of the region require the gardener to follow certain rules for growing this berry. Farmers, in turn, offer special cold-resistant plants for cultivation. strawberry varieties. Detailed information on how to get a good harvest of tasty berries in the Urals can be found below in the article.
A little about strawberries
What we all used to call strawberries is actually a herbaceous plant of the strawberry genus. In botany they call it that: musky or nutmeg, garden strawberry. Plants tolerate winter frosts well in the presence of snow cover. However, drought can be disastrous for them.The berry can be grown in sunny or slightly shaded areas of the ground.
Varieties for the Urals
There are many different varieties of strawberries, however, not all of them are suitable for the climate of the Urals. Choosing a variety for growing strawberries in the Urals in open ground, you need to pay attention to the following criteria:
- increased winter hardiness;
- immunity to pests and diseases;
- ability to grow in conditions of high humidity, resistance to rot;
- precocity;
- high yield, large berries and good taste of the fruit.
Focusing on these simple criteria, you can independently choose from the entire variety of existing varieties suitable for the Urals. Breeders offer a number of zoned remontant and non-remontant varieties of strawberries.
Non-repairing varieties
Regular, non-repairing strawberries bear fruit once per season. Its main advantage is its large and very tasty berry. Garden varieties are more resistant to weather anomalies and moisture deficiency. And even if, due to some circumstances, the strawberry leaves partially fall off, the bushes will quickly grow new foliage. The disadvantages of ordinary strawberries include low yield.
For the conditions of the Urals, among the non-repairing varieties, the best are “Amulet”, “Zarya”, “Asia”, “Honey” and some others. Due to their high resistance to cold, they can be safely grown in open areas of land.
Remontant varieties of strawberries
Among professional farmers there are many admirers of remontant berries.The thing is that it is characterized by high productivity and a long fruiting period. Per season remontant strawberry bears fruit in two stages. The first stage of fruit ripening occurs in early spring. At this time, you can harvest up to 30% of the entire seasonal harvest. The second stage of fruiting of remontant strawberries occurs at the end of summer. During this period, 70% of the crop ripens.
For the Urals, we can recommend such remontant varieties as “Lyubava”, “Geneva”, “Brighton”. The continuous fruiting variety “Queen Elizabeth II” is also suitable for the harsh climatic conditions of the Urals.
Features of growing berries in the Urals
You can plant strawberries in the ground in the Urals in early spring or early autumn. Planting plants in the spring can deprive the owner of the harvest this year, so this is often done in late August - early September. This planting schedule allows young plants to adapt to new conditions, take root and gain enough strength for a successful winter.
Under favorable conditions, strawberry seedlings may begin to grow mustaches before the onset of winter. Unfortunately, they need to be removed, since young plants unreasonably spend too much effort on their maintenance.
Grow strawberries in the Urals can be done in open ground using traditional technology or using progressive techniques. Each method has its own characteristics, however, the basic rules of cultivation remain unchanged.
Planting strawberries in the ground
Strawberries can be grown in beds or in continuous plantation-type plantings. The beds should be high mounds, with gentle edges. It is recommended to plant strawberries on the beds in two rows.Between them you can make a small groove into which a hose for drip irrigation will subsequently be placed.
The density of planting is of particular importance. The thing is that dense plantings contribute to the development of all kinds of diseases; the leaves and berries of plants receive little light and are poorly ventilated. Strawberry seedlings should be arranged in a checkerboard pattern. The distance between rows can be from 30 cm. Strawberry bushes in the same row should be planted no closer than 20 cm to each other.
Before planting strawberry seedlings, you should take care of the nutritional value soil. This is especially important for the conditions of the Urals. Thus, manure embedded in the soil will additionally warm the plants in this cold climate. Manure can be placed in the soil during the fall of digging the earth or in the spring, just before planting. As with other crops, rotted manure should be used for strawberries, while horse excrement will give off the maximum amount of heat.
In addition to manure, some minerals, namely potassium and phosphorus, must be added to the soil before planting strawberry seedlings. These microelements will speed up the process of plant rehabilitation in new conditions and improve the taste of the berries. So, before planting seedlings, potassium sulfate and superphosphate should be added to the soil, in amounts of 15 and 40 g of each substance, respectively. You can replace these fertilizers with natural wood ash. In dry form, it is sprinkled on the surface of the soil during digging. Nutrients can also be added directly to the holes before planting.
Plant care
Having planted plants in the fall, they must be watered before the onset of cold weather as the soil dries out. For irrigation you need to use warm water (+200WITH). Strawberries can be watered by sprinkling.
In some cases, strawberry bushes planted in the fall begin to produce flower stalks, but they must be removed so that the plants gain enough strength for winter. With the arrival of cold weather, strawberry plantings must be covered with a layer of geotextile and spruce branches. This will prevent the plants from freezing in winter.
Spring chores
With the arrival of warmth, in April, the covering material from the ridges must be lifted and the plants fed with complex fertilizer. Dry leaves and litter should be removed from the garden beds and the bushes should be trimmed.
An example of how to do it right prune strawberries in spring, shown in the video:
When the first flowers appear, it is recommended to feed the strawberries a second time. To do this, you can use complex fertilizers “Iskra”, “Alatar” or others. At the same time, it would be useful to fertilize the strawberries with wood ash. Whiskers that appear on plants still need to be removed. They can be planted on the mother bed for rooting and growing green mass, and then transferred to a place of permanent growth.
Before the first berries appear, strawberry bushes must be regularly watered and fertilized. At this time, you can use drip irrigation or sprinkling. Potash and phosphate fertilizers can be added to water for irrigation. Also, as necessary, weeds must be removed from the beds and loosened.
How to increase and protect your harvest in summer
After the berries form and as they ripen, it is recommended to use only drip irrigation, since moisture on the surface of the berries can cause them to rot. If you observe symptoms of infection with viral or fungal diseases, strawberries must be treated with special antiseptic agents. In this case, Bordeaux mixture at a concentration of 1% will remove harmful microflora on plants and in the soil, as well as feed strawberries and improve the process of fruit formation. This product can be used for therapeutic and prophylactic purposes.
Fertilize strawberries During the ripening of berries, mineral complexes should not be used, since the fruits can accumulate nitrates. If necessary, you can use yeast fertilizers or organic matter for feeding.
You can feed strawberries with a solution of fresh yeast prepared in a ratio of 1:10. Fertilizing with bread infusion is also an effective remedy. To do this, the crusts of yeast bread are soaked in water and after infusion, the resulting mass is spread on a bed of strawberries, embedding it into the soil by loosening it. A large amount of harmless nitrogen is contained in coffee grounds, which can also be applied to the soil. Traditional feeding with mullein and herbal infusion also allows the plants to gain enough strength to produce a large number of tasty and healthy berries.
After harvesting the garden, I don’t forget
After harvesting the berries of the first wave of the harvest, the plants should be fed with a mineral complex fertilizer. If we are talking about ordinary strawberries, then before the onset of cold weather it is necessary to additionally treat the plants against insects and fungi.To do this, you can use wood ash or Bordeaux mixture, iodine (8 drops per bucket of water). It is worth noting that dusting strawberries with wood ash repels some insects, prevents the development of fungal diseases and feeds the plants with phosphorus, potassium, calcium and other minerals. After fruiting, you should also not allow the soil on the ridges to dry out, periodically carrying out moderate watering of the plants.
If we are talking about a remontant plant, then a few weeks after picking the first wave of berries you will be able to see a new stage of flowering. At this time, strawberries must be watered abundantly, fertilized and treated with pest control agents. In the absence of such care, the berries of the second wave will be small and “ugly”. After picking the berries, it is necessary to fertilize the plants once again with mineral fertilizers.
With the onset of cold weather, regardless of the frost resistance of the variety, it is recommended to cover strawberries in the open ground of the Urals to prevent freezing. Geotextiles, burlap, polyethylene, and spruce branches can be used as covering materials.
Thus, growing strawberries in the open ground of the Urals consists of a number of successive stages, during which it is necessary to take into account the stage of plant vegetation. Timely, proper watering and a sufficient amount of fertilizing allow you to get a good harvest of berries many times over without depleting the plants of remontant varieties.
Methods for growing strawberries in the open ground of the Urals
The given technology for growing plants fully complies with the rules for growing strawberries in open ground.However, the creation of open beds is a traditional, but less progressive method of growing crops in the Urals compared to covered and high beds.
Strawberries on polyethylene
This technology for growing strawberries is the most progressive. It avoids many of the disadvantages of growing berries in open ground:
- the roots of the plant are covered, which prevents them from freezing;
- when watering, moisture falls directly under the root of the plant;
- the coating does not allow moisture to evaporate from the soil;
- absence of weeds in the garden, easier plant care;
- the berries are located above the surface of the film, without coming into contact with damp soil, which significantly reduces the likelihood of them rotting.
The disadvantage of this technology is that some financial investments are required to purchase the material.
Growing strawberries in beds covered with polyethylene is quite simple. To do this, it is necessary to prepare the soil and form trapezoidal ridges, similar to the above technology. Before planting, the ridges must be covered with material (polyethylene, geotextile). It is necessary to make markings on the surface of the material - mark the points where the holes with strawberries will be located. Using scissors you need to make holes with a diameter of 5-8 cm. Plant strawberry seedlings in the holes.
You can clearly see the use of this technology in the video:
Warm beds for strawberries
Warm beds are a fairly new but effective tool for growing strawberries in the Urals.
Warm strawberry bed in the Urals it can be done in a box or in a trench. The box can be created from boards, slate, bricks, tires or other available material. A trench can be created by digging up the earth. The depth of the structure must be at least 50 cm. Drainage must be placed at the bottom of the warm bed, since strawberries love moist but well-drained soil. Broken bricks or, for example, large tree branches can be used as drainage. On top of them you need to put a layer of coarse organic matter - plant tops, foliage. The next layer is manure and compost. When overheated, it will not only feed the strawberries with nutrients, but also release heat that warms the roots of the plant. All of the above layers should have a thickness of 10-15 cm. The top layer of the bed is fertile soil. Its thickness must be at least 20 cm.
You can see an example of creating a universal warm bed in a box in the video:
Growing strawberries in warm beds or on top of covering material is important for farmers in the Urals, since the main principle of these technologies is aimed at heating the roots, which makes it possible to safely preserve the plants in the winter and create optimal conditions for them in the summer.
Conclusion
Thus, it is possible to get a good harvest of berries in the Urals in open ground, but for this you need to choose the most suitable variety of crop and strictly follow all the basic rules for its cultivation. Timely feeding with nutrients, watering, pruning and loosening will allow you to get the maximum number of berries even in the harsh climate of the Urals.Unique methods of creating beds using shelters or rotting organic matter can reduce the risk of plant freezing, make it easier to care for strawberries and increase crop yields.
