Content
- 1 What does strawberry frigo mean?
- 2 Varieties and classes of frigo strawberries
- 3 How to make and grow frigo strawberry seedlings with your own hands at home
- 4 How to plant and care for frigo strawberries
- 5 How to preserve seedlings in winter
- 6 Advantages and disadvantages of berry growing technology
- 7 Conclusion
- 8 Reviews from gardeners with photos about Frigo strawberries 2020
Frigo strawberry is a fruit crop grown using a special technology. It is distinguished by abundant fruiting and high endurance, while the requirements are quite simple.
What does strawberry frigo mean?
Frigo strawberry is not a variety, but a special technology that can be applied to almost any variety of fruit crop. The bottom line is that mother bushes are planted in spring in light soil and grown with active fertilizing, but are not allowed to bloom so that all resources are spent on the appearance of young shoots.When the latter ripen in November, they are dug up and transferred to a cool room, subjected to special treatment and stored in cold temperatures from 0 to -2 °C.
Bushes prepared using frigo technology can remain frozen for up to three years. After planting, such plants quickly produce abundant fruits and demonstrate good endurance to external conditions.
Frigo strawberries are especially profitable to grow for sale.
Varieties and classes of frigo strawberries
Any varieties of strawberries are suitable for growing using frigo technology. But usually gardeners choose the highest-yielding and succulent varieties. As for classes, fruit plants are divided into several groups according to the diameter of the root collar and the number of peduncles.
Class B
Class B strawberries grown using frigo technology are considered the least prestigious. The root collar reaches 12 mm in diameter, and up to two peduncles develop on the bush.
Frigo class B blooms only in the second year after planting
Class A
Class A frigo strawberry has a root collar up to 15 mm in diameter and produces two powerful peduncles or more. Allows you to collect from 20 to 25 large ripe berries from one bush.
The first harvest from class A frigo strawberries can be harvested already in the year of planting
Class A+
Class A+ frigo strawberries also bear fruit in the first year after planting and produce three well-developed peduncles. The width of the root collar reaches 18 mm.
Each A+ class Frigo strawberry bush is capable of producing up to 40 juicy, high-quality fruits
Class WB
Elite frigo strawberries with a root collar diameter of 22 mm or more produce up to five peduncles on each bush. It begins to bear fruit in the current season after planting and brings stable and large harvests.
From a WB class frigo strawberry bush you can harvest up to 450 g of fruit per year
How to make and grow frigo strawberry seedlings with your own hands at home
Ready-made frigo seedlings are available for purchase in nurseries. However, if you wish, you can form high-yielding and hardy seedlings at home. The algorithm looks like this:
- In spring, mother bushes of the most productive and sweet varieties are planted in light soil. During the warm season, the plants are fed with fertilizers, but the flower stalks are cut off immediately after emergence, so that the strawberries actively form young shoots.
- In November, when the temperature drops to 5 °C, the seedlings are carefully dug out of the ground. During this period, they go into a dormant state and stop forming generative buds.
- The seedlings are shaken off the ground, sorted and sorted, and then large leaves are cut off, leaving only young plates. There is no need to rinse the strawberries.
- The seedlings are placed in plastic bags and placed in a refrigerator or dark cellar until next year. It is important to monitor the temperature - it should not rise above 0 °C.
Bushes kept in the cold are planted with the onset of spring. Frigo strawberries quickly take root and increase their vegetative mass, as a result of which they enter the fruiting phase within 60-70 days.
When properly harvested, frigo strawberries have a very developed and strong root system.
How to plant and care for frigo strawberries
The rules for growing strawberries using frigo technology generally do not differ much from the usual care of fruit crops. But there are several important nuances.
Timing for planting in open ground
The optimal planting time for frigo strawberries depends on its type. The higher the class of the crop, the shorter the shelf life without negative consequences for yield. Thus, type A seedlings can be planted from early April to mid-summer. But with class A+ strawberries, it’s better to hurry up and root them before mid-May.
When choosing a time for planting, you need to take into account the climatic features of the region. For example, in the Urals and Siberia the soil thaws quite late. Accordingly, for cultivation using a special technology, it is initially necessary to select varieties intended for late rooting.
Planting of frigo strawberries in the fall is carried out rarely and mainly in closed greenhouses. In this case, the exact timing is not particularly important. If you are going to root a crop in a garden bed, you need to calculate the time so that there are about two months left before the onset of cold weather.
Requirements for place and soil
The method of growing frigo strawberries requires adherence to standard rules regarding the choice of location and soil. The fruit crop prefers sunny areas without significant changes in relief, protected from strong winds. The soil should be loose, with a low acidity level and good drainage.
It is recommended to prepare the soil on the site in advance. The soil in the selected location is dug up and mixed with humus, compost and complex minerals, properly loosened and all weeds are removed. For strawberries, they form beds up to 30 cm high and make small furrows in them.
Preparing seedlings for planting
Frigo technology involves keeping strawberry seedlings for a long time at low temperatures and planting them in open ground immediately after removal from the refrigerator or cellar. Immediately before rooting, the culture needs some preparation. They do it like this:
- The seedlings are removed from the refrigerator or cellar and left in a warm room for a day.
- After the time has passed, the package is opened and the roots of the plants are watered with warm water.
- Completely thawed seedlings are immersed in containers with cool liquid for three hours.
- The roots are carefully trimmed and planting proceeds directly.
Proper preparation will allow you to quickly but smoothly revive frigo strawberries after a long period of dormancy and launch basic life processes.
Frigo strawberries should be planted in the ground in the first couple of days after being removed from the cold.
How to plant frigo strawberries correctly
Planting and growing frigo strawberries in open ground is carried out according to the standard procedure:
- Dig shallow holes or trenches in the selected area, approximately twice the size of the roots of the crop.
- After preliminary preparation, the underground stems of the strawberries are straightened and lowered into the dug holes.
- Carefully distribute the roots so that they go straight down, do not create creases or form tufts.
- Cover the strawberries with soil up to the surface and lightly compact the soil.
- Water the seedlings abundantly.
Between individual bushes you need to leave a free space of at least 30 cm.
When planting, you must ensure that the root collars of the frigo are level with the bed.
Watering frequency
Frigo strawberries are distinguished not only by their rapid fruiting, but also by their high resistance to heat and drought. In the first ten days after planting, it needs to be watered daily, but then the frequency of watering is reduced to once a week.
At 1 m2 soil should be added 8-10 liters of water. Watering is carried out at the root, making sure that the leaves and flowers remain dry. During rainy periods, additional moisturizing can be omitted.
Fertilizer application
When caring for frigo strawberries, it is recommended to pay attention to fertilizing, although the crop demonstrates good fruiting even without them. In the spring, during active growth, organic matter with a high nitrogen content is added to the soil.
Before strawberries bloom and when ovaries form, it is necessary to add potassium and phosphorus to the soil. With the onset of autumn, the bushes are fed with complex minerals, bird droppings and manure. Fertilizers are especially important during this period for remontant frigo strawberries, which are entering the re-fruiting phase.
Disease and pest control measures
Frigo strawberries can suffer from fungal diseases. The greatest danger to her is:
- gray mold is a fungus that leads to the appearance of light, brown or pinkish spots with a soft structure;
Gray rot occurs on flowers and fruits
- verticillium - the disease develops from the lower part of the plant, affects the roots and rosette of leaves, the strawberries turn brown and begin to wither.
Verticillium wilt develops most often in warm, humid weather.
Of the insects, frigo strawberries are threatened by:
- spider mite - the parasite settles on the lower surface of leaves and leads to the appearance of yellow spots and cobwebs;
Spider mites usually appear during dry summers
- root nematode - a pest that sucks juices from the leaves and buds of young frigo strawberries and slows down its growth.
Strawberries often suffer from nematodes in waterlogged acidic soil
Pest and disease control is carried out, first of all, on a preventive basis - they regularly loosen the soil and remove weeds from the beds, monitor the intensity of watering and the acidity of the soil.
When alarming symptoms appear, strawberries are treated with copper preparations that are effective against fungal diseases and sprayed with insecticides. In this case, chemicals can be used only in the early stages of crop development, 3-4 weeks before fruiting.
Preparing for winter
With the onset of autumn, after the temperature has dropped to about 5 °C, frigo strawberries must be protected from winter freezing. Usually, lutrasil or perforated film is placed on the beds with the crop and the cover is left until flowering the next season. In this case, fruiting will occur faster and will be more abundant.
To protect against cold weather, you can also use straw or fallen leaves. But they must be removed immediately after the onset of a thaw, otherwise the soil will not warm up in time and the development of the crop will slow down.
How to preserve seedlings in winter
Long-term winter storage in the cold is completely natural for frigo strawberry seedlings; in fact, this is where the technology lies. In late autumn, purchased or prepared seedlings are placed in plastic bags and placed in a refrigerator or cellar with a stable temperature from 0 to -2 ° C and a humidity not higher than 90%. In this state, it can be stored not only throughout the winter, but also up to three years.
The temperature during storage of frigo strawberries should be stable, without sudden fluctuations
Advantages and disadvantages of berry growing technology
Descriptions of frigo strawberry varieties, photos and reviews from gardeners allow us to conclude that the technology has many advantages. These include:
- early ripening - the berries ripen on average 8-9 weeks after planting the bushes;
- high productivity;
- seedling hardiness and good survival rate;
- Suitable for year-round cultivation in a greenhouse.
Any variety of crop can be stored using frigo technology. Plants after prolonged exposure to cold are guaranteed to be healthy and do not begin to get sick immediately after planting.
However, the technology has its drawbacks. These include:
- high cost of purchased seedlings;
- limited benefits in time - in the second year after rooting, frigo strawberries are no longer any different from ordinary ones and ripen in standard terms.
In addition, at home it can be quite difficult to properly prepare seedlings due to the lack of professional refrigeration equipment.
Conclusion
Frigo strawberries are characterized by high yield and rapid ripening. Although the benefits of a crop from cold storage usually last only the first year, the treatment method is popular among gardeners.
Reviews from gardeners with photos about Frigo strawberries 2020
