Nowadays, there are so many varieties of strawberries that sometimes it seems impossible to choose what would really satisfy all the components – such as quantity, quality, and fruiting time. There are many varieties, and many hybrids. Moreover, hybrids of one year of fruiting have become widespread – they grow quickly, the harvest the following year is amazing, and the following year… nothing. Such a tricky hybrid. But we are still used to planting strawberries for 3-4 years with gradual replacement, with mother beds. And the taste of the berries began to vary greatly. Many varieties have a hard core and a rather tough berry mass. True, they are stored and transported well, but is this necessary in your own garden, when aroma and taste are the main thing.
After trying many varieties, we settled on a few. This is our old Victoria (pure variety), Gigantella Dutch selection and CinderellaWe plant each variety at a different distance. Gigantella — large bush — 4 bushes per 1 sq. m, Victoria и Cinderella more often. We plant everything in the sunniest place, slightly inclined to the southwest.
In spring, we clean the plants and spray them blue with Bordeaux mixture, after a while we spray them with onion peel infusion or garlic infusion, and sprinkle the trunk circles with ash during the growth period. Before flowering, you need to water the bushes well and feed them with liquid manure. To prevent weeds from growing under the bushes, we put a collar of black covering material around each bush, pinning it with wire clips. Thanks to the collar, weed growth is restrained and the berries remain clean. We tear off all the runners on the berry bushes and only on the mother bushes, planted separately, we dig in the runners and grow them for replacement.
As a protection against pests, we have recently been using horse sorrel infusion. We prepare the infusion in a usual and simple way – chop up a large amount of sorrel, fill it with water and leave it for about 10 days. We spray the bushes with this infusion before and after fruiting.
