Strawberries, which produce several harvests per season, are especially popular among gardeners. This is due to high yields. This is explained by the fact that, unlike ordinary varieties, its flower buds form throughout the summer.
With proper cultivation and care, remontant strawberries can bear fruit almost continuously. But it produces the most abundant harvests only twice. The first is in mid-summer, the second is in early autumn. Also, some new varieties are capable of producing crops on the current year's crop.
Features of growth
The word "remontant" is translated as "blooming again." Consequently, the main feature of such strawberries is the possibility of repeated flowering and fruiting. Immediately after the first wave of fruiting, new flower buds begin to form on the plants.
All remontant strawberries can be divided into the following groups in relation to the length of daylight hours:
- long day;
- neutral;
- short.
The first group of plants lays buds when the light period reaches 16 hours or more. Peak fruiting of such varieties occurs in mid-summer and early autumn. Moreover, the second wave of strawberry fruiting will be much more abundant than the first.
The second group of strawberries can form buds throughout the summer with a certain cyclicity. Mass harvesting of fruits usually occurs every 1.5 months.
The last group of plants produces flowers in early spring and autumn. So, how to properly grow strawberries with repeat fruiting?
How to properly prune remontant strawberries
Pruning the berries of the variety we are interested in is done, as we have already said, in the autumn. After harvesting the second wave of the harvest, it is necessary to remove all the foliage from each bush, without touching the fruit buds of the upper leaves, since it is from them that the plant grows fruits in the next growing season.
Spraying is an important stage in strawberry care.
Cleaning the leaves is necessary so that various diseases and pests that intend to wait out the cold on our berries cannot harm it in the spring.
After removing the leaves, it is necessary to treat the area from the same harmful infections and creatures. It is best carried out using specialized industrial preparations, which, mixed with water, are used to spray the bushes and the land on which they grow.
Cultivation in open and closed ground
Growing remontant strawberries is possible in open and closed ground.
In open ground it is planted directly on the ridges. Strawberry yields in open ground largely depend on weather conditions.
In the greenhouse, depending on the technology, strawberries are planted in a special peat or coconut substrate. Cultivation in a greenhouse allows you to get higher yields with a smaller planting area.
When growing strawberries in a greenhouse, it needs to create a certain light regime. This is especially important when growing remontant varieties all year round. In winter, in order to set flower buds, plants must be provided with at least 16 hours of daylight. To illuminate the bushes, you can use phyto lamps with a specially selected spectrum.
The temperature when growing remontant varieties in a greenhouse should not fall below +20°. During the flowering period, it is recommended to increase the temperature to +24°. Higher rates are undesirable, as they can cause strawberry flowers to fall off.
Strawberries with repeated fruiting, grown in closed ground conditions, must be fed regularly. Fertilizers are applied 2 times a week. To feed plants, it is better to use complex mineral compositions. They are bred in accordance with the attached annotations.
Growing from seeds at home
Remontant strawberries (varieties)
You can grow remontant strawberries using seedlings purchased from a garden nursery. Also, remontant strawberries grow well from purchased seeds; planting and care are painstaking and require maintaining the moisture level of the soil substrate (70-80%).
After laying the seeds on moist soil, they are covered with sand and lightly sprayed, and the container is covered with glass or a plastic bag. In central Russia, planting begins in mid-February, in warmer regions – 2 weeks earlier.
Remontant strawberry seeds
The soil should be slightly moist until germination. The temperature in the apartment is maintained within 18-20 degrees Celsius. After just 2 weeks, the first seedlings appear. After this, the container with the planted seeds is placed on the windowsill to provide access to sunlight.
Planting scheme
After 2-3 leaves appear, the seedlings are planted. This procedure is carried out approximately 45-60 days after sowing the seeds. The seedlings are transplanted into separate pots or into another box, leaving 5 centimeters between plants, deepening them by the same amount as they grew in a common container.
2 weeks before planting in open ground, seedlings are hardened. It is taken out into the air during the day to adapt to natural growing conditions. Only after this is it transplanted to open beds.
Reproduction
There are several ways to propagate remontant strawberries:
- using a mustache;
- dividing the bush;
- from seeds.
Let's take a closer look at them.
Usami
The easiest and most common way to propagate strawberries. To do this, a mother plantation is formed from part of the bushes. When caring for it, the growing mustache is preserved, allowing it to take root. For convenience, rosettes of bushes can be rooted in small containers. After the development of the root system, the tendril is cut, and the formed plants are transplanted to a permanent place. Strawberries begin to bear fruit only the next year.
Attention! A special feature of mustache breeding is that only first-order rosettes are used for propagation.
Dividing bushes
Strawberry cultivation can also be done by dividing overgrown bushes. This method is used for beardless remontant varieties, for example, Laurent. The division of bushes is carried out in early spring or late summer. Large bushes are dug up and divided into several parts using a sharp knife or shovel. The delenki are planted on pre-prepared beds. For the first 2 weeks, the plants must be watered abundantly. When dividing in autumn, young plants are provided with winter shelter. To do this, you can use non-woven covering material, leaves or straw.
Sowing seeds
The seed method of propagating strawberries is used less frequently. This is explained by the long growing period and the complexity of agricultural technology. Sowing begins in February. To do this, prepare containers of suitable size and loose, nutritious soil. After leveling, the soil surface is covered with clean river sand. The seeds are carefully distributed over it.
After sowing the seeds, the container is placed in a cold place with a temperature of +1-2°. For these purposes, for example, you can use a household refrigerator. The duration of stratification should be at least 1 month. After its completion, the container is placed in a warm, well-lit place.
Shoots may appear unevenly over 2-3 weeks. After the development of a pair of true leaves, the seedlings are planted in separate containers. 10 days after picking, the plants are fed with a solution of urea or any universal fertilizer.
During this period, it is very important to ensure a sufficient level of illumination. For this, it is recommended to use additional lighting. Fluorescent fluorescent lamps or special phyto lamps are used as a lighting source. They are placed at a height of 15-20 cm above the plants.
Strawberry seedlings are planted in a permanent location in early May. When planting, plants are carefully knocked out of their pots, trying to damage the root system as little as possible. After completing the planting work, the bed is thoroughly watered and shaded. This prevents sunburn and reduces the time it takes to adapt to a new place.
Growing strawberries on a trellis
Another option for agricultural technology for remontant strawberries is placing them on a trellis. It can be built near a gazebo, along a path or fence, near a gazebo, etc. As a trellis, the author suggests using decorative polypropylene mesh, which can be easily purchased at any building materials store. This mesh is quite durable, has cells measuring 10 x 10 or 10 x 15 cm, can be easily cut into pieces of any length, the mesh stretches well, and is easily attached in places convenient for growing crops.
Before planting, you need to dig a trench about 40 cm deep, fill it with humus and complex fertilizers. It is better to plant strawberries every 50 cm along the trellis row. You need to secure the tendrils of young plants on the trellis, leaving 5-6 tendrils and 4-5 rosettes on each, after the formation of which the tendrils are pinched. Usually the mustache is raised onto the trellis after the first rosettes bloom. In the fall, one rosette is rooted between old plants along the row. The following year, their whiskers are used to secure them to the trellis.
Plants planted the previous year are left to bear fruit until autumn, and then new rosettes are rooted in their place. For normal growth and fruiting of remontant strawberries on a trellis, regular watering and fertilizing with special fertilizers for caring for strawberries are required.
But strawberries are a sensitive crop to both excess and lack of mineral and organic fertilizers. A deficiency is easy to eliminate even with a visual inspection; the situation is worse with an excess. These include nitrates and the ability of excess amounts of mineral nutrients to inhibit the crop, slow down growth, and promote vegetative growth to the detriment of fruiting.
When growing and caring for remontant strawberries, it is recommended to approach application rates with caution and monitor the condition of the plants, at least by eye. For fertilizing, special fertilizers for fruit and berry crops are used, based on humic acids with vitamins and microelements (Good Power, etc.). Fruiting of remontant strawberries on a trellis begins several days earlier in comparison with the same strawberries grown in the usual way in the ground, and continues until the onset of frost.
In recent years, the summer period in the southern region has been characterized by droughts, which negatively affects the quantity and quality of berries. Strawberries grown on a trellis acquire better taste, excellent presentation, are less susceptible to gray rot, and are not contaminated with soil during rain or watering. Watering the strawberries on the trellis is carried out regularly in small refreshing doses in the morning, immediately after the harvest.
It is recommended to use the trellis in one place for no more than 5 years. Then it is necessary to do fruit change, reclamation of the land using high doses of green manure (green) fertilizers, regularly sowing them and burying them in the ground at the budding stage.
Landing
For planting strawberries, choose sunny places without close groundwater. The soil on the site should be light, fertile with neutral acidity. This will help to achieve good development of the root system, and therefore high yields.
The bed for spring planting of strawberries is prepared in mid-April. To do this, dig up the soil to the depth of a spade bayonet. Mineral fertilizers are applied during digging: superphosphate and potassium salt. Their consumption rates are indicated on the packaging.
When planting, the distance between bushes should be at least 20-40 cm, between rows 50-60 cm. When planting in a garden bed, the seedlings are buried to the level of the root collar. You can't plant any deeper. Subsequently, such plants will rot and die.
There are also other landing methods. For example, the soil surface is covered with black agrofibre. The seedlings are planted in pre-drilled holes. The advantage of this method is that seedlings planted on agrofibre do not require weeding, and ripening berries are practically not affected by fruit rot.
Advice! Planting remontant strawberries is possible in the fall. The main thing is that it has time to take root before the onset of frost.
Pruning bushes in autumn and preparing strawberries for winter
In the fall, after the end of the fruiting period, strawberries are pruned. Foliage, tendrils and rosettes rob the plant of the strength it needs to accumulate for the next flowering. Therefore, if you want to get a good harvest next year, this procedure is necessary.
You need to trim the leaves immediately after harvesting the last harvest, so that by winter the bushes have time to acquire fresh leaves, which will act as a natural heat insulator. If you missed the moment and new leaves do not have time to grow before the onset of cold weather, it is better to leave the old foliage and cancel the pruning.
Leaves and tendrils are cut off at the very base to prevent harmful insects from growing in their remains. Send the trimmed parts of the plant to the compost pit, just carefully inspect them for the presence of pests or diseases; perhaps they should be burned.
After pruning, the plantings need to be treated with insecticides as a preventive measure. And so that new foliage has time to grow before winter, the plants must be watered regularly. You can also feed the roots with organic fertilizers.
In the central and northern regions, the beds are insulated for the winter with a layer of manure or fallen leaves, at least 5 cm thick. But the best protection from the cold for strawberries is snow.
To make its layer thicker, place tree branches between the beds. They retain snow well and form high snowdrifts. In contact with
Care
To better understand how to properly care for remontant strawberries, it is necessary to take into account the peculiarities of their development. Unlike single-fruiting varieties, remontant varieties experience greater stress. Therefore, they definitely require appropriate feeding and timely watering.
Watering
Strawberry is a moisture-loving plant. It should be watered regularly throughout the growing season. This is explained by the superficial root system of the plant, which is damaged when the surface layer of soil dries out. The frequency of watering strawberries depends on weather conditions:
- in spring and early summer, before the onset of stable heat, the plants are watered weekly;
- When the temperature rises significantly, watering is carried out 2-3 times a week; it is necessary to monitor the humidity level.
Attention! Flood is no less harmful to strawberries than drought. Excess moisture very often causes the development of various rots.
With sufficient watering, strawberry rosettes quickly grow leaf mass and lay a large number of flower buds. With a lack of moisture, metabolic processes are inhibited, and the plants themselves look depressed.
Watering is best done in the morning or evening. It is advisable that the irrigation water be warm. Strawberry bushes are watered strictly at the root. To reduce labor costs, you can install drip irrigation on strawberry beds.
Top dressing
When caring for strawberries, timely application of fertilizers is mandatory. The best option is to alternate organic matter with mineral fertilizers.
The timing of fertilizer application for remontant varieties is as follows:
- Immediately after the snow melts, the bushes are fed with a urea solution.
- After 2 weeks, phosphorus-potassium fertilizers are used. They promote the formation of flower buds.
- After harvesting, remontant strawberries are fed with a fermented mullein solution.
- In early August, phosphorus-potassium fertilizers are reused.
Attention! Fertilizers should not be applied in the fall. Strawberries that have begun to grow overwinter very poorly.
Mustache trimming
After planting, caring for strawberries also involves trimming the mustache. The peak of their growth occurs in the second half of summer. The mustache develops from dormant buds located at the bottom of the bush. As they grow, the rows thicken and the yield decreases significantly.
Mustaches should be trimmed as they grow. Usually they are removed 2-3 times during the summer. For pruning, use pruning shears or sharp scissors. Upon completion of work, all plant residues must be removed.
Spring-summer mustaches are often used to propagate the best remontant varieties. They perfectly convey varietal characteristics. With their help, you can quickly obtain a fairly large amount of high-quality planting material.
Features of autumn care
When growing remontant varieties with long daylight hours, the crop sometimes does not have time to ripen completely. With the onset of early frosts, the bushes do not have time to adapt to them and die. Therefore, in the fall, when caring for remontant strawberries, it is necessary to create protective shelters. For example, bushes can be covered with pine spruce branches, a layer of straw or a special perforated film. They will protect the bushes from freezing.
When caring for strawberries, you should pay attention to the prevention of diseases and pests. To do this, before the onset of stable frosts, all leaves are cut off from the bushes. After which I treat the strawberry bed with a fungicide solution. For example, you can use Bordeaux mixture. After completion of work, all plant residues must be destroyed. If this is not done, they can become a breeding ground for pests and diseases.
What kind of strawberries are called remontant and what are their differences from ordinary ones?
Long-term fruiting of the remontant berry occurs due to the fact that the plant lays flower buds several times during the season. The number of blooms depends on the variety. Strawberries are divided into three groups:
- Long daylight hours. To set buds, the plant needs at least 14–17 hours of daylight. Such strawberries bear fruit twice per season - in July and in the first days of autumn.
- Neutral daylight hours. For her, it does not matter how long the daylight hours last, fruiting continues from spring to mid-autumn.
- Short daylight hours. The berry sets buds in early autumn, when daylight lasts less than 12 hours. These are traditional non-remontant varieties that produce one harvest per season.
Features of remontant strawberries include increased demands on soil, lighting, fertilizing and planting method. If you do not follow the rules of caring for the plant, the harvest will be meager and the bushes will quickly become depleted. Unlike ordinary garden strawberries, remontant strawberries have a short lifespan.
Fruiting in one place for 4 years can be achieved only in some varieties by planting strawberries in separate rows. With the carpet planting method, long-day strawberries need to be replanted every two years. It is advisable to renew the day-neutral berries every year, as they are greatly depleted.
There are no fundamental differences in the rules of agricultural technology for different types of remontant strawberries.
Remontant strawberries are often used as an element of landscape design
Advantages of remontant varieties:
- low susceptibility to infections due to frequent transplantation;
- high yield;
- presence of beardless varieties.
Disadvantages - the need to frequently change location and adhere to a feeding schedule, low winter hardiness (insulation of the beds is required), sensitivity to adverse weather conditions (rainy or dry summers).
Secrets of growing delicious strawberries
In order for growing strawberries to be a pleasure, the harvest to be high and tasty, it is worth knowing some subtleties. Below are a few secrets that can help you achieve success.
- Purchasing certified virus-free strawberry seedlings. Healthy plants are the key to successful strawberry growing.
- Predecessors. Avoid planting strawberries in areas where potatoes, tomatoes and strawberries have recently been grown.
- You need to provide plenty of sunlight. Find a sunny place. Heat and light help produce sweet and tasty berries.
- Fertile and permeable soil. It is better to plant strawberries in slightly acidic soil 6 -6.5 pH. About a month before planting, mix the soil with compost or manure. Pelleted manure (easy to use, natural, safe and odorless) is also a great solution.
- Agrotextiles against weeds. Don't let weeds compete with your strawberries. Black agrotextiles naturally prevent the development of weeds, while simultaneously allowing water and air to pass through, retaining moisture in the soil. Strengthens the root system and speeds up the growing season. An additional advantage of using agrotextiles is the collection of clean and unsorted berries. It is worth additionally during the flowering season to spread straw under the plant, which will reflect the sun's rays and the fruits will not ripen so quickly.
- Space. Plant the seedlings at a distance of about 30 centimeters, the distance between rows is 50 centimeters. Strawberry roots should not curl. Be careful not to plant the strawberries too shallow so the roots dry out or too deep.
- Pick ripe berries on a sunny day. To keep strawberries fresh and firm longer, pick the fruit together with a stem at least 1 cm long.
- Replace old plants every 3-4 years. Strawberries will become unproductive after this time. It is best to replace them with new ones that are free from disease and pests.
When growing strawberries with repeated fruiting, it is imperative to take into account the peculiarities of its development, and the plants must be properly cared for. You can hope to obtain high yields only if these conditions are met.
Rules for choosing strawberry seeds
When going to the store to buy seeds, you first need to decide what kind of strawberries you need; there are many varieties. It is better for beginners to take the help of more experienced gardeners. General rules for selecting seeds:
- Be sure to check the expiration date indicated on the packaging; fresher ones will have higher germination rates; expired ones will not sprout at all.
- You should familiarize yourself with the price range, elite seeds are quite expensive, there are few of them in the package, it’s worth considering if it makes sense to take risks without having germination experience. Cheap varieties are less demanding, and there are 25 seeds per package, which is quite enough for an experiment. Beginner gardeners are better off staying in the middle price category and the varieties are decent, and the money spent in case of failure is not that much.
- You also need to know what kind of berry you want to buy, large or small, sickly sweet or sour, for compotes and jam, or for fresh consumption, or maybe for sale.
- You should opt for zoned varieties.
- In spontaneous markets you can easily get a fake, and a random seller will not give specific recommendations for growing this variety. It is better to use the services of a sales consultant in a specialized store.
Pests and diseases typical for remontant strawberries
A plant is a living creature that, just like a person or animal, can be susceptible to infection by various organisms and diseases. So, let's see who or what can harm our berries.
Gray rot is a common disease of remontant strawberries.
Table 3. Pests and diseases of remontant strawberries
| Pests | Diseases |
|
|
