Strawberry variety 'Black Prince' - a very tasty berry

Description

The Black Prince strawberry variety is relatively young, which is why a limited number of gardeners know about it. The creators are breeders from Italy. Strawberries are intended not only for summer cottages, but also for large agricultural enterprises.

According to the description given by the manufacturers, and according to reviews from gardeners, the Black Prince strawberry belongs to the mid-season varieties. Already in the second decade of June, the first berries ripen.

You can pick strawberries until autumn, since the plant bears fruit for a long time.

Attention! The first and last berries do not differ in size.

Features of bushes

4-5 years after planting, the plants surprise with spreading and powerful bushes that from a distance resemble potatoes or tomatoes. The foliage of medium-sized strawberries is rich green, glossy, with clearly visible corrugation.

Garden strawberries of Italian selection are distinguished by powerful, tall peduncles, on which a large number of ovaries are formed. Already in early June, the bushes are strewn with green berries. Here they are in the photo.

When the berries begin to ripen en masse, the flower stalks bend to the ground. In the first years after planting, a sufficient number of tendrils are formed for reproduction. But the older the bush, the lower the formation. This must be taken into account so as not to be left without strawberry seedlings.

Berries

The fruits of the variety are quite dark, perhaps for this reason the name appeared. There are many seeds on the dark burgundy surface of the berries. They are also dark, located on the surface, so the berries of the Italian selection are prickly to the touch.

Berry weight up to 50 grams. The dense fruits have the shape of a truncated cone. Inside, the strawberry pulp is deep red, without white streaks or voids. The berries are tasty, sweetish with a subtle hint of sourness.

Application

Strawberry Black Prince, according to the description of the variety and reviews, is a berry of universal use. They can be eaten fresh, made into jam, marmalade, jams, homemade wine, liqueurs.

Productivity

Italian breeders have created a high-yielding strawberry variety, Black Prince, which can be grown throughout Russia both in open and protected ground. Over a long period of fruiting, one garden strawberry bush produces up to 1200 grams of delicious, sweet berries with strawberry flavor.

Important! Strawberry productivity increases as the bush matures.

Farmers highly value the variety, because with the right agricultural technology you can harvest up to 20 tons from one hectare.

How to propagate garden strawberries?

Propagating garden strawberries is not such a difficult task. However, it all depends on the method you choose. Garden strawberries can be propagated in three ways: by mustache, dividing the bush and planting seeds.

Reproduction by mustache

The Black Prince variety can reproduce with mustaches, but it grows them in small quantities and only in the first three years of the bush’s life. The essence of this method is quite simple: you examine the plant for the presence of tendrils with new young rosettes and select those that are best developed. Then pin these rosettes to pots of soil (these can be peat or plastic pots) and water them well. In a couple of weeks, the rosette will have time to take root well in the new place, and through the tendril from the mother bush it will receive all the necessary nutrients. All that remains is to cut it off from the supply channel and plant it in the selected area, not forgetting about good watering. Garden strawberries planted in this way quickly begin to grow, and they do not need time to take root, because they already spend all their time in the open air.

Propagation by mustache is the easiest and most reliable way to rejuvenate plantings in beds and increase the number of bushes

Dividing the bush

Since the Black Prince variety will not share its mustache starting from the fourth year of growth, you can use another method - dividing the uterine bush. Usually, bushes at the age of two or three years are chosen for this purpose, but in the case of the described variety, the age may be later. The plant is dug out of the ground and divided into several parts, each of which must contain at least one full rosette and well-developed roots, where new roots should be present (they are white). The resulting material is planted in the chosen location, watered abundantly and mulched.

This method should be used in spring or autumn, until the plant begins to bloom, or when it is gradually approaching a dormant state.

Planting seeds

Planting seeds is the longest, most painstaking and difficult way to propagate garden strawberries. However, if you manage to grow this crop in this way, you can safely consider yourself a skilled gardener.

Buy seeds in bags from well-known manufacturers, so you can count on a positive result for your enterprise. You can, of course, collect the seeds yourself, but they most likely will not retain varietal characteristics.

Do not forget to promptly pick up garden strawberry seedlings when they grow up

Before planting, it is recommended to soak the seeds in Epin’s solution - a couple of drops per 100 ml is enough. You can also soak the seeds on cotton pads - this will make them hatch faster. But usually gardeners practice direct planting directly into the substrate, which consists of humus (from leaves), river sand and garden soil (all elements are taken in equal proportions). Grooves are created in the substrate with an interval of 5 cm between them and a depth of 0.5 cm. Seeds are placed in these grooves (pre-moistened) and then sprinkled with a thin layer of earth. The container with the seeds is transferred to room conditions and covered with glass. In the coming days, your task is to periodically pour water into the pan and remove the glass for ventilation. Usually after one and a half to two weeks the first shoots appear - it’s time to expose the container to the sun’s rays.

When the first true leaf appears, the seedlings will need to be planted at a distance of 2 - 3 cm from each other, while slightly shortening the tips of the roots to speed up their growth. When the plants acquire 4 - 5 leaves, they are again planted at a distance of 5 cm from each other.

A good option is to germinate seeds in peat tablets. Seeds are sown in the recesses that are in each tablet. All maintenance will consist of periodically adding water to the pan. At the first stages of their growth, the plants will be supplied with all the necessary nutrients that are in the tablets.

Growing garden strawberries from seeds has its own significant drawback: the plants are kept at home for a long time and, when transplanted into open ground, may not take root if hardening has not been carried out. This procedure is simple - first, the seedlings are placed near the window (in April the weather outside is usually cool) or taken out onto the balcony for 15 minutes. Each time the hardening time is increased. Thanks to this event, garden strawberries will be transplanted into open ground without any problems.

Growing in peat tablets allows you to give seedlings all the necessary nutrients in the first stages of growth

Characteristics

It is not only the original taste and external characteristics of strawberries that attract gardeners. But you can better understand the characteristics of the variety by getting acquainted with the characteristics.

First, let's talk about the advantages of the Black Prince:

1. High taste, abundant yield.
2. The strawberry variety can be grown in one place for up to 10 years, increasing the yield of finished products every year.
3. Dense berries can be stored for up to two weeks; they do not leak or lose their shape.
4. Excellent transportability contributes to the cultivation of varietal strawberries on an industrial scale.
5. The variety is winter-hardy and tolerates frosts down to 20 degrees. A slight drop in spring temperatures does not harm plants.
6. Strawberries rarely get sick due to their high immunity.

Despite such an abundance of advantages, the variety has some disadvantages:

• plants can hardly tolerate drought, so soil moisture must be constantly monitored;
• Difficulties arise when obtaining planting material, since adult Black Prince strawberry bushes do not produce mustaches.

The variety of Italian selection is proven and reliable:

Strawberry propagation

All types of strawberries reproduce in three ways:

• Dividing bushes.
• Seeds.
• By layering.

Growing seedlings from seeds begins in February. The process is quite labor-intensive, but the main advantage of this method is that diseases and viruses are not transmitted through the seeds. By the way, the seeds of black strawberries are also black and large.

The easiest way is to buy ready-made seedlings in specialized stores. You should choose rosettes with a developed core (red or pink bud) and with 3-5 leaves.

Features of the technology

In order for a variety of strawberries to successfully bear fruit for many years, you need to select a good site for planting it.

Selecting a location

1. Black Prince seedlings need to be planted in fertilized light soil. It is impossible to obtain a large harvest in heavy clay areas.
2. The beds are located in sunny areas protected from cold winds. Plants of the variety do not grow well in places with high groundwater levels. If there is no other place in the dacha, you will have to make high ridges, at the bottom of which reliable drainage is laid.
3. When preparing the planting site, a large amount of organic matter is added and the soil is treated with peat-humic fertilizers, for example, Flora, Fitop. This will improve the soil structure. A bed of strawberries should not be located next to potatoes or eggplants.
4. The best neighbors are cereals, beans, peas, carrots, onions and garlic. These plants are also planted between strawberry bushes.

Planting seedlings

You can grow Black Prince seedlings from seeds, but this process is labor-intensive. It is best to use seedlings that need to be purchased from reliable suppliers, for example, from the seed company Siberian Garden, Altai Gardens, Becker.

Attention! Since the strawberry variety grows very strongly, when planting, you need to take into account the distance between the bushes of at least 50 cm.

Planting stages:

• after digging, prepare the holes, pour half a liter of warm water into each;
• strawberry seedlings are lowered into a hole, the root system is straightened and sprinkled with soil;
• the heart should remain above the surface at a height of 1-2 cm;
• the soil must be well compacted to remove air pockets;
• After this, the plantings are watered and sprinkled with mulch.

For mulching, you can use rotted sawdust, straw or cut green grass that has not yet formed seeds.

While the Black Prince strawberries are taking root, they need to be watered regularly. The drip irrigation system does an excellent job and is easy to install.

Diseases and pests

The Black Prince variety has good resistance to a number of diseases characteristic of this crop. However, there are frequent cases of it being affected by brown or white spotting. And these plants are just a tasty morsel for the strawberry mite. It is very important to know how to prevent these problems or deal with them if they occur.

Table: characteristic problems of the variety

Photo gallery of diseases and pests

When infested with aphids, the leaves curl and begin to wither along with the petioles.

With white spotting on the leaves, holes form in place of the spots

Verticillium wilt is difficult to cure, affected bushes should be removed immediately at the first symptoms

Brown spot dries out leaves and causes them to die

The strawberry mite sticks to the leaf blades and significantly weakens the bush

Planting care

The Black Prince strawberry itself is not capricious. But, like any cultivated plant, it requires compliance with cultivation technology. Let's consider this issue in more detail.

Watering and loosening

Plants of this variety, as noted in the description, do not tolerate drought well. Watering is especially important, daily, immediately after planting seedlings, during flowering and ripening.

Advice! When the Black Prince strawberry begins to bloom, it is watered only at the root!

You should not be overzealous with watering, since if water stagnates, diseases of the root system can develop, and the berries themselves will lose their taste. And such fruits cannot be stored for a long time.

Gardeners who have been working with the Black Prince variety for many years advise in reviews to make grooves between the rows of strawberries in order to water and feed the bushes through them. Plantings should be watered in the evening, after sunset.

Each watering of strawberries is necessarily accompanied by loosening the soil in order to remove the crust that does not allow oxygen to the roots and to destroy emerging weeds.

Feeding rules

Strawberry varieties can be fed with liquid and dry fertilizers. Liquid solutions are used for root and foliar feeding of bushes (the concentration is two times less). You can sprinkle dry fertilizer over the surface of the soil.

Advice! Before feeding Black Prince strawberries, you need to water the bushes well for half an hour.

Feeding scheme

1. The first feeding is carried out in the spring. To do this, use nitrogen-containing fertilizers to increase green mass. You can use ammonium nitrate, ammonium sulfate or urea. Fertilizers are used strictly according to instructions!
2. During the period of budding and formation of ovaries, nitrogen fertilizing cannot be carried out, as you may lose the harvest. At this time, plants need phosphorus. It is a good idea to water the strawberry plantings with a solution of wood ash, which contains all the micro and macroelements necessary for the growth, development and ripening of the fruit.
3. For the third time, strawberries of the Black Prince variety are fed with complex mineral fertilizer when the berries ripen. Organic followers can use an infusion of green herbs.

Growing strawberries

Exactly corresponds to the proverb “for the sake of strawberries you will bow to the earth more than once”: it requires compliance with many conditions. Will grow on loose, light, slightly acidic or neutral soils. Otherwise, the roots will rot.

In addition, the area should be well lit, but protected from drafts and northern winds. Ideal neighbors that protect against pests are garlic, carrots, and legumes. The best area for strawberries is the one where carrots, radishes, greens, and bulbous flowers grew before them.

The harvest is in...

When the last berry is harvested, the plantings need to be prepared for winter:

1. First, cut out the old leaves and remove the mulch.
2. The ridges are weeded and the soil is loosened.
3. Add organic fertilizers (peat, compost, humus), covering the exposed root system.
4. Before the onset of frost, strawberries are covered with a layer of earth to ensure reliable wintering. Some of the Black Prince bushes can be transplanted into large flower pots to have fresh berries in winter.
5. If the temperature in the region is below -20 degrees, the strawberry beds need to be thoroughly covered.