Strawberries Maxim: features of planting and growing, rules for care and propagation, features of choosing seedlings, reviews from gardeners

Everyone loves this berry.
And if it is not only tasty, but also large, then they say it has no price. These are the qualities that distinguish the Dutch strawberry variety “Gigantella Maxim” or “Maxim”, as we also call it, which is not entirely true. After all, the real name of the variety has nothing to do with a man’s name. It would be more correct to call it “Gigantella Maximum.” Dear readers!
For you, we have created communities on social networks in which useful articles and interesting ideas are published several times a day! Subscribe and receive useful content in a convenient format! But such a change in the name in no way affected the taste and size of the fruits of this plant, which is attracting more and more adherents to its cultivation.

Origin story

It is believed that strawberry Maxim (from the word maximum) is a more advanced analogue of Gigantella Maxim, bred by Dutch breeders. It is characterized by more amicable ripening and dense pulp.

In Russia, this berry appeared in summer cottages in the 80s. As a commercial variety, the Maxim strawberry did not take root. For farmers growing strawberries for sale, this berry is considered very capricious, as it is susceptible to fungal diseases and pest damage.

Possible problems

The “Maxim” garden strawberry variety is not very demanding to care for, but it has its own characteristics that you need to know about.

The main problems that gardeners may encounter:

1. Voids form in the fruits. This problem occurs due to insufficient watering.
2. Planting density after 3–5 years of crop cultivation. To avoid this problem, “Maxim” strawberries should initially be planted every 40–50 cm, placing four bushes per 1 m2. If the plantings turn out to be denser, the plants are thinned out after a year.
3. The Maxim variety loves bright places, but in the bright sun the berries bake. Therefore, it is better to grow strawberries in a greenhouse or install a screen next to the garden bed for slight shading.
4. Despite their moisture-loving nature, watering Maxim strawberries should be moderate. Otherwise, the roots may rot, powdery mildew or other fungal infections may appear.

The name of the strawberry “Gigantella Maxim” speaks for itself. The culture produces large berries with excellent taste and an unusual pineapple aroma. Productivity is consistently high, especially when grown in a greenhouse. But to achieve good fruiting, the plant needs to be looked after. Otherwise, the large-fruited variety will not differ from the usual one.

Characteristic

Strawberry Maxim is a berry for amateur cultivation.

1. It belongs to the mid-late varieties and, in the conditions of the Central region, ripens at the end of June and bears fruit within two weeks.
2. The spreading of light green leaves reaches 60-70 cm, the height reaches 50 cm, the root system is powerful, the leaf size is the size of a man's palm.
3. Release of multiple whiskers.
4. A healthy bush shoots about 30 flower stalks, each of which contains up to 8 berries.
5. One bush with good care can produce from 2 to 3 kg of fruit.
6. The size of the first berry can reach 100-130 cm; as the harvest is completed, the fruits become smaller.
7. Ripe fruits have a dark red color, a rough surface due to interspersed seeds.
8. The pulp is dense, the fruits are elastic, and therefore very transportable. Can be stored for up to 10 days in a cold place.

A description of both the advantages and disadvantages of Maxim strawberries will help you decide on the choice of planting material for your summer cottage.

Reproduction

Restoring old beds of Maxim strawberries and planting new ones is not difficult for gardeners. Young bushes of this variety at 2-3 years of life produce a lot of mustaches and the problem is rather created by their rationing.

Fast, simple and reliable ways to obtain planting material:

1. Rooting air rosettes: the cuttings are pressed to the soil and, with a sufficient level of humidity, a viable young bush is formed within 1 month.
2. By dividing the mother bush: the old bush is dug up, divided into horns, old parts of the rhizome are removed and planted in a new place.

Propagation by seeds is a long, troublesome and sometimes unpredictable method. Gardeners and summer residents prefer to use vegetative propagation of varietal plants, since daughter cuttings exactly repeat the properties of the mother bush. This means that without additional financial investments, only by rooting mustaches and rosettes, you can obtain the required amount of planting material. Planting new strawberry beds is guaranteed to provide your family with delicious berries for the whole year - fresh and for winter harvesting.

Advantages

1. Powerful roots make it easy to tolerate lack of moisture.
2. Numerous whiskers make breeding simple and not burdensome.
3. Frost resistance for the Central region of Russia.
4. Relatively good resistance to diseases.
5. Large, juicy fruits with dense light pink flesh have a pineapple flavor and dessert aroma.
6. They have excellent transportability.

How to care for a berry garden

Gigantella is not the most demanding strawberry, but it is also not the easiest to care for. This is due to the need for a large amount of water. In addition, intensive cultivation requires the constant participation of the gardener throughout the strawberry growing season.

Watering

Plants need abundant moisture immediately after planting, as well as during the flowering and fruiting phases. To ensure that the portions are dosed, the best option is drip irrigation. If it is not possible to provide it, the signal for watering is the drying of the surface layer.

You can install a drip irrigation system for watering strawberries

Water must be poured directly under the root, avoiding dripping onto the leaves. Tender shoots are prone to burns, and water will act as a magnifying glass under the sun's rays. The water used is settled and free of chlorine and heavy metals. It is better to preheat it in the sun.

Flaws

1. The culture is not adapted to severe winter cold. Not suitable for growing in the Urals, Siberia and the Far East in severe frost conditions.
2. The tip of the fruit is not always red.
3. There are voids in the pulp.
4. Requires care to protect against fungal diseases.
5. There is an irregular folded shape, so the berry is longer in width than in length.

Growing

1. For growing this variety of strawberry, as for any other, there are agrotechnical rules, if not followed, the fruits will begin to become smaller, numerous voids will form in the pulp, and the yield will be reduced to a minimum.
2. Choose a plantation for planting where plants from the nightshade family (tomatoes, hot and sweet peppers, potatoes, eggplants) or cruciferous plants (cabbage, horseradish, radish, turnip, horseradish, rutabaga, mustard) have not previously grown. And legumes, grain crops and green manures will serve as good predecessors.
3. As stated by the breeders, this variety can bear fruit in one place for up to 7 years. This is a record compared to other varieties that need to be replanted every 4 years.
4. Since the crop is heat-resistant, it can be planted in sunny areas.
5. Monitor the water-air regime; the berry does not like either an excess of moisture or a lack of it.
6. Trim off unwanted tendrils and foliage regularly after harvest, leaving one or two leaves.

Temperature and watering rules

It is necessary to water moderately, the temperature needs to be stable. With any deviations, productivity will decrease and growth will slow down. If the temperature is too high, pollen becomes unsuitable for fertilization, which means the ability to reproduce is lost.

It is also important to monitor humidity. If there is not enough water, the roots dry out, the leaves wither, the berries become smaller and smaller, or stop setting altogether.

The situation is no better when there is an excess of water. The fruits become small, do not ripen completely, and the root of the bush rots. Improper watering negatively affects the taste of the berries. They may become watery, but the appearance does not change.

Soil preparation

How well the planting site is prepared, so good will be the future harvest.

1. The soil should have a neutral or slightly acidic consistency. To reduce acidification per square meter, take 400 grams of limestone or ash and scatter it over previously dug soil.
2. Also fertilize the bed with compost or manure and nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium fertilizers. Level the ground thoroughly and remove plant debris.

Landing in the ground

When choosing planting material, you need to make sure that it is of good quality:

• seedlings should have fresh shiny foliage;
• live kidney;
• clumping roots;
• there should be no white coating.

Choose the time for planting in the spring. In the first year, strawberries must undergo adaptation and the main harvest can only be obtained the next year. It is advisable to remove the first buds so that the plant takes root.

Since the variety is very large, the holes must be made at a distance of 40-45 cm from each other, and the distance between the beds is one meter. And make the holes themselves quite deep, with a mound in the middle.

1. Before planting, the seedlings need to be trimmed with tendrils and leaves (leaving 1-2 in the middle), and the roots shortened.
2. Apply a weak solution of potassium permanganate, disinfect the roots of the seedlings in it and water the prepared holes.
3. Lower into the hole to the growing point, carefully straighten the roots, sprinkle with soil on top and compact.
4. Water the garden bed generously.
5. Mulch the soil with dry grass, straw, sawdust or compost.

Planting secrets

"Gigantella" has fairly large and spreading bushes. This must be taken into account when choosing a site for a berry garden.

Crop rotation is important: its violation inevitably leads to a decrease in crop productivity due to the accumulation of a large supply of specialized infection in the soil. Optimal predecessors: carrots, peas, radishes

It is better not to plant strawberries after nightshades. You should also avoid proximity to raspberries.

What planting material is suitable

In order for strawberries to quickly take root and grow, it is necessary to plant only healthy plants in the beds. The best option is self-harvested seedlings

If you buy planting material, you need to pay attention to the following signs:

• developed vegetative and root masses;
• the length of the roots is at least 6 cm;
• no signs of illness.

You should purchase seedlings from garden centers, nurseries, or trusted sellers. Otherwise, there is a risk of buying low-quality seedlings or even the wrong variety

Timing of planting in open ground

Both spring and autumn are suitable for planting strawberries. Autumn planting is preferable because the plants will have time to take root well without wasting energy on budding and flowering. Planting work should be carried out several weeks before the cold snap, and not on the eve of frost.

If summer in the region is short, it is better to give preference to spring. The main thing is to plant the bushes after the threat of return frosts has passed. You can organize additional protection based on the weather forecast.

Site selection and soil preparation

In order for “Gigantella” to fully realize its potential, sunny areas on a leveled hill are chosen for it. It is better that the soil lies at a level of 60-80 cm. Since strawberries have a superficial root system, this is enough to prevent stagnation of moisture in the roots.

When planting in spring, the soil is prepared in the fall. If the work is planned for autumn - immediately after harvesting the predecessor

When preparing the soil, remove remaining vegetation, spread fertilizer over the area in an even layer, dig it up and simultaneously incorporate it. If the soil is very acidic, which strawberries do not like, the soil must be limed.

Technology and planting scheme

Since “Gigantella” has large bushes, the preferred planting is 3 bushes/m2. Sequencing:

1. Holes are made in prepared beds with a row spacing of 90 cm. Depth and diameter - about 25 cm. Maintain a distance between holes of 40 cm.
2. The depressions are spilled with water and seedlings are installed in them, straightening the roots.
3. Sprinkle with loose soil and lightly compact without compacting.
4. To ensure that there are no air gaps left near the roots, water the soil in the tree trunk circles.
5. At the end of the bed the beds are mulched. This will prevent the formation of a water- and air-tight crust, as well as the rapid evaporation of moisture.

Care

By providing high-quality care for strawberries throughout the growing season, the harvest will not be long in coming.

Top dressing

Feeding is done 4 times a year:

• the first is needed immediately after wintering with nitrogen-phosphorus fertilizers;
• the second during budding with potassium and calcium;
• the third during fruit growth with complex fertilizing;
• and the last one after fruiting, with potassium-phosphorus fertilizers.

Monitor timely watering, loosening, mulching, trimming tendrils and leaves, shading during hot weather, and combat diseases and pests.

Pest Control

Slugs

Tasty, aromatic strawberries are loved not only by adults and children, but also by insect pests. One of the most voracious is the slug. To repel this pest, you need to mulch the soil around the bushes with something sharp - sawdust, egg husks, tree bark, pine needles.

Slugs have a very delicate body; they will get hurt on sharp ones and crawl around. Either scatter or put on a substrate the preparations - Thunderstorm or Slug Eater.

Weevil

It destroys buds, and gardeners think that it has been a bad year, not suspecting the true reasons for what is happening. To combat this insect, either intoxicants or traditional methods are used:

• spraying with mustard solution (dissolve 100 g of mustard powder in 3 liters of boiling water);
• onion-garlic infusion (pour boiling water, leave, cool, strain, spray during budding);
• soap solution (per 10 liters of water - 200 g of laundry soap).

Strawberry mite

When infested by mites, the leaves turn yellow and dry out. These insects cannot be seen with the naked eye, but if you turn the leaf over, you can see a silvery film.

To combat, use onion-garlic infusion, 70% solution of colloidal sulfur or 3% solution of Bordeaux mixture.

Reviews

One of my favorite varieties is Gigantella Maxim - the berries are large and the yield is good. In rainy weather it can be fresh, without sweetness or sourness, but this, in my opinion, is evident in all varieties. It is better to plant in partial shade, otherwise it will burn strongly in the sun, and to collect until the berry is completely ripe, otherwise there is a risk that it will rot.

Tired of fighting with slugs on strawberries. I don’t know if this is a feature of a particular Maxim variety or if other varieties will be eaten by me, but so far the fact is that I collect less than I throw away. I tried spruce mulch, but didn’t get any results. I recently read that coarse sand helps, as it heats up from the sun and prevents slugs from growing under it. I haven’t tried this method yet, I will test it this season, if it doesn’t help, then I won’t mess with strawberries anymore.

I have two favorite varieties - Maxim and Zenga Zengana. During flowering, I spray both with a solution of honey (1 teaspoon per 2 cups of water). This treatment provides good pollination, and the number of large and double berries increases.

Disease Control

Spray for prevention against fungal diseases twice a season - in early spring and autumn. Bordeaux mixture is not a bad remedy, but you can use something else.

In order to get a good harvest, it takes a lot of effort and time, but the reward is when the whole family enjoys delicious and sweet strawberries, both fresh and frozen, both in the form of compotes, preserves and jams.