Strawberries Baron Solemacher: variety description, photos, reviews

Description of the strawberry variety Baron Solemacher

Wild strawberry Baron Solemacher is a remontant variety, that is, fruiting begins in early summer and lasts until late autumn. The variety forms a powerful, compact, leafy bush. The height of the plant reaches 20 cm, so it takes up little space and looks great in flower beds and alpine hills.

In the Moscow region, flowering occurs in mid-May. The bush is covered with miniature, snow-white, bisexual flowers. At the end of flowering, strawberries form red berries weighing up to 4 g. They have a forest aroma, sweet taste with piquant sourness. 100 g of harvest contains about 8% sugar and 82 mg of ascorbic acid.

According to gardeners, the cold resistance of the remontant strawberry Baron Solemacher is high. The plant can easily withstand frosts down to -34 °C. The variety has strong immunity to diseases and insect pests.

Varietal features

Before planting strawberries, Baron Solemacher should familiarize yourself with the key characteristics of the crop.

Bush size and leaf blade appearance

This is a remontant crop, which is characterized by an early ripening period. It is characterized by squat bushes 15-20 centimeters high. They are distinguished by a medium spreading crown and spherical shape. The foliage has a light green tint. It has teeth and is covered with fluff.

Flowering and pollination

A characteristic feature of the plant is short peduncles, which are located below the foliage level. In May they bear many white flowers. Flowering is considered bisexual, so strawberries are well pollinated. If the crop is grown at home, it requires artificial pollination.

Ripening time and yield

The culture is distinguished by early fruit ripening. The berries are small in size. Their weight does not exceed 4 grams. The fruits are conical in shape and have a pronounced shine and a red tint. The flesh is also red. It is distinguished by its high juiciness and dense consistency.

Strawberries are characterized by continuous fruiting throughout the season. It lasts until frost. In the south, the harvest can be harvested until November; in the north, strawberries bear fruit until the end of September.

This variety is considered high-yielding. With proper care, it is possible to collect up to 83.8 centners of berries from 1 hectare.

Taste qualities of the fruit and its further sale

The fruits have a sweet and sour taste and a pronounced aroma. Average sugar content parameters are 7.5-7.7%, while acidity is at the level of 0.6-0.8%. According to the tasting assessment, the fruits were awarded 4.2 points.

Strawberries of this variety are distinguished by their dessert purpose. After harvesting, the fruits remain fresh for a long time and can easily be transported. They can be eaten fresh, frozen, or used to make jam, jelly, and compote.

Pros and cons of strawberries of the Baron Solemacher variety

Wild strawberry Baron Solemacher consists of only advantages. Many summer residents note a drawback - the variety does not bear fruit well during prolonged drought.

The advantages of the Baron Solemacher variety include:

stable and high yield;
the variety grows well in the country house, balcony and at home;
high seed germination;
immunity to diseases;
fruiting from June until the first frost;
frost resistance.

The remontant strawberry Baron Solemacher, thanks to its positive characteristics, has become popular among Russian summer residents.

Characteristics of the variety

Before planting a crop, you should familiarize yourself with its key characteristics. This will help you choose adequate care for the plant.

Winter hardiness and drought resistance

Strawberries of this variety tolerate strong temperature drops and hot weather well. It is characterized by average parameters of drought resistance.

Immunity and susceptibility to disease and parasites

The plant is characterized by high resistance to various diseases and pest attacks.

Growing remontant strawberries Baron Solemacher from seeds at home

Strawberries of the Baron Solemacher variety are grown through seedlings. The procedure is long, painstaking, but very exciting. To grow healthy, strong seedlings, you need to follow simple rules:

It is better to purchase seeds from trusted suppliers.
Seedlings begin to grow from February to March. But since during this period there is a short daylight hours, the emerging seedlings must be illuminated so that they do not stretch out.
You can buy soil for sowing, or you can make it yourself. To do this, peat, sand and turf soil are mixed in a ratio of 1:1:2.
Since in nature strawberry seeds begin to germinate immediately after the onset of warm days, the seeds must undergo stratification. It can be done in 2 ways: the seeds are laid out on a damp cloth, wrapped in plastic and put in the refrigerator for 2-3 days. You can also sow seeds and cover them with a snow cushion. Cover the container with film and put it in a cool place for 10 days. When the snow melts, the seeds will go into the soil to the required depth.
Next, the air temperature is increased to + 20 °C.
After the true leaves appear, the strawberries are thinned out into separate cups.

Another option for growing seedlings

How are strawberry seedlings grown? At the end of February, you can begin to sow the seeds of this beardless strawberry. If you postpone this to a later time, the time for picking berries will be significantly reduced.

Early sowing has another important advantage. The seeds of these strawberries, for a variety of reasons, sometimes do not germinate. Quite often, gardeners have doubts about the freshness of store-bought seeds. Due to staleness, the percentage of germination is reduced. When sowing early, there is time to purchase new, fresher seeds so that the strawberry seedlings are of high quality.

To do this, you can use a plastic box, the lid and bottom of which have holes. Cherry tomatoes are often sold in such containers. This option is good because it frees you from ventilation, watering, etc. When filling such boxes with soil, there should be enough space for the seedlings to grow. They are closed with a lid immediately after sowing and only open slightly when the seedlings are buried in it.

Strawberries Baron Solemacher (reviews from gardeners confirm this) take a long time to sprout and are unfriendly. When the first tiny leaves appear on the seedlings, natural daylight will be enough for them. Sowing containers can be kept on the windowsill, and, as a rule, they do not require additional lighting.

Planting and caring for strawberries Baron Solemacher in open ground

Strawberries of the Baron Solemacher variety can be grown from seeds for seedlings at home, or you can purchase ready-made seedlings from trusted suppliers. Properly prepared bushes and a place for planting are the key to stable, high fruiting.

Selection and preparation of a landing site

Garden strawberry Baron Solemacher is an unpretentious plant that can grow on any soil without shallow groundwater. The best option for obtaining a fragrant and large harvest is light, fertile soil, the composition of which is close to forest soil.

To plant strawberries, you should not choose a site in a lowland with stagnant water, or located on the southwest side. The landing site should be well lit and protected from gusty winds.

The place needs to be prepared in the fall. To do this, dig up the soil and apply mineral and organic fertilizers.

Attention! Over the winter, fertilizers will saturate the soil, and in the spring it will be ready to receive young seedlings.

Garden strawberries grow well and bear fruit after garlic, onions, carrots, legumes and spicy herbs. It is not recommended to plant seedlings next to raspberry bushes and plums, as there is a danger of the addition of the raspberry-strawberry weevil.

Preparation of planting material

To get a rich harvest of large and sweet berries, great attention must be paid to the selection of seedlings. When buying strawberry bushes, you need to use the advice of experienced gardeners:

Purchase only annual plants with a rosette consisting of 3-5 leaves.
The root system should be light, powerful, well developed, about 5 cm long. If the roots are dark, it means the bush is weak and sick, it will have poor survival rate.
The apical bud is strong, red or pink.
The diameter of the horn is at least 1.5 cm.
Seedlings should not be elongated, frail or overgrown, without signs of rot or mechanical damage.
If you purchase bushes in bloom, it is better to choose specimens with large inflorescences, since the size of the berries depends on them.

Purchased seedlings often suffer from insect pests and diseases. To avoid infecting neighboring plants, it is necessary to carry out pre-planting treatment. To do this, the purchased strawberry bush is immersed for 15-20 minutes in water, the temperature of which should not be less than 50 °C. For prevention, the plant can be immersed in a solution of copper sulfate for 7 minutes.

Landing rules

Strawberries are planted from mid-May to early June. The sooner the seedlings are planted, the faster the berries will appear and the larger the harvest next year.

Landing is carried out in cloudy weather, in the morning or evening. Strawberry seedlings of the Baron Solemacher variety are planted at a distance of 30 cm from each other, maintaining a row spacing of 70 cm.

Holes measuring 25x30 cm are made in the prepared bed, watered and seedlings are installed. It is necessary to plant the plant in the ground up to the root collar, since if the heart is buried in the ground, the plant will begin to rot and die in the shortest possible time. If the seedling is not deep enough, it will not survive the winter cold and will also die. After planting, the soil is compacted and the row spacing is carefully loosened.

In order to get a rich harvest next year, it is necessary to remove all flower stalks during spring planting. Since during fruiting, young strawberries do not grow their root system well, devoting all their strength to the harvest. The plant becomes depleted and does not tolerate severe winter cold.

Important! Despite the fact that Baron Solemacher strawberries are an unpretentious variety, timely care is necessary to obtain a generous harvest. It consists of watering, fertilizing, loosening and mulching the soil.

Watering and fertilizing

Strawberry Baron Solemacher grows and develops poorly in dry weather. Therefore, the plant needs regular watering. Strawberries are most demanding of moisture during flowering, fruiting and after harvest. Irrigation before flowering and after picking the berries is carried out by sprinkling, since the plant loves high air humidity. During flowering and during the ripening period, watering is carried out between the rows, as excess moisture forms dark spots on the foliage, this leads to rotting of the crop.

Advice! The bushes are not watered at the roots, since the root system of strawberries is spreading and is located along the periphery of the above-ground part.

Strawberries bear fruit well only on nutritious soil. A lack of nutrients can be detected in the second year of planting. The plant grows and develops poorly, fruiting is poor, the berries do not correspond to the varietal size and taste.

In the first year of cultivation, if the site is properly fertilized, no fertilizing is applied. Next, the soil is fed with complex mineral or organic fertilizers. To do this, nitrogen fertilizer is applied in the spring, phosphorus-potassium fertilizer is applied during fruiting, and organic matter is added after the berries are removed. Nitrogen fertilizing must be applied according to the rules, since oversaturation of the plant with nitrogen leads to fattening, diseases and pests.

Mulching and loosening

After each irrigation, the soil is loosened. This must be done for better air exchange, since without it the root system will develop poorly, which will affect the quality and quantity of the crop. Before flowering, loosening is carried out 3 times every 7 days, and then once a week. Since the root system of strawberries is located superficially, loosening is carried out to a depth of 2-3 cm.

Starting from the second year of growth, the bushes must be hilled. Since new adventitious roots are formed on the trunk, and hilling stimulates the growth of the root system, making the plant lush and spreading.

Also, in order to retain moisture in the soil and stop the growth of weeds, it is necessary to mulch the plantings. In the spring, many gardeners remove mulch to better warm the soil, then after the soil has warmed up, they return it, adding a fresh layer. You can use sawdust, straw or fallen leaves as mulch.

Sawdust mulch is suitable for soil with neutral acidity, as sawdust acidifies the soil. To prevent the soil from oxidizing, the sawdust is pre-soaked with humates or chicken droppings. Sawdust is scattered under the bush in a layer of 6 cm.

Mulch from hay and grass is a natural organic fertilizer that enriches the soil with nitrogen. For proper nutrition, the mulch layer should not be less than 5-7 cm.

It is effective to lay mulch from leaves under the plant in the fall, since a 15 cm layer of leaves will provide excellent insulation for the root system.

Important! Proper use of mulch will not only simplify maintenance, but also enrich the soil with useful microelements.

Preparing for winter

Strawberry Baron Solemacher is a cold-resistant variety that can withstand frosts down to - 35 ° C. Therefore, only young seedlings need shelter. To protect the root system from freezing, in the fall the plant is watered generously, fed with phosphorus-potassium fertilizers and covered with a 15 cm layer of mulch.

Care

Strawberries need watering, but they do not like waterlogging. Checking how much water a plant needs is quite simple. If at a depth of 25 cm in the bed the soil crumbles in your hands, watering is necessary, if it is wet, you can postpone watering for now, if it is sticky and damp, there is too much moisture.

During the growth of bushes, the watering interval should be 7-10 days (if there is no rain), and during the formation of berries - 5 days. Water this delicate berry very carefully, under the root, using a watering can. You cannot water bushes directly from a hose or spray water from above. The drip irrigation system is very effective.

Harvesting

Since the berries ripen unevenly, the harvest is carried out in several stages. For fresh consumption, the crop is harvested every 2-3 days in cloudy weather, and every other day in hot summers. The ripe berry is carefully removed from the bush with a cup and part of the stalk.

It is better to collect berries in small baskets, since when collected in deep baskets, the bottom layer wrinkles, the strawberries release juice and lose their presentation.

It is better to immediately consume the harvested fresh crops or make preparations for the winter. If there is a lot of harvest and it is not possible to immediately process the berries, the harvest can be stored in a cool place for no more than 7 days or frozen.

Reproduction

Strawberry Baron Solemacher does not grow a mustache, so the variety is propagated by seeds and division of the mother bush. Since the yield decreases every year, the plant must be regularly rejuvenated. To do this, adult bushes are dug up and carefully divided into sections. Each division must have at least 5 leaves and a well-developed root system.

The division of the bush is carried out in spring or autumn. After planting, strawberries will begin to bear fruit abundantly and bear large, sweet berries.

Since the variety is not a hybrid, it can be propagated by seeds. A plant grown from seeds will form a powerful, spreading bush in a year, which will bring a rich harvest.

Diseases and pests of garden strawberries Baron Solemacher

Strawberry Baron Solemacher is immune to many diseases. But if agrotechnical rules are not followed, various diseases and insect pests may appear on the plant. Diseases and pests of strawberries Baron Solemacher with photo:

White rot - appears in hot, rainy summers. The disease can be detected by white spots on the leaf blade. Without treatment, the fungus spreads to the berries, leading to a decrease in yield.

Black root rot - appears on young plants in the form of black spots on the foliage, stem and root collar. Further, the disease depletes the bush, the rosettes become brown, the roots become fragile and brittle. As a result, the yield decreases and the bush dies. The diseased plant is removed from the garden bed, burned, and the soil is treated with disinfectants.

Fusarium - appears in hot, dry summers. The foliage turns brown, dries out and falls off. The disease can affect not only leaves, but also berries, stems, and roots. The plant can be cured with fungicides only at the initial stage of the disease.

White spot is a common fungal disease that affects the leaf blade, forming small dark spots on it. Infected bushes cannot be treated, so they are mercilessly removed and burned.

The strawberry mite is a dangerous pest that, by sucking out the juice, leads to the death of the bush. An infected plant can be identified by shriveled leaves and small yields. At the initial stage of the disease, the plant can be saved thanks to insecticides. A heavily infected bush is removed from the garden bed to protect neighboring plants from infection.

Raspberry-strawberry weevil - an insect that appears on the first warm days from fallen leaves and lumps of warmed soil. Pests gnaw through holes in the leaves, and females lay eggs in strawberry buds. To prevent the appearance of the pest, it is necessary to treat the bushes with chemicals a week before flowering.

Disease prevention:

plant seedlings in a well-lit place without stagnant water;
observe crop rotation and care rules;
in the spring, treat the bushes with fungicides;
remove weeds in a timely manner.