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For gardeners in recent years, many additional opportunities have opened up with which they can diversify the usual methods and methods of growing traditional crops. Strawberries or garden strawberries are no exception. First appeared repairing varieties that made it possible to feast on tasty and healthy berries almost throughout the year. And then suddenly the so-called curly strawberry, whose pictures amazed the imagination of even sophisticated gardeners. But after all, there are no climbing varieties of strawberries - an ampelous strawberry, which is only a popular variety of remontant strawberries, is a completely different matter. It is the care of ampelous strawberries that is the subject of this article.
Ampel strawberry - what does it mean
There are strawberry varieties that are able not only to form quite a lot of long mustaches, but also to form flowering and fruiting rosettes on them, even without contact with the soil. These rosettes, in turn, also give a mustache with rosettes.
Due to this, by the time the first berries begin to ripen on the mother plant, the first buds can already form on the daughter outlets.
If you plant such varieties in a tall flowerpot or hanging planter and hang all the shoots down, then you will get an excellent-looking ampelous strawberry. In general, the word "ampel" is translated from German as - a hanging vase. Therefore, ampelous strawberries are more a way of growing and forming plants than a specific type of strawberry.
It is the remontant strawberry varieties that are most often used as ampelous, since they allow you to extend the fruiting period from late spring to autumn. All this time, flowerpots or baskets with ampelous strawberries will be able to decorate your site.
Most often, these strawberries are used for growing at home, on balconies or terraces. Sometimes they even sacrifice fruiting for the sake of decorativeness - after all, if the extra mustache is not cut off from the strawberries, then the mother bushes will not cope with such a load and will not be able to make absolutely all the emerging rosettes bloom and give berries. But a lush cascade of greenery is provided in any case.
Growing from seeds
If you are thinking about how to grow a large amount of ampelous strawberry seedlings at once for yourself or for sale, then you can remember the method of growing it from seeds. This method allows you to get a lot of good healthy seedlings in a short time, which will be able to give berries already in the current season, provided that the sowing is early. In addition, when breeding with a mustache for a long time, there is a danger of viral diseases accumulating in the bushes, and in most cases they are not transmitted through seeds.
If you buy seeds in a retail network, you need to remember that strawberry seeds retain their germination capacity for a very short time. Therefore, it is strongly recommended to sow them in the year of purchase, otherwise germination may drop several times.
Sowing the seeds of ampelous strawberries should be carried out in January or, as a last resort, in February.
A properly selected substrate is very important for growing strawberries with seeds.It should be very light and breathable, because the seeds of the berries are small and in no case should they be deepened into the ground. They germinate only on the surface in the light.
Usually, a special peat soil is used, which is well mixed with fine coconut fiber. A thin layer of calcined river sand is poured on top. Sometimes, when sowing strawberry seeds, the following technique is used - the surface of the soil for sowing is covered with a small layer of snow, the seeds are carefully laid out on top. When the snow melts, it will pull the seeds in with it, and they will be simultaneously moistened and pressed against the soil.
From above, the crops are covered with foil or glass and placed in a bright, warm place (about + 25 ° C). Crops must be aired daily, removing glass or film for 5-10 minutes. Seeds can begin to germinate as early as 7 days, but sometimes some linger up to 15-20 days. After germination, the container with the crops is placed in the most illuminated place, where the duration of daylight hours is at least 12 hours a day.
Seedlings continue to be aired daily, but the shelter is finally removed only when the first two true leaves open on the strawberry seedlings.
Water the seedlings very sparingly from a syringe or using a pipette, since excessive moisture in the soil can lead to an outbreak of black leg disease.
A pick of ampelous strawberry seedlings is usually carried out a month after the emergence of seedlings, planting them in separate small containers. By this time, the seedlings should have at least three true leaves, but their size is still small. A pick will help accelerate the development of plants, so that in May they could be planted in open ground without fear.
Before planting in the ground, strawberry seedlings are fed several more times with complex mineral fertilizer or diluted manure with the addition of wood ash.
If strawberry seeds are planted for seedlings in January, then in May you can see the first buds and flowers.
Planting ampelous strawberries
Since ampelous strawberries are most often grown in special containers or in pots, then it is necessary to take special care of the composition of the land mixture in which it will grow. Usually peat, humus, leaf and sod land are used in equal proportions with the addition of river sand. It is wise to add some hydrogel to the substrate. This is a special substance that, absorbing water during watering, swells, and then, if necessary, is able to give excess moisture to the roots of plants. Since the soil will dry out quickly in any container on hot days, the presence of the hydrogel will help the strawberry bushes survive accidental irrigation interruptions.
A rather thick layer of drainage is poured onto the bottom of the basket or container in which strawberries are supposed to be grown - it can be expanded clay, pebbles or pieces of charcoal. Planting ampelous strawberries is carried out in such a way that for each bush there are from 1.5 to 3 liters of nutrient soil. It is impossible to deepen the bushes, especially in the middle of the bush, the so-called growth point, which should be on the surface of the substrate.
Care features
Planting and caring for ampelous strawberries have some peculiarities, but they are primarily associated with the conditions for the growth and formation of bushes. Please note the following:
- Watering strawberry bushes should be especially verified; neither overdrying nor overmoistening of the earthen coma should be allowed. The best option would be to use a hydrogel when planting. You can also use drip irrigation systems and flowerpots with built-in humidity control.
- Due to the remontance of ampel varieties, strawberry bushes need constant and regular feeding throughout the growing season. Indeed, in order to feed such an abundance of mustaches and rosettes, plants need enhanced nutrition.
If, when growing ampelous strawberries, the main thing for you is the harvest of berries, and not the decorativeness of the plants, then the main care procedure should be to take care of removing unnecessary whiskers and rosettes. The plant is able to feed no more than two outlets on a mustache, it is advisable to remove all the rest as they appear. The total number of mustaches should also not be too large. Usually, no more than the first five whiskers are left, but you can experiment with feeding and observe the development of your bushes. Ultimately, a lot depends on the characteristics of a particular variety.
Gardeners are often interested in how to properly preserve ampelous strawberries in the winter.
- The safest way is to move the bushes in the fall from containers to the garden beds, drop them in the ground and mulch with fallen leaves or straw. You can bury bushes in the ground along with containers, if they allow you to do this.
- In the southern regions, it is possible to simply insulate vertical structures with straw mats or dense white non-woven material so as not to get sunburn.
- And in those regions where a lot of snow falls, it is enough to disassemble the vertical structures and place them on the ground. They usually hibernate well under snow cover.
- It is also possible to transfer pots with ampel varieties to the cellar for the winter, it is only necessary to take into account that strawberries are ideally preserved in winter at temperatures from -5 ° C to + 3 ° C. At higher temperatures the spread of fungal diseases is possible.
In spring, strawberry bushes can be planted again in flowerpots and containers, removing withered and dry leaves and looking after in the same way as for regular garden strawberries.
Conclusion
The harvest of ampelous strawberries depends on the variety, but in any case, having planted this miracle on your site, you will admire the cascade of flowers and fruits all summer and enjoy the aroma and taste of juicy berries.
