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In recent years, the interest of gardeners in various unusual designs and structures has increased. Quite a few people get small plots, but they want to plant everything on them. You have to sacrifice something, but most of all you don't want to sacrifice strawberries. After all, it is difficult to find a person who would not like this berry. And her landings usually take up a lot of space. Fortunately for gardeners, it is strawberry that is one of those crops that can be grown quite realistically using various vertical structures, due to its compact root system. In addition, in recent years, many varieties of strawberries have appeared that are almost ideally suited for growing in such conditions.
Curly strawberries, advertised a lot in many periodicals, is evidence of this. Although such offers from firms are often outright fraudulent, they did not arise out of nowhere. After all, the very idea of getting strawberries from beautifully hanging bushes growing in various containers on vertical supports is far from new. Any gardener knows that even the most common strawberry varieties necessarily produce a mustache and often in large quantities, so if you put them in a tall flowerpot, then they may well turn out to be a green wall. But it is unlikely to bear fruit. But the appearance in recent years of new remontant strawberry varieties of a neutral day, especially their ampelous forms, opens up completely different prospects.
Suitable varieties for growing
Probably, many of you, personally or through friends, with the fact of deception, when buying seedlings of the so-called climbing strawberries, decided that the dream of a green wall with large sweet strawberries will forever remain in the land of dreams, and stopped even thinking about the implementation of such an opportunity ... Meanwhile, everything is quite feasible, if only you choose the right variety, plant it correctly and take proper care. This is not the easiest thing, but it is quite affordable even for novice gardeners with a great desire.
As already mentioned, remontant strawberries with neutral daylight hours are best suited for these purposes. The fact is that they are able to bloom and bear fruit, regardless of the time of year and the duration of lighting. Moreover, among these varieties there are ampelous forms, which differ in that they are able to bloom and give berries even on their unrooted mustache. It is this property, together with the fact that flowers and fruits can be simultaneously observed on such strawberry varieties, makes it possible to create very beautiful compositions.
The strawberry variety Alyuba, obtained as a result of cross-pollination of the Rapella and Fristar varieties, has rather long peduncles (up to 30 cm). They hang beautifully by themselves, but large, up to 35-40 grams of elongated berries complete the effect of a falling composition.
Ampel grade Geneva not to be confused with the common remontant classic Geneva. The latter is also good in itself and has been deservedly popular with gardeners for many years.It was on its basis that the ampelous form was relatively recently obtained by free re-pollination with the Alyuba variety. It is she who is ideally suited to play the role of a curly strawberry. The flower stalks near the ampelous Geneva are even longer, they grow first upwards, and then gracefully fall under the weight of sweet and dense berries. The variety is also distinguished by its yield and early maturity. Up to 3 liters of strawberries can be harvested from one bush per season.
With proper planting and care, strawberry varieties such as:
- Queen Elizabeth 2;
- Lyubava;
- Selva;
- Homemade delicacy;
- Crown;
- Osatra;
- Moscow delicacy;
- Honey and many others.
Planting curly strawberries: a variety of designs
You can plant curly strawberries in almost any container with a volume of one liter or more. In recent years, the so-called vertical beds have been especially popular with gardeners. They can theoretically be made from anything:
- from wooden and plastic boxes and boards;
- from car tires;
- from iron and plastic barrels;
- from plastic bottles and pipes.
Nice curly strawberries also look good on trellises, on fences or on the walls of houses. In this case, you will be able not only to get some strawberry harvest, but also to decorate or drape some not very aesthetic corner of your site.
Of course, the most popular way to grow curly strawberries is to plant them in tall flowerpots or hanging baskets, as shown in the photo.
After all, flowerpots and baskets can be placed almost anywhere on the site, thereby additionally decorating it.
Features of growing curly strawberries
In principle, curly strawberries, or rather, its ampelous varieties, are just a variety of the most common strawberries, therefore, the main features of cultivation are associated, first of all, with planting them in containers with a small amount of soil. Therefore, when answering the question: "How to properly care for curly strawberries?" it is necessary to proceed from the following factors.
Suitable ground mix
Considering that strawberries will have to grow, develop, bloom and bear fruit in a very limited amount of land - the soil should be of excellent quality both in terms of looseness and air permeability, and in nutritional properties. In principle, garden centers and specialty shops now have a fairly rich selection of land. You can stop on a soil specially designed for growing strawberries.
If there is no such thing on sale in your region, then you can pick up any land mixture with a neutral reaction and an equal content of the main macronutrients: nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.
Although the best option for planting curly strawberries is to make your own soil mixture, which you will be 100% sure of the quality. The following recipe comes in handy for this:
- Peat soil - 10 parts;
- Chernozem or sod land - 10 parts;
- Humus - 10 parts;
- Sawdust prepared in a special way - 4 parts;
- Coarse sand - 1 part.
In order for the sawdust to bring the maximum benefit to the strawberries, soak them for several hours in a urea solution (2 tablespoons of fertilizer per 1 liter of water). Then add 1 cup of chalk or wood ash and mix well.
All of the above components must be mixed together, spilled with a phytosporin solution and left to dry for a while.
Planting strawberries
Growing and caring for curly strawberries begins with proper planting. It is believed that the best time to plant young strawberry seedlings is April or August. The only problem is that most remontant varieties bear fruit abundantly only the next year after planting.And since strawberries do not tolerate transplanting very well, it is better to plant them immediately in permanent containers. Therefore, for abundant fruiting, autumn planting dates are recommended, followed by good insulation of vertical structures for the winter. Flowerpots and baskets can simply be brought into a frost-free room for the winter - this will be quite enough for a good wintering.
But for those who want to enjoy the sight of blooming strawberries as soon as possible, you can try to plant them in April in permanent places, using unpretentious and early-growing varieties. To increase yields, you can remove the first two or three peduncles and immediately feed the strawberry bushes with fertilizers containing phosphorus and potassium.
This is quite capable of protecting it from unexpected cold snaps in the spring.
The planting process itself is not much different from the usual one. You just need to understand that when planting strawberry bushes in limited containers, you need to carefully spread all the roots in length in order to avoid bending them up and to the sides.
Watering and feeding
When caring for climbing strawberries, the most important procedures are to provide the plants with the necessary, but not excessive moisture and regular feeding.
The drip irrigation device will help you perfectly solve the first problem. As for fertilizers, there are several ways to go:
- Even during planting, add a long-playing complex fertilizer to the soil, which will gradually decompose under the influence of incoming moisture and supply the strawberries with nutrients.
- At least once a week, instead of watering, use a solution infused on green grass, with the addition of slurry and wood ash for feeding strawberries.
- You can also use any complex special fertilizer for strawberries.
It is only important to make top dressing at the root and regularly.
Reproduction of curly strawberries
It is thanks to the rather large number of mustaches that form the ampelous varieties of strawberries that their reproduction does not present any particular difficulties.
The rest must be cut down decisively, as they weaken the mother plant and, most likely, will not be able to produce flowers and fruits.
The largest rosettes, forming the most berries, can be marked in any way and further used for propagation. To do this, in the fall, they are separated from the mother bush and planted in separate containers. For the winter they can be dug in the garden, brought into a frost-free room or planted on the next vertical beds, not forgetting to insulate them well.
The next video once again describes in detail all the features of caring for the so-called curly or ampelous strawberries.
Gardeners reviews
Curly strawberries could not fail to capture the attention of gardeners with their beauty and originality, but judging by the reviews, not everyone managed to grow it the first time.
Conclusion
Although for many, curly strawberries are still an unattainable dream, things are not as difficult as people think. And it is not necessary to invest a lot of money to enjoy a tasty and healthy berry in your garden, which, moreover, can serve as a real decoration of the site.
How do I buy climbing strawberry seeds?