Content
Growing strawberries in garden plots is becoming more and more popular. If experienced gardeners have already decided on the varieties, then beginners face a difficult task when choosing seeds or seedlings of garden strawberries. After all, today breeders all over the world every year present all new varieties of sweet, aromatic berries for everyone to see.
We want to tell you about garden strawberries, created in the days of the Soviet Union. Despite the fact that the variety is already many years old, Strawberry Festivalnaya Chamomile is not going to leave country and farm plots. On the contrary, it continues to win the hearts of gardeners. The features of the garden strawberry variety, cultivation, and will be discussed.
Characteristic features of the variety
Strawberry Festivalnaya Chamomile of medium ripening, according to the description of the variety, numerous photos and reviews of gardeners, today remains popular among many gardeners in the Russian open spaces. Although the variety was bred in the last century. The author of the garden strawberry with an interesting name is the breeder Yu. K. Katinskaya. She crossed two varieties of garden strawberries - Abundant and Premier. At the same time, she retained the best qualities of each of the “parents”.
What attracts gardeners with strawberry Festival Daisy:
- Garden strawberries have a compact, semi-sprawling, fairly tall bush. Leaves are medium, dull green, slight wrinkling.
- There is an important difference between Festival Chamomile and other varieties of strawberries, which cannot be ignored when describing. The massive formation of a bright green mustache with a reddish tinge complicates the care of the plantings a little.
- The plant produces a large number of peduncles with bisexual flowers. They are distinguished by their strength and density. With a thickness of a pencil, the peduncles practically do not bend under the weight of numerous fruits. Successful arrangement of peduncles at leaf level or slightly below. Ripening fruits are well ventilated and evenly warmed up by the sun's rays.
- In the southern regions and central Russia, the first festivals can be tasted in the second half of June. Gardeners living in more severe climates - two weeks later. Fruiting lasts until frost.
- The berries are quite large, especially at the first harvest. Their weight reaches 35-45 grams. The last fruits will be twice as small.
- Strawberries Festivalnaya Chamomile, according to the description of the variety of photos and reviews of gardeners, have berries of irregular shape, slightly flattened from the sides. Often, deep grooves can be observed on the fruit. Look at the photo, this is how the berries of a popular variety look.
- The fruits are bright red with a well-defined sheen. Moreover, the pulp is exactly the same color. The berries are juicy, sweet and sour, dense, which is very important for large strawberry growers. The berries have a high keeping quality and transportability. They do not wrinkle during transportation, do not flow.
- A variety of universal use. Berries are good both for fresh consumption and for canning, freezing, since they do not lose their shape.
- Strawberries of this variety are distinguished by abundant fruiting and stable yield. Up to 500 grams of fruit can be harvested from one bush.
- Festivalnaya Chamomile belongs to drought and frost-resistant varieties, so even gardeners of the northern regions of Russia are engaged in its cultivation. Can be grown outdoors, under plastic or in a greenhouse.
- Plants are resistant to many strawberry diseases due to their high immunity.
If we talk about the disadvantages of the Festivalnaya Chamomile strawberry variety, then, according to gardeners' reviews:
- plants cannot resist powdery mildew and verticillary wilting. In the photo you can see how strawberry leaves look like, affected by this disease.
- often it is necessary to deal with "repair" of strawberry beds, as the plants begin to lose their properties.
Reproduction methods
Since planting strawberries often needs to be rejuvenated, novice gardeners are often interested in how they can provide themselves with high-quality and healthy planting material. As a rule, seeds and seedlings sold in stores are not cheap; restoring beds with purchased material will cost a pretty penny.
Festivalnaya Chamomile strawberries reproduce, like most relatives, in different ways:
- growing seedlings from seeds;
- rooting of whiskers:
- dividing the mother bush.
Seed reproduction
It should be noted right away that seed reproduction of garden strawberries, regardless of the variety, is possible only with store seeds. In this case, the varietal qualities corresponding to the description are preserved by 90%. Plants obtained from self-collected seeds do not have this feature. The fact is that different varieties of garden strawberries grow on the beds, the flowers are pollinated. Strawberry seeds should be sown in early February.
Rooting rosettes off the mustache
The Festival Chamomile produces an abundance of strong green mustaches with a reddish tint. When the strawberry is in bloom and bearing fruit, the mustache must be cut off, otherwise it will drain the bush. This will negatively affect not only the amount of the crop, but also the size and quality of the fruit.
In order to get the harvest and planting material for strawberries of this variety, some of the plants are allowed to go to the queen cells. Their peduncles are removed, and the mustache is given free rein. No more than five whiskers are left on a healthy bush. As a rule, the first socket is rooted. This can be done both on the garden bed itself and in cups, as in the photo below.
You can root the mustache at any time. If you need planting material for next year, then it is better to start rooting outlets at the end of August. Planting material grown in pots is simply removed in a cool place.
In other regions, the seedlings are transplanted to a permanent place and covered for the winter as usual.
Dividing the bush
The easiest of the ways is to plant the parcels, since parts from the disassembled bush are immediately planted in the garden. They take root quickly. But the most important thing is that the harvest can be obtained in the year of planting, if this work is carried out in early spring.
Care features
Based on the description of the variety and its characteristics, it is not difficult to grow Festival Chamomile strawberries.
The main thing:
- Choose a sunny place, fertile, breathable soil. It is better to plant seedlings in beds where carrots, garlic, onions, zucchini and pumpkin previously grew. In the shade and after potatoes, tomato planting is not recommended due to poor lighting and the possibility of fungal diseases.
- When planting, take into account the distance between the bushes of at least 25 cm.When a two-line planting, the row spacing should be about 60 cm. The first-year strawberry does not bear fruit, but throws out the mustache, which must be sent to the row spacing. The landing pattern is below in the photo.
All other agrotechnical techniques for caring for the Festival Chamomile strawberries are no different: watering, loosening, weeding, timely feeding, pest and disease control.
The gardener's opinion about the Festival Chamomile and the secrets of growing:
