The major mistake that many gardeners make. Why you should never water strawberries in the evening and what varieties you can still plant
Although the weather has warmed up, you can still plant strawberries in the garden. The risk of not being able to enjoy the fruits this year exists, but if you follow some clear rules you will have a rich harvest next year.
Plants must be renewed to have an equally rich culture PHOTO: Freepik
Strawberries are among the most sought after fruits all over the world. If you have a piece of land at your disposal and some skills you can enjoy the fruits produced right in your garden for years to come.
How the planting period differs
“There are two kinds of strawberries: monoecious strawberry varieties, which produce only one crop in the spring, late and early, and remontant strawberries, which vegetate and produce strawberries all year round. The ideal ones should be planted at the end of August, until the winter they have time to enter the vegetation, twine and produce in the spring as a mature plant”, explains Florinel Mădularu, the farmer from Olt who put the first local strawberries on the market, already in April (but produced in protected areas).
On the other hand, you can plant the remontant strawberries even during this period and you will also have the opportunity to pick the first fruits this year.
“Remontantes should ideally be planted in very early spring. Everyone fears the cold of winter, but the plant can withstand temperatures as low as minus 23 degrees Celsius. So ideally they should be planted in February. It will be more difficult to start in the vegetation, because the soil temperature is low, but when they are already in the ground, they have made contact with the soil in which they are developing, they already start twining in March. From a seedling, we will have 2, 3, 4 in a nest, and already in the months of April – end of May, they start to produce in maximum quantity, like a mature plant”, said the farmer.
If we choose a remontant variety and decide to plant it during this period, it is good to know that the planting should ideally be done in the morning.
Florinel Madularu draws attention to the fact that even watering the plants must be done in the morning, for a good result. “Never in the evening. There are people who say – the evening is cooler, I want to water in the evening. – We water in the evening, but this plant then, all the next day, when the temperatures are maybe 30 degrees, it suffers. If we water it in the morning, it is quiet all day”says the farmer.
Sandier soil is ideal
It is also very important on which type of soil we establish the culture. We don't plant anywhere, because strawberries need a soil that drains water and humidity very well, as sandy as possible.
A man from Arada who invested 5,000 euros in his strawberry plantation was left without a harvest again. “I sprayed, I had anti-freeze film”
“The strawberry has a very fine root. Any excess water kills the plant. And we wonder what happened. Did my plant get sick? Not. From excess water”, adds the farmer.
Strawberries are a crop that may need treatments, but they must be applied preventively, before fruiting. “Every plant is prone to diseases. And we, the people, are also prone to certain things. We catch a cold, our noses run. It's normal. But all treatments must be done preventively. What does preventive mean? I, if the harvest starts on April 1, I've already finished all the treatments at the end of February.” added the farmer.
How we plant them
If we choose the plants from an existing culture, we must know that only new plants can be used, because mature plants from the old culture lose their qualities over time, which is the reason why, from one year to the next, the fruits are smaller and the taste suffers.
“They are planted by the billions. The ground is raised, precisely for drainage, as I mentioned earlier”, the farmer pointed out.
During the year the strawberry culture requires care, although the operations are not complicated. The plates must be protected – weeded, dry leaves removed so as not to bring rot to the plant.
“A plant that is healthy can be seen. A plant that is not healthy, that has something, can also be seen. In the strawberry plant, always if you want to see pests, we are talking about insects, any kind of pest, you have to take the leaf and turn it inside out. On the back side of the leaf are all the pests, that is where they gather.” the farmer also indicated.
If we encounter such a problem, we analyze the leaf and either take a photo with our phone or take the leaf to the plant protection store for diagnosis and treatment.
“There are also organic products, and fungicides and insecticides. The advice must come from the specialist”the farmer also specified.
The culture of strawberries in protected space is more prone to develop rot, because of the humidity, on the other hand the culture in the open air behaves, at least from this point of view, better.
A strawberry plant is ideal to be exploited for a single year, or at most two. “After two years, the plant becomes old. As the plant ages, the fruit no longer has size, no color, no taste, no sweetness. I keep the plants for one season,” the farmer Florinel Mădularu also specified.
We can choose for the renewal of the plantation either plants that we purchase from suppliers who give us the certainty that they sell us what we want, or using the seedlings that develop from mature plants. “We can take the young ones and replant them. From stolons. But, be careful, a strawberry plant makes stolons in the first year after planting. In the second and third year already the stolons are fewer and they are of lower quality.” the farmer also specified.
