Strawberries in the home garden

FOREWORD:

Our company is often turned to different people with a lot of questions related to the technology of growing different crops. We try to answer questions, explain what needs to be done and how, and what equipment to use to get good results. And at this moment, the problems begin. People will find out that it turns out that they will have to incur certain costs and make efforts to implement their plans. Not everyone is ready for it. Many people want something simpler and most importantly, - cheaper. Sometimes, even purchasing equipment and spending money, they do not always follow our recommendations both on equipment and how to install this equipment and how to use it properly. About three years ago, Igor Linnik from Engels, Saratov Region, turned to us. He had many questions that I tried to answer. We talked for a long time on Skype, and as a result of discussions of various technologies of growing plants, he stopped at the fact that he decided to make a strawberry plantation in his summer cottage, although he started with conifer seedlings. Igor’s approach was serious, but to be honest, I didn’t expect excellent results. I thought that everything would be as usual. Let's talk, and that's it over. Now I am ashamed of such thoughts ... Some time has passed. Igor ordered an irrigation system, a mulch film. And there was a lull again. Then he got in touch again and asked for recommendations regarding the establishment of a strawberry plantation. Naturally, I gave him recommendations and, in turn, asked me to send me pictures of what he would do and how. And last summer, "the process has begun." Igor sent me detailed photo reports, and I, in turn, gave some advice, if required. In the end, it turned out a beautiful strawberry glade where the harvest began to ripen. The results were quite good. Well, the plantation was made thoughtfully, very carefully, thoroughly, and simply beautiful! I asked Igor to write an article and tell it about how it all happened, so that you, dear readers, would receive information, as they say, "first-hand." Igor wrote an article, for which I am sincerely grateful to him, and we bring it to your attention. I hope that the experience of Igor will be useful for those who want to get down to business in a serious and natural way to get serious results.

Director Agrosheriff, F. Rubinstein. 
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Strawberries? No, no – wild strawberries!

Indeed, …   write about strawberries? What will I be on the bill? Hundredth? The five hundredths? Thousandth? Today so much has been written on this topic, so that with just reading the headline, the reader can certainly have a persistent rejection and unwillingness to read the next clever man who wants to declare himself to the world.
Write about business? Well, it certainly is not for me. Not in rank yet. Although it is possible with a positive trend in five-seven.

In the meantime, … while I have a small strawberry plantation (sorry - strawberry) where your humble servant and his family work, and maybe after some time you can talk about it as a successful business. At this (or rather, on such) plantation, it is possible to achieve the very positive dynamics and development, well, then everything depends on what stage a person wants to stop at. On acres or hectares, on centners or tons, on thousands of rubles or numbers with a few zeros. All this is possible and completely real. But more on that later. The main and key thing in this whole story is that   « … I have a small plantation … ».  
The fact is that three years ago I did not have it. Yes, there was nothing. Only the cottage was five acres. Inherited from parents by inheritance. And now, besides this cottage, there is a plot of land of thirty-two weave, half of which is reserved for garden strawberries. (Nothing was)- also an important concept in this story. There was no plantation, there was no land for it, there was no seed capital for development. There was no knowledge and information. There was no desire to work stupidly at the dacha in the traditional way, as my parents worked, and even the majority of summer residents work now. To be honest, I still don’t understand why people work this way, with a huge investment of time and effort and with minimal results. But I always had a great desire to work productively, profitably, and independently. And there was a desire to leave something behind.
My partner, sponsor, and consultant in one person, Friedrich Filippovich Rubinstein, who lives and works in Israel, but with whom I have to communicate much more often than with my neighbors, suggested that I write the history of the creation of this plantation. I agreed, but if you write such a story, you will have to look a couple of years before the appearance of this plantation. The story began just then.

BACKGROUND.

2007 I then worked in the suburbs. With a small brigade with friends, and waved for the season. At one time, in Moscow and the Moscow Region, only the incapable was not working. This work (as well as thoughts) had nothing to do with the aforementioned strawberries. Built. I used to be in central Russia, and almost the entire European part of the former USSR traveled, but then I was young and occupied me with completely different questions. And the time was different. The country is different. The system of values ​​was hammering into our heads. And for the plantation of the same strawberry in five-six acres could in exchange provide a couple of thousand hectares of strong taiga somewhere in Kolyma. And then, in 2007 ... I don’t know ... maybe maturity spoke, maybe the nature of the middle zone, maybe the land is almost sacred. The history of Russia itself. Naro-Fominsk ... West direction. In 1941, there were terrible battles. Thereafter all Germans also stopped. The land is blooded literally. Yes, and Napoleon was driven from Moscow by the same roads. There is a story. In every church, in every village, in every stone ... And the thoughts were already different. I really wanted to dig up, bring, and plant a small Christmas tree in my country house near Engels. And not one. In general, I paid attention to the same villas near Moscow and people's attitude to what surrounds them. Very often, cottages are located right in the forest, or in close proximity to the forest. And the forest of the middle lane is ... this is a classic. This is spruce, pine, linden, and maple. And hazelnut, and oak, growing trunk to trunk with birch. Now many people plant decorative conifers on their plots. Thuja, juniper, blue spruce. This is beautiful, of course, but I was amazed when I saw that the owners of the villas near Moscow plant the same ones, the local spruces and pines, oaks, and birches on and around their plots! Sometimes you look - he has a forest from the site a hundred meters away. It would seem, why? I later understood why, when I visited several monasteries there and generally traveled around the neighborhood, I looked and talked to people. I have always admired large pines and firs, like this - in a couple of arms and a couple of centuries-old, but most of all I was amazed at the pines in the monasteries that the monks planted just about two hundred years ago. Huge, mighty pines ... They have seen a lot in their long life. And the war of 1812, and how the Germans attacked in 1941. And how they were persecuted later. And the collapse of the USSR in 1991. That's where the story is! And those monks remember more. That when, a long time ago, they planted small seedlings of pines. And there are no those monks, and the dust is gone. But there were pines - giants. And memory ...

And then I returned to Engels. And he looked at our poor cottages. And I, a middle-aged peasant, had tears in my eyes. Malicious, sprawling, often abandoned houses, fallen fences. Apple, plum, and apricot, which our parents planted 30-40 years ago. Gnarled, overgrown, dried. Cherries that turned into impassable shrubs. And all this is waist-high in weeds that have not been cleaned for decades. And I was horrified! Good lord And what shall we leave to our children and grandchildren ?!

I really brought back from the Moscow region and planted at the dacha a few small fir-trees, which I dug in the forest. Now they have noticeably grown. But not only ate I brought from there. Another brought the idea. The idea to get a plot from forty hectares to a hectare and to breed conifers. And be sure to plant at least a couple of hundred square meters in the very depths of the site a real mixed forest. Ate and pine, hazelnut and Russian maple, birch, and oak. And though events then began to develop somewhat differently, this idea does not leave me even now. Moreover, one does not contradict the other at all. And we have acquired several abandoned sites in the same array, where our dacha is located. Just like I have already described. Overgrown and turned by summer residents in the trash, from which for many years never took out the garbage. All summer I looked at these sites, measured them with my eyes and steps, asked the neighbors about the owners, and at the end of the summer season, I purchased. Motors — chainsaws, monoblocks, and moto-mowers — started working, fires began to burn, and the site gradually began to free itself from dense thickets, in which, according to the summer residents themselves, almost wolves were driven. I started breeding coniferous trees and shrubs, but I did it without the necessary knowledge and equipment. Just collected and planted seeds of various varieties of spruce and pine, juniper, and tui. Tried and grafting. Not immediately and not all, but gradually the queen cells, greenhouses, and schools with a young stock of conifers became more and more. Remained quite a bit. Some five years on average to get a good commercial seedling suitable for sale. Why conifers? - they asked me then. - When she grows up, this fir? To which I have always said, and now I think the same way, that in 35-40 years old, the fruit tree often ends its age, and the spruce just gains its beauty. And tomorrow will not wither. And the day after tomorrow will not dry up. He still has one hundred and fifty years ahead - two hundred lives, while a yew, for example, generally has about six hundred years - seven hundred. Not only children and grandchildren will be admired after us. And to say: “This great pine (this forest) was planted by my great-grandfather!” So ​​the link to the times, the family nest, and the memory ... I like how the Japanese look at this topic (the theme of harmony, life, and nature).

Summer resident does not see and does not perceive the tree as a tree if it does not bear fruit. Yes, so that more. To fill the trunk of the car, but not one. What would twist in banks, overtake on wine, sell finally.

At the same time, the appearance of the tree itself is the tenth thing for him. This question does not arise at all. Just does not occur. Would produce! And according to Japanese philosophy, any (!) Tree, whether it is a fruit or not, should be ... beautiful. But in the end, we began to argue in a way that probably (I dare to suggest) the reader also began to argue. Everything is correct and everything is good, but it is later. And today what? Today how? For two years we have been working on the site, paid membership dues, and the return, moreover, was seen as an illusory somewhere in the future, to which we still have to live. It was necessary to engage in such a culture that would give a return from the first, maximum from the second year of planting.

ON THE WAY TO PLANT

As a potential option began to consider garden strawberries (strawberries). Well, why? .. Neighbors - boarders over there praise - who sold ten thousand strawberries, who sold them for eight. Who more ... True fuss with her! Plant, water, weed, collect. Your mother, Linnik, forever you, then to the party, then to ... manure. Couldn't find something simpler? Nevertheless, he began to collect information on the Internet, about varieties and cultivation technology. Well, there is rich! One fifty kilos from a bush promises. You give him a coin, he gives you a DVD. With detailed instructions. Another strawberry lags along the fence. Aha - curly. Also rubles for five hundred. Winds. The third wise guy long and in the pictures tell how he makes the manure. And then another lime. And ashes. And every time the whole thing smells shovel. And then he plants, and then he waters. And the litter too ... Everything is in the details. But for free. But the truth is, he conveys his own experience. That is what he knows. Just did not want like him. Dung, litter ... Began to look further. So, having scored the word “strawberry” once in a search engine, I saw the phrase “Strawberry all year round” (the name of the article) with the address of the FarmGarden website. So I learned about the advanced world technologies in agriculture and so I met with Rubinstein.

We talked. About strawberries, greenhouses ... and then ... then I disappeared for half a year from the sight of Friedrich Filippovich. And he had every right to forget me. But after six months, we began to communicate again. And then ... then the work began. Already focused and meaningful. By the most modern method. As in the whole civilized world. And with the same equipment. And no "scam" to siphon money. Everything is as it should be. You will work as work in same Israel, and you will harvest crops no less. But no miracles. Not less - yes. But no more! This is me to the fact that the reader would leave attempts and dreams to find a magic pot, which you say: “Pot, cook!” - And you will be happy. The first year of failure - the equipment was detained at customs. While they were clearing customs, while it came to Samara, then to Engels ... In general, time was lost. The ridges are overgrown with grass. Some more minor inconsistencies at first glance, and that’s all - autumn, rains, mud, and cold. I remember Rubinstein experiencing no less than myself. But next year we had almost the complete set of equipment. And this year it was impossible to miss. And we… 

The reader, then - a guide to action! 

With the help of the monoblock, and then with shovels, rakes, and scrapers, we again formed ridges. The distance along the axes (along the centers of the top of the ridge or between the rows is 1.9 meters). Through such a distance, we tightened the cord and started a walk-behind tractor which made a deep furrow. Later, with a rake, hoes, and scrapers they gave the ridge a rounded shape. The height of the ridge with an average of 0.35 - 0.4 meters.

Along the ridges, we missed the drip irrigation pipes (two on the ridge). The distance between the tubes is 0.5 meters. The tubes were also laid on the cord. With a large length of the ridge (in that year we had ridges 25 meters long), such accuracy is necessary.

After the drip irrigation pipes were laid, we covered the ridges with a mulch silver-black film, black side to the ground. The film was pinned to the ground with iron straps, and between them, the clothes were glued together with adhesive tape. But scotch needs quality. Normal, clerical, the sun cracks and crumbles in a month. And staples tear and cut the film at gusts of wind and tension, therefore we reinforced such places with squares of the thicker and stronger adhesive film.

On both sides of each tube at a distance of 8-10 centimeters, in the film, we made holes with a diameter of 6 centimeters. At first, they were cut with a knife, but it is very long and laborious. Now we burn a special device.

All - we plant seedlings. In these very holes.

A separate item still needs to say about the irrigation system. The scheme is as follows, starting with the main crane at the site: Crane - Filter - Valve-Controller - Main polyethylene pipe, 32 mm in diameter - Drip tubes. In total, that year we were able to prepare 9 ridges of 25 meters in an area of ​​4.2 weaves. It took all summer. Many seedlings died in the heat and had to be transplanted. Scotch showered and had to glue the film again. Yes, and experience and knowledge are not enough. But still done.

For local summer residents, all these works and the type of plantation were similar to the arrival of aliens. Here came the ridge. What is it? What for? Probably mushrooms will be planted. No - cucumbers. Bow. Also as an option. Then, when the ridges were covered with a film and they flashed in the sun, the passing cars began not only to slow down, but also to stop, and people stared at them in all eyes. And when the seedlings appeared on the ridges, people asked, and what was there - under the film? They believed that there was a whole system of pipes, communications, and electronic filling. They could not even imagine that this was just an earthen mound. A woman, a neighbor in the dacha, when she learned that we were planning to plant strawberries, cut off like a knife: “Nobody puts her in this way! You can not. She will freeze on your hills. ”And she told me how it should be ... As always, they planted me. Manure, litter ... Dig up, weed ... But of course, there were people who understood what was happening and admired what they saw. By the way, about seedlings and varieties. In the first year, we planted what we had in the old cottage. The fact that at one time my mother planted. A long time ago. God only knows what the varieties were there. But judging by what the neighbors say - gardeners, most likely in the entire summer cottage (which is more than two thousand summer cottages) mainly four varieties walked from site to site. These are Festival, Zenga-Zanga, Ruby Pendant, and Gigantella. Usami shared with each other.

Here I again return to the drip irrigation system. That is how we watered. We opened the tap in May ... Well, that's all. That's the whole watering. All the rest did the valve controller. A small computer in size and shape resembling a mobile phone cot. At the right time, he gave water and turned it off, regardless of our participation and even presence. Hoses that need to be moved from one place to another, saplings broken by these hoses, rush to the dacha while the water is being pumped, the flooded rows and dirt on the hands and feet are a thing of the past. I closed the tap only at the end of September when the irrigation season at the dachas ended.

And more ... Aisle. The photo clearly shows - stripes of old linoleum are laid on them. The effect of this “three in one”: 

- Grass does not grow.
- Always clean and dry (where water is collected, we just cut the roofing material with a knife).
- Additional fastening film.

The neighbors were shocked. On four acres, nothing grows except strawberries. No one water it manually, and often there is not even anyone on the plot during the irrigation. All care was reduced to the fact that the wife will occasionally pass with a broom between the ridges, sweep away the dust, and a few dry leaves and that's it. This is such a hell of a job - to make strawberries. And the last thing we did in the same year. We purchased two hundred elite saplings of Queen Elizabeth 2 strawberry repair strawberries and planted them in September separately from the ridges to obtain high-quality planting material next year.

Hope and anxiety

Autumn came, then in winter ... Ridges along with the foliage of strawberries went under the snow, which scored all the aisles and tops with a half-meter layer. The shape of the ridges itself contributes to snow retention. Spring the next year (2012) happened early. We all wondered if the strawberry was frozen out or not. The snow came off very early and quickly, exposing the lush, green foliage, which seemed to have not slept all winter, but continued to grow under the snow. And at the end of April, strawberries bloomed in full and we waited for the harvest.

Harvest ... A whole year of work and expectations. We prepared for it, we waited for it, but still a little worried. We knew that strawberries would be plenty. In any case, more than we always had in our country house on two small beds. And we were preparing for the sale. We bought plastic containers ahead of time. Everything for the collection and transportation of berries was prepared and with a stock. In order not to twitch and not tossing about later, when the berry will need to be already laid in the container. And yet we were worried. And how will the sales go? At what price? Will someone need our strawberries? We have already negotiated with several distributors in the markets and with shops, who assured us that they are waiting for our strawberries and will buy them. But doubts remained. 

Long-awaited result

The first berries we picked on the twenty-fifth of May. Little. Five kilograms. Naturally, she did not reach any store. Three days later, strawberries were being handed over, which was spreading over the outlets of the whole of Engels. It turned out that there were no problems with the sale of problems in such an enterprise as the sale of strawberries, with the right approach. Demand is much, just tremendously exceeds supply. The territory where it is claimed is the whole of Russia. We also found it very useful that our strawberries (reader, attention!) Were ahead of the local varieties of the same varieties for about two weeks in terms of ripening. This means that two weeks earlier than potential competitors. And that means another price. It came to curiosities when people, buying our strawberries in stores, refused to believe that it was local and said that it was brought from Turkey.

This is the result of the applied cultivation technology. Ridge, film, and drip irrigation. Although this is not the most advanced and productive method. In total, we have collected from four hundred hundred and five hundred and sixty kilograms. On average, about one and a half kilograms per square meter. Not bad for disposable, early varieties that bear fruit only some days 20-25 per season. Of course, starting from picking strawberries and then, work on the plantation was not limited only to sweeping the tracks. This is really a tedious job, but first, when the same is necessary and work. I did say at the beginning of my story that this was about work, not about miracles. And then it is more convenient to collect strawberries from the ridges than from the ground.

One day, in the midst of picking strawberries, my neighbor came to our plot again. The one who taught me a year ago how to grow strawberries. She politely asked permission to look at the plantation. We all showed and told her. She noted that it turns out that it is much more convenient to pick berries from the ridge. They are all clean, no gray rot. And under the film moisture is not so quickly disappears. And do not drag the hose. And the grass does not grow. And it ripens much earlier. Since then, nobody else has given me tips on growing strawberries. More often asked.

What I learned

All the expenses for the purchase of equipment were paid off with a vengeance, and the profit gained went ... yes, for the purchase of equipment for enlarging and re-equipping the plantation.

After all, last autumn, the seedlings of Queen Elizabeth 2 remontant garden strawberries were planted in the queen cell last fall. I have already mentioned her. And now it's time to create optimal conditions for its reproduction. We already had some of the equipment, but we had to once again turn to Rubinstein - order some accessories. Friedrich Filippovich looked at the photos, which I send him regularly, as soon as news and changes appear on the plantation, and after ten days the package with all the necessary items was in my house.

But separately I want to say about the system of fertigation, which Friedrich Filippovich also sent me. About which he told me two years before. About which all two years I dreamed and waited for the moment when I can afford it. The whole two pumps "Mixrite"! Plus, their new development - filtration units ... Now you can apply fertilizer with irrigation water! What we did.

A year ago, my wife sawed me and said that it was necessary - de buys manure! All the neighbors are buying out ... And when I just bought land, the local driver of the lawn, on which he was carrying manure throughout the district, also told me: “I took the earth, now I need manure. Order. " Just as I imagine ... Well, buy is not a problem. Brought, dumped. Then remove it from the road, store it. Then take it away, smell it ... And here ... Mixed softly during watering Mix right. Grab a portion of the fertilizer, in the required proportion, and serve it with irrigation water directly to the roots of the plants. And neither do you wires, nor to your electricity. And you no manure and hemorrhoids associated with its purchase, storage, and introduction. And we managed to create fully controlled conditions in the queen cell. Drip irrigation for a given program. Shading. Fogging installation. A whole small plant for the production of planting material. And our seedlings answered us with abundant shoots (mustache). To date, more than four thousand bushes of "Queen Elizabeth 2" have been planted. On the new ridges, erected this year.

It's September. The holiday season comes to an end. We are waiting for the harvest again. Now next year. Just to speed it up, the harvest, to allow the seedlings to take root more firmly in the autumn, and so that strawberries ripen in harmony this year (!) We covered several ridges with tunnels of plastic film.

I would like to finish my story as follows. I understood myself (and not only understood but also checked it in practice) and I want to convey to readers a thought that Frederick Filippovich Rubinstein tried to convey to me methodically and repeatedly. And this idea is simple and sounds like this: With the help of new, modern technologies, you can profitably work and build a business without driving yourself into exhausting bondage associated with manual labor. It is small. From the dacha, for example. Without million starting investments. Not right away. Not one day. But absolutely real, and with exact adherence to the technology is almost guaranteed. Perhaps someone, having read this article, will find answers to those questions that were not answered before. Someone will probably understand the futility of handicraft homemade products. Their time has passed.

.And even more so for an industrial scale. At the same time, ingenuity, inventors, and inventions are not altogether abolished or diminished. I say this, being the author and patentee of two inventions and two useful models. Only this is a topic for another conversation. Someone may have doubted earlier, but now he will clearly know what to do. At the start, I really had nothing but an idea. And perhaps the reader already has the land, and some, albeit small means. And after reading this article, he will save himself from many mistakes, save time and money. And the start will be much faster. He, Rubinstein, helped me a lot. After all, probably the main motive that moved me when creating this plantation was not texts, not pictures, or even videos, but chatting with him online via video link. We saw each other. He told me about this or that node. For what and how it works. He was spreading his arms in front of the webcam, describing an arc in the air and showing what a ridge should be. It was he who scolded me if I did something wrong or at the wrong time. He worried about us if something did not work out. And rejoiced with our success. Thank you, Friedrich Filippovich.

Drip irrigation ... fog-forming installation ... computer control ... When it seemed to me all this is an inaccessible fantasy. And expensive and terribly difficult probably. And not like me. It turned out all this is very simple and not so expensive. Today these are my work tools. And while this is a very flexible system that you can mount as your heart desires. We just do not be lazy and believe. Believe in yourself and in new technologies.

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 AFTERWARD

I want to thank Igor for the detailed and emotional story about the history of the birth of his strawberry plantation.

We have many illustrations for this story, but I did not post a large number of photos in the body of the article. I did not want to break the course of the author’s thoughts and the story as a whole.

Therefore, it was decided to publish an album or albums with illustrations on a separate page.

Illustrations will be published soon and we will give a link to them from this page.

Respectfully,

Director Agrosheriff F. Rubinstein.

Two albums with illustrations and comments:

album №1 
album №2