Strawberries.

A photo report about how it was ... Or: Is business possible at the summer cottage?

HOW IT BEGAN:

Write about business at the dacha? So far it is difficult to say about great successes, although it is possible with a positive trend in five to seven years. In the meantime ... for now, I have a small garden strawberry plantation where your humble servant and his family work, and maybe after some time it will be possible to speak about it as a successful business. At this (or rather, at 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 hectares or hectares, on centners or tons, on thousands of rubles or numbers with many 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 ...".
After the decision to create a plantation, the laying of the plantation began with clearing the site, preparing high ridges, laying drip irrigation, covering the ridges with a mulch film, and passes between the ridges of old linoleum.

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Next - a guide to action!

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 pipes. In total, we that year 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. Tape scattered and had to glue the film again. Yes, and experience and knowledge are not enough. But still done.
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 alone 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 transferred from one place to another, saplings broken by these hoses, haste to reach the dacha while the water is being pumped, flooded inter-row spaces, 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 ”:

1. Grass does not grow.
2. Always clean and dry (where water is collected, we just cut the roofing material with a knife).
3. 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 watering. 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. That is such a hell of a job - to do strawberries. 

And the last thing we did in the same year. We bought 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 for the next year.

On the production of planting material will tell and show photos in a separate, a little later.

HOPES AND ALARMS. RESULTS.
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 began to wait for the harvest.
Behind the fence, you can see a neighbor’s plot and a neighbor, who is engaged in traditional dacha labor ... 

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 prepared for sale in advance. We have bought in advance corrugated plastic containers. 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.

The first berries we picked on the twenty-fifth of May. Little. Five kilograms. Naturally, she did not reach any store. And three days later, strawberries were being handed over, which diverged from the outlets of Engels. It turned out with the sale of problems in such an enterprise as the sale of strawberries, with the right approach, none at all. 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.

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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. After all, I said 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.

The results of the 2012 harvest allowed us to draw some conclusions.

1. This business can and should be dealt with.
2. Technologies need to be applied and comply with recommendations for their application.
3. You can not stop there.
4. It is necessary to use more productive varieties and high-quality planting material.

I will tell you about my next development steps and the cultivation of planting material for my own plantation in the next article-album.

 Article on the topic Strawberries on the bed 

 See Album number 2