Where to get seedlings and how to develop further?
A photo report about how it was ...
Or: Is business possible at the summer cottage?
ON HOW TO ENSURE YOURSELF BY LANDING MATERIAL INDEPENDENTLY
Planting material is in many ways the key to success if you plan to get good results. On the one hand, the variety must be productive, on the other hand - to be tasty, fragrant, with a beautiful large berry, and it is desirable that the strawberries do not spoil quickly and lose their presentation. With varieties is not so simple. There is a lot of advertising, recommendations, tips ...
We decided to use the Queen Elizabeth variety. He seemed to meet our requirements, in addition, it is a sort of remontant, that is, you can get a harvest in spring and autumn.
As a newcomer to the strawberry theme, I still don’t know much about the intricacies of this or that variety, and the availability of quality planting material also raises many questions. It is not easy to buy quality seedlings, and even with a guarantee. Sellers - advertise beautifully. Each has the most! And of course, the important factor is prices. According to our calculations, we needed for 2012 from three to four thousand seedlings. To replace the old and to expand. I think you know the prices, and unfortunately, we could not lay such a huge figure in our modest family budget. Therefore, after consulting and receiving some recommendations on what and how can and should be done to grow the seedlings on our own, we took the risk. We bought a total of 200 elite seedlings of the "Queen Elizabeth" variety and started laying the queen cell.
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This is how we solved the problem with strawberry saplings. More than four thousand seedlings were received, and despite the fact that the yard is September, the mustache grows, the rosettes take root and the seedlings are still growing ...
Recently, a lot of noise about strawberry seedlings "Frigo". The Internet is filled with stories about this "progressive-technology". But it turns out there are other technologies. One of them is called "Super-Trey". Although this is some kind of abstruse name - everything is very simple. Sockets rooted not in the ground, but in cassettes or in cups with a substrate. And these green, rooted seedlings, along with a lump of the substrate, with 100% preserved root system, are planted directly where they will grow. On the garden bed. And they continue their development in a permanent place, and the transplant takes place without stress and with one hundred percent survival. So we decided to apply this technology to our place. The result you see.
Another advantage of the technology is that we grow healthy seedlings. Without nematodes, causative agents of gray mold and other filth, which is very common in the ground, if we rotate the sockets just in the soil, next to the mother plants.
To create normal conditions for seedlings, we covered our uterine plantation with two small tunnels with a grid for shading. Plants feel great!
Unfortunately, we could not this year (the budget did not allow) to buy a special shading net "Aluminet" to cover the whole mother liquor and had to use an inexpensive construction green net. And with Aluminet, we have a small piece, we still experimented. Liked. We are planning for the future.
And a few more words about Frigo. I believe that this is a very good way to transport seedlings. Few places are occupied and very convenient for foreign exporters. That's probably the whole point of a very powerful promotion of the term "Frigo" on the Internet and in advertising publications.
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What we planted last year was not very good for planting material. They planted everything that came to hand. Some plants died, some turned out to be unproductive. But since we had no problems with saplings, we replaced everything that was required for varietal plants.
Here the second autumn has slowly come, that is, the second year of our experiments. And then an unexpected event happened. Strawberries, which recently planted, began to bloom and bear fruit! Well, it was such a small but very pleasant gift of fate for us!
It was necessary to get the container already folded in for storage and our products, although in very small quantities, reappeared on the shelves of the city of Engels.
And here again, all sorts of ideas began to appear: how to get an earlier harvest next year? How to extend the terms of fruiting this and next fall?
Again, everything was very simple. Film tunnels. I spied the design from the Israelis, well, and decided to do the same at home.
By the end of the summer season, I received equipment from Israel about which I thought and dreamed from the very beginning. These are two units of fertigation based on proportional mixRite metering pumps and new development by JHi FarmGarden - twin filters.
Well, pump dispensers understand what they are doing - very accurately and constantly add fertilizer to irrigation water, and twin filters, so this is generally a class! He turned the two faucets and washed the filter without disassembling it. Friedrich Filippovich says that their next development will appear very soon: a paired filter with automatic washing. And he said that on the way a complete, integrated automation system. After this, all worries associated with watering will disappear altogether. Turn on the tap in the spring and turn off in late autumn!
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I hope that the story about my small strawberry plantation at the dacha plot will be useful to those who want to more or less seriously grow strawberries not only for their family but also so that the family budget can be replenished.
But I want to warn you right away: All this is not easy. All this takes a huge amount of time and effort, but brings satisfaction and pleasure!
I wish you all good luck and a rich harvest in strawberry beds!
Article on the topic Strawberries on the bed
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Sincerely,
I. Linnik, summer resident, Saratov region.
