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In recent years, gardeners’ interest in various unusual structures and structures has increased. Quite a lot of people get small plots, but I want to plant everything on them. Something has to be sacrificed, but most of all I don’t want to sacrifice strawberries. After all, it is difficult to find a person who would not love this berry. And her landings usually take up a lot of space. Fortunately for gardeners, it is strawberries that are among those crops that can be grown quite realistically using various vertical structures, due to their compact root system. In addition, in recent years, many varieties of strawberries have appeared, almost ideally adapted for growing in such conditions.
Curly strawberries, much advertised in many editions of the periodical press, are evidence of this. Although such offers by firms are most often outright fraud, they did not arise from scratch. After all, the very idea of obtaining strawberries from beautifully hanging bushes growing in various containers on vertical supports is far from new. Any gardener knows that even the most ordinary varieties of strawberries necessarily give a mustache and often in large numbers, so if you plant them in a tall flowerpot, they may well turn out to be a green wall. But it’s unlikely to bear fruit. But the appearance in recent years of new remontant varieties of neutral-day strawberries, especially their ampelous forms, opens up completely different prospects.
Suitable varieties for cultivation
Probably, many of you, faced personally or through acquaintances, with the fact of deception when buying seedlings of the so-called climbing strawberries, decided that the dream of a green wall with large sweet strawberries will forever remain in dreamland, and they stopped even thinking about realizing such an opportunity. . Meanwhile, everything is quite feasible, if only you choose the right variety, plant it correctly and carry out proper care. This is not the easiest thing, but it is quite affordable even for beginner gardeners with a great desire.
As already mentioned, remontant strawberry varieties of neutral daylight hours are best suited for these purposes. The fact is that they are able to bloom and bear fruit, regardless of the time of year and the duration of illumination. Moreover, among these varieties there are ampelous forms, which differ in that they are able to bloom and produce berries even on their unrooted mustaches. It is this property, combined with the fact that flowers and fruits can be observed simultaneously on such varieties of strawberries, makes it possible to create very beautiful compositions.
Strawberry variety Aluba, obtained as a result of cross-pollination of Rapella and Fristar varieties, has rather long peduncles (up to 30 cm). They hang beautifully on their own, but large, up to 35-40 grams of elongated berries complete the effect of a falling composition.
The ampelous Geneva variety should not be confused with the ordinary remontant classic Geneva variety. The latter is also good in itself and has been deservedly popular with gardeners for many years. It was on its basis that the ampelous form was relatively recently obtained by free cross-pollination with the Aluba variety. It is she who is ideally suited to play the role of a curly strawberry. The peduncles of the ampelous Geneva are even longer, they grow first up and then gracefully fall under the weight of sweet and dense berries. The variety also differs in productivity and precocity. From one bush you can collect up to 3 liters of strawberries per season.
With proper planting and care, strawberry varieties such as:
- Queen Elizabeth 2;
- Love;
- Selva;
- Homemade delicacy;
- Crown;
- Osatra;
- Moscow delicacy;
- Honey and many others.
Planting curly strawberries: a variety of designs
You can plant curly strawberries in almost any container with a volume of one liter or more. In recent years, the so-called vertical beds have been especially popular with gardeners. They can theoretically be made from anything:
- from wooden and plastic boxes and boards;
- from automobile tires;
- from iron and plastic barrels;
- from plastic bottles and pipes.
Curly strawberries also look good on trellises, on fences or on the walls of houses. In this case, you will be able not only to get some strawberry crop, but also to decorate or drape some not very aesthetic corner of your site.
Of course, the most popular way to grow climbing strawberries is to plant them in tall flowerpots or hanging baskets, as shown in the photo.
After all, flowerpots and baskets can be placed almost anywhere on the site, thereby additionally decorating it.
Features of growing curly strawberries
In principle, curly strawberries, or rather, its ampelous varieties, are just a variety of the most common strawberries, so the main features of growing are associated primarily with planting it in containers with a small amount of land. Therefore, when answering the question: “How to properly care for curly strawberries?” must be based on the following factors.
Suitable soil mix
Considering that strawberries will have to grow, develop, bloom and bear fruit in a very limited amount of land, the soil must be of excellent quality both in terms of friability and breathability, and in terms of nutritional properties. In principle, a fairly rich selection of land is now presented in garden centers and specialty stores. You can stop on the ground, specially designed for growing strawberries.
If this is not available for sale in your region, then you can pick up any land mixture with a neutral reaction and an equal content of the main macronutrients: nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.
Although the best option for planting climbing strawberries is to make your own soil mixture, which you will be absolutely sure of. For this, the following recipe is useful:
- Peat land – 10 parts;
- Chernozem or sod land – 10 parts;
- Humus – 10 parts;
- Sawdust prepared in a special way – 4 parts;
- Coarse-grained sand – 1 part.
In order for sawdust to bring the maximum benefit to strawberries, soak them for several hours in a solution of urea (2 tablespoons of fertilizer per 1 liter of water). Then add 1 cup of chalk or wood ash and mix well.
All of the above components must be mixed together, spilled with a solution of phytosporin and left for a while to dry.
Planting strawberries
Growing and caring for climbing strawberries begins with proper planting. It is believed that the best time for planting young seedlings of strawberries is April or August. The only problem is that most remontant varieties bear fruit abundantly only the next year after planting. And since strawberries do not tolerate transplanting very well, it is better to plant them immediately in permanent containers. Therefore, for abundant fruiting, autumn planting dates are recommended, followed by good insulation of vertical structures for the winter. Flowerpots and baskets can simply be brought into a frost-free room for the winter – this will be quite enough for a good wintering.
But for those who want to enjoy the view of blooming strawberries as soon as possible, you can try to plant it in April in permanent places, using unpretentious and early-growing varieties. To increase the yield, you can remove the first two or three peduncles and immediately feed the strawberry bushes with fertilizers containing phosphorus and potassium.
This is quite capable of protecting it from unexpected cold snaps in the spring.
The landing process itself is not much different from the usual one. It is only necessary to understand that when planting strawberry bushes in limited containers, you need to carefully straighten all the roots in length in order to avoid bending them up and to the sides.
Watering and feeding
When caring for climbing strawberries, the most important procedures are providing the plants with the necessary, but not excessive moisture and regular feeding.
A drip irrigation device will help you ideally solve the first problem. As for fertilizers, there are several ways to go:
- Even when planting, add a long-lasting complex fertilizer to the soil, which, under the influence of incoming moisture, will gradually decompose and supply strawberries with nutrients.
- At least once a week, instead of watering, use a solution infused with green grass for feeding strawberries, with the addition of slurry and wood ash.
- You can also use any complex special fertilizer for strawberries.
It is only important to feed under the root and regularly.
Propagation of climbing strawberries
It is thanks to the sufficiently large number of mustaches that form ampelous strawberry varieties that their reproduction does not present any particular difficulties.
The rest must be cut off decisively, as they weaken the mother plant and, most likely, will not be able to produce flowers and fruits.
The largest of the rosettes, which form the most berries, can be marked in any way and subsequently used for reproduction. To do this, in the fall they are separated from the mother bush and planted in separate containers. For the winter, they can be buried in the garden, brought into a frost-free room, or planted on regular vertical beds, not forgetting to warm them well.
The next video once again describes in detail all the features of caring for the so-called curly or ampelous strawberries.
Reviews of gardeners
Curly strawberries could not help but capture the attention of gardeners with their beauty and originality, but judging by the reviews, not everyone managed to grow it the first time.
Conclusion
While climbing strawberries are still an unattainable dream for many, it’s not as hard as you might think. And it is not necessary to invest a lot of money in order to enjoy a tasty and healthy berry in your garden, which can also serve as a real decoration of the site.
