Contents
More recently, most amateur gardeners and summer residents were not very interested in strawberry varieties for growing in their gardens. The main thing is that there is at least some kind of harvest and that the bushes are not particularly capricious about care and weather conditions. They propagated what had grown in the gardens before them or bought in the market what was offered by local sellers, and were quite satisfied with what they had grown. But in recent years, due to the huge number of new varieties bred by breeders, it has become fashionable to get and try all the new items in a row. It is especially difficult to pass by remontant varieties that are capable of several waves of fruiting during the season. And when grown indoors, you can even get berries from them all year round. The most famous among them was the Albion strawberry.
Description and characteristics of the variety
The Albion strawberry variety was obtained quite recently in 2006 at the University of California, USA, as a result of crossing two varieties: Cal 94.16-1 and Diamante. Of course, according to its requirements for growing conditions, this strawberry is more suitable for the climate of the United States, but in our temperate latitudes it is also quite capable of producing decent yields with proper care.
Bushes of this variety have a fairly powerful appearance with dark green, medium-sized leaves. Peduncles are strong, tall enough and do not lie down, thus, the flowers themselves with the resulting berries are located on top of the leaves and may not touch the ground at all, which is very convenient for picking them. It also reduces the likelihood of contracting various diseases. In stolons, one can observe dense pubescence, which has an anthocyanin color.
Strawberry variety Albion belongs to the plant type of neutral daylight hours, which means that its ability to form fruits does not depend on the season and the length of daylight hours.
Over the entire period of growth, strawberries usually have time to bear fruit 3-4 times, although the latter often do not have time to ripen in our climate. But the Albion strawberry variety is ideal for growing in greenhouse conditions, including industrial.
The appearance of the first fruits can be observed the next year after planting. The yield indicators of this variety are really impressive – after all, it can range from 0,5 to 2 kg per bush for the entire season. Such large discrepancies in figures can only indicate that maximum results can be achieved only under almost ideal conditions, both from an agrotechnical and climatic point of view. At the same time, the highest quality and largest harvest of berries is usually harvested in August. It is by this time in our conditions that Albion strawberries are able to reveal their full potential.
Unfortunately, the variety does not have good frost resistance. In any climatic regions of Our Country, it must either be grown indoors or cover the bushes for the winter with straw or agrofibre.
The description of the Albion strawberry variety will be incomplete if you do not touch on its resistance to various infections. Strawberry Albion shows good resistance to late blight and verticillium wilt. It also resists anthracnose well. But before brown and white spotting, Albion strawberries are completely defenseless – they definitely need treatment with biofungicides against these diseases.
Characteristics of berries
It is the berries that are the pride of any strawberry, and especially this variety. In what characteristics do they differ?
- The berries are quite large in size, although their size has some dependence on the frequency and size of top dressing. It is possible, therefore, that the largest berries are not the healthiest. The mass of one berry averages from 30 to 50 grams.
- Outside, strawberries of this variety are bright red, but inside they have a pink tint.
- The ripening of the berry goes from the top to the stalk, and if it is not ripe enough, a whitish spot can be observed at the base of the sepal.
- Strawberry Albion has a predominantly cone-shaped berry. The variety has an interesting feature – fruits from one ovary may well have slightly different shapes: oval, heart-shaped, elongated.
- From insufficient watering among the berries, various deviations can occur, characterized mainly by the presence of voids inside the fruits.
- The taste characteristics of Albion strawberries are beyond praise – the berries are very tasty, sweet and fragrant.
- Due to their high density, the berries of this variety are quite suitable for storage and transportation over long distances.
Growing strawberries Albion: features
For planting Albion strawberry seedling bushes, the autumn months are best suited. If you want to plant Albion strawberries in the spring, then the plants may not have time to take root well and will yield an order of magnitude less than expected. But when planting in the fall, next summer Albion will thank you with a sufficient amount of sweet and large berries. When planting seedlings, a handful of humus is necessarily introduced under each bush.
The distance between plants should be about 30-40 cm, with a row spacing of 40 cm. This variety forms a moderate amount of mustache, so it is quite easy to track them. On the very first whiskers, as a rule, the strongest rosettes with great fruiting potential are formed. It is better to leave them to take root on the same bed not far from the mother bushes.
Since the Albion variety is a fairly valuable and expensive variety, it makes sense to try to root all of its sockets. But those that form on the next mustache are best cut and grown on a special separate bed – in the nursery. If flower stalks appear on the rosettes of the first year, then they should be removed so that the bushes can grow more roots and leaves by winter and the next season. Under these conditions, next year will be able to please you with a good harvest.
Watering for this variety is of decisive importance – it must be regular and plentiful enough. That is why the best option for growing Albion strawberries would be a drip irrigation system.
In early spring, immediately after the snow melts, it is very important to feed strawberry bushes with any organic fertilizers. Subsequently, several times it is necessary to carry out top dressing using complex fertilizers containing trace elements in a chelated form. It is especially important for strawberries to have enough iron chelate. If necessary, during the flowering period, foliar top dressing of strawberry bushes can be carried out with fertilizer containing iron. The main top dressing is also carried out during flowering and during the formation of the first ovaries.
To protect Albion strawberries from a variety of fungal infections, primarily from rot, it is necessary to carry out preventive treatment several times with a solution of biofungicides: Fitosporin or Gliocladin. The first treatment is carried out after the snow has melted, the second – during the flowering period.
A good way to prevent diseases is to spray Albion strawberry bushes with an iodine solution. For these purposes, 30 drops of iodine are diluted in 10 liters of water.
To preserve moisture and protect strawberry plantings from weeds, it is advisable to mulch the aisle with a layer of straw or hay. The use of black film is not always rational, as this can provoke outbreaks of fungal diseases.
It must be understood that in the climatic conditions of Our Country, it is possible to obtain 1-2 kg of berries from an Albion variety bush only when it is grown in greenhouse conditions or in film tunnels. In open ground conditions, the real yield will most likely be 500-800 grams per bush per season.
Reviews of gardeners and summer residents
Gardeners’ reviews of Albion strawberries are mostly positive, everyone recognizes its good yield and the real sweetness of the berries.
Strawberry Albion certainly deserves to settle in your area if you want to enjoy the sweet berry throughout the warm season.
Of course, it is quite demanding on the conditions, but if desired, you can always achieve a good harvest.
