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In Our Country, remontant varieties of strawberries appeared not so long ago, only about 20 years ago. While in Europe and the USA, remontant strawberries or, as they are most often called there, short-day strawberries have been grown everywhere for more than forty years. So the Ostara strawberry variety has been known for a long time, but nevertheless continues to be very popular both in Europe and in Our Country, where it ended up more than 20 years after its birth.
A description of the Ostara strawberry variety with photos and reviews of those who grew it in the garden can help novice gardeners and summer residents to finally decide how worthy this strawberry is to settle in their plots. Of course, the choice of remontant strawberry varieties today is quite large, however, this variety has not yet gone the distance even after so many years, and this means something.
Features of remontant strawberry varieties
Since remontant strawberry varieties are still a relative innovation in Our Country, not everyone still correctly understands the characteristics of these varieties and what competent care for them is. There is also some confusion among hobby gardeners about the differences between remontant strawberries and neutral day varieties. The fact is that in the USA it is not customary to distinguish between these varieties and all remontant varieties are automatically called day neutral varieties, which is not entirely true.
In fact, strawberries have three main varieties according to their sensitivity to the length of daylight hours:
- Short day plants.
- Long or long day plants.
- Day neutral plants.
The first group is the easiest to deal with, it automatically includes all the usual traditional varieties that have the ability to lay flower buds only when daylight hours are 12 hours or less. This happens just at the end of summer – the beginning of autumn, when a decrease in general temperatures also favorably affects the general process of laying buds for fruiting in the next season.
Strawberries of the second group are able to form flower buds only with a day length of more than 12 hours, ideally about 16-18. For this reason, the varieties of this group have time to produce two, and sometimes three waves of fruiting during the warm season.
The fruiting of a neutral day strawberry, as the name implies, is not tied to the length of daylight hours at all and can only be determined by conditions of temperature and humidity. That is why these varieties of strawberries are very convenient to grow in heated greenhouses all year round.
The term remontant only refers to the ability of plants to bear fruit more than once per season. Thus, both long day strawberries and neutral day strawberries can rightly be called remontant.
But there are not so many varieties of long-day strawberries compared to the number of varieties from the third group. And they are not very suitable for growing in year-round greenhouses. On the other hand, the lifespan of long-day strawberries is usually much longer than that of a neutral day. They can be grown in one place for up to two or three years, while varieties of a neutral day, due to intensive constant fruiting, quickly exhaust their resources and must be replaced about a year after the start of fruiting.
All remontant varieties, and especially those belonging to the neutral day group, require the use of higher agricultural practices, since they spend a lot of energy on constant fruit set. But they are usually more adaptable and resistant to adverse weather conditions and various diseases. In addition, the berries of almost any remontant variety are distinguished by an attractive taste and aesthetic appearance.
Variety description
Back in the distant sixties of the last century, Dutch breeders managed to breed the Ostara strawberry variety by crossing the Masherahs Daurernte and Red Gauntlet varieties. Strawberry Ostara belongs to the varieties of the neutral day. Even when cultivated in ordinary open-air beds, it will be able to bring you a harvest of wonderful berries from June until the first snow. Moreover, the autumn harvest in terms of taste is in no way inferior to early berries, and can differ only in the size of the fruits in the direction of their reduction. But the yield of bushes by autumn can only increase, of course, subject to regular watering and fertilizing throughout the growing season. For the entire warm season, you can collect about 1,0-1,2 kg of fragrant and tasty strawberries from one bush.
True, experts do not recommend leaving the fruiting bushes of this strawberry variety for the next year, but replacing them with young plants. Since both the yield and the size of the berries in the next season can greatly disappoint you.
Strawberry bushes Ostara have a rather compact appearance and do not exceed 20-25 cm in height. Dark green medium-sized leaves are covered with small hairs.
The formation ability is average, it depends on the regularity and composition of top dressings. The more nitrogen component will be in the fertilizers used, the more whiskers and young rosettes will be formed. But this can adversely affect the yield and especially the taste of the berries. Therefore, it is not worth zealous with this.
Ostara strawberries are resistant to most fungal diseases, except for gray rot. Therefore, in rainy weather, it is advisable to provide berries with additional shelter, if possible.
Ostara bushes tolerate winter frosts well, but when grown in the northernmost regions, it is better to cover the plants slightly for the winter. Without shelter, it tolerates frosts down to -15 ° C. However, this is important only in regions with little snowy winters. Because under a large permanent layer of snow, Ostara strawberries overwinter well.
This variety tolerates hot conditions worse, at temperatures above + 28 ° C, pollen can become sterile and the number of berries decreases sharply.
Characteristics of berries
Ostara strawberries have the following characteristics:
- The shape of the fruit is traditional cone-shaped, the berries are attractive in appearance, have a shiny surface.
- The color of the berries is uniform bright red.
- Although Ostara strawberries belong to large-fruited varieties, its berries are rather medium in size – about 20-30 grams each. In particularly favorable conditions, the weight of the berry can reach 60-70 grams.
- Berries do not differ in density, but they are very juicy.
- They are stored for a very short time, they are practically unsuitable for transportation.
- But the taste can be called unique, it is very reminiscent of real wild strawberries. The aroma of the berries is also pronounced. According to their taste qualities, Ostara strawberries received 4,7 points on a five-point scale.
- The use of Ostara strawberries is universal, but they are most delicious fresh.
Subtlety of cultivation
The timing of planting finished Ostara strawberry seedlings depends on what exactly you want to get from this variety. If you need a good and high-quality spring harvest, then it is better to plant seedlings at the end of July – in August, so that it has time to take root well and lay many buds.
If you are more interested in the autumn harvest, then you can plant seedlings both at the end of summer – in autumn and in spring. The main thing is that it is necessary to remove all emerging flower stalks from the bushes at the beginning of the season so that the bushes do not waste energy on early fruiting, but build up a powerful root and above-ground leaf system and form the maximum number of mustaches and young rosettes. In this case, starting from the second half of summer, bushes and young rosettes will be strewn with flower stalks, on which many rather large and juicy berries will ripen by the end of summer.
If the flower stalks are not cut off, but continue to be intensively fed and watered, Ostara strawberries will form a small amount of mustaches and medium-sized berries throughout the summer and until autumn.
Choose which growing method you prefer, but remember that any strawberry requires careful care and attention, without which it may disappoint you in your expectations.
Reviews of gardeners
Strawberry Ostara leaves mostly favorable reviews about itself, especially among people who are faced with the cultivation of remontant strawberries for the first time.
