How to distinguish male and female strawberry bushes?

There is an opinion among summer residents that in order to get a good harvest of strawberries, male and female bushes must be present in the garden at the same time. However, reasoning from this point of view is not entirely correct. Dioecious varieties of garden (nutmeg) strawberries are almost never grown today. Modern strawberries are monoecious plants, and the division into "boys" and "girls" can only be applied to it conditionally. The fact is that some specimens, under certain growing conditions, prefer to reproduce vegetatively, and not by seeds. However, there is a way to change this situation.

The correct ratio of heterosexual bushes in the garden

Taking into account the fact that strawberry beds need to be renewed every few years, the plantation is constantly in the stage of renewal and development. Experienced gardeners plant young growth separately, 2-3-year-old bushes grow in the neighborhood, and on a separate ridge there are four-year-old plants that are allowed to bear fruit for the last year. This is due to the fact that modern varieties bring a good harvest for the first few years, and then the quality of fruiting deteriorates. Rarely are there old domestic varieties that can produce the same amount of berries for decades.

Modern strawberry varieties are self-pollinated. Pollen is easily transferred from flower to flower by insects and wind. Therefore, there is absolutely no need to grow the so-called male bushes, supposedly for pollination.

If you grow garden strawberries, then barren specimens, busy with endless growing of a mustache, can be forced to start bearing fruit. It is even necessary to do this, otherwise the yield on the plantation will decrease, and this cannot be included in the plans of gardeners.

Barren bushes are also not needed because they draw moisture and nutrients from the soil, thereby depriving abundantly fruitful specimens. If there is no special need to preserve specimens, which for some reason hardly bear fruit, then they are removed by carefully twisting them out of the soil with your hands so that the roots of neighboring bushes do not suffer. The remaining hole is covered with earth, comparing with the surface.

Distinctive features of male and female plants

It is possible to distinguish "male" strawberry bushes on the garden bed by their appearance. They have the following features:

• the plants look more powerful and healthier;
• leaves are large, juicy green;
• bushes form a large number of mustaches;
• larger flowers with multiple stamens;
• after flowering, the ovary is not formed on most peduncles;
• there are very few berries, they are small and sour.

But for gardeners, of course, it would be more convenient to distinguish the sex of the plants at the seedling stage, and not when they grow up. When buying young seedlings, you should pay attention to the shape of the rosette heart. Its elongated conical shape with a base less than 4 mm in diameter suggests that it is a so-called "boy".

It makes no sense to wait for the appearance of berries from such a plant. It will grow well, develop, but in the future it will give all its strength to the formation of a mustache.

If the heart is wide and flattened, it is most likely a "female" bush, although there is no one hundred percent guarantee.

How to reorient strawberries for fruiting?

Sometimes a situation arises when sterile strawberry bushes prevail over abundantly fruiting specimens in the garden. In this case, removing the "boys" is not an option, since as a result, little will remain from the landings.There is a way to reorient plants for seed reproduction - that is, for fruit formation.

For this purpose, the "male" bushes are carefully removed from the ground without damaging the roots, and planted on a separate bed with an interval of 10 centimeters. The landing must be tight - this is important. It is necessary to closely monitor the formation of the whiskers and remove them immediately. By the end of summer, the formation of antennae will stop, and the bushes will begin to grow flower stalks. Now you can return the plants to their original place.

Before the cold weather begins, the strawberries will still have time to take root, which means that the wintering will be successful. Next season, it will be necessary to continue removing the mustache in the first half of summer.

If new specimens are needed for breeding, rosettes that appeared at the end of August are left on the strawberries. As practice shows, the first rosette on the mustache is almost always female, so just such plants should be left for reproduction.

Nature does not create anything superfluous. But sometimes you have to artificially tweak what was created for the sake of a good harvest. In order to have less trouble in the future, it is advisable to learn how to determine the "sex" of strawberries at the seedling stage, so as not to waste time changing the method of reproduction of individual specimens.