Features of growing Victoria and caring for her

Gathering a lot of large berries, peeping through the carpet of lush green foliage and exuding a wonderful aroma, is the dream of any summer resident. Its execution is within the power of every owner of a personal plot, it is only necessary to take into account the features that Victoria's planting has, and competently care for the plants. They will certainly thank the caring owner with a generous harvest. Under the proud name "victoria" is the familiar strawberry. Initially, only one of its varieties was called that - the one that the navigators brought to Russia from America. Over time, there were more varieties of strawberries, among them remontant ones appeared, capable of bearing fruit from 3 to 5 months a year. But in some areas, the name stuck so well that it became a household name.

Requirements for the site and soil quality

For growing Victoria in the garden, it is worth choosing an open place that receives the most sunlight. Strawberries thrive on flat or sloping areas to the west. A prerequisite for plant health is reliable protection of plantings from the wind. In spring and summer, it is not terrible for Victoria, but in winter it can blow off the snow that protects it from freezing from strawberries.

You can count on a rich harvest if the crop is grown on light soft porous soils with a significant admixture of sand. Victoria is hygrophilous, but she does not react well to stagnant water, so she needs a well-drained soil. For cultivation of strawberries, damp swampy lowlands are absolutely not suitable. It is not recommended to plant it in areas prone to flooding and in places where water from melted snow stands for a long time in spring.

Repaired Victoria is demanding on soil fertility, it should contain a lot of humus. The ideal option for her is black soil or dark gray forest soil. But in other conditions, strawberries can develop successfully if you properly care for their bushes. Heavy clay soil holding moisture will need to be diluted with manure or humus and sand. The procedure is carried out in the fall. Soil with an acidic reaction is necessarily lime.

You should not plant Victoria in areas where any plants from the Compositae family were placed last season (sunflower, earthen pear, lettuce, asters, chrysanthemums). It is undesirable, but it is possible to breed it after all nightshades (tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, eggplants), as well as cucumbers. But the areas vacated after harvesting cereals, legumes (beans, peas), cabbage crops (radishes, radishes, mustard), garlic and parsley, are very good for Victoria. Before planting, they must be dug up, enriching the soil with fertilizers. For 1 m² of surface it will be correct to apply:

• 2 buckets of humus;
• 2 liters of wood ash.

The necessary organic and mineral substances will provide strawberry seedlings and a nutritional composition of the following components:

• ammonium nitrate (20 g);
• superphosphate (25 g);
• potassium salt (20 g);
• humus (6 kg).

Preparing to disembark

In terms of planting dates, Victoria provides summer residents with ample opportunities. It is propagated from spring to autumn. Professionals advise to plant strawberries at the end of April or in May, when the weather is already warm. If you provide the young bushes with proper care, in the spring they will quickly take root in a new place, they will hurt less and will bring the first berries in June.

Advice

For planting, the strongest rosettes with a powerful root system are selected.

It will be easier to take care of Victoria if you prepare a plot for her in advance. In the fall, they dig it up, picking weeds, and apply fertilizers.Remnant strawberries can delight with berries from May to October, but for stable fruiting, they need a lot of nutrients. Therefore, in the spring, the soil is re-enriched with rotted manure (10 liters of substance per 1 m²). This is done 17–20 days before planting.

It is correct to carry out the autumn breeding of Victoria from the second half of August to the first decade of September, when the probability of frost is minimal. While it is warm, the plants will have time to take root and withstand the cold. Caring for strawberries at this time will not be burdensome, it is enough just to plant the sockets in the soil prepared in advance - since June -. If a remontant variety of culture is chosen for breeding, its features must be taken into account. Constant fruiting greatly weakens the plants, therefore, young bushes of such a Victoria often die in the first year of life. You will have to take care of them more carefully.

Landing rules

Most often, strawberries are bred with a mustache, which its bushes release by mid-summer. Young shoots of Victoria emerge from the nodes located on them. Experienced summer residents advise planting sockets that are closer to the mother bush - the first 2-3. The shoots obtained from 2-year-old plants have the highest survival rate.

When 4-6 leaves appear on the rosettes, they are separated from the mustache, carefully removing the roots together with an earthen lump, and placed in a hole previously spilled with water. The depth of the hole is usually 10-15 cm. It can vary depending on the degree of development of the underground part of the plant. For mature shrubs with strong and long roots, it is better to make deeper holes. To make the remontant strawberry easier to take root in a new place, before placing it on the garden bed, its roots must be dipped in a clay chatterbox. It is prepared by mixing two components with water until a creamy state:

• 1 bucket of clay;
• ½ bucket of mullein.

It will be easier to care for the plantings if you place strawberry bushes in rows. Many summer residents prefer to fill them with peculiar ridges up to 10 cm in height. The distance between neighboring plants should be 30-40 cm, and the interval between the rows is made equal to 60-70 cm. Soil is poured into the hole with a slide, the victoria bush is lowered onto it and its roots are carefully spread in different directions. Then the hole is filled with soil. It is correct that the root collar of the bush rises slightly above the ground or is flush with it. The soil is slightly compacted and the hole is watered abundantly.

Advice

When planting, you can add special preparations to the fossa that promote rapid rooting.

Gardening strawberries respond well to soil mulching. A layer of dry grass, foliage, algae, hay, small straw, needles will help maintain the soil moisture level necessary for the crop. After planting, they are recommended to cover the space under the plants and between the rows. The care carried out in the spring in the form of mulching will have a positive effect on Victoria's productivity: strawberries will bring more berries, and they will ripen faster.

Features of agricultural technology

Growing Victoria will not require special skills, but you will have to pay attention to plantings. Caring for them includes standard procedures:

• watering;
• weeding;
• mulching;
• top dressing;
• loosening.

Both remontant and ordinary strawberries are sensitive to drying out of the soil, reacting to it with a decrease in yield, therefore they often moisten it. It is possible to significantly increase the time interval between waterings if you regularly loosen the soil, mulch the beds, and carry out snow retention measures in early spring. Victoria moisturizing treatment is required from 4 to 10 times per season, depending on weather conditions. The end of summer and the beginning of autumn is an important period in the life of plants: flower buds are laid in them. If you do not water the plantings at this time, it is better not to pin hopes for a good harvest next year.

During the Victoria season, at least three additional fertilizing with complex mineral fertilizer is required. Organic compounds are also suitable for her. Experienced gardeners recommend using a mullein diluted in a ratio of 1:10 for her. It is better to pour it on moist soil. Two dressings are carried out in the spring: after harvesting dead leaves and when the first flower stalks appear. At this time, the plantings require intensive care, the correctness of which depends on the quality and quantity of the crop. To enhance flowering and increase the number of ovaries, strawberries are sprayed with an aqueous solution of boric acid. Do this while there are no buds on the bushes yet. When the peduncles come out and the berries begin to tie, they are treated with zinc sulfate.

Advice

To get larger berries, during the ripening period, Victoria's mustache is cut off.

After the plantings have faded, they do not stop caring for them. The distance between the plants and under them is mulched with straw, sawdust or dry moss. This measure will prevent gray mold from damaging the crop. Having collected the last berries from the bushes, they proceed to the third feeding. After it, the soil is loosened well. If plant roots are peeking out of the soil, it is necessary to spud the planting. On the eve of autumn frosts, one more mulching is carried out using peat, humus or grain waste. They are laid in a thick layer, not less than 5-8 cm. To protect the strawberries from freezing, dry foliage, straw are thrown onto the beds or covered with spruce branches.

It is impossible to resist the tasty and healthy Victoria berries, which is why its cultivation has become a tradition for most summer residents. They are good not only fresh, there are a lot of recipes for winter preparations from garden strawberries. Here and compotes, and jams, and jam, and preserves, and jelly, and marmalade. Victoria fruits can be dried, frozen, covered in their own juice, made into syrups, liqueurs, wine. They are combined with other fruits and berries - red currants, gooseberries, apricots, peaches, raspberries.

Strawberries cannot be called a capricious culture, although you will have to spend time and effort caring for them. But they will definitely pay off. Subject to simple recommendations, it will be possible to harvest from the bushes already in the first or second year of their life - depending on the selected variety.