Protection against gray rot of berries
When growing strawberries in certain years, the defeat of berries with gray rot can lead to a loss of up to 70% of the crop.
To reduce losses of berries from gray rot, it is possible only by a set of measures:
1. Planting on an uncontracted scheme( no more than 6-7 plants per 1 m2), then the berries will be illuminated by the sun and ventilated.
2. Moderate fertilization of plants to avoid their "fattening", when a huge leaf device is formed, usually at the expense of fruit bearing.
3. Early spring raking and removal of dry dead leaves, source of infection. Usually, dry leaves are less in those plants that have been mown after harvest. The newly grown leaves are less affected by disease and come out of the wintering area in green.
4. Mulching soil protects berries from contamination and spoilage. Mulch can serve as a dark film and non-woven material, straw, sawdust, pine needles, hay, moss, roofing material, wooden plaques, etc.
5. Installation of supports( made of wire, plastic, etc.) under the peduncles to keep them in an inclined position so that they do not touch the soil. For the same purpose, you can use a twine stretched along the rows( on both sides of the row) during flowering.
6. Partial mowing of leaves( up to 1/3 or half), especially closing peduncles along the edges of the row, will also provide access to the berries. You can also connect the leaves in small bundles with a soft wire in such a way as to improve the airing of the landings.
7. Frequent gathering of berries. Every day or every other day, the damaged berries in a separate container must be taken out from the site and buried in a pit. With a strong outbreak of gray rot, it is advisable to collect the so-called "white" berries, which can be successfully used in processing.
8. Spraying of plants with 0.2% benate( fundazol) during the period of the extension of peduncles and at the beginning of flowering.
9. Unusual advice. Removal of flower petals( source of infection).Reception is labor-intensive, but highly effective and can be performed with a small number of plants.
10. Finally, growing under a light film. This method provides a minimum damage to berries with gray rot due to increased air temperature under the film shelter. In addition, it accelerates for 10-14 days the first berries with a simultaneous increase in yields. For this purpose, it is advisable to use small-size film tunnels on plantations of strawberries.
It is recommended to cover strawberry plants with a film before the air temperature is higher than 5 ° С( in the Moscow region - end of March - early April).At first, you need to monitor the tightness of the shelter. In the future, they are watching to ensure that the air temperature under the film does not exceed 25-30 ° C.
During flowering( at an ambient temperature of at least 5 ° C), it is necessary to ventilate the shelter for better pollination of the plants.
In this case, the film is lifted from the sides. If there is no danger of night frosts and the weather is warm, then during the flowering you can leave the tunnel open for the night.
During the growth of berries, the film is held over the plants without lifting it. When the berries begin to ripen, the coating can be removed completely. In exceptional cases, when there is a severe drought at this time, the film is left to the end of the collection. Significantly facilitates the care of plants under cover using perforated film. In this case, there is no need to remove or lift the film from the carcasses during flowering. For perforation, you need to have on each meter of film up to 40 holes with a diameter of 25 mm.
To accelerate the development of strawberry plants for 5-7 days, it is also possible to use a non-framed shelter for beds with a non-woven light material. At the same time, it should be taken into account that during the flowering period, the shelter should be removed. The non-woven fabric, so that it does not blown away by the wind, can be fixed on the soil with plastic bottles filled with water.
When growing strawberries under the film, you can grow both ordinary varieties of strawberries, and remontant. The peculiarity of the remontant varieties of strawberries is their quickness and the ability to form flowers with a summer long( 14-17 h) light-day and high air temperatures( not lower than 15 ° C).Therefore, in these varieties inflorescences develop in 2-3 weeks, and the plants can bloom and bear fruit up to 3-4 months in season( continuously or wavy).
The first harvest of strawberries of these varieties( June-July), as a rule, will be only 10-30%, autumn( August-September) - more abundant. However, in the middle zone, many berries do not have time to ripen and fall under early frosts. In this connection it is expedient:
1. To accelerate the beginning of vegetation, covering the plants early in the spring( from the beginning of April) with a light film.
2. Carry out mowing of the aboveground part of plants immediately after harvesting the first( summer) harvest. This technique will allow to have a clearly expressed autumn fruiting period, and also will strengthen the repeated formation of peduncles.
3. Cover plants with a light film in autumn in order to allow ripening of the maximum number of berries.
A number of repair large-bodied varieties( Ostara, Hummi Gento, Tristar, Tribute, Kletterstar) have one feature: they continuously fructify not only on the mother plants, but also on the resulting rosettes of mustaches. Therefore, the bushes of these varieties should be planted in a container and placed on some supports in several tiers in height through 70-80 cm. With hanging down mustache, you can create a solid vertical wall, having decorated the arbor, canopy or other place, constantly receiving fresh berries of strawberries. Some authors call such strawberry varieties "curly", suggesting also another way of creating a vertical wall, namely, tying a mustache from growing on the soil of plants to a special trellis.
One of the successful designs for the vertical culture of strawberries
To the semimontant varieties include the Talisman, Redgontlit, Surprise Gall, Zenga Zengan. They can also give a second fall harvest on the axillary peduncles. However, autumn fruiting is not every year, but when the spring is cool and protracted. This is due to the fact that the axillary peduncles successfully formed during the first flowering at low temperatures( not higher than 15 ° C) and a short light day( no more than 10 hours).Repeated flowering is facilitated by the removal of leaves after the first fruiting.
A short light day can be artificially created by covering plants with opaque materials daily from 17 to 18 hours for at least 20 days. Just as with the cultivation of repair varieties, autumn cover will be justified for the plants with a light film to ripen berries.
Ordinary varieties of strawberries, as well as remontant and semi-remontant, can be cultivated as a "vertical" culture in containers, which saves plants and labor.