Propagation Of Strawberries With Antennae

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Photo: Wu Kailiang / Rusmediabank.ru

Propagation of strawberries with antennae: it would seem that what could be easier? Just leave your antennae to grow, do not cut, there will be new bushes and, accordingly, strawberries. However, in reality, everything is not as simple as it seems, but at first glance. Even such a seemingly simple matter has its own tricks.

Choosing strawberry bushes for tendril propagation

The vast majority of strawberry and strawberry bushes reproduce well with tendrils, but there are exceptions that you need to know about: almost all the newest varieties, both large-fruited and small-fruited, are mustacheless. This means that it will not be possible to propagate them in this way, therefore, when buying seedlings, check with the seller if the plant gives off shoots.

What you should pay attention to?

First of all, decide what you want to get this year: a large harvest of strawberries (strawberries) or new bushes? Since if you try to get both, then the plants will quickly deplete, the yield will decrease, the berries will become smaller and more likely to deteriorate. You can solve this issue like this: leave part of the bushes for the so-called mother plants, that is, from them we will get new plants, and leave the second part for berries. By the way, one-year-old strawberry bushes (strawberry) give the largest number of mustaches. The older the bush, the more flower buds are laid and fewer processes are formed.

You can, of course, remove the first tendrils, harvest and then leave the shoots to get new bushes. But this method has its drawbacks: the strongest viable plants are obtained precisely from the first whiskers, that is, in May-June. Over the summer, these processes will have time to take root and develop into new full-fledged bushes. Thus, next year you will harvest your first harvest from them. So the most optimal is still the division into berry and queen cells.

How do I get new bushes?

We decided on the method of obtaining, selected the bushes for our so-called mother plants. What to do next? Leave all the antennae in a row or some specific?

By the way, so that the mother plants do not take up much space in our garden, they can be planted in areas that are not used in gardening: under trees, shrubs, in shaded areas. The main thing is that the soil is moist and loose. After transplanting our bushes, carefully remove the flower buds. This is done so that food does not go into the flowers, berries, but into the antennae and our forming bushes.

After the appearance of rosette whiskers, we select the best ones for rooting. The misconception that you need to take only those sockets that are formed from even internodes. In fact, there is not a single outlet that emerges from odd internodes, so this is just a myth. The criterion for selection is completely different: the rosette must be large, the size of its core is at least 5 millimeters in diameter, it has good, developed root buds and leaves.

Most often, the shoots closest to the main bush are suitable for planting, that is, those that began to form first.

Carefully plant the selected seedlings in the soil for rooting. And next year we are waiting for the harvest. By the way, some of the new bushes can also be transplanted into our mother plant in order to "renew" it.

And finally, a little advice: if there are few large outlets, then you can use smaller shoots for planting. Just before planting them in the soil, it is best to add a mixture of peat and sand, in a ratio of about 2 parts of peat and 1 part of sand. This is done in order to provide the planting material with the necessary nutrients, which will allow new plants to take root faster.