When to trim a strawberry mustache

Strawberries (garden strawberries) give a good harvest only on fertile and properly treated beds with timely removal of weeds, fertilizing the bushes with fertilizers and loosening the soil. Various methods are used for berry propagation. The use of this or that depends on the type of plant.

How strawberries reproduce

Garden strawberries can be propagated in 3 ways:

• sprouts are obtained by sowing seeds;
• increase the number by dividing the bushes;
• get new copies using the mustache of the plant.

Strawberries (garden strawberries) give a good harvest

The latter breeding method is used more often than others. It retains all the characteristics of the parent in young plants. The strawberry blows the whiskers to capture the area, guiding them in all directions from the main stem. For a gardener, growing new bushes with their help is the easiest way to propagate a berry, because obtaining seedlings from seeds requires certain knowledge and skills, and dividing by bushes is impossible for most remontant varieties.

Novice gardeners are often interested in whether or not to trim the mustache. It all depends on the intentions of the type of strawberry being propagated.

• If the summer resident wants to increase or completely renew the planting of berries, you need to purchase or grow the desired samples. In order to obtain stable and healthy seedlings at the beginning of fruiting, it is recommended to mark the strongest plants, which gave the largest yield of large fruits this season. The next year, it is they who are left to obtain a mustache, preventing buds from forming during flowering. All interfering shoots are removed from such bushes, leaving only the developing whiskers. After that, they are separated, used to obtain seedlings, and then transplanted into permanent beds. The main disadvantage of this method is the impossibility of obtaining long whiskers and high-quality fruits.
• If you plan to get a fruitful specimen of a berry bush that will give a large number of fruits, you need to avoid excessive foliage and shoots on it. In this case, it is recommended to promptly cut off all antennae that have appeared on the plant. If you refuse this procedure, the growing shoots will take all the minerals necessary for development from the mother bush. After the bush begins to bloom, it can get sick due to lack of nutrition and small berries will grow on it.

Experts recommend removing the mustache, regardless of whether they are used to propagate plants or the gardener will simply destroy them. High-quality specimens suitable for obtaining seedlings are most often formed in the first year of planting seedlings. This occurs when the length of daylight hours is at least 12-14 hours and temperatures above 16 ° C. Subsequently, the antennae become small, and by the end of the growing season of the variety, they practically do not develop.

When to trim

Many summer residents are interested in when to trim a strawberry mustache, how to carry out this procedure. For this, there is a technique developed by specialists.

It is worth choosing the right time when to pull off a strawberry mustache

It is also worth choosing the right time when to cut off a strawberry mustache:

• If it is necessary to obtain planting material, then a year before the procedure, the most productive specimens of bushes are selected. After that, in the spring, they are not allowed to bloom and develop ovaries. In summer or autumn, a well-developed mustache is trimmed and then rooted. For collection, shoots are used, on which the largest outlet is left.
• When setting the task of obtaining the maximum number of fruits from each bush, spring or early summer is chosen for trimming the mustache, and then new shoots are removed in the fall.

On the bushes of garden strawberries, these formations appear for the first time during flowering, and then the process of their development, growth and full-fledged formation occurs throughout the summer, ending only in early autumn. The mustache removal process takes place in 2 stages:

1. At first, it is recommended to remove them before flowering or immediately after the budding process, when many ovaries have already appeared, but the berries have not yet begun to ripen. This is the period when spring ends and summer has not yet arrived. The elimination of the mustache will practically not affect the harvest, but this procedure must be carried out carefully and in a timely manner. Then strawberries will throw all the nutrients into growing berries, and this will allow you to collect tasty and large fruits.
2. Next time, you need to remove unnecessary antennae during the autumn pruning of foliage. These operations are carried out in the last week of August, although for many remontant hybrids the deadline is postponed to mid-September. In many regions of Russia, this time depends on the specific weather conditions typical for the location of the vegetable garden or garden.

Experts recommend removing the mustache

Most summer residents prefer to do an intermediate cutting of the antennae immediately after the end of the fruiting process.

This allows you to lengthen the life of the bushes, stretching them for 2-3 seasons. But it is better to buy new seedlings every year when planting annual hybrids. If the variety is fruitful and retains its properties for 3-4 years, then this technique makes it possible to increase the yield of berries by 15%.

Obtaining a mustache for breeding is done in the following way:

1. For the procedure, you need to take the strongest bushes with a large number of horns. Suitable for breeding are hybrids that have given large and tasty fruits this year. In the new season, they cannot be allowed to bloom, so you should immediately remove the buds and ovaries. This will lead to the development of a large number of rosettes and long tendrils.
2. When their growth reaches its maximum, it is advisable to leave no more than 3 daughter formations on each bush. Only large and strong rosettes that grow closest to the mother trunk need to be preserved.
3. Other mustaches with rosettes of the second and larger orders will be weakened in comparison with the preserved specimens, so they are simply cut off. It is undesirable to use them for breeding seedlings due to the lack of the necessary immunity to various diseases.
4. If you need to get a lot of seedlings, then inexperienced gardeners try to use second-row sockets. But their number should not exceed 2 units from each mother plant. If this rule is violated, the seedlings obtained with the help of such mustaches and outlets quickly wither.
5. Samples taken from the bushes need to be rooted. There are 2 ways for this - direct sowing into the ground and germination of seedlings. In the first case, the trimmed mustache with rosettes in the spring is pressed against the garden bed with a wooden or wire hairpin, and then sprinkled with soil. In the second method, they are installed in a glass with a nutritious substrate made of peat, manure and river sand. These components are previously mixed with superphosphate.
6. After the development of the roots, leaves will begin to form at the recessed part of the antennae.When 2-3 of them appear, then the gardener did everything right. Then it remains to water 1 per month, feed, and then transplant to a permanent place. If it's hot, then the irrigation is doubled.

Samples taken from bushes need to be rooted

So that the process of removing the mustache does not cause a painful reaction in plants, it is recommended to follow these rules during this procedure:

• Hybrids are processed by the gardener only on a warm and dry day. High humidity contributes to the infection of bushes with dangerous fungal diseases or viral lesions of berries due to the penetration of pathogenic structures through the cut.
• In hot weather or drought, it is recommended to carry out all manipulations in the evening or early in the morning. During this time, the hybrids are less exposed to UV stress from the sun. It is not recommended to carry out procedures in fog or heavy rain.
• You can not tear off the antennae with your hands. These formations are strong enough, so inexperienced gardeners pull out the whole plant with them. For the procedure, you should take a sharpened garden knife or pruner. The cut should be straight. The soil should not get on it, otherwise infection with soil fungi or bacteria is possible.

Mustache fitting problems and solutions

Using the method of propagation of strawberries with antennae, novice gardeners make the following mistakes:

• Incorrect selection of the right shoots. It is recommended to choose the longest specimens on which large rosettes have formed.
• Landing dates are incorrect. Experienced gardeners have been planting strawberry mustaches since the last decade of July. Then they take root faster, and having endured the winter cold, the sprouts acquire the necessary immunity. But in the southern regions of Russia, where the summer is often dry and hot, the mustache should be planted in early autumn. Then it is recommended to wait for rainy weather and transfer the seedlings to the beds. In the northern regions, the resulting seedlings are planted in late spring.

You need to learn how to handle plants with garden shears

Another mistake of novice farmers is unwillingness to use tools when removing mustache. They believe that shoots can be plucked by hand. But then it is practically impossible to keep the length of the segment of the remaining part. This will lead to damage to the mother bush, damage to it with an infection. To avoid such a problem, you need to learn how to handle plants with garden shears.

In addition, people in the process of breeding berries with a mustache make more mistakes:

• A sprout with a lot of foliage is planted. A bush that has grown from it gives a small crop. To eliminate this problem, you need to cut off all the leaves, leaving only 3 pieces on the seedling that grow from the center.
• Many people mistakenly believe that seedlings should be left with long roots. But in reality, they are bent and damaged, and the bushes wither. Therefore, when planting, you need to shorten the roots to 100 mm, and then straighten them.
• People forget to disinfect the soil in the beds. For the procedure, a weak solution of potassium permanganate is used. This is done before placing the sprout in place.
• An attempt to apply organic fertilizer can lead to the death of strawberry hybrids or a sharp decrease in yield. It is recommended to feed the berries with biohumos or horse manure-based compost. The use of a large amount of nitrogen fertilizers contributes to the appearance of pests. Therefore, the gardener must introduce top dressing strictly at the allotted time, in the doses indicated on the labels.
• Summer residents forget to huddle seedlings in a timely manner. To eliminate problems, it is recommended to mulch the plantings with hay, straw, sawdust, and pine needles.It is better not to use film or cardboard, as they cause overheating of the seedlings in the heat, and in the spring excess moisture condenses on them.
• Planting berry seedlings in several rows in one place is considered the most common mistake. It is better to make several narrow beds, then they are easy to process.
• Too close arrangement of seedlings leads to a deterioration in fruiting due to a lack of nutrients in all sprouts. In such crowding, gray rot disease develops. Therefore, a distance of 0.35-0.5 m is maintained between the bushes.
• Summer residents forget to remove old leaves from the soil and weeds before planting seedlings. This leads to fungal infections. Therefore, before planting, you must completely clear the area of ​​all debris.

There is nothing difficult about propagating strawberries with a mustache. When using any methods that allow a remote shoot to be used to obtain a new bush, you must carefully follow all the requirements. If this is not done, the seedlings will quickly wither away. The main thing is to choose the right landing time, based on the climatic conditions of the region where the summer resident lives.

When cutting off the mustache is used to increase yields, one should not forget about timely watering, loosening and feeding the hybrids. Simple removal of excess shoots will not bring results without performing all agrotechnical measures.