Organic Strawberries? Easier Than You Think!

Having your own vegetable garden or berry plants is not only a great form of outdoor activity but also an excellent way to enjoy fresh, healthy produce. One of the popular choices for many gardeners is strawberries. Why is it worth having your own strawberries? Here are a few positive aspects of having your own strawberries in the garden:

A Wonderful Lesson for Children
Having your own strawberries in the garden can also be an excellent learning opportunity for children. We can teach them about the processes of growth and development of plants, the importance of caring for plants, observing changes in the garden and nature, etc.

Freshness and Taste
The main benefit of having your own strawberries is the ability to consume fresh fruits straight from the garden. Strawberries that are picked and eaten on the same day retain their full flavor and aroma. This experience is irreplaceable compared to store-bought strawberries, which often have to go through a long transportation process.

Control over Quality
Having your own strawberry plants gives full control over the cultivation and protection methods we use. We can avoid artificial fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides that may be used in commercial plantations. We can also opt for organic cultivation, using natural plant protection methods.

Saving Money
Having your own strawberry plants can be cost-effective in the long-term perspective. Purchasing plants and their care can be cheaper than regularly buying fresh strawberries in the store, especially during the season when prices are high. Additionally, we can also collect and store seeds from our own strawberries to propagate plants for the following years.

Variety of Varieties
When buying strawberry plants, we have a wide choice of different varieties available on the market. We can choose from early, late, larger or smaller fruits, of different colors and tastes. This allows us to tailor our crops to our culinary and aesthetic preferences.

Which Strawberry Varieties Perform Best in Tunnel Cultivation?

Growing strawberries in polytunnels is an excellent way to extend the harvest season and protect the plants from adverse weather conditions and pests. For amateur, home cultivation in polytunnels, it’s particularly suitable to choose varieties that are disease-resistant and have good taste properties. Here are a few strawberry varieties that may prove successful in this type of cultivation:

‘Honeoye’: An early variety known for its hardiness and abundant harvests. ‘Honeoye’ strawberries are quite attractive in taste and appearance. Plants of this variety thrive very well in the tunnel.

‘Elsanta’: A very popular variety valued for its large, juicy fruits with excellent taste and appearance. ‘Elsanta’ responds exceptionally well to tunnel cultivation.

‘Clery’: A very early variety yielding sweet, aromatic fruits. ‘Clery’ is also relatively disease-resistant, making it just right for tunnels.

‘Korona’: This variety is known for its large, tasty fruits. ‘Korona’ adapts well to various conditions and is relatively easy to cultivate, even under covers.

Vibrant: A very early variety with long fruiting (up to 60 days) and beautiful, delicious fruits. An excellent choice to plant in a tunnel.

‘Kent’: Characterized by tasty, vividly red fruits with exceptional post-harvest durability. This very fruitful variety is resistant to gray mold and begins to fruit very early in tunnel cultivation.

‘Aprica’: Valued for its tasty and extremely attractive fruits, which are large, shiny, and durable. A fruitful variety that is resistant to many diseases of the leaves and root system, and it loves to grow in a tunnel.

‘San Andreas’: A repeat-flowering variety distinguished by large, shiny, and extremely tasty fruits. In tunnel cultivation, San Andreas fruits from the end of May to late autumn.

‘Ania’: Similar to San Andreas, it fruits from spring until the first frosts. This variety features large, oval, highly shiny, and extremely sweet fruits. Thanks to its relatively high resistance to many diseases, it is quite easy to cultivate, even in tunnels.

How to get rid of beetles on strawberries? Biological methods of combating soil pests

In addition to wireworms, there is also a problem with grubs and click beetle larvae. All of them feed on the roots of strawberry plants and often cause the death of entire plants, sometimes already in the initial phase of cultivation (the first year). Their presence can easily be detected at the stage of digging over the plot before planting strawberries🍓. If we find the larvae of these pests, especially in large numbers, do not plant strawberries there! It would be a waste of our effort and money. Soil pests must be eliminated before establishing the cultivation.🙂🐛 Continue reading “How to get rid of beetles on strawberries? Biological methods of combating soil pests”

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