Strawberry Ostara, everbearer - pot ø10.5 cm (Fragaria x ananassa 'Ostara')

Strawberries are the ultimate summer fruit! Delicious as a refreshing snack but of course a topper for your ice creams and pastries. You have 2 kinds of strawberries: summerflowers and perennials.

Door bearers give strawberries over a long period of time. This means that you can harvest fruit from one plant over a longer period, but it also means that the plant requires a little more care. In order to keep the strawberry plant in balance, you must harvest, remove leaves, shoots, etc. at regular intervals.
Summer bloomers are strawberry varieties that produce a lot of strawberries in a short period of time (3 to 4 weeks). So you have a short period with a lot of fruit which means that you have to keep an extra eye on the plant during that period. Especially the watering and food supply must be optimal because the plant is heavily loaded in a short period.

Ostara is a perennial with fruits that are medium in size but regular cone-shaped, bright red, juicy and good tasting. By not maintaining too many flowers per plant, the harvest can be stretched until November.

It is best to remove the first clusters of flowers so that the young plant can produce sufficient leaves. A thorny plant is after all burdened with making fruits for a long time.

PLANTING:
Strawberries are best planted until mid-August, August 20 at the latest. Because they still need a good growth period in autumn to make flowers internally. Especially if the plants are a bit thinner, it is important to plant out around August 15 at the latest. Planting too late will result in fewer flowers in spring.

Strawberries are only replanted on the same piece of land every four, better five years. Especially the varieties that are susceptible to root diseases. Since strawberries in general are quite susceptible to verticilium (wilt), it is better not to plant them in a plot that has had potatoes or leguminous plants.

CULTIVATION TIPS:
Strawberries grow best in soils that hold water well in the spring and early summer. On the other hand, there should be no waterlogging in the winter. It is therefore advisable to plant strawberries on a slightly raised bed, so that there is certainly no water retention during the winter.
If you have a light soil (sandy soil), you won't have problems with waterlogging in winter, but you will have problems with drought in spring. Especially strawberry plants whose fruits are growing require sufficient water. A slightly heavier soil (loam, silt) is ideal for strawberries, as long as there is no stagnation of water at the plants in winter.

It is ideal to prepare the soil about four weeks before planting. This allows the fertilizer to spread and the soil is settled enough to apply a foil or sheet. It is best to place the foil or sheet when the soil is sufficiently moist.
Strawberries do not like a lot of nitrogen. The type of fertilizer is also important. Using mineral fertilizer just before planting is dangerous for root burn. It is best to use organic commercial fertilizers with a high potassium content and little nitrogen, for example 130 g/m² 6-5-10. Farmyard manure is given to the pre-crop, i.e. in early spring at the latest. Well-digested compost can be used before planting. Strawberries prefer a slightly lower acidity of the soil.
Strawberries grow better if you can plant them on a soil cover. This can be a black foil, but even better is a root canvas that is water permeable.
Plant the plants in the row 25 cm, the rows at 70 cm and not too deep. Planting too deep will cause poor growth, as will planting too shallow.

The plants are well pressed and watered after planting. Especially during the first few days water them regularly. After that they are wetted daily and in sunny weather several times a day.

After planting, sometimes a few offshoots appear, these are removed. Finally, even in September it can sometimes still be dry. Give then also still some water. It is important that the growth in the plants remains so that they can continue undisturbed with the internal flower formation.

Remove the offshoots in September so that all energy can go to the mother plant at that time