Strawberry Alba - a description of the variety, photo, reviews, tips for growing

I want to tell you about one fragrant and sweet garden culture. This is strawberry Alba. Description of the variety, photos, reviews of gardeners, as well as ways to grow it will be described below. Practically every summer resident has its own favorite variety. But I am sure that at least once a year we think about what sort of plant to plant, and breeders every year bring out more and more new species. How in them to understand?

We are accustomed to call this delicious berry strawberries, but to be precise, then on our beds grows nothing more than a garden strawberry. This confusion occurred a long time ago, but since in those days people were not too well versed in the botanical subtleties, this generalized name was adopted. Especially, in the form of fruits and foliage, as well as taste, these berries are very similar. Whatever it was, this guest on our expanses is known to gardeners as a strawberry.

Description of grade Alba

This early (in some sources - ultra-early) variety was bred in Italy by the selection company "New Fruits". It belongs to the category of elite, equally successfully grown both in the open ground and in greenhouse conditions.

Strawberry Alba has a good yield kg from the bush, but this is the maximum. The average yield is 700-800 grams per bush. It is unpretentious, resistant to heat, and also has immunity to most "strawberry" diseases (powdery mildew, bacterial burn, etc.). But strawberry Alba is vulnerable to anthracnose (black spotting), in case of disease it is necessary to carry out treatment of bushes with fungicides as early as possible ("Quadrice "Anraktol").

Shrubs are of medium size, compact, berries are characterized by a slightly elongated shape, bright saturated reddish shade and shine.

The fruits of this variety have a delicate, tender pulp with a slightly sour taste, they are quite large, the weight of each berry starts from 20 g and often reaches 50 g.

Alba strawberry garden is perfectly stored and transported, preserves its useful and taste qualities when frozen. This variety can be safely used for canning, and also processed by any desired way - confitures, jams, juices, sauces, etc. Berries begin to blush from about the second week May.

Reviews of gardeners about the strawberry variety Alba

Pros and cons of Alba strawberries

After reading the reviews of gardeners and gardeners on various thematic forums, you can make a general, very positive picture about strawberry Alba.

Pros:

• Early ripens and pleases with a generous harvest.
• Prolonged fruiting.
• Berries do not grow small throughout the maturation period.
• Having reached the state of full ripeness, Alba can stay on the bushes for a long time, without losing the "commodity" type and taste qualities.
• You can grow even in flower pots.
• Without problems, reproduce through the removal and subsequent rooting of the mustache. Cut off mustaches retain their germination for a long time.
• Drought-resistant, frost-resistant, disease-resistant, almost undemanding to agricultural technology.
• An excellent variety for hothouse cultivation.
• It shows a very good result when planting on a covering material (spunbond, lutrasil, agrospan). Most of the positive feedback was noted when Alba landed on black non-woven fabric.

Minuses:

• The variety of strawberry Alba is vulnerable to black, white and brown spots. Especially it is necessary to be afraid of anthracnose (black spotting).
• Some summer residents believe that Alba's taste is not sweet enough. Here you can recall the famous saying: "to the taste and color... but it is necessary to recognize that the berries of this variety are not the most sugary, but they are very tasty and like many. They are the very first!

Tips for growing strawberries Alba

Strawberry Alba reproduces by transplanting bushes, mustaches and seed. As practice shows, reproduction of whiskers is the most convenient and non-labor-consuming. The method of growing seedlings in pots and then planting them in open ground also gives excellent results. As already mentioned above, the unpretentiousness of this variety extends to the type of soil - Alba wild strawberries are planted on virtually any soil. Of course, no one cancels "standard" waste events, like any horticultural culture, this strawberry prefers the timely loosening of the soil, the removal of weeds and regular watering. Do not stagnate water!

Before planting the bushes it is desirable to saturate the soil with organic fertilizers and mineral additives. Strawberries Alba can land in the ground at any time - from early spring to early autumn. In this case, you should know that the seedlings must have time to take root before the onset of frost (15-20 days before their arrival). The most commonly used planting scheme: a distance of about 20 cm between bushes, a distance between beds - 40 cm. In addition, it is possible to cover the beds of mulch, for this purpose, hay, mown grass, sawdust, overgrown compost or agglomerates, as mentioned above, is suitable.

Strawberry Alba shows excellent germination when sowing seeds. This process is recommended to be carried out from the 10th of January to the end of February. A suitable zemlesmes can be purchased in the store, you can also buy peat pills, which are optimally suited for these purposes. Before sowing, the seeds of strawberries should be soaked in clean water for a couple of days, the water, naturally, should be changed every day. At the end of this time, the seed material is scattered over small beds that need to be formed in advance on the soil surface in the planting tank.

Note that the seeds of strawberries / strawberries during sowing can not be buried in the soil! For the same reason, the method of sowing seeds on the snow, which is evenly spread over the soil, is often and successfully used. Thus, the snow gradually melts and as if slightly tightens the seeds into the ground. After that, the box or cassettes are covered with glass (you can use food film), transferred to a warm place, the temperature of +23.. +25 ° C is considered optimal in this case.

Watering should be done with a spray gun, clean water at room temperature. After the shoots, we transfer the "vegetable garden" to the windowsill, to the light. Further, periodic ventilation is recommended, and when the first pair of leaves appears at the shoots, the protective coating can be removed. Alba strawberry garden dives around the last days of March, by this time the seedlings already have three or four full leaves. The repeated dive takes place 2 months after the first. On the garden beds the plants are planted when they reach a height of 5 or 7 cm, but they will be able to please you with a crop only in a year.

The most convenient way, giving 100% survival rate - is the reproduction of a mustache. In advance (around June), choose the strongest, prolific bushes in your garden, select two or three powerful mustaches with first-order rosettes in these bushes. Next, take a cassette for seedlings (or a plastic cup), filled with moist soil, gently pin the outlet to the ground with a wire stud. In order not to exhaust the vitality of the mother's bush, all unnecessary mustaches must be cut off. Also, remove the second and third-order outgrowths from the root rosette. Water the "children" daily, but do not allow overflows. When the roots of the rosette get stronger, and on the bush will appear 5-6 leaves, the plant can be separated from the main bush. After that, you can transplant the outlet to a permanent place of growth. The plant must be carefully removed from the tank with the earth lump, after planting, water thoroughly.

That's all the wisdom to grow this yielding and undemanding variety. You certainly will not be disappointed if you have a place on your site strawberry Alba, a description of the variety, photos, reviews of gardeners, I hope they will help you in this matter!