Strawberry - a technology for growing at home and in the open field. Planting, reproduction, care. Agricultural technology. Preparation, storage of berries. Harvesting. Shameless - a resort in the Crimea, or a unique strawberry tree in the Crimea - the only evergreen deciduous

Small-fruited strawberry has a number of synonyms: red strawberry tree, Greek strawberry tree, Greek strawberry. As a species, the small-fruited Strawberry is included in the genus Arbutus, subfamily Arbutoideae, family Heather (Ericaceae) and order Heather (Ericales).

Small-fruited strawberry is an evergreen tree. Its natural range of the species covers the Eastern Mediterranean, Asia Minor, as well as the Black Sea coast and Transcaucasia. The small-fruited strawberry is drought-resistant, although it sometimes sheds its leaves during severe drought. It grows on coastal dry calcareous and slate rocks, rising up the slopes to a height of 200-300 m above sea level.

The small-fruited strawberry is a tree reaching an average height of 5 m, sometimes there are 12 m giants. The strawberry trunk is about 20 cm in diameter, on which cranked-curved branches are placed. Trunks and branches are covered with smooth and thin red bark. Around June, the old bark peels off in patches, exposing the young bark, green in color, which eventually turns yellow, and by the end of summer becomes a coral red hue. Young shoots are bare.

The leathery leaves of strawberries are wintering, they have an ovoid, oblong-ovate or oblong-elliptical shape, 3-10 cm long and 1-6 cm wide, sitting on petioles 1-4 cm long. rounded base. Usually strawberry leaves are entire, less often they are finely serrated along the edge. From above they are painted in a dark green color, from below they are bluish.

Inflorescences are apical in location, which are glandular-fluffy panicles or brushes up to 10 cm long. They sit in the axils of scaly bracts. Flowers with a white or yellowish corolla sit on short pedicels 2-5 mm long. Calyx with five rounded-ovate sepals; corolla ovoid, with short teeth, 4.5 mm long. Strawberry fruits in appearance resemble berries, or rather multi-seeded drupes with a diameter of 1-1.5 cm. Numerous spherical strawberry fruits have a reticulated wrinkled surface and are colored orange or brown-orange.

Depending on the habitat, the small-fruited strawberry blooms from December to May, and bears fruit in June.

According to scientists, in the vicinity of Gaspra and on the top of Ai-Nikol, two trees grow, the age of which is about 1000 years. At the same time, the coverage of the trunk of these trees is about four meters. Strawberry small-fruited in culture since 1724, and in the Crimea since 1813. This plant is valuable for cultivation on dry, especially alkaline soils. Strawberry wood is hard and dense, of a very beautiful whitish color with a brownish tint, suitable for crafts. Its leaves are used for tanning, and the flowering plant itself is an excellent honey plant.

This strawberry is called in guidebooks a witness to the founding of the Nikitsky Botanical Garden. You will find him on the border of the Upper and Lower parks.

The main event of the middle of summer in the Nikitsky garden - the "shameless" sheds the bark

Small-fruited strawberry is the only evergreen deciduous tree of the natural flora of the South Coast.

The height of the tree is about six meters, and it looks unusually original and decorative all year round due to its thin bark, in which there is no crust - the upper coarse layer. Sometimes it seems that there is no bark at all. But in July, on hot, hot days, you can clearly see how the old coral bark cracks and peels off in thin, papyrus-like patches, exposing the young, tender, ash-colored olive-green bark. The dumping of the old bark is completed by the end of summer. Almost simultaneously with the bark, half of last year's foliage falls. And all these metamorphoses occur because the strawberry, like many other evergreens, enters a period of partial leaf fall in the middle of summer: at the peak of drought, in order to save moisture, it needs to reduce the evaporating surface, and the renewed green bark begins to replace the missing leaves, performing the function of photosynthesis .

All this looks very impressive, but for this feature of annually “bare” the tree received sonorous names among the people: “shameless”, “resort”, “stripper”.

In Crimea, it grows only on the southern coast, on coastal cliffs and rocky slopes, which have become a kind of refuge for the small-fruited strawberry. Sometimes there are ancient relics of the Tertiary period. The small-fruited strawberry is included in the list of rare and endangered plants in Europe. According to scientists, only a few thousand small-fruited strawberry trees have survived in the Crimea, one of the places of its mass growth is the tract Martyan Cape, declared a natural monument.

Love tree

“Does the tree of love grow in the Nikitsky Garden?” - this is perhaps one of the most frequently asked questions. Vera Zykova, head of the NBS-NSC Museum, senior researcher at the Department of Dendrology, Floriculture and Landscape Architecture, usually tells in response about those trees that were considered symbols or patrons of love among different peoples: about the peach and orange, beloved in China, about the pear and pomegranate from the Mediterranean, about the viburnum revered by the Slavs ...

But it also happens that people claim that they themselves personally saw the tree of love in the Nikitsky Botanical Garden, and then show it to guides and even tell stories from their lives in which this tree played a happy and magical role. So, right before our eyes, a legend is born about the Crimean tree of love - small-fruited strawberries.

Arbutus andrachne

The small-fruited strawberry is probably familiar to everyone who has visited the south of the Crimean peninsula in its parks and Nikitsky Garden. It is known among the local population more as a tree "shameless" or "resort". In the scientific literature, the species is called "Greek strawberry tree" - according to the place of distribution, or red strawberry tree (Arbutus andrachne). "Red" - because most of the year its trunks and branches remain coral or red-brown, "strawberry" - because from afar the fruits resemble strawberries, but this is where the similarity with a berry ends.

In Latin, the name of the genus sounds like "Arbutus" - arbutus. It belongs to the Vereskovs and has 11 species according to some data, and 14 species according to others. The red strawberry is one of them.

area

Small-fruited strawberry is a very rare species. Like all arbutus, it is thermophilic. In the wild flora, it is distributed in the Mediterranean, in the Middle East, in certain regions of South-West Asia, on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus. Its northern border runs along the south of the Crimean peninsula. It is drought tolerant and often occupies rocky areas where other woody plants do not take root. In the mountains it rarely rises above 300-500 meters above sea level. It grows in clearings, in light coniferous and deciduous forests.

On the Crimean peninsula, small-fruited strawberries can be found on capes Aya, Martyan, in the mountains of Koshka, Ai-Nikola (here is the largest population in Crimea). The most accessible specimens for Crimean tourists are located in Nikitsky Botanical Garden and Alupka park. Among the Crimean strawberries there are two centenarians over a thousand years old, each with a trunk girth of 4 meters. The photo shows one of them during the measurement of the trunk.

Arbutus red is a relic plant of the Cenozoic era, as evidenced by its remains found during excavations in the Middle East in the layers of the earth of the Tertiary period. Consequently, the plant lived on earth at least one and a half million years ago. The number of small-fruited strawberry plants on earth is declining, so the species is under the protection of the states in which it grows.

Legend

According to one of the legends, the red strawberry tree got its Latin name from the Arabic words “Ktal AV”, which in free translation means “killed the father”. Perhaps it was based on the association of red bare tree trunks with male bloodied hands. The essence of the legend is this.

For a long time, a family lived in the world: husband, wife and father-in-law, that is, the father of the husband. When the father fell ill, the loving son went in search of a drug, but he searched for it for so long that the father managed to recover and even conceive a child with his daughter-in-law. The returned son, having learned about what had happened, hacked to death his father, on whose grave a tree with a red trunk grew.

Shameless Tree

The main feature of the small-fruited strawberry is the annual renewal of the bark. The bark is dark red, as thin as papyrus paper, and peels off easily to reveal greenish "naked" trunks. Cracking and shedding of the bark occurs in July-August. This is accompanied by a slight rustling, which is why in some countries the plant is called the "whisperer". In our country, the throwing off of tree clothes is associated with ladies undressing on the beach, and for this reason the small-fruited strawberry is called a "resort". An even greater similarity is added by the fact that day after day the young skin seems to tan and, in the end, becomes reddish-orange. In this form, the plant stands until next summer, when everything begins to repeat itself again.

Not all of the above behavior of the strawberry tree resembles lovers of a beach holiday. Some for the annual exposure of the trunk, similar to a naked female body in the tanning stage, ironically call him "shameless" or "stripper".

You can not touch the bare trunk with your hands. From touch, the tree gets burns, after which ulcers form on it, and it begins to hurt. The photo shows the consequences of such curiosity - a strawberry trunk mutilated by diseases.

Description

Although small-fruited strawberries are classified as Heathers, which are mostly shrubs, semi-shrubs and herbs, it looks like a bush only in childhood, when young thin twigs are completely not covered with bark. Mature plants are real multi-stemmed giant trees that can reach a height of 12 meters. They live for several hundred years. The trunks are erect, often curved. At the same time, the diameter of one trunk is relatively small. Instances in which it is about 80 cm are not common. Basically, the trunks are only 20-30 cm or slightly larger in diameter. This can be explained by the slow growth rate of the tree and the small number of specimens left on the ground.

The small-fruited strawberry blooms densely and for a long time, is an excellent honey plant and serves as a decoration of the landscape at this time. In Crimea, flowering occurs in April, and in warm winters or to the south - even earlier, in February - March.

The flowers of red arbutus are small, up to 1-2 cm in size, with five petals, whitish, bisexual (there are male and female organs). Collected in panicle inflorescences. In shape, they slightly resemble lilies of the valley, only without a characteristic delicate smell, but sweetly fragrant.

The leaves are medium in size, from 3 to 11 cm long, up to 4 cm wide, with a dense leathery leaf blade, ovate-oblong in shape, alternate, located on a short petiole. In some leaves, the edge may be pointed. In winter, the leaves do not fall off, but remain on the plant. Small-fruited strawberry is the only native evergreen deciduous species of the Crimean Peninsula. The rare large-fruited and hybrid strawberries that are also found in our country are planted by man.

In mid-late summer, when the temperature reaches its annual maximum, the red strawberry tree partially sheds old leaves, which are replaced by new young leaves. In this way, the tree is protected from the exhausting summer heat: the less moisture evaporates from the surface, the less it suffers from drought. At the same time, the old red bark exfoliates, exposing a thin greenish bark that contains chlorophyll. The green bark at this time performs the function of fallen leaves - it participates in photosynthesis.

Fruit-berries "shameless" forms in June. Round, covered with small tubercles, the size of a cherry (up to 15 mm), from a distance they look a bit like strawberries. Contains many small seeds. Juicy when mature. Their color is red or orange, the taste is astringent. The flesh is yellow-orange. The fruits ripen in autumn, then they become dark red. Although the berries of red strawberries are edible, they do not stand out with a special taste, therefore they are popular only among birds, which, after eating, contribute to the dispersal of seeds. Despite the large number of seeds, almost no new plants grow. The reason may be poor seed germination or the death of young seedlings, for example, from drought or low temperatures.

cultivation

Small-fruited strawberry is a very spectacular plant, one of the most beautiful types of Arbutus. During its life, its trunks bizarrely bend and twist. Absolutely smooth, coral-colored for most of the year, they soar up like hands, supporting an openwork crown of leathery green leaves. In spring, the trees are covered with numerous white and fragrant flowers. In autumn, the branches are decorated with red "strawberries" (fruits).

Such a beautiful plant has long attracted attention, and from the beginning of the 18th century it began to be cultivated. In the Crimea, small-fruited strawberries were introduced into cultivation in 1813, almost immediately after the foundation, by order of Alexander I, of the "Imperial Tauride State Botanical Garden" on the southern coast of Crimea (now the Nikitsky Botanical Garden).

In arid regions, small-fruited strawberries are planted in gardens and parks to decorate the landscape. It tolerates drought and high temperatures well, therefore it is considered promising here for greening cities and restoring forests.
In the northern latitudes, the red strawberry tree is grown in winter gardens in tub culture.

cultivation

Small-fruited strawberry is a slow-growing and photophilous tree. It can also grow in partial shade. Suitable for growing from hardiness zones 7 to 10, while zone 7 is recommended very carefully. Trees can hardly withstand a short-term drop in temperature to -10 -15 degrees. Their annual shoots freeze, the inflorescences and leaves of adult trees die. In the open field, when there is a threat of frost, young seedlings are covered for the winter and also protected from strong winds.

Small-fruited strawberry prefers sandy and loamy soils with a neutral or acidic reaction, well-drained, rich in nutrients, moderately moist. Tolerates moderate pruning.

reproduction

Small-fruited strawberry breeds more often by seeds.

Freshly harvested seeds are soaked for 5 days in warm water, sown to a depth of no more than 0.8 cm. The readiness of the seed for sowing can be determined by the cracked shell. Helps to increase seed germination stratification at 0 degrees in rotted pine needles for 1.5-2 months.

Slightly grown seedlings are seated in separate pots. During the year they are kept in the same conditions as the crops, but always with good ventilation. Hardened seedlings are planted in open ground after positive temperatures are established in spring. Plants are planted at a distance of at least 3 meters.

Cuttings are less successful. It is carried out in the usual way. Green cuttings are harvested in early spring, and semi-woody (cuttings with bark) are cut from annual shoots in late autumn.

It is also possible to propagate by layering. Young shoots are bent to the ground, pinned at one point, sprinkled with soil. The open top of the shoot is directed vertically upwards. Rooting takes about two years.

Despite the unpretentiousness of small-fruited strawberries, it breeds difficult. Therefore, for planting, it is preferable to purchase ready-made seedlings with a closed root system. You can find them in foreign nurseries. According to reviews, hybrid strawberries can be sold under the name Arbutus andrachne.

The difficulty in breeding red strawberries arises from certain soil fungi that live under the tree and form mycorrhiza with it. Strawberry roots do not have root hairs, and vultures of fungi, attaching to them, supply the roots with the necessary nutrients in an accessible form. Such a symbiosis is characteristic of all Vereskovs, to which the small-fruited strawberry belongs. Therefore, when growing from seeds, it is recommended to take the soil under the trees, next to which the "shameless" grows in nature, or under the strawberry itself. It is important that, during seed germination, the vultures of the fungus penetrate into the root of the sprout and thereby provide it with nutrition later on.

A long tap root can also be a reason for poor establishment when transplanting young plants. After all, it is very difficult to dig a seedling out of the rocky soil of a mountainous area without damaging the root system.

Properties

Nature has endowed the small-fruited strawberry with a unique wood that is little susceptible to decay. Exclusive handmade products were made from it, for example, caskets, furniture and other household items. Due to the curvature of the trunks, they were not used in construction.

The leaves and bark of the red strawberry tree contain a high percentage of tannins, so they were once used in the leather industry.

Small-fruited strawberries can grow next to their "brother" large-fruited strawberry . As a result, hybrids appeared, endowed with the features of each of them.

On the southern coast of the Crimean peninsula, in the most inaccessible places and rocky tracts, the remains of forests of an amazing plant with a very tasty name - strawberry tree, or, to be precise, small-fruited strawberry, have been preserved.

But, unfortunately, this unique relic plant of the preglacial period, belonging to the heather family, is an endangered species in the Crimea, which, by the way, is the northernmost boundary of its habitat. Now in the wild there are only single trees or small sparse thickets. The largest habitat of the strawberry is located on the protected Cape Martyan.

Strawberry is a very beautiful evergreen deciduous honey plant with intricately curved branches. It has leathery leaves, and blooms with flowers resembling lily of the valley in appearance.

The wrinkled red fruits of the small-fruited strawberry are a bit reminiscent of strawberries. Hence the name of the tree. Another name - shameless - the tree received for the fact that its aging bark turns red by the middle of summer, cracks and exfoliates, exposing the young pistachio-green bark. And so it is repeated year after year.

Strawberry fruits ripen in autumn and have a rather pleasant taste. But they are of nutritional value in their natural form only for birds.

The strawberry tree is an exotic, which not everyone was lucky enough to see, because this plant is very picky about temperature conditions and has a limited natural habitat. A very decorative and unusual strawberry tree in our latitudes will become a real decoration of a winter garden or a home greenhouse. How to properly plant a strawberry tree and care for it will be discussed further.

Arbutus tree: biological features and habitat

Arbutus, strawberry tree or strawberry is an evergreen plant from the Heather family, which is a stunted tree or low shrub.

Strawberry usually reaches a height of 3-5 meters, which may take up to 50 years, but some species grow up to 12 meters. The trunk of the arbutus is covered with a smooth orange, reddish or brown bark, in some species (small-fruited strawberry) it changes annually, while the plant makes a rustling sound. The branches of the tree are curved, the leaves are dark green, wide, entire, up to 8 cm long. The plant blooms in May with white or yellowish jug-shaped flowers collected in panicles.

Strawberry fruits are rounded drupes no more than 3 cm in diameter, covered with small growths. Inside the berries is a powdery sweet-sour pulp with a large number of small seeds. The fruits in appearance and smell resemble strawberries, they taste like an exotic fruit, they have a characteristic bitterness due to the presence of tannin.

In the wild, the plant is found in America, Mexico, the Mediterranean, Western Europe, Tyrol, where it grows on hills and rocky slopes, and in culture, the strawberry tree can be seen on European streets and parks.

There are 11 plant species in total. Usually, in the general description of the strawberry tree and the description in the scientific literature, large-fruited arbutus is meant.

Did you know? The coat of arms of Madrid looks like a shield crowned with a golden crown with an azure border, inside of which a bear and a strawberry tree are depicted. The emblem acquired its modern look in 1997. In the center of Madrid, on the Puerta del Sol, there is a monument to a bear eating fruits from a strawberry tree.

Where can you grow a strawberry tree in open ground conditions: strawberry frost resistance

Strawberry tree is a heat-loving plant with medium frost resistance., which feels good in summer at an air temperature of 25-30 ° C, and in winter it does not tolerate temperatures below -12 ° C. Short-term frosts down to -15°С are acceptable. At low temperatures, young shoots freeze slightly in plants, inflorescences and leaves of adult trees die.

Considering such features of the strawberry tree, cultivation of crops in open ground is recommended for regions of frost resistance zones 8-10. Kyiv, Minsk, the Baltic countries, northeastern Poland, Moscow, St. Petersburg are areas of the 5th frost resistance zone. Therefore, in this band strawberry tree is recommended to be grown in winter gardens, greenhouses, on open terraces and at home in a pot culture. It is also possible that the plant hibernates indoors, and in summer it is placed on the street.

Did you know? The large-fruited strawberry was one of the species described in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus in his Species plantarum (Plant Species).

Seeds are much more often on sale, it is difficult to get seedlings. But if you still succeed, get a seedling in a pot, with a closed root system. It may already be fruitful.

Planting site selection: soil and lighting

Any soil is suitable for strawberries. It will grow equally well on loamy and fertile, acidic and alkaline, loose and dense soils, but acidic soil is still preferable. The plant is resistant to drought, loves well-lit areas.

Planting strawberry seedlings

Plants are moved to a permanent place when 6-8 full-fledged leaves appear, they are planted at a distance of three meters.

The root system of the strawberry is very fragile, the sprouts must be transplanted carefully so as not to damage the earthen ball.

They should create conditions similar to natural conditions, for example, mulch with needles and pebbles. This will help maintain moisture and the desired acidity of the soil.

Did you know? « The Strawberry Garden is another name for the Garden of Earthly Delights triptych by the early Netherlandish artist Hieronymus Bosch.

The room in which strawberries are kept (winter garden, greenhouse or house) must be periodically ventilated.

Watering

Strawberries are watered with soft, settled water., it should be regular, especially during the growing season and fruiting. Over-watering can lead to root rot and dark spots on the leaves.

top dressing

In spring or summer, the strawberry tree is fed with organic and mineral fertilizers., in autumn and winter, this should be done only if the plant is in a warm room, at temperatures below 12 degrees, top dressing is not performed. During the growth period, strawberries are fed twice a month with compost or fertilizers intended for heather. For older plants, granular potash or nitrogen fertilizers are more suitable, which are applied to the soil every 3-4 months. At the end of winter, manure can be added to the soil.

Important! If the strawberry sheds leaves, it does not have enough moisture. Water the plant well and monitor the humidity of the air. Might need spraying.

crown pruning

Since strawberries grow very slowly, pruning is done if necessary. In order to form a crown in spring, branches are cut that interfere with the appearance of the tree. Sanitary pruning is also carried out (removal of dry and damaged branches).

Wintering

Did you know? For the amazing ability of the strawberry to drop the bark among the people, he was nicknamed the "resort" or "shameless".

Possible diseases and pests of strawberries

Diseases characteristic of strawberries - these are root rot, phytophthora, rust, anthracnose, which can be avoided if the plant is provided with the right conditions. In case of infection, appropriate drugs are used.

Strawberry tree can be attacked spider mite. This pest does not tolerate high humidity - spraying and abundant watering.

To combat it, a soapy solution is sprayed onto the plants, after which they wipe the surface of the leaves.

Important! Indoors, strawberries may not bear fruit due to lack of pollination. You can try to transfer pollen from flower to flower with a brush.

The benefits and uses of strawberry berries

The fruits of the strawberry tree are consumed both fresh and processed. From berries make jam, jam, jelly, candied fruit.

Based on the fruits, alcoholic drinks are produced, for example, the Portuguese brandy "medronho".

For long-term storage, fruits can be dried or frozen. Dried berries in an airtight container at room temperature can be stored for 1-2 years.

In addition to berries, other parts of strawberries that have useful properties have also been used. In folk medicine, decoctions and tinctures from flowers are used to treat diseases of the throat and mouth, from leaves - for diseases of the digestive system, a decoction of the bark or roots is used externally for dermatological diseases, wounds and burns. Leaves, roots and flowers have antiseptic, astringent and diuretic effects.

Strawberry is a honey plant, honey from it is obtained with bitterness.

Important! Only mature fruits are suitable for food purposes. Unripe ones are not only tasteless, but can also cause food poisoning.

Strawberry breeding methods

For a strawberry tree, such propagation methods as seed and vegetative (cutting) are acceptable.

Seminal

For growing a strawberry tree from seeds, purchased seed or seeds of fully ripened fruits harvested in the fall are used.

With this method of propagation, the seeds must first go through a 2-month stratification process.
To do this, they must be placed in a mixture of sand and peat in a ratio of 3: 7 or in rotted pine needles and kept at a low, but not negative temperature. Seeds ready for sowing have a cracked shell. Next, the seeds are soaked for a week in warm water. Sowing is done to a depth of 1.5 cm in a container with well-drained strawberry soil or palm soil, which is then placed in a shaded, warm place.