Pandora's strawberry garden is appreciated by domestic gardeners not for its high yield or large berries, but for late vegetation periods, thanks to which you can get a good crop at a time when other varieties ceased to bear fruit. What are the features of the described culture and what agricultural practices are used in its cultivation - further in the article.

Breeding History and Breeding Region

Strawberry Pandora, or Moling Pandora, is a late-ripening fruit, non-remontant culture that was created by British breeders by crossing local varieties of garden strawberries Fragaria and Ananassa. From its genetic basis, the plant received good frost resistance, large-fruited, high yields.

Strawberries Pandora in the world is known as Fragaria ananassa Pandora. Due to resistance to frost and late fruiting, it is excellent for growing in almost all regions of the state, including the Moscow Region, the Urals and the Volga region.

Grade characteristics

The Pandora variety has been in great demand among gardeners for decades. This popularity is due to the excellent characteristics of the variety.

Appearance of Pandora Strawberry

Strawberries have medium-sized bushes, the height of which rarely exceeds 20 cm. The foliage of the plant is quite high, which allows it to be protected from overheating on hot days. The leaves are medium sized, light green in color, with a characteristic shiny surface and slight wrinkling. A mustache on the culture forms a small amount.

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During the flowering period, which falls in the month of June, a fairly large number of thin peduncles located below the leaves form on the bushes. The fruits of Pandora are large, weighing 40-60 g, of a regular oval-shaped berry, saturated dark red, right down to the burgundy color. Strawberries are characterized by a pleasant, very sweet taste, juicy texture and the presence of a delicate, delicate aroma of wild strawberries.

The pulp of berries is quite dense, which allows you to transport strawberries over long distances, without fear for its presentation

Productivity

Pandora is one of the varieties of garden strawberries that bears fruit only once per season. However, crop yields are quite high. During the summer period, gardeners collect 400-500 g of berries from one bush of medium size.

Pollinators

One of the minuses of the described variety is its self-fertility . To obtain worthy crops, the plant during its flowering requires pollinators, the flowering period of which coincides with Pandora.

Important! Choosing the right pollinator plants for Pandora is quite difficult, given its late maturity. As a pollen donor, experts recommend using the Vicoda variety.

Advantages and disadvantages

• Gardeners involved in the cultivation of wild strawberries Pandora, note a number of its key advantages:
• late fruiting, which makes it possible to get berries two weeks later than other varieties;
• high taste and marketability of the fruit;
• excellent crop productivity;
• large-fruited;
• good keeping and transportability of berries;
• high resistance to frost;
• good immunity to powdery mildew.

• Pandora's strawberry is not without some drawbacks, among which are:
• self-infertility, the need for pollinators;
• low immunity to gray rot and brown spotting;
• poor drought tolerance;
• the need for mandatory mulching of beds, since peduncles fall to the soil under the weight of the fruit, which can provoke rotting of berries.

Features of cultivation and care

The strawberry yield will largely depend on the quality of planting material, as well as further care for it. Despite the fact that caring for a plant involves the implementation of basic agricultural practices, experts advise that watering and dressing of the culture be carried out at certain times of its growing season.

Did you know? Strawberries are one of the few berries in the world to which the seed is located outside, not inside. Moreover, each berry of medium size has about two hundred seeds.

Choosing a place and planting material

Pandora hybrid prefers to grow in well-lit, sunny places, reliably protected from drafts and cold winds that have a negative impact on the condition of the bushes. When choosing a site, attention should be paid to the depth of groundwater . It should be at least 1–1.5 m, otherwise the root system of the culture may rot due to excess moisture. The best is to plant strawberries on a small hill in the southwestern side of the site.

When growing crops, many summer residents practice the seedling method. Planting material is recommended to be purchased in specialized markets or nurseries, which guarantee the variety of plants. When choosing seedlings, you need to pay attention to some important aspects:

• the root system of the culture should be completely healthy, with strong and elastic root roots, without signs of dryness, rot, symptoms of diseases or parasites;
• the trunk and the lower part of the seedlings should not have visible damage, rot, mold;
• it is better to give preference to medium-sized seedlings, since a too thick stem is evidence of the "old age" of the seedling.

Strawberry seedling bushes can be planted in early spring, when the soil warms up well and the risks of return frosts disappear, or in early autumn. In the presence of a closed root system, landing operations are allowed in the summer.

Landing

The technology for planting strawberries of the described variety is similar to the planting of other varieties. Before carrying out the work, first of all, it is necessary to prepare the site: dig the ground, feed it with organic or mineral fertilizers . Immediately before planting seedlings in open soil, it is recommended to stand it for about 25-30 minutes in a weak solution of potassium permanganate, which will destroy possible microbes and bacteria, as well as increase the immunity of the plant.

Important! When planting strawberry bushes, you can not thicken the planting, otherwise the risk of damaging the plant with gray rot increases.

The planting scheme of seedlings is simple and boils down to the following actions:

• holes are made in the soil, at the bottom of which a small mound is formed;
• a sapling is put up on an earthen hill, the roots are gently straightened;
• Sprinkle seedlings with soil so that the growth point remains above the surface;
• the soil around the seedlings is a little tamped, moistened with standing, cold water.

During planting, an interval of 30–40 cm should be maintained between the bushes, and about 50 cm between the rows.

Watering and feeding

To obtain a quality crop, gardeners need to know the basic rules of watering and top-dressing a crop. Pandora prefers moderate hydration, which should be done once a week. It is recommended to increase the number of waterings during the flowering period of the plant and the formation of fruits.

Read more about how to water strawberries frequently and correctly.

The root system of strawberries is located almost under the top, so when watering with a watering can or hose, you should be extremely careful and pour water under the bushes slowly and carefully . The best option is the organization of drip irrigation in the garden, with the help of which the moistening of the bushes will be uniform and timely.

All irrigation measures should be carried out in the morning or evening, since in the daytime moisture quickly evaporates from the soil and overdries it.

Important! Before irrigation, the soil should be well loosened, after wetting - mulch with organic materials: peat, hay, straw, etc.

Garden strawberries feel great on light, nutritious, breathable soils that contain sand in small amounts. A good plant grows on loam with an acidity of not more than 7. Regular top dressing will help accelerate the growth and development of the plant, which are used as organic matter and minerals. In early spring, experts recommend nourishing the bushes with organic fertilizers, for example, humus or bird droppings .

During flowering and the formation of ovaries, foliar top dressing with the use of iron-enriched preparations can be used. The plant responds well to minerals in which phosphorus, potassium and magnesium are present. After collecting the berries, it is advised to add mineral complexes that will strengthen the plant's immunity before wintering and will contribute to the formation of new buds and root roots.

Winter preparations

Despite the fact that Pandora has good resistance to frost, when growing crops in the northern latitudes, experienced gardeners recommend taking cover of bushes before wintering. Measures to warm the plant should begin in the fall.

We advise you to read how to protect strawberries from frost.

For this:

• in autumn, the soil on a strawberry bed is loosened to a depth of 5 cm;
• the soil is abundantly watered, and then mulched with a layer of peat or hay;
• in November, approximately two to three weeks before the expected frosts, the landing was covered with spruce branches.

When cultivating strawberries in regions with a warm climate, in which the temperature in winter does not exceed -30 ° C, there is no need to work on sheltering the beds

Pest and Disease Control

As noted above, the Pandora variety has excellent immunity to powdery mildew, but it is poorly protected from other diseases. In particular, with high humidity and poorly maintained crops can be affected:

1. Gray rot, which is expressed in the formation on the berries of a gray fluffy coating. To combat a fungal disease, first of all, the affected fruits are completely destroyed. In order to prevent, the bushes of the plant during flowering are treated with a solution of copper sulfate.
   

2. Leaf spot, which is easy to recognize by the formation of characteristic spots of brown or white color on the foliage. This ailment inhibits the full development of strawberries, and the berries become smaller and lose their taste. In the fight against the disease, a soap solution is used, which is sprayed with bushes, or fungicidal preparations, for example, “Topaz” or “Bayleton”.
   

Most often, Pandora becomes a “victim” of invasions:

• spider mite - black dots appear on the foliage, as a result of which the foliage becomes dry and falls off;
  

• aphids - the pest eats the sap of the plant, which leads to the drying of foliage and flowers.
  

High insecticidal drugs, for example, Actellik, Aktara, Inta-Vir, have high effectiveness in pest control. Handling insects also helps control bushes of karbofos.

Simple preventative measures will help significantly reduce the likelihood of parasites or the development of ailments:

• regular loosening of the soil and weeding of weeds;
• soil moisture control;
• timely destruction of vegetation residues in the garden;
• preventive spraying of strawberry plantings with copper sulfate solution or Bordeaux liquid.

Did you know? Strawberries contain more ascorbic acid than any of the citrus fruits. At the same time, 100 g of berries provide 98% of the daily dose of vitamin C necessary for a person.

Harvesting and storage of crops, transportability

Pandora belongs to the category of late-ripening plants, in which the berries are ready for harvest in July. During the harvest, the berries are picked together with “tails”, placed in wooden or plastic containers, in one layer. Work is recommended to be carried out in dry weather.

Garden strawberries have a solid structure, so it is very easy to transport, in which it does not lose its presentation, does not let juice and does not deform . Strawberries are not stored for long, in the refrigerator - for 7-10 days. For safety, you should select dense, ripe, without signs of rot and damage, berries. The remaining fruits are recommended to be used immediately for fresh consumption, cooking various dishes or preservation.

Strawberries Pandora bribes domestic gardeners, first of all, with late ripening, which makes it possible to enjoy tasty and fragrant berries in the middle of the summer season, when other varieties of the crop cease to bear fruit. The culture is quite simple and not capricious in care, however, for a stable crop requires good moisture, regular feeding and the presence of pollinators in the neighborhood.