Heirloom Tomato Varieties & Reviews | Tomat-Pomidor
Honest reviews of global tomato varieties from a 15-year-old growers community.
📌 Quick Diary Summary: The Kupchikha Strawberry 🍓 What is a Zemklunika? Kupchikha (The Merchant’s Wife) is a famous Russian hybrid between a garden strawberry and a European club strawberry (musk strawberry). It produces long, rectangular, or multi-lobed berries with an incredibly sweet, musky flavor. 💧 The “Pea-Sized” Problem: Kupchikha is extremely sensitive to drought. … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Pests on Fruiting Strawberries 🍓 The Panic: Discovering thrips or weevils when your strawberries are already blooming or fruiting is a nightmare. Heavy chemical pesticides are strictly off-limits right now. 🛑 The “Wait it Out” Camp: Many traditional growers advise against spraying anything during fruiting, especially if kids eat straight from … Read more
📌 Quick Summary: Wood Shavings & Nitrogen Tie-Up 🍓 Why Mulch Strawberries? Mulching suppresses weeds and keeps the berries clean by lifting them off the dirt, preventing rot in wet weather. 🌲 The Nitrogen Myth: Fresh wood shavings or sawdust will pull nitrogen out of the soil as they break down. To prevent this, you … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Growing Strawberries from Seed 🍓 Why from seed? Plants grown from seed are generally much more vigorous, healthier, and completely virus-free compared to plants grown from runners. 📅 Timing: Start indoors in January/February if you have grow lights (12-14 hours a day), or wait until late February/March if you are relying … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Strawberry Clipper Weevil Control 🐛 The Pest: The Strawberry Blossom Weevil (closely related to the North American Strawberry Clipper Weevil) is a tiny black/brown beetle about 3 mm (1/8 inch) long. 🥀 The Damage: If you see small holes in your strawberry leaves or notice unopened flower buds hanging by a … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Pruning Strawberry Leaves After Harvest ✂️ The Debate: Should you cut off all strawberry leaves after the summer harvest? The short answer: you can get great yields whether you do a full prune, a partial prune, or no prune at all. It depends entirely on the health of the plants. 🔴 … Read more