Strawberry variety Mice Schindler
Mice Schindler is an old, non-repairable variety of garden strawberries (strawberries) of late ripening. Bred in Germany back in 1933 by crossing the varieties of Lucida Perfect and Johann Moller. The new plant was officially named Frau Mieze Schindller, the second word is translated as "kitty", which is why this strawberry is sometimes called Kitty Schindler, or more affectionately - Schindler's kitty. Sometimes the name of Miese Schindler is also found. Among the people, the variety was christened by a different name - just "raspberry", sometimes it is also called "strawberry-raspberry". Despite her decent age, our heroine is still very popular among gardeners. Its main advantage is the unique wonderful taste of berries, thanks to which it received the popular nickname "raspberry", and sometimes just "raspberry strawberry". In many other characteristics, an old German woman is now already very much inferior to modern varieties, therefore she lives only in personal household plots as a valuable specimen, possessing taste qualities unattainable for other varieties.
The plant is undersized, slightly leafy, compact and stocky. Abundant formation, even too much. Leaves are small, dense and smooth, on short petioles, growing obliquely. A characteristic feature of Miese Schindler is that the leaf plate is dark green on the upper side and silvery on the lower side. Strawberries form unisexual female flowers without stamens, so another pollinator must be planted next to them. Peduncles are thin, branched, located above the level of leaves, do not tend to fit on the ground under the weight of fruits, except perhaps the largest ones.
The berries of the variety are medium-sized, or rather even small, in comparison with modern large-fruited varieties, Mitse Schindler looks very modest in this regard. Strawberries have a very characteristic rounded shape; when first picked, they can be slightly flattened on the sides. The skin is dark red; when fully ripe, it acquires a strongly pronounced dark cherry hue. Achenes are small, dark red, deeply impressed. The pulp is light raspberry color, very soft and loose, juicy, with a magnificent intense aroma, playing with notes of wild strawberries and grapes. There may be small voids inside the fruit.
Mice Schindler's taste is simply excellent! The berries are very tender, juicy, and melt in your mouth. The taste is very rich and multifaceted, everyone can catch something of their own in it, from the shades of real wild strawberries to the notes of fruits, grapes and nutmeg. The tasting score of berries is 5 points out of 5 possible, but many gardeners would give all 6 or even 10. Due to its unique taste, strawberries are very popular and desirable to this day, despite their shortcomings and long-standing origin. According to many gardeners, this variety can be confidently considered the benchmark in terms of taste. And breeders keep up with popular desires! Quite recently, in 2006, German specialists brought out a “descendant” of our heroine, called Mice Nova. However, this successor to the greatness of his parent has not yet gained great popularity, and at the moment he has collected very opposite reviews. But let's see what happens next, and now we can safely say - no other variety has yet been able to bypass Mitsa Schindler in taste and acquire such popular love for itself.
Strawberries are versatile in use, especially great fresh, wonderful in preserves, jams and any other culinary delights. The berries are not particularly suitable for freezing because of their soft juicy pulp. For the same reason, the fruits are absolutely unsuitable for transportation, they are very tender and wrinkle even if they are not carefully picked.You will not be able to store the berries for a long time either, besides, they can lose their wonderful taste and aroma, so it is better to use the harvest fresh or start up for processing soon. In general, it is worth noting that our heroine is not suitable for growing for commercial purposes, and the reason for this is not only unsuitability for transportation and poor keeping quality.
Mice Schindler's fruits are really medium-sized, the average weight at the first harvest is only about 20-25 grams, then the size decreases greatly, by the end of the season there will be a frank trifle on the bushes. Fruiting in strawberries is quite long, but due to the fact that the berries become smaller, this does not in any way save the situation with productivity. On average, about 40-50 centners of fruit are produced per hectare of area, and this figure is currently considered extremely small. Yes, and gardeners admit that the yield of the variety is not just low, but even very low, but the taste exceeds this drawback with interest. By the way, the amount of the crop can be increased by planting a good pollinator nearby, for example Vicoda, Florence, Corona or Pandora. Of course, there can be no question of growing a variety for commercial purposes, but at a summer cottage for personal consumption, our heroine is very attractive. Still, despite the abundance of varieties on the market, gardeners are always looking for something incredible, especially in terms of taste. And Miese Schindler is an ideal option for those who prioritize taste.
Strawberries are relatively resistant to powdery mildew and gray mold, as well as strawberry mites, prone to spotting, but not critical. In general, gardeners are quite successful in growing this variety without the use of chemicals, but in unfavorable seasons, you may have to resort to them. One of the advantages of our heroine is her ability to adapt to a wide variety of growing conditions. It can grow on almost all types of soil, in different climatic latitudes. The variety is very winter-hardy and frost-hardy, but this does not mean that it does not need shelter, especially in regions with rather low temperatures in winter and frequent severe frosts in spring. But Miese Schindler cannot boast of drought resistance, with a lack of moisture, the already low yield decreases, besides, the taste of the berries may suffer a little, not to mention the size of the fruits.
In agricultural technology, strawberries, in principle, are simple, but they respond to good regular care with an increase in yield. Some call our heroine capricious, others refer her to the "planted and forgotten" group. In this case, it is rather a personal approach to cultivation. Of course, this variety can quite easily live on the site with extremely minimal care, but in this case, one should not pin great hopes on it. It is better to pay enough attention to the plants, especially since the agricultural technology for this strawberry is absolutely standard - watering, feeding, loosening the soil, weeding weeds, treating diseases and pests.
There is, however, one caveat. Mitse Schindler is characterized by excessive formation of mustaches, therefore, the number of mustaches must be very carefully monitored. Firstly, if they are not removed in time, the already medium-sized berries will become very tiny, which will make you think about changing the variety to a more modern one. Secondly, if you do not ration the number of mustaches, then your bushes will very quickly turn into a solid heap of green mass, and you can not even talk about the yield of this glade. On the other hand, abundant growth can be a plus - there will be no problems with the reproduction of Mice Schindler, and, given the high demand for this strawberry, you can make good money on the sale of seedlings. By the way, do not forget to update your plantation in time.If this is not done, in the end the plants will finally degenerate, they will set very tiny fruits, and they will become much more susceptible to disease.
There is one more important point worth talking about. In general, this is a very rare occurrence when such an old-timer variety is preserved to this day in, so to speak, its original form. According to gardeners, it is quite possible to find seedlings of the very original Mitsa Schindler, but you still have to sweat a little. Thus, be extremely careful when buying strawberry seedlings, purchase only from responsible trusted sources. By the way, often this strawberry "rarity" can be found at private collectors. Yes, and many ordinary gardeners have it, but the plants may not always be healthy, and sometimes they may turn out to be generally the so-called oversorting, so be very careful when buying.
Let's say a few words in conclusion. Miese Schindler is truly a wonderful fruit of the work of German breeders. Many consider it to be a real masterpiece, which has a benchmark taste that is unattainable for a huge variety of other varieties. But, as you probably already thought, everything cannot be so perfect. Indeed, there are those people who do not particularly like the taste of our heroine's berries - too unusual, even, rather, unexpected for strawberries. Well, everyone has different preferences. But still, most gardeners sincerely admire this variety and forgive it for all its shortcomings. In a word, it is clearly worth trying to settle her on your site, and only then you can draw final conclusions based on personal experience.
