Strawberry variety Charlotte
Charlotte is a remontant variety of garden strawberries (strawberries) for dessert use. It was obtained by French breeders in 1995 by crossing the remontant known for its excellent taste Mara de Bois and numbered variety Cal.19. The novelty hit the market in 2004, the originator is the French company CIREF. Our heroine immediately won the hearts of strawberry lovers with her truly dessert taste. The variety is suitable for amateur cultivation for personal consumption and low-volume commercial use, due to the low transportability of the berries and their unsuitability for storage. Gardeners speak very warmly about this Frenchwoman; in the range of remontants, she occupies one of the first places in terms of taste.
The plant is medium-sized, moderately spreading, medium-leafy. The bushes are quite dense and compact at the same time, which allows you to grow Charlotte in a compacted version. The leaves are large, slightly wrinkled, the upper side of the leaf plate is dark green in color. Strawberry formation is poor. Peduncles are located above or at the level of leaves, under the weight of the fruit they are laid on the ground.
Berries are large and medium in size, regular round-conical shape, rather uniform in the total mass. The skin is thin, but firm and firm, deep red color with a glossy sheen of medium intensity. Achenes are not sunken, they are located superficially. The pulp is very aromatic, juicy, has a medium-dense texture - softer than the varieties San andreas and Alba, but denser than the Miracle of the World.
The taste of this strawberry deserves special attention. The berries are juicy, tender and very sweet, with a really bright palette of flavors, reminiscent of real wild strawberries and earthworms. The taste is very multifaceted, in addition, the pulp has a wonderful strawberry aroma with nutmeg notes. Charlotte is characterized by a high sugar content in berries. Thanks to its truly exquisite taste, the variety has won an honorable place in the collection of varieties that gardeners cannot refuse, despite all their shortcomings.
The harvest is most suitable for fresh consumption, you can also process the berries into jam or jam. For freezing, this Frenchwoman is not particularly suitable due to the medium-dense pulp - when defrosting, the fruits will most likely lose their shape. The transportability of strawberries is rather low, and the berries are not very well stored. However, if the crop is harvested at the stage of technical ripeness, then it is able to transfer transportation over short distances, but the whole palette of fruit taste is revealed when they are fully ripe.
The average weight of berries in a season is about 15-20 grams. The variety is not famous for its very large fruits, which also affects the productivity of plants in general. The strawberry yield ranges from 500 grams - 1 kg of berries per bush. Due to its low productivity, Charlotte did not establish itself as a commercial variety, but this was not a reason for gardeners to abandon its use. Moreover, our heroine is suitable for growing in dense plantings, and therefore it is possible to get a larger yield per unit area. It should also be said that this Frenchwoman does not have good resistance to adverse weather events and is quite sensitive to the level of the agricultural background, therefore, plant productivity is unstable in different seasons.
The variety begins to ripen early, but this is highly dependent on the growing region. Fruiting is long, ends with the arrival of frost. Indoors, strawberries bear fruit all year round, as befits a variety of neutral daylight hours. In addition, in indoor and under controlled conditions, plants feel much more comfortable, as this strawberry is very sensitive to the weather, which greatly affects its yield.
The variety does not have good drought tolerance, so it is worth taking care of timely and sufficient watering of the plants. At the same time, the berries tolerate the sun well, do not bake, although shading the plantings will not be superfluous. Strawberries do not tolerate rainy and cold seasons, greatly reduces the yield, the taste of berries can also deteriorate - they can become "sour" due to high humidity, and the sugar content in the pulp can also significantly decrease. In addition, in wet seasons, plants become susceptible to diseases, berries can be affected by gray rot, but these problems can be solved with timely preventive treatments. The frost and winter hardiness of the variety is not bad, although it is still more adapted to the mild continental climate.
Charlotte's immunity to diseases is sufficient and meets European standards. Plants are weakly sensitive to brown and white leaf spots, but still you should not neglect all the necessary preventive measures. Plants will require special attention in seasons with bad weather conditions. In agricultural technology, strawberries are quite simple and unpretentious, but they need a little more careful care than other repairmen. A French woman feels good with a compacted planting, however, the area of plant nutrition should not be reduced too much: an approximate planting pattern is 30 × 30 cm between bushes, 130-150 cm between rows. Strawberries require timely treatment for diseases and feeding. Also, do not forget about shading during the sun and a good shelter for the winter. In general, the variety is not particularly capricious, although it requires attention. The French woman has no special preferences for soils, although on poor and heavy soils, plants will not be able to show good yields.
Summing up, we can say that this variety must necessarily be in the collection of a gardener who appreciates really tasty strawberries with a "twist". Charlotte did not gain huge popularity, but it took its place of honor on the list of varieties with a unique exquisite taste. This Frenchwoman will certainly delight the gardener, despite the relatively low yield and sensitivity to weather conditions. And its reparability will allow you to feast on delicious berries for a long time. In short, our heroine deserves a place in the garden of every strawberry lover.
