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All gardeners are divided into those who manage to grow garden strawberries, and those who have not yet been very successful in this difficult task. Often it depends on experience, but not always. Even beginners will be able to get a good harvest of sweet and large strawberries if they wish, if they follow all the tips and recommendations that experienced gardeners can provide them with. Of course, choosing the right variety is often of paramount importance, especially for our difficult climatic conditions, but caring for strawberries is also very important. It is not for nothing that this berry is called the queen, because only if you cater to all its whims and requirements, you can fully enjoy the delicious taste and aroma of its berries. This article will help you decide on all the answers to the question: “How to properly care for strawberries?”
Planting strawberries
It’s good if you already have a legacy strawberry plantation, and if not, you will have to start from the very beginning, that is, from planting strawberry bushes.
A place for future beds is chosen sunny, on level ground, preferably protected from strong winds and with groundwater not higher than 70 cm.
The most optimal dates for planting strawberries or garden strawberries are July-August (for the middle lane) and September (for the south of Our Country). You can plant strawberries in the spring (in April), but then in the first year the fruiting will be weak. Moreover, if you follow the advice of experienced gardeners, then during spring planting it is better, in general, not to allow strawberry bushes to bloom in the first season and cut off all their peduncles and mustaches.
When developing a new plantation for planting strawberries, perhaps the most important thing is to carefully select all the smallest weed rhizomes when cultivating the land. Thus, you will greatly facilitate your further care for strawberry bushes in the country in the next 4-5 years.
In addition, it is very important to introduce a sufficient amount of organic matter when laying a strawberry plantation. It is best to apply rotted manure in the amount of 6-7 kg per square meter. The action of manure lasts about 3-4 years, just as long as it makes sense to grow strawberries in one place. In the future, it is desirable to change the place due to the accumulation of diseases and a decrease in the size of the berries.
When choosing high-quality seedlings for your future strawberry, you should focus on the following plant characteristics:
- The root system of the bushes should be voluminous and fibrous;
- The diameter of a suitable root neck starts from 0,6 cm;
- A strawberry bush should have at least 3-5 leaves;
- The roots should be elastic, strong, white, at least 7 cm long.
The day before planting the seedlings, the earth must be thoroughly shed, but so that it is moist, not wet.
Immediately after planting the strawberry bushes, it is advisable to sprinkle the holes with humus and mulch with any organic material: sawdust, straw, mowed grass. This will help prevent soil crusting and conserve moisture around the strawberry bushes.
In the future, caring for strawberries in the first year comes down to regular watering in hot weather and removing peduncles and mustaches when planting in spring.
Spring period
Spring is a very busy time for gardeners, and if you don’t know how to care for your strawberries, it’s best to start by inspecting your garden beds as soon as the snow melts. Most likely, you will find some dry and brown leaves, and maybe even a few bushes could not survive the winter and disappeared without a trace. It will be necessary to wait for sunny and dry weather so that the ground around the bushes dries out a little. And the first care procedure will be cutting, picking up and burning all non-living plant residues. If for the winter you covered your strawberry bushes from frost, then it would be better to remove shelters, including organic ones, so that the earth warms up well.
The root system of garden strawberries develops intensively at low but positive temperatures. During this period, it is significantly ahead of the development of the upper vegetative part. Therefore, at this time it is favorable to transplant some bushes to replace those who died, or plant new ones. This should be done only as soon as possible, choosing in any case cloudy weather. Soon, with the onset of heat, the intensive development of the aerial part of the strawberry will begin, and transplants will need to be stopped.
In the same period, obligatory loosening of the earth around strawberry bushes and row spacing is carried out. This procedure can improve the access of oxygen to the roots and will help preserve soil moisture. At the same time, perennial weeds are removed. If loosening of row spacing can be carried out to a depth of 10 cm, then around the bushes themselves you need to act carefully. It is advisable to add earth to the bare roots of older strawberry bushes. And young rosettes, on the contrary, are often drawn into the soil after winter. They need to be raked a little and release the heart, which is the point of growth.
First treatments and top dressing
After the destruction of plant debris from the beds and loosening, one of the mandatory procedures for caring for strawberries in the open field is the preventive treatment of strawberry bushes from diseases and pests. Traditionally, for the prevention of fungal diseases, copper-containing preparations were used, such as: Bordeaux mixture, Horus, Hom. If you do not want to use chemistry, then you can use a biofungicide solution – Fitosporin.
Experienced gardeners recommend watering strawberry bushes with hot water with potassium permanganate in early spring. The water temperature should be around +50°+60°C, and add potassium permanganate until a light pink color is obtained. Such a hot shower helps to neutralize many pests wintering in the soil, in particular, from strawberry mites.
The first feeding of strawberries in early spring after loosening the earth is usually carried out using nitrogen fertilizers. You can use ammonium nitrate (application rate 35-45 grams per 1 sq. Meter) or mullein solution. It must be soaked in a small amount of water, and then diluted in a ratio of 1:10 and watered strawberry bushes, spending 4-6 liters per 1 sq. meter. For beginners, special liquid or granular complex fertilizers for strawberries with trace elements are very convenient to use.
Before flowering, strawberries need more potash and phosphorus fertilizers. Top dressing of the following composition will be effective: dilute 2 tablespoons of nitroammophoska and 1 teaspoon of potassium sulfate in 10 liters of water. For each strawberry bush, you will need to pour half a liter of solution.
And during flowering, strawberries are well sprinkled with a solution of boric acid. It is prepared simply: 1 gram of boric acid is diluted in one liter of hot water, cooled and all bushes with peduncles are carefully sprayed with the resulting solution. This procedure can increase yield by 20%.
Mulching beds with strawberries
Of course, mulching is not at all a mandatory procedure, but caring for strawberries will not seem so difficult to you if you carefully mulch the beds in early spring after loosening and carrying out all dressings and treatments. A layer of mulch is able to protect the berries from direct contact with the soil, inhibits the growth of weeds and reduces the amount of watering, as it retains moisture in the ground. When watering, mulch prevents water from splashing soil particles on flowers and berries. In addition, the mulch gives the planting of strawberries an aesthetic appearance.
Various materials are used for mulching: sawdust, straw, dry grass, compost, leaf humus, pine needles, tree bark. Inorganic materials are often used: lutrasil and even black film, but only in an annual culture, since it provokes outbreaks of fungal diseases.
It is best if the layer of mulch is about 4-7 cm: weeds can germinate through a smaller one, and a thicker one will delay the heating of the soil by the sun. It is advisable to have time to mulch the ridges before flowering begins.
Summer period
To understand how to care for strawberries in the summer in order to get a full harvest, follow these recommendations:
- Water the bushes at least once a week. If the weather is dry and hot, more frequent watering may be required. Remember that only before flowering, strawberry bushes can be watered from above using a sprinkler. After setting the berries, watering should be carried out strictly under the root.
- During the ripening period, watering should be reduced to a minimum, and resumed only after the strawberries bear fruit.
- Constantly remove weeds, as well as damaged leaves, flowers and berries from strawberry bushes.
- Collect ripening berries along with the stalks regularly.
- Place mulch on exposed ground next to bushes so that the berries do not come into contact with the soil.
- If there are heavy heavy rains, it is advisable to cover the bed with strawberries with a film to avoid the development of diseases due to waterlogging.
What needs to be done so that the crop grows every year
Caring for strawberries is not only about watering and fertilizing. It is equally important during the fruiting period to select the most prolific bushes. The best bushes are not those on which the largest strawberries ripen, and the rest are pea-shaped trifles, but those that give a lot of more or less even-sized berries. They need to be specially marked somehow, and it is from them, after the formation of the mustache, to choose planting material for reproduction. Moreover, you should choose only the first few outlets from the first, maximum from the second mustache of selected bushes.
All other mustaches, starting from the third and the rosettes that form on them, should be mercilessly removed – they only take away the strength of the mother bush and do not allow flower buds to be planted for the next year after fruiting.
In addition, there are so-called varieties of weed strawberries. Bushes of these varieties either do not bloom at all, or form small, ugly berries, even with the best care.
They only take away nutrients from good bushes. This is also important because such bushes usually form a large number of mustaches that act like weeds.
Period after fruiting
Garden strawberries bloom and bear fruit one of the first in garden plots. But after all, very little time passes after the snow melts until the first berries ripen – where does the strawberry draw strength to form tasty and sweet berries? And next year’s harvest begins to be laid from mid-summer to autumn of the current year. That is why caring for strawberries after fruiting is almost the most important throughout the season.
Pruning strawberry leaves
After the end of fruiting, many gardeners cut off all the leaves on the strawberry bushes along with the mustache. Others believe that this procedure weakens the plants. It seems that here it is necessary to adhere to the golden mean – if among the leaves there are many affected by various spots, then it would be better to cut them all off. If the leaves are healthy and strong, then they can be left for this season. In any case, be sure to cut out all but the first two whiskers if you are interested in breeding this variety. If it was decided to mow everything, then the foliage is cut at a height of about 6-8 cm above the ground so as not to damage the heart of the rosettes, from which new leaves will develop later.
Immediately after pruning, planting strawberries must be fed. To do this, use a complex mineral fertilizer with trace elements. You can use 20-30 grams per square meter.
In the same period, it is necessary to carry out another loosening of the row-spacings with a slight hilling of the bushes.
Approximately all the same is done in the fall, when the strawberries are preparing for winter dormancy.
This video shows in detail and clearly pruning strawberries:
Differences in the care of ordinary and remontant varieties
There are some differences in how to care for remontant strawberries throughout the season and after fruiting. After all, as you know, remontant strawberry bushes are able to form two or even three crops per season.
- Therefore, watering and fertilizing should be more regular. Watering is best arranged by drip – this will save a lot of time and effort.
- Pruning of dry and diseased leaves on the bushes must also be carried out regularly throughout the season.
- Mulching should be a necessary procedure as it allows you to keep warm during the cooler seasons.
- Landings need to be updated more often, or every year, or every two to three years.
- Planting remontant strawberries usually require shelter for the winter, because due to fruiting until frost, the bushes do not have time to prepare for the cold.
To summarize
By following all the above tips throughout the year, even a novice amateur gardener will be able to get a good harvest of delicious and sweet strawberries.
