How to feed strawberries in the fall: the choice of fertilizers

Timing and feeding scheme

Leaving yourself and your loved ones in the harvest season without fragrant berries is a real crime. Therefore, feeding strawberries should be given due attention, because not all gardeners can boast of having a plot with rich black soil. After the end of the fruiting period, do not forget to cut off old leaves from the bushes. After all, they can cause many diseases. After this procedure, you can feed.

The fertilizer application scheme is carried out in three stages: in the spring, in the summer after the harvest, and in the fall. The main task of autumn top dressing is to prepare plants for winter. It is carried out in two stages. The first autumn top dressing should be carried out in early September, when there are still leaves on the bushes. Pick a dry, sunny day and get to work. You can make Kemira, no more than 50 grams per 1 sq.m. The second must be held in October. At this time, potassium humate can be added. One-year-old plants must be fed without fail, because without fertilizers they will not be able to successfully survive the cold winter. Of course, the wealth of the entire crop directly depends on whether strawberries were fed in the fall or not. But for young plants, it is simply vital, because without it the chances of a successful wintering are reduced. It will be great if you introduce manure (horse or cow) into the bed before the frosts appear. In order not to harm the plants, adhere to the fertilizer application scheme: more than 3 kilograms of manure cannot be applied per square meter.

What to feed

The future harvest depends on what we feed the berries with. Therefore, this matter must be taken seriously.

All fertilizers can be divided into three types:

• organic;
• mineral;
• mixed.

Organic fertilizers for strawberries in the fall are a win-win option: they are suitable for feeding any plants, and berries are no exception. Therefore, you can fertilize the berries with humus, manure, wood ash. Chicken manure will also come in handy, but you must first fill it with water and let it brew. In its pure form, it is dangerous to use litter as a fertilizer, so dilute it in a ratio of 1:10 before feeding. Ash does not need to be dissolved, just pour it under the bushes.

Organic fertilizer for strawberries in the fall is also good because they can serve as a coat that will protect your berries in the cold winter. Therefore, they are especially needed by plants. You can also feed strawberries with mineral complexes, because they contain all the necessary useful elements. Mineral fertilizers can be applied not only in autumn. After the snow cover is gone, you can treat your plants with them again.

Of course, which fertilizers to use is up to you. But in order to enhance their effectiveness, you need to use both mineral and organic for feeding. Remember also one important rule: for the approval of an annual plantation, it is best to use nitrogen compounds.

We prepare fertilizers ourselves

You can prepare a wonderful balanced nutritional mixture yourself with your own hands. The composition of the fertilizer depends on when exactly you feed. If at the beginning of September, then strawberries should be fertilized with a mixture of diluted fermented mullein and wood ash. Expect that for one bucket of mullein you need half a glass of ash.

As for the October feeding, it is enough to dissolve one glass of wood ash in ten liters of water. To this mixture, add another 2 tablespoons of nitrophoska, as well as 30 grams of potash fertilizer. Now water each strawberry bush with fertilizer. After feeding with such a solution, the berries will undoubtedly give a good harvest.

As a basis for fertilizer, you can use products that are not at all suitable for this, as it may seem at first glance. For example, whey and milk. Dairy products are rich in sulfur, calcium, phosphorus, nitrogen. In addition, they not only enrich the plants themselves, but also have a beneficial effect on the soil. Everyone knows that berries feel best on slightly acidic soil, and fermented milk products can make it just that. To prepare fertilizers, you just need to add ash, manure and humus to milk or whey.

Another unexpected homemade fertilizer recipe is bread top dressing. Dried bread must be soaked in water for a week until it begins to ferment. Then it must be diluted with water in a ratio of 1:1.  

Feeding during planting

It is important to pay special attention to feeding strawberries when planting. Some believe that after the harvest is harvested, the plants do not need care. But this opinion is wrong.

If you decide to plant strawberries in the fall, then for every square meter of prepared dug up land, you need to add 3 kilograms of humus, 40 grams of superphosphate, and 10 grams of potassium chloride. If you use manure for fertilizer when planting, then carefully make sure that it does not fall on the plants themselves, otherwise there may be burns. After you’ve planted your seedlings, mulch the soil around with straw or compost. In the second year after planting the plants under the bushes, it is necessary to reapply 3-4 kilograms of humus per square meter.

Proper and balanced top dressing at planting is the best guarantee that the plants will endure the winter well and give a rich harvest.

Video “Strawberry Fertilizer”

On this recording, the expert talks about how to fertilize strawberries correctly and with what.