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Strawberries are the favorite summer berry of all children and many adults. Growing strawberries is not difficult at all, the main thing is to regularly water the bushes, monitor the state of their “health”, and, of course, apply fertilizers. Strawberries need to be fertilized several times per season, and autumn is considered the most important top dressing. You can not expect a good harvest next year if you do not prepare the bushes for wintering.
Why do we need top dressing of strawberries in the fall, and what fertilizers should be used so that the berry bears fruit better in the new season – this will be the article.
Why autumn fertilizer is so important for strawberries
Strawberries contain a lot of useful substances and vitamins, it helps to strengthen the immune system and maintains the health of internal organs. Modern varieties of garden strawberries are characterized by high yields, and remontant varieties are completely capable of bearing fruit all summer.
For such a yield, the soil under the berry must be saturated with all the necessary microelements – otherwise, where will all the “usefulness” come from in the fruits? During the summer season, the gardener needs to fertilize his beds at least three times. One of these top dressings occurs in the fall.
After a bountiful summer harvest, strawberries are exhausted and need good nutrition to recover and prepare for a cold winter. It is during this period that the buds are laid for the next season, so the plant must be healthy and strong.
Most often, gardeners fertilize garden strawberries in September, but much here depends on the variety of sweet berries. In any case, it is necessary to start feeding no earlier than the last berries are removed from the bushes.
What fertilizer to use for strawberries in the fall
All gardeners know that fertilizers are divided into mineral, organic and mixed. At each stage of development, plants need different chemical components: nitrogen is needed for green mass, and during the flowering period it is better to use superphosphate and potassium.
If you do not feed strawberries at all and do not apply fertilizers to the soil, good harvests will end very quickly – the natural composition of the soil will be enough for a couple of years at best. Regular top dressing can increase the yield of berries by 20-30%, and remontant varieties without fertilizers will not bear fruit at all.
If strawberries have already yielded their crops in the current season, they need one composition of fertilizers, and when planting new plants in the fall, other top dressings should be chosen.
Organic Fertilizers for Strawberries
Most gardeners prefer to use organic fertilizers in the fall, as strawberries are very fond of such compounds. The soil after the introduction of organic matter becomes loose, allows more air to pass through, retains moisture well. And the garden strawberry itself feels great: organic substances are quickly absorbed by plants, restore the strength of strawberries after the fruiting stage.
You can feed strawberries with any of the existing organic compounds, you just need to use them correctly:
- Cow dung when fresh, it is forbidden to use for feeding bushes, because decomposing, it heats up very much, which can harm the root system and even completely destroy the plants. Therefore, it is customary to prepare slurry by diluting a liter of manure in a bucket of water and insisting this composition in a warm place for several days. As a result, you get a liquid of the consistency of store-bought sour cream, and water the strawberries with it, trying not to pour fertilizer on the roots and leaves.
- Cannot be used fresh bird droppings, as it is a very concentrated fertilizer that can completely burn all plantings. After fruiting and pruning the leaves, strawberries can be fed with an extract or a solution of chicken manure, only fertilizer is poured into the aisle, and not under the bush.
- Leaf humus is one of the most successful fertilizers for strawberries; absolutely all plants love it. The humus collected in the deciduous forest is especially good. This nutrient mixture is poured in a thick layer directly on the strawberry beds, then the humus will also play the role of mulch and save the strawberry leaves from the cold in the winter.
- Compost strawberries can also be fertilized from food waste. It is important to prevent forbidden products and plant residues from the garden (both weeds and cultivated) from getting into the compost. Well-rotted compost is loose enough that it can perform the same task as humus. Bushes are simply covered with compost after pruning, and a handful of this composition is added to each hole during planting of young bushes.
- Wood Ash completely saturates strawberry bushes with phosphorus, so it is successfully used instead of superphosphate and similar mineral fertilizers. In autumn, after pruning the leaves, wood ash is evenly scattered over the area with strawberry bushes. Fertilizer consumption should not exceed 150 grams per square meter of garden.
- Green Fertilizers also proved themselves well – they are increasingly fertilizing the beds by those who do not have access to fresh organic matter (manure or litter). For strawberries, you can use chopped lupine leaves, nettle infusion or green manure planting. Any cut grass can become a fertilizer for garden strawberries, it is simply laid out between the beds and lightly sprinkled with earth.
Mineral top dressing for garden strawberries
Not all gardeners and summer residents have access to fresh organics. The way out for such gardeners is mineral components that can be purchased at any specialized store.
Mineral fertilizers are sold in the form of granules, powders or drops, they are convenient to work with, it is easy to calculate a safe dosage. But you need to be extremely careful, because an excess of mineral supplements is more dangerous than their lack.
Good options for strawberries when planting in the fall and for bushes that have already given up their harvest:
- watering the row spacing with a solution of potassium salt, prepared in a proportion of 20 grams of salt per 10 liters of water.
- The composition of 10 grams of superphosphate diluted in a bucket of water will give the same effect. Just water the strawberries carefully, trying not to get on the leaves and sockets.
- A mixed composition of 2 tablespoons of nitrophoska, 20 grams of potassium salt and a bucket of water is used to water already cut bushes. A liter of this fertilizer is poured under each bush. After a couple of days, the ground under the strawberries needs to be mulched with sawdust, peat, needles or humus.
- In early September, it is recommended to use ready-made fertilizer “Kemira autumn”. It is diluted in water, using 50 grams of the drug per square meter of land.
Preparation for winter
As already mentioned, the choice of fertilizer depends on whether old bushes are fed or top dressing is necessary after planting new plants. So, it is better to feed the fertile plants twice: at the beginning of September and at the end of October.
You can use potassium humate or superphosphate for this. If the strawberries are just planting, then it is advisable to pour a handful of humus, compost or wood ash into each well.
If you cover the beds with mulch immediately after fertilizing, you can not fertilize until next autumn – the protected roots will have enough fertilizer for the whole year.
Since autumn, they have been doing the following:
- continue to water the beds with strawberries throughout September;
- they treat diseased bushes and fight pests – the affected strawberries will definitely not survive the winter;
- cut the leaves with a sharp pruner or scissors, trying not to cut the stems and rosettes, and also remove all the whiskers;
- loosen the ground between rows and spud strawberry bushes;
- cover the beds with covering material or dry foliage, spruce branches, sawdust.
An integrated approach will help save most of the bushes and provide a good harvest of berries next year. It is necessary to fertilize strawberries in the fall, because the number of flowers and ovaries in the next season, as well as the taste and size of the berries, depend on this.
