All gardeners believe that processing strawberries after harvesting a seasonal crop is a very responsible business. But not everyone will be able to tell with confidence how to properly prune a plant and how to care for strawberries after completing this procedure. What does the autumn processing of the plant include? Find out more about this in the article below.
When to cut
To begin with, after completing the harvest, you need to assess the general condition of the strawberry bushes. At the same time, such indicators are taken into account – how much the plants have grown during the fruiting period, how many damaged and dry leaves they have, whether signs of disease are noticeable, and so on. It is also necessary to make an analysis of the strawberry yield of this season. From all of the above information will depend on how correctly you can do the process of trimming the leaves. You still need to decide whether to leave the berry plant in the old place, or it would be better to make it in another place. Pruning strawberries should be carried out in late August – early September.
All manipulations should be carried out carefully, because otherwise you can harm the upper leaves, on which buds will appear in the future. After pruning, the plant must be treated with special preparations to prevent the development of the fungus. In order to activate good leaf growth, strawberries are recommended to be cut very short. Carrying out this procedure in the fall will get rid of bad leaves and leave only viable ones to develop further.
It will also be right to rid the strawberries of the mustache in the fall. They develop from buds located in the lower part of the bush, and with the onset of autumn they stop growing and developing. If you do not trim them, the mustache will thicken the rows. You need to remove them when you cut the leaves. It is imperative to remove blackened and dried mustaches – for this, they, together with strawberry leaves, must be removed from the site or burned. After pruning, the plant should be treated with a Bordeaux mixture or special insecticides.
How to
To properly trim strawberries, you should not try many different ways. It is enough to follow the recommendations of experienced gardeners who have already tested different methods and found the best one for themselves and others. Use this method to remove the old leaves of the plant – first you need to cut them off, and lower the roots into the water about an hour before transplanting into the ground. It is considered correct to lower the plant into the ground so that the leaves are almost completely covered. If you decide to cut the leaves, choose a day without rain and bright sun.
Some gardeners and gardeners think that it is not necessary to prune strawberries in the fall, since strawberry leaves are a photosynthesis conductor that helps the young bush grow and develop. And if this source of air is blocked, then the plant will not be able to survive the winter cold with honor. And also, that pruning is not able to help in effective pest control, since they can easily move from plants to the ground, and from there they will be able to move to new young bushes next season.
But if you pay attention to strawberries, you can see that if the pruning procedure is not completed, after a few months spots and other undesirable phenomena will appear on its leaves that can cause much more harm to the plant. It is better to clean the tendrils of the plant in the summer, after which they will quickly be able to grow new greenery and get used to any land. When you transplant a sick bush, it is recommended to pre-treat the soil with potassium permanganate diluted in water and sprinkle with ashes made from various types of trees. It is processed in the same way after the trimming procedure.
Many gardeners are arguing about the best time to prune leaves after July 20th. But this is not important, the main thing is that a young strong bush went to winter. It is most convenient to do all the manipulations in the morning or in the evening. For work, you should use scissors, pruners or other special garden tools. If everything is done correctly, then you will not harm a still living bush. It is only necessary to remove the leaf plates so that the bush itself, after the end of the procedure, can be seen on the surface of the earth by about 10 cm. If you do everything right, then next season you can count on the appearance of a beautiful bush from which you can harvest a good harvest.
Care after
And now, when the process of trimming leaves and whiskers is already completed, it is time to leave after processing strawberries. First you need to loosen the ground, after which it should be regularly watered and sprayed. It is best to increase the mass of leaves in the spring.
To prevent the appearance of diseases and pests, strawberries must be treated with potassium permanganate water after pruning and sprinkled with ash.
But if after the end of the season you found weevils on the plants, then only treatment with the purchased Intavir agent will help. To promote growth and the formation of new buds, it is good to apply various types of fertilizers. You can use store-bought universal fertilizers at the rate of 10 grams of the drug per 10 liters of water. Fertilizing strawberries with ammonium nitrate in tandem with nitrogen compounds has proven itself well.
Many gardeners have adapted to caring for the plant at the end of the season with a triple fertilizer. After the main pruning, they add nitrogen fertilizers, bring a kurnik in a matchbox into the ground separately for each bush, and then loosen the ground. When they make a second top dressing, organic preparations are used, as well as useful phosphorus and potassium. This procedure must be carried out a couple of weeks after the first. The third top dressing is done in September, it involves the use of infusions of compost or mullein.
Video “Pruning strawberries”
The video contains unique tips for trimming strawberries. Watch the recording and you can easily repeat the whole process yourself.
