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Such a perennial herbaceous plant, like strawberries, requires special attention and respect. Many gardeners, along with other important questions, are also interested in such – how to properly care for strawberries in the fall, when the harvest is already over and the plant should be carefully prepared for wintering? We will talk about how to cut old strawberry leaves, loosen, water and fertilize the soil in this article.
Trim old leaves
Most gardeners are deeply mistaken when they believe that after harvesting the plant is quite capable of doing without special care. In fact, experts say with all responsibility that caring for strawberries is a very useful thing, which still does not exclude the special preparation of strawberries for winter. Although additional care after the end of the harvest cannot be a full-fledged replacement for the autumn preparation of the plant for wintering, it is rightfully considered its first step. If we talk about the complete care of the plant after the end of the season and in the fall, then it includes such procedures as pest protection and disease prevention, mustache and leaf trimming, weed removal, soil loosening, competent feeding and watering, timely fruit picking.
Strawberries, which bear the second name of garden strawberries, stop producing crops quite early, when more than one summer week passes before the onset of autumn and the arrival of cold weather. In order not to have problems with weeding strawberries in the fall, you should prune old leaves in a timely manner, and also prevent the appearance of unwanted weeds on the soil. Bushes after harvest need to gain enough strength in order to start the season well next year. Indeed, in order to obtain the largest strawberry crop, the roots of the plant must be able to extract enough nutrients from the soil to form large and sweet berries. Therefore, the care of strawberries in July and August is the basis for a good harvest for the next season. While new flower buds begin to form and young shoots grow, the old leaves, which have already fulfilled their important role, begin to slowly die off, resulting in a lot of whiskers. How to properly prune the old leaves of the plant when the harvest is already over?
First you need to remove weeds and mustaches from your site. Using special garden shears, you can quickly and accurately trim all old leaves and at the same time not damage the young leaves that have already begun to appear. It will be more convenient to care for strawberries at the end of the harvest if garden strawberries are grouped in rows in accordance with the same varieties and fruiting periods. While late varieties still continue to produce, early varieties should already be processed – they urgently need pruning before the first young leaves begin to appear. 
With their appearance, the pruning procedure will be fraught with difficulties, since pests and diseases present on old leaves are quite capable of spreading to new ones. If the growing leaves become shriveled, then they managed to become infected with a strawberry mite. In this case, treatment with Kleshchevit, Actellik, Titovit Jet or a conventional solution of colloidal sulfur will help. Between beds with strawberries, all weeds should also be removed, and it is recommended to pour branches, chips or sawdust into the cleared passages.
We loosen the soil
As mentioned above, strawberries are a perennial berry plant. Over time, it tends to build up the air root system and thus bulge out of the soil. Therefore, after picking berries, such care should be carried out, in which the earth should be loosened between the rows, the depth of such grooves should be no more than 10 cm.
In no case should you loosen the soil close to the bushes, so as not to damage the root system of the plant located close enough.
How to do this procedure correctly so that in the fall the strawberries begin to bear fruit with renewed vigor? When loosening the soil, lightly hill the bushes, so that the adventitious roots growing on the horns during this period can be under a layer of earth. 
After carrying out all the care manipulations, the soil will become loose and clean from weeds. Experts advise to do about 6-8 loosenings in rows and row-spacings per season. Due to this, a dense crust will not form on the ground. The easiest way is to loosen the soil with a rake that has short teeth, when it rains, watering and top dressing will be carried out. This should be done after collecting garbage and weeding the beds.
We fertilize
In order to feed the plant, you need to add a complete mineral fertilizer to the soil, which contains useful trace elements. This is done at the rate of 20 grams per square meter. The elements necessary for normal plant growth are in a balanced form in special fertilizers for garden strawberries. Ammofoska has also proven itself, which can also fertilize the soil. It contains nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus, as well as magnesium, calcium and sulfur.
It should be remembered that the use of chlorine-containing fertilizers for strawberries is unacceptable. It is very good to take care of the condition of the soil with the help of humus, because in addition to fertilizer, it also improves the structure of the soil. You can use fertilizer in the form of chicken manure pellets or other types of organic preparations. Many gardeners like the time-tested Agricola complex top dressing. And experienced people often use infusions of herbs fermented in a special way – from the green parts of the tops of any plant, adding nitrogen fertilizers to them. With the help of such top dressing, the acidity of the soil can be neutralized. When all the necessary fertilizers have been applied, you need to plant them in the ground and mulch the bed using peat.
In the fall, many bushes may need to be transplanted. On the whiskers of the rosettes of old plants, new ones appear, which should be moved to the prepared soil. Transplanting berry bushes involves planting 3 – 4 beds, and not all at once, since these new plants will not immediately begin to bear fruit. It is advised to renew strawberry plantings after 3-5 years, and to prepare the materials for them in advance – do not trim the mustache on individual bushes, wait for the first outlet to appear, dig it in order to grow the root system.
Watering
After all the above manipulations, the last of which will be the introduction of dry top dressing, the strawberries should be well watered. Until the end of the season, the soil should be as wet as possible, so it is recommended to water it infrequently, but plentifully. After thorough watering, the earth should be loosened, removing unwanted weeds along the way. 
And also experts advise to trim the growing mustache, because if you leave them, then fruiting next year may become weaker, as the plant bush will use the available resources to lay new buds, from which flowers will appear later. Sufficiently well-moistened soil and overgrown young shoots of strawberries will help the plant to prepare well for the onset of winter and successfully overwinter.
Video “How to care for strawberry bushes after harvesting”
How to properly care for strawberries, when and how to trim strawberries, how to mulch and how to process bushes in the fall – you can learn about all this from the video below.
