How To Properly Care For Strawberries

2024 Author: Bailey Albertson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 12:53

Why you can't weed and cut strawberries in the fall: tips for summer residents

Strawberries are a very capricious garden culture, so special care is needed for them. In order to get a large harvest of large and sweet berries next year, it is necessary to properly prepare the bushes for wintering. Experienced summer residents share tips on what activities should be started right now.

When to trim strawberries correctly

For many years there has been a debate among gardeners: is it necessary to cut strawberries in the fall or not? Some argue that insect larvae and fungal spores may be present on old leaves, so the bushes must be cut off for the winter, leaving only small stems. Others assure: a bush cut in the fall will spend all its energy on building up new greenery next year, which will have a bad effect on its yield.

And lush foliage is the main protection of strawberries from frost and wind. If you leave the bush completely naked, then it may not survive the harsh snowless winter. But even if the strawberries do not freeze, then the harvest next summer will be scarce, and the berries will be small.

Why is it too late to weed

It is undesirable to weed strawberries in the fall. The last weeding should be done at the end of summer. The thing is that strawberry roots lie very high, almost on the surface. By getting rid of weeds, you risk damaging them or pulling them out.

To protect the roots from freezing, after weeding, you need to huddle the beds. Sprinkle fresh earth under each bush, and mulch on top - sawdust, small twigs, tree bark can be used as mulch. This will make it harder for the weeds to grow.

What kind of care is really needed

After the entire crop has been harvested, carefully examine the berry bushes. Remove dried and diseased leaves and stems, leaving healthy ones. You need to work very carefully so as not to damage the root system and not break the core. Do not leave cut foliage in the garden bed and in the aisles; it must be burned.

The mustache must also be trimmed. The strong and healthy can be used to grow new shrubs, and the stunted scions can be composted.

But most of all, strawberries love organic fertilizers: manure, chicken droppings, humus. In order to make feeding from mullein or horse manure, they are divided into small pieces and laid out under the bush. With each watering, the fertilizer is soaked and gradually penetrates into the soil. Chicken droppings are usually made immediately in liquid form. Fresh droppings are diluted with water 1:20, insisted for two days and the grooves between the bushes are watered. Liquid consumption: 1 bucket for 7-10 bushes.

The best material for this is spruce branches (coniferous branches). It does not melt, does not stick together and repels rodents. Young bushes are completely covered with spruce branches, and adult bushes can be surrounded with branches only in a circle.