Strawberries: Plantation Care After Harvest

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

It is a huge mistake for novice gardeners to ignore the needs of strawberries after harvesting from the plantation. During this period, the outlets especially need the attention of the owners so that this perennial crop will continue to produce a good harvest. What measures must be taken after the end of the fruiting period?

Loosening and weeding

One of the main agricultural practices in strawberry care is soil care. Strawberries are demanding for weeding and loosening the beds. During the entire growing season, at least three weeding is carried out:

• twice - until the berries ripen;

• and necessarily - after harvesting strawberries.

It would be shortsighted to believe that after picking berries from the plantation, loosening is no longer necessary, because it is during this period that the plant lays fruit buds, and it needs favorable conditions for this, which will not be found in excessively dense soil. Therefore, it is necessary to loosen the beds and spud the rosettes - this will contribute to the formation of new adventitious roots. By the way, in the autumn months, a more thorough loosening of the plantation will be needed - to a depth of at least 12 cm. Such a measure is necessary for the accumulation of moisture in the ground. After this event, the soil should be mulched. Suitable materials for this will be manure, peat. This way the plants will winter better.

Watering and feeding

Watering strawberry beds is carried out both before flowering and the formation of the ovary, and after harvesting. This measure is especially relevant in dry years. And if during fruiting, watering was carried out with care so that excessive moisture does not lead to the appearance of gray rot, then after the berries are collected from the plantation, water is poured abundantly so that the soil is well saturated.

In the first year, when the soil was fertilized with high quality before planting, you can limit yourself to the introduction of ammonium nitrate - 10 g per 1 square meter. In the second year of a fruiting plantation after harvesting, a complex mineral fertilizer will be required. To do this, use the following dressings:

• at choice - ammonium sulfate 35 g, carbamide 20 g or ammonium nitrate 20 g;

• superphosphate - 30 g;

• potassium salt or potassium sulfate - 20 g.

It is also useful to refuel the plantation with organic matter. To do this, use at least 2 kg of fertilizer per 1 square meter. area of the plot with strawberries. It is introduced in the process of loosening, digging the soil.

When is mowing required

3-4 weeks after harvesting, the leaves are cut off from the rosettes of the 2nd and 3rd years of fruiting. The length of the petioles in the beds is left about 5-7 cm, so as not to accidentally touch the growing point. It is impossible to delay with this event, otherwise the new foliage will not have time to grow before the arrival of the autumn cold, and the strawberries will not stock up on the necessary nutrients for successful wintering.

You should carefully examine the sockets of the 1st year of fruiting, and if traces of significant damage by parasites (diseases, pests) are found on them, they will also need pruning. Such waste must be destroyed without fail. When the cut leaves are quite healthy, they are sent to compost with a clear conscience. After mowing, it is recommended to spray the area against mites.

If straw bedding or other isolation from weeds and damp earth was arranged on the plantation for berries, it must be removed. Weeds could appear in the aisles, which should be disposed of. Creeping shoots of strawberries can also hide here. This mustache must be removed.

Closer to autumn, it is recommended to install protective shields to protect plants from damage and freezing during the winter months. This technique is especially useful in those regions that are not famous for a thick snow crust. For snow retention in the beds, you can also scatter spruce branches, light brushwood.