Strawberry Plantation Care

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Young plantation

Care of a young plantation (1 year of plant life) should be aimed at creating optimal conditions that ensure high survival rate of seedlings, good growth and overwintering of plants.

The soil is compacted during planting of seedlings, therefore, upon completion of work (watering, mulching), they immediately begin to loosen the row spacings. Then they check the condition of the plants, free the covered hearts and leaves from the earth or peat.

A week after planting, the survival rate of the plants is determined: in place of the dead, new seedlings of the same variety are planted, without violating the purity of the plantings. For an autumn planting, it is better to postpone repairs until next spring.

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On a young strawberry plantation, planted in the fall, before the onset of frost, furrows with a depth of 8-10 cm are cut in the aisles. Late in autumn, brushwood, cut branches, etc. are scattered on the frozen soil to better retain snow on the plantation. Early in the spring, after the snow melts, they dig grooves drainage of water from those areas where it stagnates.

After the soil thaws, the overwintered plants are harvested. When the seedlings protrude, it is deepened to the root collar, the soil is poked up when the roots are exposed, or peat is poured onto the plants, freeing the apical bud (heart) from the ground. Untimely execution of these works often leads to death or severe thinning of autumn plantings.

Young strawberries can thrive only on loose soil that contains sufficient moisture and nutrients.

To create these conditions, it is necessary to keep the soil on the plantation in a loose and weed-free condition. During the winter, it becomes quite compacted and covered with a crust. The first loosening in rows and aisles is carried out as early as possible, as the soil thaws and ripens. A delay in the first spring loosening leads to a loss of moisture in it and a weakening of plant growth.

Loosening in the rows is done with extreme care so as not to damage the still weakly rooted plants and the adventitious roots that have begun to develop.

If this work is performed carelessly, the plants are greatly lagging behind in growth, which later negatively affects their productivity. Near the bushes, the soil is loosened to a depth of 2-3 cm, and at a distance from them - by 6-8 cm.

During the summer, the young strawberry plantation is kept clean and loose. During the growing season, it is necessary to carry out at least 3-4 loosening in the rows, and in the row spacing, loosening is carried out more often, making sure that a crust does not form after rains.

With spring planting and poor development of seedlings, it is advisable to remove flower stalks. In early autumn planting, when the plantation is laid with well-developed standard seedlings, the peduncles are not removed, since young plants, after overwintering normally, give a good harvest.

If strawberries are planted on well-prepared soil filled with fertilizers, then fertilization is not required on a young plantation in the first year. With weak plant growth, fertilizing with ammonium nitrate is necessary at the rate of 10 g per 1 running meter. But it should be brought in no earlier than a month after planting. Earlier feeding inhibits the formation of young roots.

In winter, a plot of young strawberries should leave clean from weeds, with loose soil in rows and aisles. The last autumn loosening should be deeper.

To prevent young plants from freezing out in winter, it is necessary to mulch them with peat, humus or sawdust in late autumn. In this state, they overwinter well, and in early spring, when the soil thaws, they are freed from mulching material, which is embedded in the soil when loosening.

The implementation of all these activities contributes to obtaining a full harvest.

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Fruiting plantation

Caring for fruiting strawberries is aimed at ensuring the powerful development of plants and the formation of a high yield in the years of fruiting. To do this, it is necessary to properly process the soil, apply fertilizers in a timely manner, water and apply some specific techniques for caring for plants (removal of whiskers, timely mowing of leaves, etc.).

Tillage

In autumn, on a fruiting strawberry plantation, as well as on new plantings, sewage furrows are cut to prevent the plants from getting wet. In late autumn and winter, measures are taken to accumulate snow in order to ensure a safe wintering of strawberries.

In early spring, during intense snow melting, they provide the release of melt water. Then, when the soil dries up, with the onset of stable warming, dry strawberry leaves are raked and removed from the plantation with a fan rake. This contributes to the improvement of plantings, since together with dry leaves, the wintering stages of pests and pathogens of many fungal diseases are destroyed.

At the first spring loosening of the soil, partially bare roots and overgrown bushes rising above the soil are spud. For hilling bushes, loose soil is taken from the aisles. As a result, in subsequent years, strawberries appear to grow, as it were, on low ridges (with one-line placement on a flat surface).

During the growing season, as the soil is compacted and weeds appear, the soil is loosened in rows and aisles. Loosening is stopped two weeks before the berries ripen.

After the first spring loosening, the soil in the rows is mulched with manure, compost, peat or other materials (if strawberries are not grown on a dark mulching film).

During the ripening of the berries, the peduncles droop under their weight, and the berries become dirty and rot, in contact with the soil. In order to avoid crop losses and to increase the marketability of products, before the harvest ripens, cutting straw, sawdust, shavings, mulch paper, etc. is spread under the bushes. It is impossible to underlay freshly cut grass, as even with light rains it decomposes and promotes decay of berries.

Particular attention must be paid to the care of the soil and plants on the strawberry plantation after the end of fruiting, since during the harvesting period the soil in the aisles is strongly compacted. At this time, new leaves grow in the strawberry, new horns (stems) are intensively formed, on which, in turn, young roots are formed, flower buds are laid. The growth and development of plants in the post-harvest period predetermine the next year's harvest.

The oppression of plants during this period, caused by soil compaction, its weediness, lack of moisture, etc., is the main reason for the weak winter hardiness and low yield of strawberries in the next year. Therefore, immediately after harvesting, the soil is cultivated in rows and aisles throughout the plantation.

At the same time, plants are piled up in rows with loose earth, as a result of which the best conditions are created for the growth of new adventitious roots in the upper parts of the rhizome.

Autumn loosening of row spacings is carried out deeper - by 12-15 cm, which allows accumulating moisture in the soil in the autumn and spring periods. After the autumn loosening, it is advisable to mulch the soil near the bushes again. This contributes to a better wintering of strawberries.

Plant care

A necessary measure for the care of fruiting strawberries is the removal of creeping shoots (whiskers), which greatly deplete the bush, reducing its yield, and interfere with soil cultivation. They are removed as they grow. Only those rooted rosettes are left in place, which form a strip of a row, filling and expanding it.

Immediately after harvesting, in the areas of the second and third years of fruiting, it is recommended to mow the leaves, and in case of severe disease and pest damage, also on the site of the first year of fruiting. It is impossible to be late with this operation, otherwise new leaves will not have time to grow by autumn, the plants will not replenish nutrient reserves and will not properly prepare for overwintering. When mowing, make sure not to damage the growth bud; for this, the lower part of the petioles is left uncut.

The cut leaves are removed from the plantation. If mowing is not done on time, it is better to limit yourself to selectively removing old, diseased, drying leaves. A prerequisite for the normal regrowth of plants after mowing or partial removal of old leaves is watering the plantation, fertilizing with mineral fertilizers, spraying to destroy pests and pathogens.

The most important activity for caring for strawberries is sorting. Often weed varieties appear on strawberry beds that do not produce berries at all (Zhmurka, Dubnyak) or form small non-varietal fruits with achenes pressed into the pulp (Bakhmutka, Podveska), but having strong bushes with a large number of creeping shoots. In addition, in the plantings there are seedlings grown from overripe, pecked and rotten berries left on the plantation. They also sharply differ from varietal plants in different morphological and deteriorated qualitative characteristics.

In order not to take outlets from weed plants, it is necessary to carry out a variety cleaning twice a season (during flowering and fruiting periods) with the obligatory removal of weed bushes.

Simultaneously with the variety cleaning, the most productive bushes with large berries are identified. Such bushes are marked and rosettes are taken from them for reproduction.