With the arrival of spring, many summer residents worry about the condition of the strawberry bushes. After a long and cold winter, these plants need special treatment, which will allow them to increase the yield of berries in the future. Many questions arise about dried leaves and topsoil, disease prevention and pest control, and fertilization. Let's try to understand each of them.
Instead of the usual breaking off of old foliage, loosening the soil, spraying and fertilizing, you can do it. These activities take up a lot of free time and provide minimal benefit. Try to organize your work like this:
- The first step is to collect the mulch layer on the strawberry beds, which did not have time to rot during the winter.
- Repair or fix the wooden bumpers that surround the garden as needed.
- Add top dressing to the soil (at your discretion - organic or mineral).
- Take preventive measures to protect plants from pests and diseases. Use special spray preparations.
- Mulch the strawberry beds.
Cleaning strawberry beds
The most important thing in spring is to clear any remaining mulch from the strawberry beds. It will still be useful for compost. Such cleaning will allow the soil to warm up faster, and this is of great importance for the growth and development of strawberry bushes. Warm soil will accelerate the onset of green mass and ovary formation.
Spring feeding of strawberries
Fertilizers are essential for this crop to stimulate growth and development. Each summer resident can choose one of the types of dressings, depending on professional preferences - mineral or organic.
You can apply a complex fertilizer consisting of water (large bucket), cow dung (half a liter), ammonium sulfate (1 tablespoon) or water and nitroammophoska (1 tablespoon).
For growers who have chosen organic, the following recipes are offered:
- Mullein and water in a ratio of 1 to 10.
- Bird droppings and water in a ratio of 1 to 12.
- Herbal infusion based on young nettle.
When applying fertilizers, do not let it fall on the leaf mass, water only under the bush.
Strawberry pest protection and mulching
Spraying of strawberry plantations must be carried out at an air temperature of at least 18 degrees Celsius and always before flowering. Such preventive treatment in the future will prevent harmful insects and protect against many diseases. Chemicals such as Caesar or Taurus, or natural-based products (such as Fitoferm) are suitable.
Experienced summer residents recommend using a non-standard method of processing strawberry bushes. For processing, you will need hot water, heated to about sixty degrees. Using a watering can with a fine sprinkler, you need to water each bush and, if possible, each leaf. Such a "shower" for strawberry bushes will become not only a protector against insects, but also affect the size of the berries in the near future.
The next important step in caring for strawberry bushes is soil mulching.Last year's mulch was collected so as not to interfere with the heating of the soil. Now that the beds have warmed up enough, you can lay out a new mulch layer. This reliable and proven protection is applied to the surface of the beds around the end of April - beginning of May.
It is recommended to choose a material for mulch that will not only retain moisture in the soil and fight weeds, but also become a natural antiseptic. Pine and spruce needles are ideal for this purpose. The specific aroma of these plants will help to resist any disease.
If this type of mulch is not available to you, then you can use straw. True, it has its pros and cons. Plus - it perfectly permeates water and will not allow fruit to rot. Minus - harmful insects often settle in the straw.
As for last year's leaves on strawberry bushes, they themselves will fall off over time - there is no point in cutting them off. Dried leaves will complement the mulch layer on strawberry beds.
