Not sure how to care for your strawberries after harvest? Our article will help you. Let's talk about what things need to be done without fail in order to get an even larger harvest of this beautiful berry next year.
Rules for caring for strawberries after harvest
So, we will tell you what you need to do immediately after removing the entire crop from the plantings of strawberries, and then we will analyze each stage in as much detail as possible so that no black (unclear) spots remain.
Loosening
The first stage is, of course, loosening the soil. It is necessary to loosen the soil carefully, both in the aisles and under the bushes, trying not to damage the fragile root system of the strawberry and not to remove its roots to the surface. Loosening will provide ventilation of the soil, get rid of the soil crust, increase air and water exchanges, respectively, the plants will begin to receive more nutrition and moisture from the same unit of area, grow normally, develop and lay a sufficient number of generative buds to ensure a high yield of strawberries.
When loosening the soil around the strawberry bushes, try to simultaneously add a little fresh and nutritious soil to them, especially if you notice that one or more roots are bare.
Weeding
The second important event, which can be carried out literally according to the list, is the weeding of the beds, that is, the removal of all weeds, especially wheatgrass. Wheatgrass is extremely tenacious and consumes a lot of moisture and nutrients from the soil. It is better not to pull it out of the ground, but literally pull it out with your hands, then, perhaps, its further growth will be greatly slowed down.
Do not lose sight of other weeds, because they are the same competitors, and therefore must be removed. It is best to remove weeds after watering or good rain, then the roots of the weeds are mostly and much easier to pull out of the soil.
Watering
The beds need to be kept moist, just try to pour moisture under the bushes in the evening. It is better not to pour water on the leaves at noon - sunburn may occur. Naturally, you need to water the strawberries based on the weather outside the window, for example, if it is raining and the soil is already saturated with moisture, then additional watering is not needed at all, it is much more appropriate here to loosen the soil, and perhaps tear off a couple of lower leaves from those that are literally nailed to the ground to increase moisture evaporation and prevent rot from forming.
If the weather is dry, and there is not even a hint of rain, then watering is necessary. When watering, it is best to use settled water or rainwater, it should be soaked in the soil to a depth of at least 5-6 cm so that the roots are saturated with moisture. It is also impossible to overmoisten the soil, but overdried soil will be detrimental to plants.
Drip irrigation of strawberries.
If you are a resident of a summer cottage, where you visit only on weekends, then you can design a simple drip irrigation system. To do this, you need to take a barrel of 200 liters, install it on a small elevation, under the stream of rain from the roof, make a couple of holes in the base of the barrel (according to the number of rows in the garden) for special tubes - droppers and spread them along the beds with strawberries. Moisture, flowing through the droppers, will moisten the soil in your absence, where it is needed.
Mulching
If you do not want to "bother" with the installation of droppers, then you can simply mulch the soil after each watering, with a layer of a couple of centimeters. You can use straw, sawdust, humus, or just dry soil as mulch for strawberries.For several days, this mulch will be enough to preserve moisture in the soil.
In the event that after harvesting the garden strawberries, a layer of old mulch, say, straw, which you laid out, which you laid out in order to keep the berry clean and protect it from the appearance of fruit rot, remains on the site, it is necessary to remove such mulch as carefully as possible and burn it, reuse it not necessary, as harmful microorganisms can accumulate in it.
Removing old leaves
The next stage: as you know, the leaf blades of garden strawberries, after serving for two years, begin to age, so they can be safely removed. They do it in different ways: they are combed with a rake, mowed and even cut by hand. There is no clear guide to such actions, but do not forget that when removing old, discolored strawberry leaf blades, it is important not to damage the growth points. Considering this, two methods are considered the most gentle - raking old leaves with a rake (they are easily separated) and removing them manually.
Top dressing strawberries
This stage can be combined: the removal of old leaf blades can be combined with feeding the plants. Having reproduced offspring, strawberry plants are quite depleted, and there is a long winter ahead and a short period for which you need to have time to re-plant flower buds in order to give a good harvest for the next year.
If there is little nutrition in the soil, then this can negatively affect immunity: it will weaken and the plants can freeze in winter and at the stage of growth activity, so the bushes will lay a minimum number of flower buds.
Removing old leaves from strawberry bushes
When you need to feed, fertilize
Some gardeners are doing the wrong thing by heavily feeding strawberries before harvesting. This leads to the fact that it is strongly affected by gray rot, this is, firstly. Secondly, although the berries become large, they are watery, less sweet, and have a shorter collection period.
In early spring, before flowering, we feed with nitrogen fertilizers. But remember, the main fertilization should be after harvest. This is a top dressing with full mineral fertilizer and organic matter. Many put manure under the strawberries. This, of course, is good - the manure not only nourishes the plants, but also takes care of the strawberry root system.
How to feed garden strawberries after harvesting?
The introduction of one element to maintain an optimal balance of nutrients in the soil will clearly not be enough. Moreover, we strongly recommend adding all the elements in a form dissolved in water so that they reach the roots as quickly as possible and, accordingly, into the plant.
It is best to use during this period potassium sulfate (not chloride) dissolved in water, ammonium nitrate and superphosphate. Potassium sulfate, in terms of a square meter of soil, previously diluted in a bucket of water, you need 15-18 grams (this is a liter per square meter), ammonium nitrate - the same amount for the same area, but superphosphate needs 45-50 grams, also dissolved in a bucket of water, and in the same amount per square meter of beds with garden strawberries.
In addition to applying liquid mineral fertilizers, after about a week under each bush, you can pour 50-70 g of wood ash into the soil previously loosened and watered with water, although there is not much potassium in the wood ash, only 5-6%, but there are many other mineral substances (microelements).
In the absence of wood ash, you can sprinkle a handful of compost under the bushes of garden strawberries, nothing bad will come of it. Somehow I got the advice that at this time they poured a handful of dried manure under the garden strawberries, tried it on a couple of plants, they dried up after that, so this advice is at your own peril and risk.
As for wood ash, it can be poured not only under each bush, but also scattered in the aisles, previously loosened and weeded, spending two kilograms per square meter. Some write that it helps from the bear, I doubt it, but that ash enriches the soil with potassium and trace elements - this is a fact.
Probably, it will be superfluous to say that by doing all these operations, you leave plant residues and old foliage on the plantation, of course, this is not worth doing, absolutely all garbage from the site must be removed and burned: diseases, pests and various pathogens.
Loosening the soil and hilling strawberry bushes.
Protecting strawberries from diseases and pests
The next important stage, which for some reason is neglected by many, is the preventive and eradicating treatment of garden strawberry plantations after the end of fruiting, both from pests and from diseases. As soon as all the berries have been removed, carefully examine the plants for pests or signs of various diseases.
Contrary to popular belief, there are quite a few diseases on garden strawberries. Take powdery mildew. The first signs of its manifestation are observed in the form of a grayish bloom on the leaf blades of strawberries, later these leaves begin to rot, and of course, they fall off, pre-twisting.
At the first signs of a disease, when the entire strawberry crop has already been harvested, the plants are generous - top and bottom need to be treated with a solution of colloidal sulfur, for which it is necessary to dilute 100 grams of colloidal sulfur in a bucket of room temperature water, stir well, fill the spray bottle and process the plants, wetting everything surface.
Gray rot is also harmful to garden strawberries. Usually, clearly visible gray spots are visible on the berries, and in some places such berries are still hanging, collectors simply ignore them. You can't do that. First you need to collect all the affected strawberries and destroy them by burning: after all, these are foci of infection; and then - treat all plants and especially carefully those where diseased berries were found with a solution of copper oxychloride, in an amount of 45 g per bucket of water. It is necessary to moisten the entire aerial part of diseased plants with a solution.
Another rot that few people distinguish from gray is black rot, you can distinguish it by the spots on the berries, they are exactly black, although the action itself and the methods of treatment are absolutely the same as for gray rot.
We go further: spotting, usually spotting, affects the leaf blades of garden strawberries, and brown-red spots appear on them. It is impossible to delay, the disease can quickly spread through still healthy plants and capture most of the plantation. Outwardly, it seems that this is nonsense, well, think of it - spots, in fact, these spots lead to disruptions in the work of the photosynthetic apparatus and against this background inhibit the overall development of the plant.
Of course, to a large extent this will not be able to affect the laying of next year's strawberry harvest, but you still need to fight spotting. In this case, treatment with a solution of copper oxychloride effectively helps, it must be diluted at a concentration of 50 g per bucket of water and this solution is used to treat diseased strawberry plants.
By the way, beginners quite often confuse foliage that has outlived its life and has a reddish tint with affected spotting. Firmly remember that old foliage just needs to be removed, it no longer needs any additional treatments.
From diseases we are smoothly moving on to pests - in the period when the garden strawberry has given up the entire crop, it also needs protection from pests. At this time, strawberries are attacked by strawberry weevils, strawberry mites and spider mites.
The strawberry weevil usually eats the leaf blades; at earlier stages of plant development, it can also affect the buds.In order to get rid of the strawberry weevil, the plants need to be treated with approved insecticides such as karbofos, spending 70-80 g of the drug per bucket of water. When processing, you need to thoroughly moisten the top and bottom of the strawberry leaves and also process the soil.
An even smaller insect is the strawberry mite. You can understand that it was he who struck the strawberry plantations by the slightly deformed foliage, which changed its color to yellow. Control measures here are the same as in the case of the weevil.
It is quite simple to find a spider mite on strawberry plants: if you turn the leaf over, then you will see a cobweb from below, this is a trace of the life of a spider mite.
After you notice a spider mite on strawberries, which sucks the juice from the leaf blades and greatly inhibits the development of the plant, reducing its immunity, it is necessary to treat the plants with any permitted acaricide, and if the strawberry plants are severely affected, it is better to remove them and burn them outside the territory of the site.
Mulching strawberry plantings. <>
Replacing old strawberry bushes
So, we have already said a lot about what needs to be done after the strawberries have borne fruit, but far from everything, there are still secrets, and we will definitely tell you about them now.
For example, do you know that full-fledged fruiting of garden strawberries lasts only four years, but on a sufficiently moist, nutritious soil, it can last for five years, after which, alas, it fades away without a trace, and it is better to renew the plantation? Now know!
Therefore, as soon as you have harvested the fifth, full crop, the strawberry plantation will need to be replaced with a new one. Around the end of July, all old and drying strawberry leaves must be cut off, removed, only the very base of the bush, about 2-3 cm high, should be left from the shoots and shoots.
All that was cut off from the site must be removed and burned. This procedure is cruel, however, it will allow the plants to form a new leaf mass this fall and lay flower buds, that is, the guarantee of next year's harvest.
Pruning
Pruning is started 3-4 days after the last harvest. This usually happens at the end of July. First, the mustache and all old leaves are cut off, without affecting the newly grown foliage. All leaves are completely removed only if the bushes are affected by disease or pests... It is not recommended to touch one-year-old plantings. The only thing is they cut off the blackened and dried leaves.
Bushes are completely cut off when they are damaged by pests or diseases
It is inadmissible to pick off the mustache and leaves by hand. Use an exceptionally sharp garden tool that has been previously disinfected. Detailed pruning instructions.
Video: how to trim strawberries after picking berries
What to do with a strawberry mustache?
When the processes are removed, there are a lot of them and it is really a pity to destroy them. Considering this, if you have enough free space, then the remaining shoots, having chosen the strongest and most well-developed and healthy ones, should be transplanted to the newly laid beds. All other whiskers must be removed, otherwise they will simply draw on moisture and additional substances to the detriment of the formation of the generative sphere of plants.
Cutting the strawberry whiskers should be carried out randomly; for this, a garden knife is usually taken and the whiskers are removed as close to the soil surface as possible. In no case pull out the shoot, so you almost always pull out part of the root, and it can dry out, and therefore the whole plant will die.
Rejuvenation of strawberry plantings with mustache layering. <>
Preparing strawberries for winter
Preparing strawberries for winter should not be ignored, this is a significant part of the guarantee of a good harvest for next year.If there is enough moisture in the soil, then there is no need to water the plants in late autumn, if not enough, then around the end of October, you can pour a couple of buckets of water on a square meter of soil.
Once again, carefully inspect the plants, especially after watering, if you notice that the root system sticks out in some places, then be sure to dig it in with moist and nutritious soil. At the onset of the first persistent frosts, to trap snow in the area of the garden with strawberries, it is necessary to cover it with spruce branches, it is not such a reliable protection from the cold, but it keeps the snow on the site just perfect.
But many people do not advise using straw for the winter as a covering material for strawberries, mice usually start there, therefore, if you have a lot of straw and have nowhere to put it, then at the same time spread the poisoned baits to protect yourself from mice.
Well, that's all we wanted to tell you. If you have questions or tips, then write about them in the comments, we will be happy to answer your questions and use the tips!
Blitz Tips
So, in order to constantly enjoy only the most delicate and sweet fruits of strawberries, follow these rules for caring for it after the last harvest:
- Clean the area of weeds regularly.
- Remove old foliage carefully.
- Moisten the soil constantly.
- Do not forget to feed and fertilize in a timely manner.
- Take care of insulation for the winter.
- Conduct preventive pest control.
- Multiply strawberries to increase yields and renew your bushes.
