Strawberry is a favorite berry of many grown in almost every suburban area. In care, this popular garden crop is relatively unpretentious. However, the technology for growing this plant has some of its own characteristics. About how to care for strawberries correctly, and we will talk further in the article.
Growing technology
Strawberry care in the summer cottage usually consists of:
- in removing the extra mustache;
- periodic loosening of the soil or mulching;
- treatment from pests and diseases.
In addition, in order to get a good strawberry crop, you need, of course, to plant it correctly, as well as weed, fertilize and water in a timely manner.
How to choose a place for the garden
About how to properly care for strawberries, in all the details we will talk a little lower. To begin with, we’ll deal with what is the technology of planting this plant, popular among summer residents. To choose for this culture in the garden is best well lit by the sun and ventilated area. In the shade of large crops, strawberries will not produce. In the lowlands, when the air stagnates, the plants will most likely begin to hurt and wither. It is believed that it is best to plant strawberries in the north-eastern part of the garden, on a small slope.
The best predecessors for this crop are radishes, dill, peas and lettuce. At the same time, strawberries do not like neighborhoods with potatoes, tomatoes and other nightshade.
Specialists advise to prepare a site for this plant in advance. The bed needs to be dug up on a bayonet of a shovel not less than 15 days before planting. In this case, the soil should be improved by adding well-rotted bird or cow manure or compost.
Selection of planting material
Strawberries are propagated in summer cottages with rosettes usually grown on the antennae of the mother plants. Planting material of this culture is best obtained in a proven nursery. Subsequently, strawberries can be propagated on the site on their own. To grow her seedlings on a mustache is not difficult.
In the nursery it is best to buy strawberries with closed roots. That is, seedlings of this culture are usually acquired together with pots. In this case, the plants subsequently take root much quicker and without losses in the garden.
When choosing planting material, you should, of course, carefully examine the bushes. Each plant purchased for planting in the garden should have at least 2-3 healthy leaves. In this case, seedlings with flowers are not worth buying. In the future, the buds will still have to be cut off. Planting strawberries along with flowers leads to a significant decrease in yield in future years.
When to plant
It is allowed to transfer strawberry seedlings to the garden both in autumn and spring. Most often, this culture is planted in open ground in late April or early May - before the onset of heat. In this case, strawberries take root as well as possible. However, sometimes this plant is planted in late August or early September. But using this technology, the first strawberry crop, of course, can only be obtained next summer.
The main landing methods
How to plant strawberries? And to take care of this plant, and to harvest later it will be easier if the bushes are correctly placed in the garden. There are several ways to plant strawberries:
- separate bushes;
- nests;
- carpet;
- in rows.
When using the nesting method, one bush is planted in the center, and another 6 are arranged around it with a hexagon at a distance of 8 cm from each other. This technique allows you to get subsequently abundant strawberry crops. However, berries are usually not too large with this arrangement of bushes.
The first planting technique from the list allows you to grow very large fruits. However, when using this technology in the future it will be relatively difficult to care for strawberries. How to plant this crop in separate bushes? In this case, the plants are simply placed on a bed in a checkerboard pattern at a distance of about 60 cm from each other.
The carpet technique involves planting strawberries in rows with a small step. When using this method, the bed subsequently overgrows completely. At the same time, it creates its own special microclimate. Watering, weeding and loosening such a bed is less necessary. The disadvantage of this method of planting is that the berries in this case are pretty quickly chopped.
Planting strawberries in rows makes it easier to care for. Weeding and watering plants using this technique in the future will be much easier. Harvests from rows of strawberries can also be harvested quite large.
How to plant: a few useful tips
Before transferring strawberry seedlings to the open ground, it is advisable to place it in a cool dark place for 1-2 days. When planting strawberries on the garden bed, it is imperative to ensure that its root system does not wrap.
At the bottom of a hole dug under a bush, a small earthen mound should be poured. Next, you need to install the plant itself strictly vertically and in the center. The roots should be carefully spread on the sides of the knoll. Then they need to be covered with earth and slightly tamped.
The strawberry root neck after planting should be located at ground level. It is impossible to fill it with soil.
How to feed
So, how to plant strawberries, we found out. Now let's see how to care for this crop. In order to get large yields, this plant, of course, should be fed periodically. Fertilizers on beds with this crop are usually applied three times per season. The first time strawberries are fed in the spring, when the plants have not yet released new leaves. At this time, it is necessary to stimulate the growth of green mass of strawberries. Therefore, in the spring, nitrogen fertilizers are usually used as top dressing. This may be, for example, an infusion of chicken manure. It will be very good to fertilize strawberries and iodine in the spring.
The second time the bushes are fed in the summer. Potash fertilizers will be especially useful at this time. During the period of setting berries, strawberries are usually fed with ash. During flowering, a bed with this plant will also be useful to spray with a solution of boric acid or zinc sulfate.
The third feeding of strawberries is done in early September. At this time, potash and phosphorus fertilizers are applied under the bushes. Such compounds will help plants better prepare for winter. Most often in the fall strawberries are fertilized with purchased mineral mixtures. It can be, for example, Fertika, Autumn, etc.
How to water
Many summer residents are interested, of course, in how to care for strawberries in the spring. Of course, plants should be watered at this time of year. Summer residents usually begin to moisten beds under strawberries from the end of April. From this time until the beginning of August this crop is supposed to be watered at least 3 times a month. The root system of this plant, as many people know, is superficial. And therefore, without regular watering, strawberry bushes will not develop well.
From August to the end of September, strawberries are watered twice a month. In October, it is advisable to moisten the bed with this crop one more time.
In spring, strawberries can be watered by sprinkling. Since flowering, beds with this crop are moistened only at the root. Water during this period can wash off pollen from the pistils, which will lead to a decrease in yield.
During fruiting, it is best to water strawberries along grooves. This will prevent the berries from rotting. After the bushes bear fruit, you can again return to irrigation by irrigation. At this time, this method cannot harm the plants.
How to grow and care for strawberries: mulching
This procedure allows you to get large yields and at the same time make strawberry care easier. Beds with this crop are mulched, usually two weeks after planting. In this case, fallen needles or sawdust are used as covering material.
You can also mulch the beds with strawberries and at the planting stage. In this case, the plot prepared for this culture is preliminarily covered with roofing material with cross-shaped incisions made in it. Then plant, in fact, the strawberries themselves.
Water the plants mulched in this way in the usual way. Water from a hose easily passes into cross-shaped incisions, and plants do not remain dry.
How to care for strawberries: mustache removal
This operation should be done during the season. Otherwise, strawberries will lose varietal qualities and significantly reduce yield. This culture begins to produce mustache in the spring. At this time, there are not too many of them. However, pruning in the event that the owners of the site do not plan to propagate strawberries, it is still worth performing in the spring.
Mandatory mustache removal is one answer to the question of how to care for strawberries in spring. But in the future, such processes will have to be removed at least two more times: in summer, after fruiting, and in autumn. Trimming mustache relies only on dry and warm days. It is best to remove them in the morning or evening. Use only a good sharp secateurs. Otherwise, subsequently, those bushes from which the mustache was removed may become ill.
Do not pull the mustache during pruning. Otherwise, you can easily pull the plant out of the ground. The roots of strawberries, as already mentioned, are superficial.
How to propagate: useful tips
How to care for strawberries in autumn, spring and summer is understandable. But how to propagate this culture? For the first time, gardeners usually purchase seedlings of strawberries in a nursery or take from familiar gardeners. But in the future, planting material of this culture can easily be grown independently.
The easiest way to get seedlings for a new garden, of course, from a mustache. Most often, strawberries are propagated by summer residents as follows:
- during fruiting, strawberries are marked with chopsticks or rags the strongest and most productive bushes;
- next year in the spring they do not remove their mustache;
- part of the mustache is cut off only after one outlet appears on them;
- after 2-4 leaflets grow on young bushes, they are carefully dug up and transferred to a new place.
Strawberry bears fruit well in one place, unfortunately, only during the first few years. After that, it must be moved to a new place. The specific time for changing the beds depends on the variety of strawberries. Usually this culture is moved to a new place 5-8 years after planting. At the same time, standard technology of propagation by rosettes from whiskers is used.
Diseases and pests
So, how to care for strawberries, the reader, we hope, is clear. Cultivating this culture is relatively straightforward. However, the yield of this plant can be greatly reduced due to various kinds of pests and diseases. Most often, strawberries are affected:
- white and gray rot;
- white and brown spotting;
- late blight.
With gray and white rot, a coating of the corresponding color appears on the berries. These two diseases can destroy 2/3 of the strawberry crop in a season. With white and brown spotting, plants primarily suffer from leaves. Foci of lesion appear on them, after which they die.
Blight rot can destroy the whole strawberry crop. Symptoms of this disease are dark purple spots on the berries and the decay of the green mass of the plant. Over time, infected strawberry fruits mummify.
Summer residents usually fight diseases of this culture using Bordeaux fluid. Such a tool is the answer to the question of how best to care for strawberries in terms of preventing infections. Plants are sprayed with Bordeaux fluid usually in early spring, before flowering, and after harvest.
The most dangerous strawberry pests are:
- strawberry mite;
- raspberry-strawberry weevil.
Symptoms of the presence of ticks on plants are primarily twisting and slowing the growth of strawberry leaves. They usually deal with this pest with a solution of mustard prepared in a proportion of 100 g of dry powder per 10 liters of water.
Raspberry-strawberry weevil infects strawberry buds. This gray beetle 2-3 cm long can cause significant damage to the bushes. They struggle with weevil by treating plants with a solution of baking soda, prepared in a proportion of 2 tbsp. l on 10 l of water.
What to do in winter
Thus, we figured out how to care for strawberries correctly in the spring, summer and autumn. But what should be done on the plantings of this plant in the cold season?
In most cases, frost-resistant strawberry varieties are grown in Russia today. Therefore, no work in the cold season, the summer resident on the plantations of this crop is usually not necessary. The only answer to the question of how to care for strawberries in winter is its easy warming. In the event that the summer resident will occasionally throw a little snow on the beds with strawberries, the plants are not guaranteed to freeze in the cold.