If you are a happy owner of a suburban area and have at your disposal a couple of beds with berries, then you probably thought about how to care for strawberries in the fall. It's no secret that garden strawberries are a rather moody culture. It requires timely care: pruning old leaves, watering, feeding, loosening, transplanting and removing numerous mustaches.
In order to get a consistently high yield of this delicious berry every year, you need to know how to care for strawberries in the fall, summer and spring. But autumn care is the most responsible. The next crop will depend on how you prepare the berries for wintering. The main stages are timely pruning of old foliage, removal of weeds from the beds, replanting of new plants and sheltering bushes for the winter.
Since the laying of berry buds occurs in the summer, feeding strawberries in the fall is not necessary. However, fertile soil must be maintained. Therefore, introducing humus between plants is not out of place, and it requires its incorporation into the soil by 2 cm. This measure will avoid gray rot. Fresh manure, as well as undecomposed compost, is not suitable.
Cutting strawberries in the fall should be done in several stages. First, dried old leaves and stalks are trimmed immediately after harvesting. In this way, many diseases and the propagation of pests that lay eggs on leaves in the midst of summer can be avoided. Before you begin to cover the berry rosettes for the winter, you should once again go through the secateurs in the garden. Correct pruning is when a bunch of young and medium leaves remains, while all overgrown foliage and unwanted whiskers are trimmed.
Having studied how to care for strawberries in autumn, you should also take care of the cleanliness of the soil. If weeds are left in the winter, then most of them will begin to grow rapidly at the very beginning of spring. In addition, garden pests also like to settle and winter on weeds . This stage is one of the most laborious. Indeed, in a bed with two- and three-year-old plants, it is very difficult to maintain soil cleanliness due to the numerous mustaches and overgrown outlets.
In order for the plants to overwinter safely, they are shelled until snow falls. The best covering material is natural. Pure straw, spruce spruce branches - ideal for shelter. Coniferous branches not only close the bushes from the piercing cold wind, but also scare away rodents who decided to feast on roots and leaves in hungry winter times. Traditional covering materials such as lutrasil and spunbond are a good alternative. Having carried out such preparatory work, we can safely count on the fact that strawberries will successfully winter and gain strength for further growth.
Gardeners with experience who know how to care for strawberries in the fall, it is recommended during this period to take care of updating the beds. Dig up old diseased bushes, and in their place plant new outlets with an already well-formed root system. A rooted mustache must have from three leaves, at least 5 roots with a length of 6 cm or more. For seedlings, organic or mineral fertilizers are required.
Care properly, collect a generous harvest and enjoy delicious, healthy and fragrant berries!