Strawberries or garden strawberries are grown by summer residents, farmers, and large agricultural holdings. According to experts, it is advisable to change modern industrial varieties of strawberries every 3-4 years. With good care, strawberries in the same place on a garden plot can delight you with stable yields for up to 5 years. After this period, the plants become depleted, producing unmarketable fruits (small and tasteless).
When is the best time to plan to plant strawberry seedlings?
As practice shows, plants planted before winter take root better. Experienced gardeners know that garden strawberries can be planted until the onset of soil frosts (2-3 weeks in advance).
However, the optimal time for planting your favorite berry crop is September and the first half of October. At this time, both varietal and remontant strawberries are planted. In the fall, they also propagate their favorite varieties with a mustache, choosing the most powerful rosettes of the first and second order.
Of course, you can plant strawberry seedlings in the spring (April-May), but in this case you can only count on the harvest in the next season. The exception is remontant types of crops, which can produce the first, albeit few, fruits during spring planting this fall.
Therefore, when the time comes to renew strawberries, gardeners try to follow the agricultural practices of the crop, understanding that the yields of juicy, sweet and sour and ripe berries in the coming years directly depend on how correctly the bushes are planted.
Selecting a predecessor according to the rules of crop rotation
Since strawberries have a number of dangerous pests and diseases, you should not plant the crop after plants with the same problems. Strawberries grow poorly after nightshades, which suffer from nematodes and root rot, cherries, sea buckthorn, raspberries, all types of cabbage, and pumpkin vegetables.
The best predecessors of garden strawberries are grains and all types of green manure. Plants also develop well in areas kept under black fallow. It is good when alliums (garlic, onions, bulbous flowers) and legumes grew in front of the fruit and berry crops.
Preparing the bed for planting
Experts advise preparing the plantation at least 2 weeks in advance. First of all, the site is dug up, manually selecting the roots of malicious weeds: wheatgrass, sow thistle, sowweed, etc. Cleaning the soil as much as possible from perennial plants is vital for garden strawberries, which will develop in this bed for 3 to 5 years.
For plowing, apply any autumn fertilizer with a small nitrogen content, for example, “Ecoplant”, “Potassium monophosphate”, “OMU for berry crops”, “Autumn fertilizer for the garden”, etc.They are scattered over the surface of the earth before digging according to the manufacturer’s recommendations (see on the product packaging).
And from organic matter, the beds are filled with mature compost or well-rotted manure for at least one and a half years at the rate of 4-5 kg/1 sq. m. If you plant strawberries in the fall after green manure, then the cut greens should be embedded in the soil with a flat cutter at least 3 weeks before planting.
After digging, the soil on the plantation is leveled with a rake. Next, they begin to arrange the planting holes using a regular hoe.
Planting material
Seedling bushes must have a fibrous root system at least 5 cm long. It is desirable that each plant has at least 3 leaves. Excess leaf blades, as well as shoots with signs of drying out, should be immediately trimmed with garden shears.
Strawberry planting scheme in autumn
The optimal distance for strawberries is 70 cm between rows and 30 cm between individual plants in the furrow. This space allows the bush to fully feed and consume moisture without its leaves interlocking with neighboring seedlings. When plantings are dense, plants compete for food, water and light, so the yield in such beds decreases.
The most convenient way to mark lines is with a rope stretched between pegs dug along the edges of the bed. To quickly mark furrows, use either a ruler of the required length (30 cm), or a cut strip, or a stick of a suitable size.
Planting work
To improve the conditions for the growth and development of strawberry bushes, it is recommended to add a handful of vermicompost and a few tablespoons of stove ash or crushed charcoal to each hole, mixing the fertilizer with the soil with a hand cultivator.Afterwards, the planting holes are filled with clean water.
Planting begins immediately after the water has been completely absorbed. Seedlings with a closed root system are immersed in the holes along with an earthen ball, trying not to disturb its integrity.
Seedlings with open roots are soaked in water for several hours before planting so that the plant is saturated with valuable moisture and it is easier for it to take root. And to minimize planting stress, it is necessary to add root formation stimulants to the water for soaking seedlings, for example, “Kornevin”, “Kornerost”, “Grandis”, “Radifarm”, “Heteroauxin”, etc.
To prevent the spread of fungal diseases in plantings, including verticillium wilt of strawberries, add “Fundazol” to the root soaking solution at the rate of 10-15 g for every 10 liters of water.
When placing strawberry bushes in a planting hole, you need to carefully straighten the roots, pointing them straight down. This action is necessary for plants with an open root system.
The core of the bush (the heart of the rosette - the place where the fruit bud is located) is not buried. It is placed flush with the ground surface. After the hole is filled with fertile soil, the soil around each bush is pressed down with your fingers. By carefully pressing down the soil, all voids around the suction roots are filled.
To prevent irrigation water from spreading over the garden bed, a tree-trunk circle is made around the seedlings, no more than 1-2 cm deep. Despite the fact that water was added to the holes before planting, the strawberries should be watered at the rate of 1-1.5 liters for each bush.
The next day after planting, the plants must be checked. Some bushes may become deeper after watering and shrinkage of the soil.They need to be pulled up (as carefully as possible) so that the central point becomes flush with the surface. Those seedlings whose fruit buds, on the contrary, are excessively exposed, are lightly covered with earth.
Mulching garden strawberries
Many gardeners mulch their beds within a few days after planting. Organic mulch or agrofibre layer spread in a 4-7 cm layer prevents the evaporation of valuable moisture, inhibits the growth of weeds, and protects the soil from freezing in winter, weathering and leaching, that is, from erosion. As a rule, strawberries are grown under the following types of mulch: agrotextiles, spunbond, sawdust, chopped straw, hay, flax.
Have a good berry harvest every summer!
