If you want to properly prepare strawberries for winter, whether it is remontant or ordinary, read the recommendations of the experts of the Tatarstan club “Green bed”, they will be useful to you!
at first glance, the task of preparing strawberries for winter in the garden does not seem very difficult, however, attention to detail will save your plants from many problems.
The timing of autumn “strawberry” procedures depends on the region in which the site is located. You need to determine the moment when the bushes have time to recover and get stronger after pruning and transplanting. If the preparation is delayed, the berry risks freezing, which will lead to its weakening, disease or death.
Start processing and preparing for wintering strawberries should be immediately after it has stopped producing berries.
Preparing strawberries for cold weather is a simple, but mandatory process that affects the next year’s harvest. Immediately after the end of fruiting, gardeners begin to carry out the first work: pruning bushes, mulching, treatment from diseases and pests, hiding beds.
Experienced summer residents recommend taking into account several important nuances when preparing strawberries for winter.
Subtleties of processing
· * for the first time, cut only one ridge of the plant before winter, leave the rest unchanged (this will help determine how the plants wintered better);
* do not use fertilizers containing chlorine and large amounts of nitrogen in the fall;
· it is not recommended to transplant into the frozen ground (if it was not possible to do it in time, it is better to transfer the procedure to the spring);
· as snow falls, throw it with a shovel on the ridge with strawberries (it will serve as an additional shelter).
Mow strawberries or not-an annual question
The debate about whether to cut strawberry leaves in the fall has been going on for decades and is still not over.
From the point of view of pruning supporters, diseases develop on old leaves and flower stalks, harmful insects can settle, so it is better to remove them, leaving only low stems.
Opponents of this position believe that the Bush cut for the winter will spend all its strength on forming new greenery and will go under the snow weakened, which will negatively affect the fruiting of the next season.
To prune strawberries for the winter, it is recommended to use a sharp pruner or garden scissors, but in no case do not break off the leaves with your hands — this will damage the stem and roots, as the Bush may be half pulled out of the soil. It is better to hold the event on a dry, fine day, in the morning or in the evening. For autumn strawberry pruning, there are rules
• * you will need to Remove all damaged and diseased leaves that have spots, as well as those that lie on the ground. It is better to take the foliage outside the site and burn it to reduce the risk of disease for other crops.
* The height of the bushes after pruning should be at least 10 cm, the stems should not be cut under the root, otherwise you can remove the generative buds from which young shoots develop.
• If you do not plan to propagate berries, you need to cut off all the extra mustache.
* For reproduction, leave rosettes formed on the first 2-3 whiskers closer to the mother Bush.
* Young bushes planted in the current season, do not cut — so it will be easier for them to winter.
The main protection of the Bush from frosts and winds is lush leaves, so you can not leave strawberries to winter without foliage.
How to prepare remontant strawberries for winter
strawberries are divided into two types — regular and remontant.
Ordinary strawberries are known to bear fruit once a year.
We can produce several harvests per season. That is why today it is more common to grow remontant strawberries. The most popular varieties of remontant strawberries are beauty, Geneva, White dream, Albion, Queen Elizabeth, Mahern.
The rules for preparing strawberries for winter are identical for different varieties of berries. There are only small nuances for the usual and remontant type of plant.
· Ordinary
The berry begins to bear fruit early and by the end of July finishes yielding. The main procedures for preparing for winter can begin in August. The variety tolerates winter well. As a shelter suitable mulch of plant origin. For example, needles. It should be laid out after the start of frost.
· Remontant
Remontant strawberry varieties continue to bloom until the onset of cold weather. It is recommended to start preparing for winter no earlier than September. This variety should be well saturated with moisture before winter. It is necessary to regularly water 5 liters of water per square meter in the morning or evening.Plants usually do not tolerate winter. We need to make a good shelter. For this purpose, use a thick layer of straw or dry foliage.
How to fertilize strawberries in autumn
You need to feed strawberries three times a year: before flowering, after fruiting and in September before planting for the winter.
Each gardener has his own answer to the question of how to feed strawberries in the fall. Someone uses a 10% solution of mullein mixed with ash, someone insists on bird droppings, and someone prefers specially developed complex fertilizers.
Reader’s question: “How to apply fertilizers to an existing strawberry bed?”.
The answer is “Green beds»
A rich harvest depletes berry bushes, so strawberries need to be fed with nutrients before wintering. This operation is performed after partial removal of leaves, using organic fertilizers. Suitable for poultry and cow manure, ash, compost diluted in water.
· Bird droppings. It is diluted in the proportions of 1: 10, where 10 is water in liters. Effective fertilizer, it is soaked in water, infused for 2 days and poured under the strawberry bushes, trying not to get on the leaves. It is best not to pour the solution close to the center of the Bush, but to water in the aisles.
· Mullein. It is diluted in the proportions of 1:1: 10, where 1-mullein; 1-charcoal or ash, 10-water. To prepare the infusion, take a rotted mullein and one part of the ash. Insist 2-3 days, pour a solution between the rows.
· Ash. It is applied at the rate of 150 g per 1 m2. You can scatter on the bed in a dry form, powdering the plantings.
Reader’s question: “is it Possible to mix ash and manure? Some say no, others say Yes. How is it correct?”.
The answer is ” Green beds»
When any ammonia fertilizer is combined with any limestone fertilizer, including ash, ammonia gas is released into the air (NH3). In other words, there is a loss of nitrogen, the most valuable component of fertilizer. Therefore, manure, compost, and bird droppings are usually applied separately from limestone or ash.
The reader’s question: “Until what time should I water the strawberries?”.
The answer is “Green garden”.
Watering the crop is required until the beginning of October. In dry weather, abundant irrigation of the soil is sufficient once a week. The consumption is 12 l / sq. m. with the beginning of rain, stop the procedure. The water should be warm. The temperature is not less than 18ºC.
Treatment of strawberries for the winter from diseases and pests
During the planting season, garden strawberries can be affected by fungal diseases: gray rot, various spots. In this case, the bushes must be sprayed with 1% Bordeaux liquid or biological fungicides Rhizoplan, Phytosporin M, Alirin, etc.
Also, strawberries can be affected by a dangerous pest-strawberry mite.
The insect itself can not be seen with the naked eye, but the sick plant leaves shrivel, and then fall off. The tick makes the plant weak, which reduces the yield. It is difficult to defeat this pest, it is necessary to carry out 3-4 treatments per season.
For this purpose, special preparations are used, for example, Actara, Bi-58, bioinsecticide Fitoverm. Also, treatment from this pest can be combined with treatment from fungal diseases and add colloidal sulfur to the Bordeaux liquid (100 g of sulfur per 10 liters of Bordeaux mixture).
Important note about weeding! Weeding strawberries in autumn is not recommended, because it can damage the root system of plants, which will not have time to recover before frost. The best option is weeding at the end of summer or processing with any permitted herbicide.
How to mulch strawberries and when
to Mulch and cover a strawberry bed in the fall after the first frost. A Bush that has passed sub-zero temperatures will become more hardened and will easily survive the winter.
The best shelter for wintering strawberries is snow. It is he who is able to reliably cover the bushes and protect them from soil cracking, vyprevaniya, freezing and other misfortunes.
Also, the ideal shelter for garden strawberries is needles – it does not get wet, does not stick together and does not attract mice. If you can’t get coniferous litter or lapnik, then choose another suitable material – straw, compost, humus, dry leaves, etc.
If foliage is selected as insulation, make sure that there are no diseases on it. Pathogenic organisms can easily move to the sheltered culture and destroy it.
Straw is often home to rodents. It is especially attractive to mice if there are seeds left in it. Therefore, the construction of a shelter made of straw can be dangerous for strawberries. In addition, when the humidity is high, the straw can get stuck, which will lead to rotting of the bushes under it.
Not do this
Novice gardeners often make mistakes when working with strawberries.
Must not:
* trim bushes close to the roots or leave a mustache. It is necessary to remove all the tendrils from the bushes, since their development requires energy, which means that strawberries may not have enough strength in the winter;
· stop watering after harvesting berries;
* cover with a thick film (if the weather is still warm) and other mulch prematurely.
This leads to a decrease in yields for the next year. To avoid this outcome, you should study the nuances of processing plants in the autumn period.
(The material was prepared by experts of the Tatarstan club “Green bed”).
Source: www.agroxxi.ru
