The most desired plant in any garden is strawberries. Its fruits are actively used for the preparation of various dessert dishes and preserves for the winter. However, for it to bear fruit and bring a good harvest, it needs quality and proper care. What to feed strawberries after fruiting and pruning, we want to tell in our article.
To get the welcome fee strawberry berries, it is required first of all to pick up and plant seedlings correctly. Seedlings of this culture are best purchased in special nurseries, which are in high demand among gardeners. But planting strawberries must be carried out only in the early spring.
When is the best time to prune strawberries?
Among gardeners, there are a lot of opinions about the term for trimming this crop. Some believe that pruning should be done in the summer after harvesting, while others say that pruning should be done in the fall, when the plant is preparing for winter.
Among professionals, there is an opinion that pruning must be performed both in summer and in autumn. After harvesting, tendrils that are not suitable for seedlings are removed. This option allows you to free the bushes from additional mass and improve its growth and subsequent fruiting.
But in the fall, pruning is done according to another system. In this case, damaged parts of the plant are removed, which can lead to diseases of the strawberry bush or the settlement of harmful insects.
Important! After the autumn strawberry pruning, bushes must be treated with a special solution with the addition of insecticides.
Post-Harvest Strawberry Care
After fruiting and harvesting from strawberry bushes, they need careful care. Indeed, despite the fact that the ovaries and fruits have ceased to form on the bushes, strawberries continue their development and growth.
Standard care routine behind strawberry bushes after harvesting is quality watering. To do this, regularly at least once a week, thoroughly moisten the soil under the bush. This will restore the plant and further increase the buds of the buds for the next crop.
In the care of strawberries, it is very important to loosen the soil under the bushes. To do this, after abundant watering using a chopper, we loosen the soil to a depth of 10 cm. Carefully cultivate the soil under the bushes themselves, since you can damage the root system and as a result the plant will die.
When loosening, be sure to remove all weeds and grass from the beds where this crop grows. This will not only keep the beds in a neat form, but also further improve the volume of the future crop. To prevent the abundant growth of weeds, after weeding, you can sprinkle the ground between the bushes with sawdust or small debris.
Strawberry dressing
If you are interested in how to feed strawberries after fruiting and harvesting? To we can recommend such organic fertilizers as:
- mullein;
- humus;
- manure;
- chicken litter.
There are more modern options in the form of mineral fertilizers with the addition of potassium, phosphorus, nitrogen and other minerals. Such fertilizer options allow you to quickly and efficiently feed the plant and prepare it for next year.
You should not feed strawberries with chlorine-based fertilizers, since the plant does not tolerate chlorine and may cease to bear fruit.
The process of feeding strawberry bushes is as follows:
1. choose the type of fertilizer;
2.then loosening the soil and complete weeding of beds with strawberries from weeds;
3. Further under the bushes and around the perimeter of the plot, with planted strawberries, spread the fertilizer;
4. The final stage is the watering of plants.
Subsequently, with each watering, the substance will dissolve, and all nutrients will go into the ground.
A faster option for feeding and fertilizing strawberries is a solution based on chicken manure. For cooking, ordinary water is used, in which fresh litter is bred. Then the solution is poured under each bush. The consumption of funds for feeding is calculated as follows in a bucket of 6-8 bushes.
Using ready-made fertilizer based on minerals for strawberries, proceed as follows. Fertilizer is taken and scattered on the beds with the plant. Then, using a chopper, top dressing is mixed with soil. Finally, the entire treated area is spilled with water.
In conclusion, it is worth noting that in the process of choosing how to feed strawberries after fruiting and harvesting, you should pay attention to options that have been tested by many gardeners. Also, be sure to follow all the rules of basic care for strawberries and then it will bring a good harvest every year.