How is strawberry fed after harvesting, how to feed and how to properly prepare the bushes for winter, so that next year an excellent tasty crop is obtained? The answers to these questions can be found in this material. Strawberry bushes can bear fruit for several years without transplanting, but only if they are properly taken care of.
Care after collection
It seems that in mid-June, summer is just beginning, but strawberries by this time are already finishing fruiting. Other plants are actively growing at this time, including a variety of weeds and it is important not to start your berry plantation. If you don’t sprinkle strawberries in time in the summer, then in the fall this can cause difficulties: overgrown weeds will be difficult to separate from the strawberry bushes. Also remember that weeds greatly deplete the soil.
Gardeners advise immediately after picking strawberries to ensure proper care for the bushes. It consists in weeding the beds and between the beds. In addition, you need to introduce mulch material into the soil, which will help to kill all possible pests of this territory and protect the bushes from diseases. The soil must be loosened.
Pruning
Before you begin to feed strawberries after harvest (what to feed will be discussed in the final part of this material), you will need to trim the tendrils and bushes. After the fruiting period, when the berries took all the useful things from the soil, the greens will begin to grow actively and flower buds will begin to be laid for next year. In parallel, the old leaves die off, tendrils appear. Remember that the antennae deplete the strawberry bushes - they must be cut off.
Old foliage dies on its own, but it should also be disposed of. After all, a large number of various pests live in it. During fruiting, strawberries are not fertilized or weeded, and this leads to the fact that pests want to quickly move to young leaves of the bush.
Very often, after a period of fruiting, when it is impossible to loosen the soil, the earth becomes hard and dense. As a result, additional roots of the bush may appear on the surface, which also will not benefit the future crop. So, strawberry care should be started immediately after harvesting. First of all, delete all leaves without exception. Yes, this is total pruning, but it will have a beneficial effect on plantation yields next year.
Cutting off all leaflets reduces the potential for disease and pest formation. Moreover, each strawberry leaf lives only about 60 days, then begins to actively age. Old leaves must be cut off, young ones, if desired, can be cut off or left in place, but make sure that fungal diseases do not form there or pests settle.
Mandatory stages of care for strawberries after fruiting:
1. If the leaves have abundant spotting, this indicates a defeat of the plant with a strawberry tick. Cut such a bush completely, removing all the leaves. To process a bed special means from this pest.
2. If bushes that are older than two years grow on the plantation, it is recommended to remove all foliage from them after fruiting.
3. The mustache is cut off at all strawberry bushes surely! Antennae are used only for propagation of bushes; they are useless anymore and only take everything useful from the soil.
4. If a single bush has several mustaches, try to cut everything as close to the base as possible. Mustache pruning is done several times a season.
5.The root system of old bushes can grow and climb out of the soil. It is not recommended for more than three years to grow this berry in one place. It is imperative to carry out loosening of the soil after harvesting and mulching to close the protruding roots.
6. Watering strawberries, which no longer bear fruit, is not required. If there is no rain throughout the summer, you can rarely, but plentifully, water the beds.
Top dressing
Fertilizing strawberries after harvest than to feed is an acute issue for many gardeners. It is difficult to get a good crop without additional fertilizer of the bushes. Treatment for diseases and pests is carried out depending on which particular concern bothers Strawberry, we will understand the pests in order.
Strawberry mite
He loves young leaves, so their deformation and yellowing are the main signs of infection. After harvesting, treat the plots with karbofos (dilute three tablespoons in a bucket of water).
Spider mite
It manifests itself as a web on the inside of the leaves. The Fitoverm drug, two ml of which is diluted in a liter of pure water, will help get rid of the pest.
Strawberry weevil
It feeds on young leaves and buds of a plant, and waits for the right time in the soil. To get rid of parasites, take malathion in the amount of 60 grams per 8 liters of water.
Angelica
Question: I have a planting strawberry planted on the plot, it bears fruit until December (I live in the Krasnodar Territory), how to care, when to feed, is it possible to cut all the leaves for the winter?