How to care for strawberries so that there are a lot of berries

How to care for strawberries before flowering

Caring for plants begins from the moment when the snow melts, and the soil dries and warms up. To begin, clear the beds of mulch, if used for shelter, and anything left over from last year.

Remove dried and simply old leaves from the bushes, and it is better to tear them off at the root, and not cut them off. If stumps from infected leaves are left, the disease can again infect the plant. Loosen the earth in the beds.

By the way, at the same time, strawberries can be transplanted to a new place. Many experienced gardeners recommend doing this procedure every 3-4 years. To transfer strawberries to another bed, carefully dig them out along with an earthen clod and place them in a prepared hole. Don't forget to water afterwards.

Please note that the plant will feel great in place of onions, garlic, carrots, radishes, celery, dill, parsley. But potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants will not be the best predecessors. The beds that are freed from bushes with berries are suitable for cucumbers, zucchini, carrots, beets, onions and garlic.

After transplanting, strawberries will begin to bear fruit in full force only in the second year. So it is better not to transplant all the bushes at once, so as not to be left without a good harvest.

In the spring, you can do the first top dressing. Means will suit different, but it is better to choose one of the options. For example, watering with a solution of ammonium nitrate or urea will be beneficial: 1 tablespoon of any drug should be diluted in 10 liters of water. Complex mineral or organo-mineral fertilizers, which are bred according to the instructions from the package, will also come in handy. From organics, an infusion of mullein or chicken manure is good, and from folk remedies - yeast, iodine, wood ash, and even ammonia. How to use them, we talked in detail in this article.

Another mandatory element of care is watering. There should be enough moisture so that the earth does not have time to dry out completely, but it is not necessary to make a swamp either. On average, moisturizing strawberries twice a week is enough, or more often if the weather is very hot.

How to care for strawberries during flowering and fruiting

For a good harvest strawberries need water. If you water rarely and little, especially in the heat, there will be fewer fruits. And the berries that are tied will turn out to be small or deformed, with large seeds and, most importantly, not very tasty.

With the beginning of flowering, you can water the beds every three days, with the exception of rainy days, when moisture is already in excess. The best time is early morning or evening. In extreme heat, when the berries are already tied, the intervals can be reduced, but you should not swamp the beds. Water should be poured under the root of about a liter per bush. It is especially important to do this in the morning, otherwise burns may appear on the leaves.

At the same time, beds with strawberries can be mulched. So more moisture will remain in the soil, and the berries, and the whole plant, will come into less contact with the soil - this will protect them from diseases and pests. You don't have to worry about loosening and weeding after such protection. The main thing is not to rush with the procedure and let the soil warm up properly.

Straw is perfect for covering, and even mowed on your own site and dried weeds. The main thing is that seeds do not start on them, otherwise they may germinate.

So, lift the leaves and lay the straw around the bush to make a kind of nest with a strawberry in the center. Just try not to leave the aerial part of the plant under the mulch, including the set berries.

An alternative is fabric covering materials, which can be bought at gardening stores. But sawdust is not the best option, they are compacted and rot for a long time.

Relevant and top dressing. The right moment is the beginning of flowering. And once again, once is enough not to overdo it. Complex fertilizers, which contain potassium and phosphorus, as well as special products for strawberries, will do a good job. For example, you can dissolve a tablespoon of nitrophoska in 10 liters of water to water a square meter of plantings. From organic matter, infusions of mullein and bird droppings will again come in handy. And from folk remedies - boric acid, yeast, ash or nettle infusion.

When the strawberries fade and berries are tied on it, it is worth getting rid of the shoots, which are also called mustaches. If you leave them, the crop will shrink, and the plantings themselves will thicken pretty quickly. Leaving a mustache makes sense only if you want to propagate a healthy and prolific bush.

For one plant, 1-2 shoots are enough. And even on them it is worth removing everything after the first outlet.

The time for the next fertilization also comes with the onset of fruiting. Although often experienced gardeners and gardeners refuse this procedure, especially if they fed the bushes during flowering. Of the funds, it is better to prefer organics, the same compost, mullein and chicken manure, but for store-bought chemicals, the moment is not the most suitable. But no matter what top dressing you prefer, you need to make them only at the root, so as not to spoil the crop.

How to care for strawberries after fruiting

At this time, you need to take care of the plants again and feed them to help restore resources and lay the foundation for a good harvest next season. The easiest option is complex mineral fertilizers, such as ammophoska, "autumn fertika" and potassium humate, which can be used after harvest and in mid-September. From organic matter, you can take all the same mullein and chicken droppings. And from folk remedies fit green infusion of quinoa, nettle and other weeds from your own garden.

Watering also should not be stopped, although now there will be enough abundant moisture once every 7-10 days. If rainy weather sets in, you can completely refuse it. It is allowed to pour water both under the root and directly on the bush.

In late September or early October, remove dried and damaged leaves from the bushes, trying to leave very small stumps. If there are a lot of lesions, the bushes can be mowed down altogether. At the same time, you can get rid of unnecessary rosettes that have taken root due to the mustache left unattended.

On remontant varieties, even at this time there may be flowers. Carefully cut them off, as the crop is unlikely to have time to ripen, but it will take the strength from the plant. Already tied berries can not be touched, they have much more chances.