The main work on strawberry beds is usually carried out in the fall. But caring for strawberries in the spring is also very important. In the first warm days, all gardeners, gardeners, gardeners rush to their dacha, plot, garden to see how the trees, bushes, our beds overwintered. I am sure that with such a detour of the plot we turn our attention to strawberries. How did she win over? What should be done first thing before the sleep mode is broken by the weather? We outline a plan of action.
As soon as the snow melts, you must carefully clear the plantation with strawberries. If you did not cut strawberries in the fall, then, for sure, the appearance of the beds is not very attractive: the leaves that have dried over the winter do not decorate them.
Strawberries in the spring after winter But we should not think that the strawberries are frozen - we cannot see the harvest. Nothing terrible happened. It is necessary to remove( cut or collect with light frequent fan-shaped rakes) all dried leaves, old flower stalks, and tendrils that have remained since last year. Do not be afraid if after pruning you have left on the strawberry bush only the central heart with green leaves. It should be so. Try not to touch him - this is a future bush with buds of buds, flowers, and berries.
Cut foliage should be removed, it is necessary to burn, so that they do not become a source of diseases, pests.
In the early spring, strawberries should be preventively treated for diseases and pests.
Biological products such as Fitosporin and Fitotsid can be used for treatment against diseases. From pests( mites, aphids, thrips) well helps early spring spraying with insecticides Actofit or Aktellik.
After harvesting dry, diseased leaves, you can spray a strawberry bordeaux liquid or other copper-containing preparations. This treatment in the spring can be repeated 2-3 times. They will save our strawberries from fungal diseases.
In the spring strawberries need additional fertilization with nitrogen fertilizers. By the way, over the entire growing season, it consumes a lot of nitrogen fertilizers.
The feeding of strawberries in spring is carried out in different ways: through watering or scattering dry fertilizer.
Dissolve 1 matchbox of ammonium nitrate in a bucket of water, pour it over the bed.
But I usually do not water in the spring, but scatter dry ammonium nitrate all over the strawberry glade. There will be more rain - dry granules will have time to dissolve, fall to the roots in a convenient form. The dosage is as follows: 1 matchbox of saltpeter per 1 square meter of plantation. But I try to scatter the granules not on the bushes, but nearby, in the aisle. The rains will do their work - the nutrients will go where they need to.
But nitrogen in fertilizers has such a feature - it evaporates easily. Therefore, after you sprinkled ammonium nitrate, you should gnaw between the rows, trying to dust the dry granules with earth.
Loosen the soil on a strawberry bed should be very careful, since the roots are located very close to the surface near the bushes. Loosening, in addition, will help preserve moisture on a strawberry plantation that has accumulated over the winter longer. To loosen the ground should at the same time slightly spud the bushes from all sides. Just be careful not to cover the heart of a strawberry bush with earth.
To “seal” the nitrogen in the ground, it is recommended to lightly water the rows. A lot of water is not necessary - the ground is still quite wet.
But do not reject organic. You will get the greatest effect from organic fertilizers on a strawberry plantation, if approximately half a year before planting the seedlings you will make rotted manure at the rate of half a ton per 1 hundred square meters. We plant strawberry seedlings usually in the fall, and in the spring we prepare this area: after spreading organic matter, the area is plowed up or dug up. That is, spring is the time of year when we are preparing the plot for the future garden strawberry plantation.
Strawberry Roxana variety in May So let's summarize. What, above all, is care for strawberries in the spring?
- Remove or trim dry leaves.
- Treatment of beds with copper-containing or biopreparations for fungal diseases.
- Treating the bushes with insecticides for pests that overwintered on the leaves and stalks of strawberries.
- Top dressing strawberry with nitrogen fertilizer.
