Caring for strawberries after harvesting

Strawberries are a berry crop with juicy and aromatic fruits. The yield of these fruits largely depends on proper care of the bushes after the previous season's harvest. Growing a berry bush doesn't end with harvesting; instead, watering is essential. top dressing, improving the soil structure, pruning and preventative treatments against harmful organisms contribute to the formation of flower buds for the next season.

Caring for strawberries after harvesting

Picking delicious berries from the bushes is only one stage of growing a perennial herbaceous plant. Some gardeners consider the post-fruiting phase to be more critical, as this is when the future harvest is formed. If proper procedures are not followed strawberry care at the end of summer and in autumn it may not be possible to correct the situation in the spring.

Watering

After fruiting, the bushes need time to recover, strengthen, and form new buds. Maintaining good soil moisture will help with this. Water the plants generously every week. It's important to ensure that not only the topsoil but also the meter below is saturated with moisture. Surface irrigation will not be beneficial and may even promote fungal diseases due to persistent water stagnation in the roots.

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Soil treatment

After watering, the spaces between the rows are loosened. Carefully work the hoe around the tree trunks to avoid damaging the root system. The bushes are hilled, covering the exposed adventitious roots with soil. At the same time, weeds are removed. To slow weed growth, the beds are mulched with sawdust. This technique will keep the soil virtually clean as winter approaches. Furthermore, mulch will slow moisture evaporation and prevent the formation of an air-tight crust on the soil surface.

Top dressing: fertilizers and technology

Strawberries respond well to organic matter. Natural farming enthusiasts choose the following: horse manure, compost, cow dung, and bird droppings. Organic fertilizers can be replaced with complex mineral agrochemicals or alternated with them. Nitroammophoska, which contains nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, as well as additional micronutrients such as magnesium and sulfur, is effective.

The application method depends on the chosen product. The most common methods are:

1. After loosening and weeding, fragments of cow dung or horse manure are spread around the area so that subsequent watering and precipitation gradually dissolve the organic matter and deliver nutrients to the plant roots.
2. Chicken manure is dissolved in water at a ratio of 1:20. The fertilizer mixture is used as a watering solution under the bushes. This volume is enough for 8 plants.
3. Mineral fertilizers are evenly distributed throughout the plot and incorporated with a hoe during loosening. The spaces between the rows are then generously watered and covered with a layer of mulch.

Strawberry pruning: timing and schedule

An important agricultural measure for maintaining yield. Regular varieties are pruned immediately after harvest. If the strawberry bushes are everbearing, it's best not to prune them after the first year of fruiting. In this case, it's advisable to remove only weak, damaged shoots and runners (if any). This is because everbearing varieties only show high yields for the first two years. After that, yields decline significantly.

Before beginning the procedure, prepare gardening tools: a shovel, sharp pruning shears, or scissors. Key steps:

1. If there are old or severely diseased bushes, they are dug up and destroyed.
2. For the remaining specimens, the foliage is cut to a height of 10 cm from the ground.
3. The mustache is removed.
4. All plant debris is removed from the beds, as it can be a source of diseases.

Protection from diseases and pests

With proper care, the crop exhibits good immunity. However, diseases can also develop due to factors beyond the gardener's control: unfavorable weather conditions, a high level of infection in the soil, or specific plant protection regimens in a particular growing region. In such circumstances, preventative treatments can help prevent crop losses due to disease and pest infestation. strawberries after harvest.

Spray the plantings after removing plant debris, which serves as a breeding ground for pests and infections. A fungicide solution is used to prevent outbreaks of fungal diseases. If strawberry weevils, spider mites, or aphids have been observed feeding this year, insecticide treatments are used. Spray the bushes in dry, windless weather.

To ensure consistently abundant harvests, strawberries require constant care, even after harvest. Adhering to proper cultivation practices will allow the plants to quickly recover and produce many new buds.