Strawberry

How to care for strawberries in autumn and properly prepare for winter

Strawberries are the first berry to ripen in early spring. She, like all representatives of berry crops, has a number of valuable qualities. This is an early entry into the season of fruiting, and annual high yields, and a quick return on all costs, and excellent taste, dietary and medicinal properties. However, in order to achieve such results, it is very important to skillfully care for it in the fall, because proper care of strawberries after fruiting can stimulate the laying of nutrients in the root system, which the plant will feed on during the long winter. And it was during this period that its fruit buds are laid for the future harvest.

Therefore, in order to get a lot of tasty and large berries in the new year, it is necessary to carry out all the main activities for the autumn care of strawberries and their proper preparation for winter.

The main activities for the care of strawberries in autumn

Strawberries should be taken care of not only during the beginning of the growing season or active fruiting, but also after harvesting the berries, in other words, in the fall, before the beginning of winter.

After fruiting and in autumn, in order to prepare strawberries for winter, a number of activities should be carried out:

  • Carry out pruning (cut off leaves and peduncles, remove all whiskers, leaving part for reproduction).
  • Weeding and loosening.
  • Apply top dressing.

By the way! More details about autumn feeding strawberries after fruiting read in this material.

  • Continue watering.
  • Treat against pests and diseases.
  • Mulch and cover for the winter (especially in regions with snowless winters and severe frosts).

Important! All procedures for caring for strawberries in the fall and preparing them for winter begin only after the last berries have departed (fruiting ends) and the harvest is fully harvested.

By the way! At the same time, you can and even needtransplant or plant strawberriesby propagating it in one of the vegetative ways.

Video: caring for strawberries after fruiting from A to Z

Pruning strawberries: when is it better - after harvest or in the fall

The opinions of gardeners about whether to trim the leaves of strawberries in the fall often differ.

Many gardeners, taught by the old rules, are accustomed to pruning strawberry leaves in the fall, straightening bare bushes for the winter.

Others - quite rightly believe that strawberry bushes should not be freed from foliage before wintering, it is only necessary to cut some of the leaves in summer.

Why! If you cut off the entire leafy cover completely, then the plant will experience real stress and will direct all its strength to restore green mass. This process will noticeably weaken the shrub, depriving the forces that should have been directed at the formation of peduncles - the laying of the future harvest. It turns out that such unnecessary and untimely pruning of strawberries in the fall will potentially reduce the amount of harvest you will receive in the spring.

Besides, lush leaves are the strawberry's natural hiding place, which saves her from freezing in winter.

So, most still agree that it is most correct to cut strawberry bushes after fruiting and picking berries, in other words, in the second half of July and early August. Cutting at a later date is highly undesirable.

There is also an opinion that pruning can be postponed until late August or early September, and minor stress will only stimulate the future laying of fruit stalks. However, it is still better to adhere to the time-tested opinion of experienced gardeners.

Note! The site has a detailed article on pruning strawberries in summer after fruiting.

Video: how to properly trim strawberries after harvest

Spring pruning

One pruning after strawberry fruiting is not enough, you will have to prune it in the spring. After the first spring sun warms up, and the strawberries start to grow, at this moment they should be carefully examined and dealt with recovery after winter and spring care.

With regard to pruning, in the spring are subject to removal:

  • dead stems;
  • frozen leaves;
  • foliage creeping on the ground - it has outlived itself;
  • if there is a damaged part on the greens, then this leaf is also completely removed.

By the way! More information on spring pruning strawberries you'll find here.

Loosening and weeding

Once you've pruned your strawberries, it's time to weed well and loosen up the soil between the rows so that the roots of the plant get enough oxygen.

Advice! When loosening a strawberry bed, you should not get too close to the root system, which is located quite superficially, it is better to retreat from the base of the plant by 12-15 centimeters.

After loosening, you need to add additional fresh soil under the bushes. This is necessary due to the fact that during summer growth, the roots crawl out. Subsequently, an excessively bare root can cause the bush to freeze out in winter and reduce the yield in the next season.

Watering after harvest and autumn

Despite the fact that the strawberries have finished bearing fruit, watering should not be stopped, especially since the second half of July and August are the very height of summer, which is often arid. Watering should be at least once every 7-10 days. Do not bring to the point that the plants themselves begin to "signal" the need for watering - the bushes will wilt, and the foliage will dry out, but it is also impossible to pour until the bush is "locked".

Advice! After each watering, if you want the nutrient moisture to remain longer, the aisles should be loosened, and even better mulch.

With the onset of autumn, if the rains begin, then you practically won't have to water yourself anymore, nature will do everything for you. But if autumn turns out to be dry, you will have to moisturize the bushes yourself and regularly (after all, the laying of flower buds depends on this).

Important! Do not forget to do the autumn water-charging watering before the first frost.

Fertilizing strawberries after fruiting and in autumn

In addition to fertilizing in the spring before the flowering of strawberries, you need to carry out a similar event after harvesting, namely immediately after pruning and already in the fall before the plant leaves for the winter.

By the way! About autumn feeding strawberries after fruiting read everything in detail in this article.

After the summer pruning of strawberries, the bushes require nitrogento restore green mass for winter.

Actually, that's what (what nitrogen fertilizers) you can feed the strawberries after fruiting (everything under the bush, without falling on the leaves):

Advice! Feed with nitrogen fertilizer during this period should be careful not to allow the plant to fatten.

Already in the fall (although some give the second "autumn" feeding almost immediately after the first, after a couple of days, but it is better to do this not earlier than the end of summer) - it's time to feed the strawberries with phosphorus-potassium fertilizers (so that the bushes are better laid flower buds, the plant's immunity and root system got stronger before wintering). Best suited as such an organic feed wood ash... For example, you can add under each bush 1 tbsp. tablespoons of ash, mixing it with fertile soil, or to water with an ash solution, or even better with a daily infusion or even an extractor hood (1-2 glasses per 10 liters of water), consumption is 0.5 liters per bush. An ash solution can be carried out and foliar feeding (spraying) on ​​the leaf, but in this case, it is better to reduce the concentration by 2 times.

If you allow the use of mineral fertilizers, then your funds are superphosphate and potassium sulfate (potassium sulfate)... It can be scattered and mixed with the soil (while loosening), or even better, liquid dressing can be done by dissolving in water.

Advice! If you don't want to bother at all, you can use a ready-made complex mineral autumn fertilizer (according to the instructions).

Video: how to feed strawberries in the fall after pruning

Autumn processing of strawberries from pests and diseases

Before covering strawberries, you should carry out a mandatory eradicating spraying of strawberry bushes from diseases. Most often used for these purposes 1% Bordeaux liquid solution (100 grams per 10 liters).

What else can you treat strawberries in the fall from diseases and pests?

  • From pests, especially against tick, you can use - Fitoverm (Aktofit), Bitoxibacillin, Vertimek, Masai.
  • From strawberry diseases, especially against brown spot, - Horus (from all spots), Topaz (from powdery mildew), Fitosporin.

Preparing strawberries for winter: how and what to cover

"Do I need to cover strawberries for the winter?" - this question is often asked by many gardeners. The answer is unambiguous: it is simply necessary to protect strawberry bushes from freezing temperatures.

The need to shelter strawberries for the winter arises due to the fact that in recent years winters without snow, but with severe frosts, have become more frequent. As a rule, such weather conditions negatively affect the condition of all plants. Therefore, if you do not want the strawberries to freeze in the event of severe frosts, you need to cover them.

Note! Strawberries are sheltered only in late autumn (after the rains), when the first frosts come.

Video: do I need to cover strawberries for the winter

How to cover strawberries for the winter

As the simplest shelter for strawberries, you can simply spud a bushby adding fertile soil under the roots of the plant, for example, peat, good humus or rotted compost (in general, this is also a kind of mulching and at the same time feeding).

The best way to prepare strawberry bushes for winter is mulching.

As mulch, you can use coniferous litter, leaves of barren trees and shrubs, dry tops of flowers, sawdust, hay or grass cuttings.

Important! Detailed information about ways to mulch strawberries in autumn and spring you'll find in this article.

And if you live in a private house and grow strawberries there, then when the snow falls, it is best to put a white blanket on the bushes. It is in these conditions that they will be able to winter best.

If you have very harsh conditions in winter, then you can cover strawberry bushes with a special non-woven fabric or agrofiber, for example, spunbond or agrospan.

But before covering the strawberry beds, it is advisable to install arcs, and then stretch them with the covering material, although you can cover it superficially.

Naturally, any covering material under which strawberry bushes were hiding in winter is removed either in the spring or even better after the last spring frosts have left.

Video: how to properly cover strawberries for the winter

Features of caring for remontant strawberries after fruiting in autumn

Important! The repair strawberry differs from the usual one in that it is capable of bearing fruit throughout the summer period, which means that it does not need pruning during this period.

However, sanitary pruning of remontant raspberries after fruiting and harvesting should be carried out regularly, getting rid of diseased and dry leaves. You should also get rid of unnecessary mustache.

Timing! The full care of remontant strawberries, interestingly, begins precisely in the fall, and not from the middle of summer, as for the usual one. It is in September, as a rule, that the last days of active fruiting fall.

Otherwise, there are no fundamental differences - she still needs loosening and weeding from weeds, top dressing, treatment from diseases and pests, as well as mulching and shelter for the winter.

Thus, preparing strawberries for winter is not that difficult. But you should approach the autumn care of the shrub with all seriousness, because it depends on what the berry harvest will be next year.

Note! Summer-autumn is a great time for planting mustache and strawberry seedlings.

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