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Garden strawberries are everyone’s favorite delicacy
During each summer season, the strawberry bush goes through several important stages of development. It is in our hands to direct the plant in the right direction: nip all pranks and mischief in the bud and force it to get down to business – active fruiting. It’s like with a small child: reward good behavior with candy. Only in our case, we replace the sweetness with fertilizer and give it in advance – shortly before the expected “correct behavior”.
It is worth mentioning right away that we will not take into account the fertilization of the soil with nutrients during the planting of garden strawberries (the ideal time for this is the end of July and the beginning of August), but will only recall the importance of such an agricultural technique. Adding a sufficient amount of fertilizer to the soil (a bucket of humus, 2 tablespoons of superphosphate, 1 tablespoon of potassium sulfate and 1-2 glasses of ash per m²) will not only guarantee an active start of the young plants, but will also save the gardener from unnecessary troubles in the next season – the rosettes of the first year of life will not need to be fed.
Garden strawberries begin to be fed from the second year of life.
We will continue our conversation about 2-4-year-old plants that have entered the period of active fruiting. Such workers need to be provided with a “buffet” to maintain their vitality – at least 5 different fertilizings per season, which should include “caloric” organic matter, macro- and microelements.
First feeding
Strawberry bushes, exhausted by the winter cold, need help to restore their strength in early spring (immediately after the snow melts). At this time, the most important “vitamin” that will strengthen the plants and help them actively start growing is nitrogen. But before you treat your strawberries with such a delicacy, do not forget to clean the bed and remove all last year’s plant remains.
Well-rotted manure is an ideal option for spring feeding of garden strawberries
A solution of mullein is ideal as a nitrogen delicacy. It is easy to prepare if you have rotted cattle manure on hand. Take a couple of kilograms of the natural product, pour in 10 liters of water, mix thoroughly and apply fertilizer – pour 1 liter of solution under each bush.
An alternative to the mullein solution can be a nutrient mixture based on bird droppings. Dilute the dry droppings with water in a 1:1 ratio and let it sit for 7-10 days in a warm place. After that, pour 15 liter of the infused “chatterbox” into 1 liters of water and fertilize the plantings according to the same scheme – 1 liter per plant, trying not to wet the foliage with such a potion.
Urea – an alternative to manure and bird droppings
Some gardeners do not have the opportunity to get hold of such natural fertilizers, so they can go to the store and buy a package of urea – this is the same nitrogen, but of chemical origin in a granular form convenient for use. In the case of urea (carbamide), you will need to dilute 10 tablespoons of granules in 2 liters of water and pour 0,5 liters of such a nutrient solution under each strawberry bush.
Second feeding
Having grown stronger and having grown lush leaf rosettes, strawberry bushes enter another life cycle in a few weeks – they begin to form buds, spending quite a lot of energy on this important procedure. Since the number of ovaries directly depends on the number of blossomed flowers, we “encourage” garden strawberries during the budding period with a complex of macroelements, focusing on potassium.
The second feeding is carried out during the budding period.
For this purpose, you can use any complete mineral fertilizer, for example, nitroammophoska, and add to it a single-component preparation based on potassium, say, potassium salt. To prepare a nutrient solution, you will need to dilute 10 tablespoons of nitroammophoska and 2 tablespoon of potassium salt in 1 liters of water and pour 0,5 liters of the resulting mixture under each plant.
The third top dressing
Having pushed the garden strawberry to lush flowering with the second top dressing, we prepare a new “candy” – a top dressing that will help to get an ovary from each blossoming bud. Here, first of all, it is worth remembering such an element as boron, which increases the number of ovaries and reduces the number of empty flowers.
For this purpose, we buy a bag of boric acid from a pharmacy or gardening store and prepare a solution for foliar spraying based on this product – 10 g of powder (on the tip of a knife) per 2 liters of water. Since boric acid does not dissolve well in cold water, first we dilute the powder in a glass of hot water, and then pour the resulting mixture into a bucket of cold water.
Foliar feeding with boric acid is carried out during the period of mass flowering.
The effect will be much better if instead of a boric acid solution you treat the strawberry leaves with a liquid fertilizer containing a complex of microelements. For example, I use the drug “Uniflor Micro” for this purpose, which works great. I dissolve 10 ml of fertilizer in 5 liters of water and generously moisten the bushes with this preparation from a sprayer during the period of mass flowering.
The fourth fertilizing
Half the job is done – we have forced the garden strawberry to set a large number of fruits. Now it remains to preserve the formed ovary and help it turn into large juicy and sweet berries. For this purpose, we prepare a combined fertilizer, which should be as “caloric” as possible, because the plant spends a huge amount of energy during this difficult period and especially needs adequate nutrition.
During the period of berry filling, the plant needs “caloric” nutrition
According to the above recipe, we prepare a mullein solution, add a glass of sifted ash to 10 liters of such a nutrient mixture and let it brew for a day. Then, in this nutrient cocktail, dissolve 1 tablespoon of a complete mineral preparation (for example, the same nitroammophoska) and add 1 liter of the resulting solution under each bush.
If there is no mullein or ash in the garden, replace them with a universal organomineral preparation containing humic compounds and macroelements (Biohumus, Gumi, Bochka i 4 vedra, etc.).
Fifth dressing
Having collected a generous harvest of berries, it is too early to rest on your laurels – you do not want to be left with nothing next season, do you? To help the plants restore the strength spent during the fruiting period, lay numerous flower buds for the next season and properly prepare for the upcoming winter, we carry out the last feeding this year. This procedure should be carried out a couple of weeks after collecting the last berries, but no later than the beginning of August, because it is in August that garden strawberries lay flower buds, which will turn into berries in the new season.
Having collected a generous harvest, you need to help the plants restore the strength spent during the fruiting period.
For this purpose, we add dry single-component phosphorus and potassium preparations in the space between strawberry rows according to the instructions, or replace them with a complex preparation, for example, diammophoska (1 tablespoon per m²). An excellent option is a balanced “autumn” fertilizer (“FASCO Autumn”, FERTIKA “Autumn”, etc.), which contains a minimum amount of nitrogen and increased doses of phosphorus and potassium.
If you have not yet encountered such complexes, I recommend that you look at the selection of our market Autumn fertilizers for various garden plants. You will certainly choose something suitable.
Instead of “chemicals”, you can add sifted ash under the strawberries at the rate of 4-5 glasses per 1 m² of the bed. Carefully bury the fertilizers in the soil using a hand hoe, and then water the strawberry plantation generously. After this, it is necessary to mulch the soil surface in the bed with mature humus or compost with a layer of 2-3 cm, paying special attention to the bushes with excessively exposed hearts.
After harvesting, it is necessary to mulch the bushes with ripened humus.
If you methodically follow the above recommendations and keep your garden strawberries on such a hearty diet, a rich harvest will not keep you waiting. Just do not forget that even with the right diet, this crop, having entered a mature four-year age, begins to give up its positions and gradually loses its former productivity. Therefore, do not be lazy to regularly update the plantation, because now, having a ready-made menu for plants at hand, it will be much easier to take care of them.
Dear readers, what do you treat your garden strawberries with throughout the season? Share with us in the comments the recipes for feeding that help to achieve a generous harvest from this crop.