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After a long winter, strawberries, like all other plants, need feeding. After all, if the soil scanty, a good harvest cannot be expected. When the gardener removes the winter shelter, clears the bushes of last year's foliage, removes diseased plants, it will be time to feed the strawberries. In order to choose the right fertilizer for strawberries, it is necessary to assess the condition of the plants, know the age of the bushes, and analyze the soil.
How to feed strawberries, what fertilizers for strawberries to prefer, how to determine the right time for feeding - this will be an article about this.
How to fertilize strawberries
Feeding strawberries, like other horticultural crops, can be carried out with both mineral and organic fertilizers. There is no definite answer to the question of what is the best way to fertilize the bushes: both purchased complexes and home remedies have advantages.
So, mineral supplements can be purchased at a pharmacy or a specialized agricultural store. These formulations require precise dosage, and sometimes compliance with the preparation technology (dissolving in water, combining with other chemicals).
In order to accurately calculate the dosage of mineral fertilizer for strawberries, you must carefully read the instructions for the preparation, as well as know the approximate composition of the soil. Excessive chemicals will quickly burn leaves or roots, and strawberries can shed ovaries and flowers.
Feeding strawberries with organic compounds is safer: the soil will take as much fertilizer as it needs. The only exception is fresh manure or bird droppings - such fertilizing for strawberry bushes is not used, manure must be fermented.
It is very convenient and beneficial to mulch strawberry bushes with organic compounds such as compost or humus. The best time to apply mulch is in spring, when the bushes are free of flowers and ovaries. Once a layer of humus or compost has been laid, you do not have to worry about feeding strawberries until the end of the current season - the bushes have enough nutrients for good flowering and a bountiful harvest.
Plants are not used to processing complex feeding, because they received the necessary substances in a finished form.
The best option is considered to be a combined feeding of strawberries using both organic and mineral substances. Such a balanced feeding will allow you to get a decent harvest and not worry about an overabundance of toxins and the effect of berries on human health.
Feeding strawberries in the first year after planting
The feeding schedule and the amount of fertilizer for the bushes directly depends on their age. Very young plants planted last year are recommended to be fed only with mineral fertilizers.
Young strawberries did not bear fruit yet, the plants only increased the root system and green mass, so the soil did not have time to deplete - all the substances necessary for the development and ripening of fruits remained in the soil.
Mineral dressing is needed only in order to strengthen the immunity of strawberry bushes, to make them stronger in the fight against diseases and pests. An excellent fertilization option for strawberries in the first year of its life will be a complex feeding:
- Potassium, phosphorus and nitrogen must be mixed in equal proportions.
- Calculate the amount of fertilizer so that about 100 grams of a complex additive per square meter.
- Spread the mixed granules between the strawberry bushes and loosen the soil a little to embed the fertilizer into the soil.
This method will allow fertilizers to gradually flow to the roots, being absorbed by the strawberries from the soil along with water. A good harvest of large berries is guaranteed for the gardener!
The optimal time for the first feeding of strawberries is April, when flower stalks are just beginning to form on the bushes.
Spring feeding of adult bushes
For several seasons, strawberries absorb all the necessary trace elements and chemical compounds from the soil - the soil is depleted, so the berries become smaller, and the harvest becomes scarce.
It is possible to compensate for the lack of nutrients in the spring, when the earth has already warmed up a little and dried out, and the strawberries have awakened and started up young shoots.
Old strawberries are usually fed three times:
- as soon as young leaves appear;
- before flowering;
- at the stage of fruit formation.
First feeding of strawberries
The best fertilizer for strawberries in the spring is organic. As soon as the bushes grow, young leaves begin to appear on them, you need to remove last year's foliage, clean the beds and apply fertilizer.
The land around the bushes must be loosened, being careful not to damage the roots. Then you can spread chicken droppings, cow dung or humus between the rows. It is advisable to cover the fertilizer with a layer of earth. Such top dressing will additionally act as mulch, and organic components will be gradually absorbed by the roots of strawberries, in the right amount.
If the land on the plot with strawberries is severely depleted, or perennial plants grow there that have already brought more than one crop, a more detailed approach will be required: a balanced complex of organic and mineral fertilizers is needed.
Prepare top dressing as follows: 0.5 kg of cow dung is diluted in a bucket of water, mixed and a tablespoon of ammonium sulfate is added there. Each strawberry bush should be watered with about a liter of this fertilizer.
Second feeding
The time for the second feeding comes when inflorescences form on the strawberry bushes. In order for the flowering to be abundant, and each peduncle will turn into an ovary, the plants must be additionally fertilized.
It is advisable to use mineral supplements at this stage. This composition works well:
- a tablespoon of potassium;
- two tablespoons of nitrophoska (or nitroammophoska);
- 10 liters of water.
Each bush needs about 500 grams of such feeding.
The third stage of dressing
This stage of dressing should coincide with the period of berry formation. To make the fruits large and tasty, it is better to use organic fertilizers, because minerals can leave not very useful chemical compounds in the berries.
Infusion is considered a very effective and affordable fertilizer. weed herbs. For its preparation, absolutely any weeds are suitable, which can be specially harvested or use those that were dumped from garden beds.
Weeds need to be chopped, chopped with a knife, and poured into a container. It is better to use plastic containers for these purposes, since metal buckets can oxidize and react, spoiling the composition of the fertilizer.
The grass is poured with water so that it is covered. The container is covered and placed in a warm place for a week. During this time, fermentation will occur when the process is over, the solution is diluted with water in a ratio of 1:10 and the strawberry bushes are watered under the root.
Foliar dressing of strawberry bushes
Many gardeners are concerned about the question: "Is it possible to feed strawberries by the foliar method?" Really, feeding strawberries by irrigating their leaves with a special nutrient mixture is considered quite effective.
Bushes can be treated with nitrogen-containing preparations. Such fertilization stimulates the growth and development of bushes, and also has a positive effect on the formation of ovaries and their number.
Spraying strawberry bushes is even more effective than root dressing. The fact is that the leaves absorb nutrients much better and deliver them faster to all plant tissues.
This is best done in the early morning or evening when the sun goes down. Suitable for foliar feeding and cloudy weather, but if it rains, the treatment will have to be repeated.
Strawberry leaves will gradually absorb minerals, so re-processing will only be necessary in case of rain.
Recipes of folk fertilizers for strawberries
As practice shows, folk remedies are sometimes no less effective than specially selected mineral complexes or expensive organic matter.
There are some particularly successful recipes:
- Bakers yeast. The essence of dressings using conventional baker's yeast is that they create an ideal environment for the reproduction of microorganisms. These microbes recycle the soil, releasing nitrogen useful for plants into it. Thus, the soil is populated with the necessary organisms, it becomes nutritious and loose. The most common, but effective, recipe using baker's yeast: a kilogram of fresh yeast is dissolved in five liters of warm water and a glass of sugar is added there. The composition will be ready when the fermentation process is over. Then 0.5 liters of fertilizer is diluted in a bucket of water and the mixture is used to water the strawberries.
- A mixture of yeast and black bread. The crusts of any rye bread are added to the usual yeast composition, the mixture is infused for several days and is also used for watering strawberries.
- Spoiled milk. Strawberries bear fruit well on slightly acidic soils, so the main task of the gardener is to reduce the acidity level of the soil. Fermented milk products such as yogurt, kefir, whey help well in this case. Additionally, the earth is saturated with trace elements such as phosphorus, potassium, sulfur. In addition, sour milk can be applied not only under the root, but also used to irrigate bushes: this will protect strawberries from aphids and spider mites.
The choice of fertilizer and adherence to the feeding schedule is the key to a good harvest of tasty and large strawberries. To maintain the bushes, it is not at all necessary to spend money; strawberries can be fed with organic fertilizers or folk remedies can be used to feed them. You can learn more about such budget fertilizers from the video:
Thank you very much for your article. I received a lot of important information for myself. I have been dealing with strawberries recently and I want to do everything right and on time.
Thanks for the interesting and informative article. I have been growing strawberries recently. Very interesting tips about feeding with yeast, black bread and sour milk.I will definitely try, otherwise I don't really want to treat it with chemicals, then I will have to eat it all.