To obtain a full harvest, strawberries should be cared for not only during the fruiting period, but also throughout the rest of the year. There is a lot of controversy about how to prepare berries for winter. Some cut the strawberries, others cover them with film. In order not to bite your elbows later, there is a need to understand how the plant should really be prepared for winter. Below are some tips on this issue.
There are a number of directions for preparing berries for wintering.
Bush pruning
There is an opinion among summer residents that in the fall it is necessary to cut off strawberry leaves abundantly, but this is not entirely true. Only those leaves that are dry, damaged by insects or exposed to diseases are trimmed or torn off. With strawberry tendrils, everything is simpler - they are cut off before winter, every single one, since they take a significant percentage of nutrients from the main bush.
Top dressing
It is necessary to feed the berry not only during flowering and fruiting. In order for the plant to survive the cold season relatively painlessly, it should also be fed. Organic substances such as ash, humus or a solution of bird droppings have proven themselves to be effective as fertilizer. Fertilizers can also be combined with each other. You can determine which components should be fertilized by remembering the fruiting period. If the berries were small, then the bush did not have enough potassium, phosphorus or magnesium.
Watering
Many gardeners, after finishing picking berries, for some reason stop watering their strawberries, which is a big mistake, as it worsens the conditions for the plant’s development and will negatively affect the future harvest. Watering the bushes continues until the end of October with a frequency of once a week. They can only be suspended when the weather is too rainy and the ground is saturated with moisture.
Shelter
Wintering strawberries need shelter during the cold season. In those regions where there is no shortage of snow, it makes no sense to additionally cover the berries, and where a small amount of snow falls during the winter, gardeners should take care of mulching. It is done after the first frost; the soil around the bush is first loosened. Materials for mulching can include sawdust, peat or compost. Less commonly, hay is used to cover strawberries for the winter.
Pest treatment
As practice shows, spraying strawberry leaves with a solution of vitriol or potassium permanganate gives a positive result in the fight against most insects. Garlic planted with strawberries will also repel pests. But before processing the plant, you should weed it, removing weeds.
Preparing strawberries for winter does not require a lot of effort. Moreover, if you are not lazy, the harvest of the next season will bring satisfaction from the work done.
