Summer is over, it's time to prepare strawberry bushes for winter. Before processing strawberries in the fall, you need to feed it with phosphorus and potash fertilizers. They will protect the bushes from diseases, make them stronger and help the plant to winter better. Two tablespoons of double superphosphate and potassium salt are added per square meter in late August or early September . Nitrogen is not added in the fall.
If fertilizers were applied before planting strawberries, then for the first year or two years the bushes do not feed. It also depends on the degree of soil fertility. The best results are obtained if organic and mineral fertilizers are applied in the fall. They are evenly distributed near the bushes or between rows. Then, they close up shallow into the soil with a garden spatula.
Pruning bushes
How to process strawberries in autumn so that it wintes well? If it is not planned to cut the entire tops, then sick and dried leaves are cut with scissors. Ideally, 3-4 leaves should remain, which will protect the bush from frost and give the plant nutrition in the fall.
Speaking about how to process strawberries in the fall, you should talk a little more about these two methods of pruning. Some gardeners believe that after fruiting it is necessary to mow all the leaves, as this will rejuvenate the bushes. But with this method, you need to carefully remove the leaves so as not to damage the growth point. Such bare bushes for the winter should be covered (which will be described below). The second way is to remove only yellowed, dried and reddened sheets. If the tops are affected by the disease, then it should be removed completely, leaving only the middle. Not only leaves, but also all mustaches are cut off, if this was not done before. Performing this procedure, you need to have a small bucket with water in which potassium permanganate is already diluted. Moving from bush to bush, pruning shears or scissors are lowered into the solution so that pathogens, if any, are not transferred to the instruments.
Winter disinfection and shelter
An important question concerns how to process strawberries in the fall in order to properly disinfect them. Plantings are shed with a weak solution of potassium permanganate, vitriol or with ready-made remedies (for example, “Maxim”), which help to prevent the development of diseases on plants. After that, the earth around the bushes is slightly loosened.
How to process strawberries? In autumn, in late September or mid-October, peat is poured under it, this will help plants winter without loss. To prevent the bushes from being damaged by frost in winter, strawberries are covered with straw manure or leaves for a winter with a layer of 5-7 cm thick. The plant is quite cold-resistant, therefore it wintered well if the measures mentioned were taken. If several bushes die, then in the spring new ones are planted in their place - thinning out their plantation or buying a mustache in a store.
Here's how to properly process strawberries in the fall so that the plants suffer frosts, and in the summer they are pleased with many large and fragrant berries.