How to treat Victoria after harvest. How to process strawberries after harvest: tips and tricks from experienced gardeners

There is still no clear answer to the questions: “Why and when to prune strawberries?” Opinions on this matter vary. But experienced gardeners There is a “golden” rule - harvest, prepare for the next one. And this is absolutely true! After harvesting, the bushes need to be given good vacation and feeding.

Cutting strawberry leaves is one of the stages of preparation for the next season.

Choose correct term leaf removal: 3–4 weeks after the last harvest. It occurs in the first half of July, depending on the variety of berries.

Do not be late with this procedure, late dates can lead to crop loss due to weak peduncle formation. Calculate the time so that the rosettes go into winter fully formed.

Let's figure out why we should do this?

The plant needs special care after harvesting, because the strawberries are exhausted and tired. By cutting off the leaves, you protect it from diseases and pests; of course, they can remain on stumps and the ground, but a “bare” bed is easier to process.

Advice!

Removing leaves is a labor-intensive job, but you can’t resort to using a trimmer! It is best to do pruning with pruners or scissors, treating the tools with an alcohol solution to avoid infection with viruses.

Trim old and damaged leaves without affecting the “heart” and young leaves. If you need tendrils for planting new plants, then leave one tendril with strong rosettes, and be sure to remove the rest.

Important!

Do not throw cut leaves with traces of disease or pests into compost pit, better burn them. The most valuable ash, potassium fertilizer, is obtained from plant residues.

After clearing the leaves, the bed must be loosened and sprayed against pests in one of the following ways:

Karbofos 30 g per 10 liters of water;
Bordeaux mixture 30 g per 10 liters of water;
Ammonia 40 g per 10 liters of water. These sprays will protect the plantings from pests such as weevils, cockchafers, ticks and slugs.

To form strong flower buds, do not forget about next stage– watering and fertilizing.

Ash is perfect for nutrition: sprinkle between bushes or replace with potassium humate. Watering at this time is very important: at least once a week, generously. The second feeding is with green fertilizers. Fill any herb with water in a barrel, add a liter of manure and leave for 1 week. Water 0.5 liters under each root. This is not only a top dressing, but also an excellent means for the development of beneficial microflora in the soil.

After picking the berries, the strawberry bushes require special care to restore strength and intensively lay fruiting buds for next year.

At correct implementation summer-autumn preventive measures garden strawberries (scientific name strawberries) increases fruiting by at least 15-30 percent. The fruits become larger, juicier and sweeter. Any variety, plain or remontant strawberries responds with gratitude to care and care, so berries grown with one’s own hands are noticeably different from store-bought ones.

Caring for strawberries after harvest

At the end of July-beginning of August, after the strawberries have fruited, an appropriate this period care consisting of: trimming mustaches, removing damaged leaves, weeding, fertilizing, hilling bushes.

In July, after the strawberries are harvested, the plants begin to grow new leaves, form new horns, the growth of tendrils with lateral rosettes intensifies, and new flower buds are laid for the new season.

Be sure to weed the beds, that is, remove all weeds. Excess tendrils and dried leaves are also removed. Reddened leaf blades are removed first.

You cannot tear off the foliage and mustache, you can only cut it, otherwise the bush will be damaged and will hurt. For pruning, use only sharp scissors or pruners. To avoid the proliferation of pests, it is better to burn old, cut leaves. If young leaves curl or look corrugated, this indicates that the plants are infected with strawberry mite and they should be treated with a special preparation.

After pruning, the soil around the strawberries is loosened, fertilized, and watered. The row spacing is loosened to a depth of 10 centimeters. Around the plants, loosening is carried out to a depth of 5-7 centimeters. It is advisable to hill up the bushes.

In this case, the roots must be completely covered, and top part the bush should remain above the ground. Under no circumstances should you cover the growing point, that is, the middle of the rosette of leaves.

Fertilizing strawberries in July

For feeding, mineral fertilizers with a wide content of microelements are taken. There are about 30 grams of fertilizer per square meter. A special fertilizer for garden strawberries is suitable for this - Fertika, ammophoska.

Fertilizers containing potassium chloride cannot be used, as it slows down growth and impairs fruiting. Fertilizers are embedded in the soil to a depth of about 5-8 centimeters.

In addition to these fertilizers, you can use last year's humus. It scatters around the bushes and slightly digs into the soil. Humus improves the structure of the soil and makes it more fertile.

You can also fertilize the beds with diluted chicken manure (diluted in a ratio of 1:15 with water). When feeding, we must not forget that this solution should not get on the foliage, otherwise burns will appear on the plants, which provokes the development of diseases. A high concentration of the solution can completely destroy the bush. That's why this type fertilizing is not used so often. And more often in spring than in summer and autumn.

If the weather is dry, the strawberry beds are watered abundantly. Soil moisture should be maintained until the end of the season. Watering is done once a week with a bucket per square meter.

For better effect Drip irrigation can be used. This type of watering allows you to get the right amount of moisture and at the same time the plants do not rot, since the soil does not become waterlogged.

Caring for strawberries in August

To get a bountiful harvest for the next season, at the end of summer perennial plants proper care is required. It includes: pruning leaves, replanting mustaches, preparing plants for winter, that is, covering the bushes.

Old leaves are cut off. Here gardeners act differently, some mow down all the foliage completely, others remove only leaves damaged by disease. If strawberries grow in groups, then the early varieties are processed first. Then come the averages and late varieties, this will allow you to evenly care for the plants and prevent them from overgrowing, which leads to the threat of infection with diseases and pests.

The mustaches with new rosettes and young roots are planted to form young bushes. For this, the strongest specimens are selected, usually this is the first rosette on the antennae. It is recommended to replant strawberry plantings every 3 years, this is how many years the bush bears maximum fruit, then the bush ages and the yield decreases noticeably.

To protect strawberries from various fungi, powdery mildew, and pests, the bushes are sprayed with special preparations or self-prepared products.

For spraying the following preparations are used:

Karbofos or Actellik is protection against weevils and strawberry mites;
Azocene and Topaz are used for the prevention and control of powdery mildew;
one percent lime solution and copper sulfate saves bushes and berries from rot and spotting.

Fertilizing strawberries in August

Feeding the bushes during this period increases the degree of frost resistance of the plant and promotes the formation of future flower buds.

Complex mineral fertilizers should include: 1 part nitrogen, 2 parts phosphorus, 4 parts potassium. IN ready-made version, it could be: Fusco, Autumn, Autumn. All these preparations contain other useful substances in addition to the base.

The Autumn fertilizer does not contain nitrogen, which allows it to be used even at a later period, but this preparation contains all the elements that are necessary for the growth and good fruiting of strawberries.

Suitable organic fertilizers include: peat, horse manure in granules, humus, bone meal.

Mineral and organic fertilizers should not be mixed. In rare cases, when the soil is depleted, mineral and organic fertilizers are introduced over the entire area of the beds. If the strawberry planting area is quite large, this mixture can also be used.

After feeding, the plants are covered with mulch, and for wintering the bushes are covered with leaves, pine needles, potato tops, and straw. Dry weather is chosen for shelter, otherwise the layer may cake and cause the formation of pests and diseases inside the layer or lead to root rot.

The layer of mulch protecting plants from frost should be at least 7 centimeters. In addition to mulch it is used non-woven material, for example, spunbond.

Autumn care for remontant strawberries

Remontant strawberry compared to simple varieties has a short life span and after two years the plants must be replaced by new ones. Some varieties do not produce whiskers and are easier to care for, but they use seeds to propagate them, which complicates the breeding process.

July and August are suitable for renewing strawberry plantations. By autumn the bushes take root and easily endure the winter.

In preparation for winter, flower stalks and leaves are torn off from the mother bushes. The bushes are earthed up so that the roots are covered with soil. But the core of the plant must remain open, otherwise it will begin to rot.

Best reviews from gardeners
I always cut off almost all the leaves, leaving 3-4 leaves. When the first frosts begin, I cover them with spruce branches to prevent them from freezing in winter. Here in the Urals it can be -30 in the winter, so you can’t do without shelter. and I cut off the leaves because by the end of the season they are almost all diseased.

Next year's strawberry harvest directly depends on whether the strawberries were transplanted in August, whether strawberry fertilizer was applied in the fall when planting seedlings (or during transplanting bushes), and whether other necessary procedures were completed. The basic rule is that you should begin the final work of this season after the bushes have fully bear fruit.

Caring for garden strawberries after harvest

How to care for strawberries after harvesting? In principle, there are no particular difficulties here. There are several mandatory stages for caring for strawberries in August-September, which are not recommended to be ignored:

Removing tendrils and old/diseased leaves;
Spraying against pests and diseases;
Fertilizing strawberries in the fall (when planting) and in the summer (after pruning);
Caring for strawberries for the winter - providing shelter during frosts.

For information, strawberry is the popular name or pineapple, belonging to the Strawberry genus, Rosaceae family.

What to do with strawberries in August

Mustache trimming

Caring for garden strawberries in August begins with trimming the mustaches along with the rosettes formed on them. To increase crop productivity, it is better to perform the procedure in three steps:

immediately after the completion of fruiting of the bushes;
20 days after the first procedure;
in another 20 days.

The tendrils are cut at a distance of 10 cm from the base of the plant. As cutting tool you can use a knife, pruning shears or gardening scissors. You should carefully hold the mustache with your other hand so as not to accidentally cut off the excess part of the bush.

ON THE PICTURE: The mustaches with new rosettes formed, which have had time to form full-fledged roots, can be left after pruning for propagation of strawberries.

Also, caring for strawberries after picking the berries involves removing old and diseased leaves from the bush, leaving only the hearts and young leaves. The “heart” of a strawberry is the apical bud of the main shoot (horn), which contains the rudiments of a peduncle with flowers. The hearts should always be above the soil surface, otherwise they may dry out under the soil (or leaf litter).

ON THE PICTURE: All old strawberry leaves and leaves with spots must be ruthlessly removed.

Do you want to harvest a bountiful harvest of berries? Remove strawberry tendrils both during flowering and when fruiting. And when caring for strawberries (garden strawberries) after harvesting, do not cut off the thickest tendril. It will grow into a beautiful young bush to renew an old plant. This operation is recommended to be carried out every three years.

Spraying against pests and diseases

It should be remembered that garden strawberries after harvesting need care and protection from all kinds of diseases no less than in the spring. Preventive and therapeutic spraying of strawberries is an important component of care in August, designed to protect the berries from various fungi (gray and black rot), stains, and a number of pests.

ON THE PICTURE: Strawberries affected by powdery mildew are unsuitable for consumption.

What should you spray strawberries with after harvesting? Depending on the nature of the lesion, the following drugs can be used:

" ", " " will destroy the strawberry mite and weevil;
" ", "Azotsen" will save you from powdery mildew;
1 percent solution Bordeaux mixture used for spotting and rot.

How to feed strawberries in August

Fertilizing strawberries for the winter provides the plant with increased frost resistance and promotes the formation of new flower buds.

How to fertilize strawberries in August? The use of fertilizers containing nitrogen is strictly prohibited, with the exception of a strong urea solution. The purpose of urea is to destroy in the bud fungal diseases, and have a minimal stimulating effect on strawberries. For feeding purposes, it is permissible to use:

mineral complex fertilizers NPK in proportions 1:1.5:2 or 1:2:4 (that is, always only one part of nitrogen, one and a half to two parts of phosphorus and two to four parts of potassium). Among the ready-made fertilizers, the following are quite suitable: fertilizer "Autumn" from "Fasco" with an NPK ratio of 5:15:35 (similar in composition, but under a different TerraSol brand). Very good feedback It has fertilizer "Autumn" from "Buyskiye Fertilizers" in a plastic bag 3 kg, which does not contain nitrogen (which is a definite plus), but contains calcium, boron and magnesium for healthy growth of seedlings in the spring;
organic fertilizers: humus, peat, granulated horse manure, bone meal. You cannot use bird droppings, even rotted ones, because it contains too much nitrogen.

How to care for strawberries in August: nuances of fertilizing

Fertilizers should be applied along the rows, not forgetting to first grind their components well and mix the substrate. Any, summer or autumn feeding strawberries in winter, in case of dry weather, require subsequent watering. For each square meter area requires up to two buckets of water.

Should organic fertilizers be mixed with mineral ones? For example, complex NPK fertilizer with humus? This should not be done unless you have the whole plantation strawberries A regular complex fertilizer is enough to enrich the soil with macroelements. However, if you are growing strawberries in heavy loam or clay soils(and also if the soil is close to depletion, has become gray and turns into dust when it dries), it is worth adding both organic matter and mineral water. The first will improve the soil structure, making the soil lighter and more “digestible” for the roots. And fertilizers will enrich it with nutrients.

How to care for strawberries in the fall for a good harvest

The main work on caring for strawberries for the winter should be completed in August. So what to do with strawberries in the fall? Before providing her with reliable shelter for the winter, there is practically nothing. Caring for strawberries in the fall involves keeping the soil loose in the rows and between rows and removing emerging weeds.

If you did not have time to feed strawberries in August, you can do this in September. How to feed strawberries in the fall? Yes, in general, the same as in the last summer month.

How to care for strawberries after harvest: cover for the winter

What to do if you found information about how to fertilize strawberries in the fall during planting or a recipe for summer fertilizers too late, and the berries did not receive necessary nutrition? Such weakened bushes need additional shelter, for example, spruce branches, leaves or potato tops. To ensure that the layer of covering material remains loose and does not cake, it must be added in dry weather and light frost - about –2–3°C. This is especially important if straw is used, which attracts diseases and pests at elevated temperatures.

ON THE PICTURE: The covering material, in this case straw, is waiting in the wings. If you wrap strawberries earlier than expected for the winter, root rot may develop.

ON THE PICTURE:The layer of mulch that can protect strawberry bushes from frost should be 7–15 cm.

You probably won’t find a gardener who doesn’t grow strawberries in his garden. After all, both children and adults love her. Fragrant juicy berries are not only tasty, but also very healthy, as they are rich in vitamins and minerals.

That is why everyone who grows it wants to get a rich harvest. But to achieve this, you need to care for strawberries not only when they bloom and bear fruit. Great value has care for strawberries after harvest. This is directly related to the laying of future berries, so experienced gardeners pay special attention to strawberries during this period.

The berries have been picked - why do we need care now?

Some people believe that regular autumn harvesting is sufficient for strawberries. But the thing is that strawberries stop bearing fruit very early, and there is still a lot of time left until autumn. Over the summer, the beds can become so overgrown with weeds that autumn harvesting will be very difficult, which is why caring for strawberries after harvest is required.

In addition, bushes that have finished bearing fruit must again replenish their strength, accumulating them for the next season, which will be almost impossible to do in the vicinity of weeds.

Among other things, it is at this time that strawberries begin to form young leaves and form flower buds again. Numerous mustaches appear, which also weaken the mother bush if they are not trimmed in time. Against the background of this process, the old foliage slowly dies off, preventing the new one from developing normally.

All these factors already indicate that caring for strawberries after harvest is necessary. But that's not all.

Various pests and pathogens that have accumulated on old leaves over the season try to move to new young leaves. And they may be quite enough. After all, everyone knows that during fruiting it is not recommended to weed strawberries, much less treat them with chemicals.

So, in addition to the accumulated dying old leaves, it is also necessary to loosen the row spaces. Since strawberry roots are already shallow, the resulting adventitious roots may even end up on the surface of dense soil. And this is just at the moment when strawberries really need extra nutrition.

In fact, it turns out that fertilizing carried out in the fall is still far away, there are not enough nutrients in the soil, and strawberries remain on a starvation diet. But as already mentioned, the better it gets stronger and lays more flower buds, the more berries can be collected next year. Here are other reasons why strawberries need to be processed after harvest.

What measures should be taken with strawberries after harvesting?

Based on the above, there is a need to carry out complex measures, which will consist of proper care for plants.

It is as follows:

trimming old leaves and removing whiskers;
destroying weeds and loosening the soil;
timely watering;
treatment against pests and diseases;
feeding

Trimming old leaves or mowing?

Many people ask whether strawberries are mowed after harvest. In most cases, yes. Because thanks to this, strawberries can be freed from old leaves and the way can be opened for new ones, which just during this period begin to grow. You just have to do this very carefully.

This procedure should begin when at least a week has passed after picking the strawberries. The leaves are mowed at a height of 7-8 cm so as not to damage the growing points, after which they are removed with a rake.

Within a few days, the strawberry bushes will begin to be covered with young leaves, and soon the bed will take on its original appearance.

If you are not a supporter of mowing and are interested in when to prune strawberries after harvesting, then you can also do this after 7-10 days.

Old leaves are cut to the same height without affecting the growth point. Each bush is treated this way. This method is suitable when you need to trim strawberries after harvesting in a small area.

In addition to young leaves in the summer, strawberries begin to throw out mustaches. If you want to propagate it, then you can dig in some whiskers. The rest should be gotten rid of, since they take a lot of energy from the plants.

How to tidy up your garden beds?

After you have renewed your strawberries after harvesting, what to do next? Of course, tidy up the beds.

Destroy all the weeds that managed to occupy it during ripening, go through the rake again, removing the remaining leaves, and you can start hilling each plant with a hoe. During this period, the roots of some bushes begin to protrude, which leads to their drying out, and the plants cannot grow normally. This is why hilling is necessary. Just be careful not to cover the heart with soil.

After this, all that remains is to loosen the row spacing well.

Watering strawberries

Caring for strawberries after harvesting requires mandatory watering. Because the soil in the beds must be well moistened. It should be watered abundantly, but infrequently, taking into account weather conditions. To retain moisture, the soil must be mulched, for which peat is suitable. Do not allow a crust to form after watering. Therefore, you need to loosen the soil around each bush and between the rows.

Spraying strawberries

The summer period, when the berries are picked, is the most best time to improve the health of plants. Treatment of strawberries after harvest against diseases is carried out with various preparations.

Which of them to use depends on different plant diseases, determined by their appearance:

If damage to young leaves appears, then the earthen mite is to blame. Spraying with colloidal sulfur diluted with water or preparations such as Fitoverm, Actellik and Titovit Jet can help get rid of it;
presence on leaves brown spots talks about viral diseases. In this case, they are treated with Bordeaux mixture;
if rotting of the berries was observed, then the plants were affected by a fungus - gray rot. To eliminate it, you need to spray the bushes with a solution of a popular fungicide - copper oxychloride.

Processing strawberries after harvest also involves prevention.

Firstly, the affected leaves must be removed immediately, carefully inspecting the bushes.

And secondly, manganese is a reliable assistant in this case. Dilute a weak solution and not only spray the bushes with it, but also water the soil in the garden bed.

Fertilizing strawberries

Don’t know what to feed your strawberries after harvesting, and why do it? First of all, in order to next year she bore fruit well. After all, as mentioned above, it is at this time that flower buds are formed, which determine the next harvest.

For summer feeding complex fertilizers produced specifically for strawberries, such as Rubin, Ryazanochka or Agricola, are excellent. They must be added according to the instructions, combining this procedure with watering and loosening the soil.

If you are interested in what else to feed strawberries after harvesting, then you can also use humus, wood ash or ammophoska for this purpose.

Preparing for winter

This is not a difficult task, but it is mandatory, since next year’s harvest will depend on this stage.

You have already figured out how much attention strawberries require after harvest, and what to do with them throughout the summer. It remains to figure out how to prepare it for winter.

Don't be surprised, but you've already done some of this preparation. After all best protection from winter cold - these are healthy, overgrown leaves and the absence of pests. So it’s not in vain that you tried all summer, putting the bushes in order, feeding and treating them with remedies for diseases, and also removing weeds and loosening the beds.

Now all you have to do is mulch the plantings with sawdust or peat in October, making a layer no more than 5 cm, and in November cover them with spruce branches or raspberry branches so that snow will linger on them later. This will be the best shelter for strawberries.

Autumn processing is a guarantee of a rich and high-quality harvest in the coming season. Cut and remove old leaves, loosen and feed, cover plants on winter period- this is the basic care of strawberries. Autumn work with this crop they begin after the fruiting phase.

Weeding and loosening

The basic rule of pruning is: don't overdo it. For each bush, you need to cut off the leaf blade itself, preserving the protruding stems. Thus, the growing point remains intact, and the bushes soon begin to sprout new leaves. All tendrils of berry bushes also need to be removed.

Top dressing

Fertilizer application is another one important stage on the question of how to care for strawberries in the fall. The plant responds well to organic nutrients: bird (chicken) droppings, horse manure, mullein or humus. Gardeners also often add it (it replaces fertilizing well).

Concerning mineral fertilizers, you can use superphosphate or potassium salt.

Important!It is highly undesirable to apply chlorine-containing substances as fertilizer, since strawberry plant reacts poorly to chlorine.

First, humus, mullein, or mullein are laid out in small pieces over all the beds. Rains and scheduled watering will gradually dilute fertilizers, evaporating useful substances from them and delivering them deep into the strawberry root system.

However, the bed method works much faster. For this purpose, fresh droppings are dissolved in water in a ratio of 1:20 and thoroughly mixed. Then the resulting liquid is poured under the berry bushes. Consumption for 7–10 bushes is approximately 1 bucket of the composition. In case of use mineral supplements they are scattered around the area, embedded in the ground with a hoe. It is necessary to water immediately. To prevent a crust from forming on its surface after moistening the soil, the area is mulched or covered with pine needles. In the future, it will be possible to loosen the soil and water the plants through the layer.

Soil renewal

If you have a small land plot and you have to grow the same plant crop in one place year after year, it is natural that the soil needs renewal (improvement). In old soil, pathogens of fungal diseases accumulate, and the number of nutrients decreases.

The whole secret of renewing the land lies in enhanced agricultural cultivation technology. For example, you can create sunken or raised beds by filling them with humus or compost. In such conditions it goes partial replacement soil, microorganisms are intensively functioning, processing organic matter into new soil. In addition, the berries are abundantly supplied with nutrients.
Plants can be protected from and thanks to health-improving treatment of the soil under strawberries in the fall. Do not forget also that the beds need to be mulched from time to time. Mulch will serve as a barrier to the penetration of infections into the above-ground parts of strawberry plants.

Autumn transplant

For replanting, take one- or two-year-old bushes, previously divided into parts. You can also use the growth formed on the antennae. Transplantation is carried out primarily for the purpose of rejuvenating the planting. Over 3–4 years, berry bushes age, the number of flower stalks decreases, and the berries themselves become smaller.

It is carried out in the fall, since during this period the soil is wetter and warmer, and the weather is cool. Start replanting bushes in mid-August and finish in the first weeks of September. This way you give the plant time to take root, take root and grow good green mass.
Before winter, the strawberries will leave stronger and dressed in lush foliage. Most of the seedlings transplanted during this period easily survive the winter, and