How to prepare the ground for planting strawberries

How to prepare the ground for planting strawberries? Very carefully. After all, the harvest is planned to receive at least 4 years in a row from one bed. Still a perennial plant. Therefore, all the preparatory stages are very important. Consider each in detail.

Digging

Some gardeners neglect autumn digging beds. And only in the spring they loosen the ground a little with the flat cutter. Then in August poor strawberry rosettes are planted in stone soil and naively await berries. Let them wait. They just do not think that the root system of strawberries reaches a length of as much as 30 cm! It is at this depth that the soil should be loose, breathable. A flat cutter such care is difficult to achieve.

By the way, podzimnaya digging without leveling the top layer helps the frost to get to most of the pupae and larvae of pests. You can bury the garden bed in the spring.

CouncilIf health does not help waving a shovel, then use a garden fork. It is not so important to turn the layers of the earth, how to loosen them.

But the autumn digging will be absolutely useless if the soil itself is heavy. After the first rain, such a ground will turn into a monolith. Strawberries just suffocate. Therefore, if you have clay soils, then by all means add directly to the bed:

• sand
• peat
• rotten sawdust
• half-rotted turf
• loose compost

These materials improve soil structure, increase its fertility. And further. Do not forget about the level of groundwater and melt water. Choose a higher place for planting strawberries. Bushes love to drink in the summer, but absolutely can not stand the stagnant moisture in the rest of the year. The root system responds to flooding almost instantly. Already on the second day after the bay, a good third of the small feeding roots begin to rot.

If for any reason you have to grow strawberries in an unfavorable area, then try to arrange a drainage system of expanded clay, crushed stone at the bottom of the bed. Or make high boxes, and already in them plant bushes.

Weeding

It is perfectly natural that the soil for planting strawberries should be clean from weeds. Therefore, it is not enough to cut them with a chopper or flat cutter. We'll have to tinker, choosing the roots of perennials. Otherwise, all 4 years you will have to fight for the purity of the landings, and long and hard.

But, even if you choose each root with your own handles, then surely there will still be a large number of annual seeds in the soil. What to do? Firstly, they are not as terrible as wheatgrass, blackthrow, spurge or convolvulus. Secondly, experienced gardeners advise:

1. As soon as the snow melts, immediately bury the bed.
2. Cover it with a black non-woven fabric, a dark film or even roofing material for a week.
3. Then remove the shelter.
4. The emerged shoots to cut manual cultivator or ploskorezom.

This procedure is suitable for spring planting strawberries. For the fall will not have to take shelter until August. Or constantly cut off the young shoots of weed annuals. Some summer residents use herbicides to keep the land clean up to the planting of strawberries. Well, this is also an option if you are not a supporter of organic farming.

CouncilIn the spring on the bed you can put a thick layer of mulch. It perfectly prevents the growth of all weeds. And for planting strawberries, it will be enough to rake up a snout in the shelter to attach a young outlet there. The same operation can be carried out with black agrofibre, only instead of a patch, cruciate cuts are made.

Watering

In some sources there is such a phrase: "The soil for planting strawberries should be wet." It is clear that it is not dry, otherwise how will the sockets grow? But why water the bed 2 months before planting? This is again the recommendation of online farmers. It is immediately obvious that the authors did not work on earth, otherwise they would not have offered Sisyphean labor. Well, because on the site without this business is complete, except to pour water on the bare ground. Yes, for 2 months from moisture nothing left.

Undoubtedly, the moisture in the soil for planting strawberries should be. But we advise you to spend only 2 watering:

1. One week before boarding. Abundant, water recharge, with soaking the soil to a depth of 40 cm.
2. At the time of landing. It is watering in the hole, under the strawberry outlet.

Further you will water beds depending on weather, climate and condition of plants.

Fertilizer

A very important component of soil preparation for planting strawberries.Just do not seek to provide food for the entire period of intended operation. Because the root system does not know how to calculate exactly when it needs a certain trace element. She will strive to master all the nutrients at once. Therefore, in case of excessive filling of the soil, there is a risk to get powerful lush strawberry bushes, but with poor flowering and tiny berries.

We will not give here the exact proportions of any mineral complexes. Because even through the fence there is a completely different soil. Just write what you supposedly need to add to the soil before planting:

1. Dead manure There are recommendations to make fresh manure. Strongly not recommended. Ammonia will burn small feeding roots, weed seeds will sprout in a meadow, and disease-causing bacteria instantly occupy strawberry sockets.
2. Bold compost from turf. It can be cooked in just 1.5-2 months. To do this, the layers of turf are placed in piles, plentifully watered and covered with film. After about 55-60 days, you can sift the mass and lay in the beds.
3. Minerals. There can not do without chemistry.Urea, azofoska, nitrophoska will be required at first. In the presence of these fertilizers, the green mass grows and develops well. In the second year of growth, it will be possible to deposit potash and phosphate complexes. They are responsible for the lush flowering and abundant fruiting.
4. Lime, chalk, dolomite flour. These additives are required if the soil in the garden has a very acid reaction. Just do not add eggshells. No doubt, it improves the structure of the soil, but the acidity remains at the same level. It is better to replace it with a generous portion of ash. There will be more benefits.

By the way, it is better to apply organic fertilizers to the soil in autumn or early spring. And mineral complexes are added 10-11 days before planting. This is if you are going to plant strawberries in August.

During spring planting, the schedule for making mineral water remains the same, but organic matter is made strictly only in the winter.

Fungicides

To pre-disinfect the soil under strawberries, we recommend that you thoroughly shed it with any fungicide. It would be even better to thoroughly soak the soil with a strong hot burgundy solution of potassium permanganate, and in a day to settle it with useful microorganisms. This can be done with phytosporin solution.And just enough 5 g of dry powder in a bucket of ordinary water.

All procedures should be carried out no later than 12 days before boarding. This is the minimum period for the complete colonization of the beds with beneficial microflora and the destruction of pathogenic bacteria. Now you can not worry about their young plants. You did everything you needed.

How to prepare the ground for planting strawberries? It is clear that the process is not one day. But then the harvest will be appropriate. Large sweet berries - is this not a dream of every gardener?

Video: preparing the soil for planting strawberry seedlings