Care for strawberries does not stop after harvest. The bushes throughout the whole summer season need watering and feeding, and with the advent of autumn, they need to be properly prepared for the upcoming winter. How to prepare garden strawberries for the winter, how to treat beds, whether you need to trim the leaves and how to cover strawberries - all these pressing issues will try to consider below.
Pruning and fertilizing strawberries in autumn
Pruning shrubs are engaged since the end of August. You need to remove old leaves, damaged by diseases, dried and withered. A young growth of leaves is not necessary. Cut the leaves by hand with sharp scissors or a pruner. At the same time, only the leaf itself needs to be removed, leaving the stalk untouched, so as not to touch the growth point inadvertently.
The process of trimming is accompanied by loosening and hilling. In addition to the leaves, the antennae are also cut off. You can leave them on the bed as a fertilizer. What else to fertilize strawberries for the winter: as an autumn top dressing, phosphorus and potassium fertilizers are ideal. Avoid nitrogen fertilizers - in the fall they do not need anything.
After pruning, the bed should be well watered, sprinkled with earth and covered with needles or straw.
Do I need to cover strawberries for the winter?
Covering beds with strawberries is the final stage of their preparation for winter. Some gardeners are opponents of shelter, considering the snow cover sufficient. If the winters in your region are snowy and relatively warm, then you can limit yourself to mulching. But if the winter is more often snowless, then the strawberries need to be additionally insulated.
What can be covered with strawberries? The first option is coniferous lapnik. Young bushes of strawberries need to be sheltered completely, and the older ones are only laid around. Some use for covering straw, leaves, leaves,
The second option of shelter in the preparation of strawberry bushes for the winter - spandbond, agrotex and other covering material, stretched on the arc. The temperature under the cover is kept higher than outside. In addition, all these materials are breathable, which eliminates overtaking. But put the covering material directly on the beds without arches it is impossible - at the point of contact with the ground it will freeze out even faster.