How to feed strawberries in spring for a good harvest

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:00

Growing strawberries on your site, you need to create certain conditions for it. Only this will allow you to collect a bountiful harvest of berries with excellent taste. You need to know exactly how to feed strawberries in spring for a good harvest. It can be both commercial products and folk recipes using different ingredients. Let's take a closer look at each type of dressing and the periods when strawberry bushes need them.

Use of compost and manure

For those who prefer natural ingredients and do not accept chemical compounds when growing strawberries, the following folk remedies will help for fertilization:

1. Compost. It is enough in the spring to mulch the planting of strawberries with this substance, providing an average layer thickness of 4 cm. But certain rules must be observed. The compost must not touch the strawberry growing point. Therefore, you will have to retreat a short distance, spreading the layer.
2. As a mulch, you can use humus, which has had time to peel well. True, in this case, the layer should be 2 cm.
3. Biocompost is a waste product of California worms.

The principle of feeding remains the same in all three cases - saturation of the planting with the necessary substances that ensure the enhancement of plant growth. The only drawback in this case is the almost constant lack of material to provide top dressing.

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Ash application

When it is necessary to provide a sufficient level of potassium, phosphorus, boron, magnesium and some other mineral elements in the soil under the planting of strawberries, ash can be used. An additional effect is the rapid awakening of bushes from hibernation.

You can choose from the following recipes:

1. It is necessary to sprinkle about 100-120 g of ash between the rows for each running meter.
2. Prepare a top dressing that will be used for watering. Take 1 liter of hot water (preferably boiling water), add a glass of ash. Stir vigorously, let it brew a little and add 9 liters of cold, settled water. Stir again vigorously. After that, in April, water the planting, spending 1-1.5 liters of the mixture for each 1 m².

Ash as a top dressing is good because it can be used in any quantity.

The use of iodine as a top dressing

Most often, iodine is used as a top dressing when it is necessary to prevent the occurrence of various diseases. Parasites, infectious and putrefactive diseases can not only significantly reduce the yield, but also completely deprive them of the opportunity to get it from the bush.

Prepare one of the following iodine-based mixtures:

1. Dilute 10 drops of iodine in a bucket of water at room temperature. Using a spray bottle, spray on the bushes. It is necessary to carry out the manipulation before flowering. To achieve the greatest efficiency, the treatment should be performed twice.
2. You can prepare iodine feeding for watering. To do this, dilute 1 full glass of ash (wood ash), about 7 drops of iodine, and boric acid in an amount of 5 ml (1 teaspoon) in 10 liters of water. The temperature of the liquid should be at room temperature, as too cool water can negatively affect the growth of the plant.

Iodine can burn a leaf plate or delicate plant stems. Therefore, the concentration of the solution should be accurately maintained.

Yeast

Fungal yeast cultures can speed up the growth of a garden plant. You can take natural compressed yeast. But some experienced gardeners collect and dry the leftover bread in order to prepare a top dressing later.

Here's how yeast can help support strawberry planting:

1. Take 1 part of old dried bread. Pour it with 2 parts warm water. The temperature of the liquid plays a key role, because otherwise the yeast simply won't work. Pour the mass into a bottle and close the lid. Leave for 6 days to begin the fermentation process. Then take 1 part of the resulting tincture and dilute with 10 parts of water. Water the strawberry bushes with the resulting mixture, adding approximately 1 liter for each plant.
2. The second method of preparation of top dressing involves the use of compressed fresh yeast. They need to take about 1 kg. Put the yeast in a 3-liter jar, add 3-4 tbsp. l. granulated sugar. Warm water is poured to the very top, mixed intensively until a thick solution is obtained. For feeding, you need to take one part and dilute with 20 parts of warm water. After that, with the resulting mixture, water the planting of strawberries in May.

Yeast types of dressings can be used when the weather is warm enough. Otherwise, the yeast culture will go into hibernation, and there will be practically no effect from its use.

Any yeast composition should be allowed to brew. This is important as it takes time for the yeast to gain strength.

The use of fermented milk products for feeding

To feed the garden berries, you can take fermented milk products. Kefir, yogurt or fermented baked milk are suitable. To prepare the tincture for irrigation, take 1 part of the fermented milk product and dilute with warm water. 4-6 parts are enough. Then let it brew for several hours or days.

The concentration of the solution should take into account the acidity of the soil. The higher it is under the planting of strawberries, the more you need to take the milk part and vice versa.

The benefits of this type of feeding are as follows:

1. Increase in calcium, potassium, sulfur and some other elements in the soil.
2. Plants after such feeding will grow faster.
3. Strawberries become less susceptible to attacks by various pests, for example, ticks, aphids and some others.
4. The fruiting period becomes longer and more abundant.

But such feeding has its drawback - it is not cheap.

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The positive effects of the application of dressings

If you fertilize strawberries in a timely manner with any folk remedy, then the culture grows more actively. The soil is loosened, which contributes to a more intense saturation of the plant with oxygen. Fruiting dates come faster, and the yield of the plant increases. The berries themselves become larger and sweeter, thereby increasing their taste characteristics.

Outcomes

When choosing how to feed strawberries in spring for a good harvest, and at the same time not spend a lot of money, you can use ash, compost or humus. They allow you to perform manipulation with minimal cost.

Iodine is able not only to nourish plants, but also to get rid of some problems, for example, to eliminate gray rot, as well as red spots on the leaves, to prevent the appearance of nematodes, weevils and other pests. Yeast feeding can be done. Fertilizing with fermented milk products is very successfully carried out. But it is expensive.