- Prepare your strawberries for next year’s harvest by performing key fall treatments.
- Remove old leaves and apply potassium fertilization to strengthen the plants before winter.
- Find out how simple actions in the fall will give you twice as much strawberry harvest!
Be sure to do it with strawberries this week. In summer you will harvest twice as much
Autumn garden work does not only focus on preparations for winter. Although many plants require appropriate protection against winter, before you start putting on agrotextile covers, check whether any other care procedures should be performed. In the case of shrubs, autumn work will pay off best in the next season. There are several activities that should be done with strawberries so that they will produce huge crops next summer.
Before you focus on preparing for Christmas, take care of your garden. The turn of November and December is the perfect time for the last strawberry care treatments. Before you prepare them for the resting season, remember to remove old and rotten leaves. This treatment will protect the seedling bushes against fungal diseases. Moldy organic waste is an ideal environment for the multiplication of fungal diseases that can completely devastate your crops.
The end of November is also the best time for the last ones. This is a very important care treatment that will directly affect next year’s crops. During this period, fertilizers containing large amounts of potassium should be used. It is this ingredient that is responsible for fruiting. Gardeners indicate that the lack of proper potassium fertilization in autumn may prevent strawberries from bearing fruit the following year. Potassium will strengthen the plant cell walls and also strengthen them against the coming winter. Potassium nutrients will give strawberries a better start in spring.
The last strawberry care procedure is to prepare the bushes for winter. Seedlings require mulching. This is the basic protection of strawberries against frost and wind. Place hay, wood chips or pine needles around the bushes. Before doing this, however, water the soil around the strawberries abundantly and then cover them with a layer of mulch. The bushes do not need additional covering with agrotextile in mild winters. However, if the temperature starts to drop below 5 degrees Celsius, it is worth considering such action. Straw or pine twigs will work well to cover the strawberries.
Homemade potassium nutrient for strawberries
to properly set fruit, enhance their flavor and improve disease resistance. Instead of using artificial fertilizers, you can prepare an effective homemade fertilizer. An excellent source of potassium is wood ash (from unburned hardwood) and banana peels. Simply sprinkle wood ash in a thin layer around the plants (about 50-100 g per square meter), and then water gently so that the nutrients flow into the soil. You can cut the banana peels into small pieces and bury them shallowly in the ground around the bushes, or prepare a liquid fertilizer from them by soaking them in water for a few days and then watering the plants with the resulting solution.
Remember that the last fertilization of strawberries in the season, especially in autumn, should be rich in potassium and phosphorus and devoid of nitrogen. Nitrogen stimulates the growth of green mass, which is undesirable before winter because it weakens the plant and makes it more susceptible to frost. Potassium, on the other hand, supports the woodening of tissues and building resistance to low temperatures. By using wood ash or compost enriched with potassium (e.g. from banana peels) in autumn, you will prepare your strawberries to safely survive the winter and give them a good start in the next fruiting season.
