How Can We Maintain The Fertility Of Strawberry Beds?

The fertility of strawberry beds is maintained in various ways. Animal manures of various kinds are often used before the land is plowed. They are excellent sources of nutrients and they also supply organic matter to the soil. Stable manure may be used at a rate of 3 to 6 bushels to 100 square feet, and hen manure at about 1 to 2 bushels to 100 square feet. Gardeners who do not have access to manure can get along very well by using compost or by plowing under a heavy growth of clover or some other legume.

Chemical fertilizers are often useful, but in well-managed, fertile soils they may not be needed. When preparing the ground, a 10-10.10 fertilizer may be worked into the soil at the rate of a pound to 100 square feet. A 5-10-5 fertilizer may be used at the same rate plus a pound of nitrate of soda or pound of ammonium nitrate.

In late August an application of nitrogen may be worth-while, particularly on the less fertile soils where manure has not been used. Nitrate of soda at the rate of 1/2 pound to 100 square feet, or ammonium nitrate at half that rate, may be broadcast over the plants. It should be brushed off the plants immediately with a broom or piece of brush to prevent burning of the foliage.

Fertilizer should not be applied in the spring of the fruiting year, as it may stimulate the growth of too much foliage. Water is far more important than any other factor in obtaining a large crop. The strawberry bed should be mulched for winter to protect the crown and roots. Wheat, oat or rye straws, as well as marsh hay, are excellent for this purpose. The mulch should be applied to a depth of 3 or 4 inches after two or three sharp frosts have occurred and before the temperature has dropped below 20. Mid-November or soon thereafter is about right in New York and southern New England.

Just as the new leaves are pushing out of the crown in the spring, part of the straw is raked off the plants into the space between the rows, leaving some on the plants to keep the berries clean. The leaves and flower clusters will push up through the thin covering of straw. The bed will need one weeding in the spring of the bearing year.

Ever bearing strawberries are not very productive, and the varieties are inferior to the June-bearing types. Some growers in Ohio have had excellent results by growing them in hills and mulching with sawdust, applying it to a depth of an inch after the first hoeing.

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April 15 2010 | Gardening | No Comments »

The Very Useful Fungus For The Plants

One essential overlooked by aspiring growers is the need for a certain fungus which grows on the roots of these plants. This organism, called mycorrhiza, lives on the roots of all the plants I have mentioned, in a symbiotic relationship. This means that the fungus is not a parasite, but contributes to the welfare of the host plant, and in turn is sheltered and fed by it.

Just how they feed the plant is not clearly understood. We know that an azalea grown from seed in sphagnum moss produces root hairs like other plants. When transplanted to soil it loses these root hairs. Experts believe that the inycorrhizae function as root hairs and help dissolve soil chemicals so they can be used by the host.

An even more obscure phase of acid soil plant nutrition is their need for hormones from outside the plant itself. Most broad-leaved evergreens belong to what is known as the forest floor group. That is, they live in light shade on forest floors. There is considerable evidence that such plants do not manufacture enough of their own hormones for normal growth. I suspect they extract these from decaying plant material that originated in sunshine. Certainly, the use of hormone compounds like Transplantonc produces a much greater response in plants of this group than in plants growing in full sun.

Since fungi survive only in the presence of abundant organic matter, we know that one way to insure survival is to mix in at least 25 per cent humus, peat, compost, etc., when making the bed.

To wrap up the culture of acid soil plants in a single, oversimplified statement, we might say that it is largely the culture of mycorrhizae. What is good for the fungus is good for the plant. True, we find wild plants in nature growing under conditions which favor mycorrhizal activity. Practically all of them have rather shallow roots covered with a mulch of fallen leaves, and grow in sections where high humidity and mist keep the soil constantly moist, yet where drainage is so sharp that moisture never stands.

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March 25 2010 | Gardening | No Comments »

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