Spring care of strawberries is a planned job and begins with removing the covering material from the bed.
You need to do it before the warm weather sets in for a few days and there are no severe frosts during the day or night. What else needs to be planned and done in the battle for the harvest.
1. Insulation
As already mentioned, you can't delay this matter, but you can't rush it either. Extra time under the insulation is fraught with the bushes rotting, in addition, the plants will wake up earlier than expected and the flower stalks can die from the cold. Ideally, the cover should be removed when it is 7-10 degrees Celsius during the day and 2-3 degrees above zero at night.
2. Soil
It is necessary to carry out shallow loosening of the soil to ensure air exchange, remove weeds, and on sandy soils to apply fertilizer or top dressing. Phosphorus is of great importance for strawberries, which is absorbed slowly, and therefore it is better to apply it in the fall.
Fertilizers are applied at temperatures of 10 degrees Celsius and above. Nitrogen is applied at the vegetation stage. Potassium will be needed during the fruiting period.
3. Pest control
The bushes, soil and the area adjacent to the garden bed are treated. It is better to postpone folk remedies for a later date, and at an early stage to use industrial preparations or biological preparations, if the temperature allows. Do not forget about the weevil, which is fought with "Fitoverm", "Bitoxibacillin", "Iskra", "Inta-vir" and other preparations.
4. Diseases
It is necessary to protect plantings from white spot and gray mold. As preventive measures, you can cut off foliage that has not survived the winter well, apply preparations based on trichoderma, and also carry out treatments with copper sulfate.
Of the industrial products, "Antilus" is used.
