Fertilizers For Strawberries: For Hydroponics, For Winter And During Flowering, In November And August, Fertilizing Scheme

2024 Author: Beatrice Philips | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-18 12:09

The cultivation of strawberries is not only watering, but also in the regular introduction of dressings, which increases productivity, enhances immunity, and stimulates growth.

The choice of fertilizers is extensive, but it is important to know what and when to apply for strawberries.

Why is this needed?

If, when planting strawberries, a sufficient amount of fertilizer was applied to a young plant, then it is not necessary to feed it in the first year of life, but the next year it is necessary to fertilize the plant. Strawberries have a small root system that goes 10-12 cm deep into the ground, so the plant cannot independently provide itself with the necessary nutrients.

The introduction of dressings makes up for the deficiency of mineral components valuable for the plant. Their disadvantage can be seen by their external signs:

• the tips of the leaf plates darken and dry with a lack of calcium and manganese;
• the leaves lose their color brightness and dry out from the edges with a low potassium content, in addition, leaf plates grow and develop unevenly, while having a wrinkled structure;
• leaves become small in size, few buds are formed, fruiting decreases - such symptoms occur with a lack of nitrogen;
• lack of phosphorus and magnesium will manifest itself as reddening of the leaf plates and their slow development.

In case of violation of the term of dressing or incorrectly selected fertilizer, the yield of strawberries and its general condition will be far from ideal.

Fertilizers

Fertilizers for feeding strawberries can be liquid or granular. You can saturate the soil with valuable trace elements using organic, mineral or complex types of fertilizing.

Organic

In order to saturate agriculture with nitrogenous components, it is fertilized with organic products - mullein, horse manure, poultry droppings. In addition to nitrogen, these natural compounds contain zinc, potassium and magnesium, iron, phosphorus, and magnesium. Certain types of organic matter are used for strawberries.

Chicken droppings . Used for spring feeding and at the very beginning of flowering. To prepare a working solution, dry droppings are diluted 20 times with water and insisted for 3-5 days. Each plant is watered with the composition at the root at the rate of 0.5 liters per bush.

Mullein . Used for spring dressings and diluted with water 20 times. After the composition is infused for 3-5 days, the plants are watered at the root.

Compost . It is obtained by overheating organic plant residues, which form a fertile nutrient substrate. The fertilizer is spread near the strawberry bush in a layer of up to 5 cm. The compost is not placed close to the outlet - a small gap is left.

Ash . Prepared by burning rye or wheat straw, as well as birch or coniferous wood waste. Ashes are laid out in handfuls under each bush. Feeding is done in early spring and autumn, after pruning the bushes. Liquid fertilizer can be prepared from ash by diluting it with water.

Herbal infusion . Fresh grass is placed in a barrel and poured with water, the container is placed in a warm place and the composition is infused for 5-7 days. A working solution for root top dressing is prepared by diluting 1 part of the composition with 10 parts of water. For spraying, the concentrated composition from the barrel is diluted 20 times with water. For each strawberry bush, no more than 1 liter of diluted fertilizer is consumed.

If you want to prepare working solutions from manure, then you cannot use it fresh, you can fertilize it only if it has been left for at least 1 year in the open air.

Mineral

For strawberries at different periods of its development, potash, calcium, phosphorus and nitrogen fertilizers are used. In the spring, when the plant begins to form peduncles, nitroammophos fertilizer is used to feed and stimulate flowering . If you dilute 20 g of the drug in 10 liters of water, then about 18-20 strawberry bushes can be fertilized with such a solution. By the end of April, urea can also be added to feed strawberries. But you can apply the composition only when the air temperature warms up to 15-18 degrees. Take 20 g of the drug on a bucket of water and treat the plants with the resulting solution by watering.

When strawberries begin their flowering period, they need to add potash preparations to the top dressing . Most often, potassium nitrate is used for this purpose. To obtain fertilizer, 10 g of the drug is diluted in 10 liters of water. Watering is done abundantly - at least 1 liter of the composition is poured under each bush. Plants can be sprayed with the same solution. If the strawberry is weak in appearance, nitrophosphate fertilizer in the amount of 30-40 g can be added to the solution of potassium nitrate.

When planting young bushes, superphosphate fertilizers are added to the holes. For each square meter of the garden, 30 g of the drug is used; potassium magnesium or potassium sulfate in the amount of 15 g can be added to it.

Complex

Fertilizers that combine organo-mineral components and consist of various macro- and microelements are called complex fertilizers. Strawberry plantations respond well to feeding from a mixture of minerals and natural organics. For example, in early spring, you can fertilize your garden bed with a mixture of mullein and ammonium sulfate. If you have no desire to prepare top dressing yourself, then you can use ready-made preparations. Active complex fertilizers include the preparations "Solution", "Ryazanochka", "Kemira ". In such formulations, all components are carefully selected among themselves in quantity and in the best combinations.

Folk remedies

When growing strawberries, experienced gardeners often use their own time-tested recipes. Here are the most effective and easy-to-use feed formulations.

• Bread infusion - the bread is soaked in water until dissolved, put in a warm place so that the composition is infused. The yeast-activated bacteria in bread make an excellent organic food for strawberries. To obtain a working solution, the base infusion is diluted tenfold and the plants are watered at the root.
• Solution with ammonia - the product activates not only the growth of strawberries, but also its immunity. To obtain a working composition for 10 liters of water, add 1 liter of soap solution and 40 ml of ammonia. Only the soil around the bush is watered with fertilizer, trying not to hurt the outlet. The composition is used in spring, as the first bait, and after picking berries, iodine is used instead of 1 liter of soap solution, but no more than 5 drops.
• Fermented milk feeding - used on substrates with a low acidity level. To prepare the fertilizer, take 1 part of sour milk and dilute it with 2 parts of water. Plants are watered at a distance of 10-15 cm from the edge of the above-ground outlet.
• A solution with boric acid and potassium permanganate - each component is taken in 2-3 g per 10 l of water, 200 g of ash is sometimes added to the composition. The resulting composition is sprayed with strawberry leaves.

Folk remedies are best used in combination with mineral or organic feeding, then the effect of the impact will be noticeably higher.

Manufacturers

On the market of gardening goods, there are both preparations from domestic and foreign manufacturers in large quantities. Common and most effective, according to gardeners, are the following brands:

• LLC "Agrovit" (Moscow region, Balashikha, produces the best water-soluble complex fertilizer "Ryazanochka");
• Bui chemical plant (Kostroma region, Bui, produces fertilizers for fertilizing "Aquarin");
• Yara company (Norway, supplies to Russia complex granular fertilizer YaraLiva with nitrogen, calcium and boron);
• Plagron company (Holland, supplies a range of complex mineral fertilizers under the Plagron trademark);
• FASCO LLC (Moscow Region, Solnechnogorsk District, supplies various options for complex mineral fertilizers, as well as organic matter);
• FH "Ivanovskoe" (produces complex mineral fertilizer "Rubin");
• organic fertilizer plant "Organic Mix" (Ulyanovsk, produces organic fertilizer for strawberries and berry bushes "Organic Mix");
• LLC "Your economy" (Nizhny Novgorod, supplier of instant complex fertilizer "Zdraven turbo" for strawberry seedlings).

There are a lot of fertilizer manufacturers and the choice of their products is huge, so you should focus on the needs of plants and financial capabilities.

The ways

Top dressing for strawberries is root and foliar. Root feeding is done by watering or placing fertilizer in close proximity to the roots of the plant. Foliar methods are dusting or spraying of the aerial part of the plant, performed in the evening, early in the morning, or on a cloudy day when the sun is not so active . Solutions for spraying in their concentration should be twice weaker than for root irrigation.

The application of fertilizers to irrigation water at a certain concentration of the solution is called fertigation. For a plant, water-soluble components are selected for feeding, taking into account its need for a given specific period of its development.

Application technology

In order to properly fertilize the soil or feed the plant by the foliar method, it is necessary to adhere to a certain sequence of such procedures. If the plants have signs of a lack of trace elements, they are added additionally, in excess of the norm.

Feeding frequency table for strawberries:

Application procedure	Dates of the	How to feed
Top dressing number 1	Early spring, after the snow melts	Mineral or complex products are applied by the root method to the garden bed.
Top dressing number 2	Before flowering	A mineral complex of 30 g of nitroammophos fertilizer and 10 g of potassium sulfate is dissolved in 10 liters of water and 0.5 liters of solution is poured under each bush.
Top dressing number 3	At the moment of active flowering	Fertilize with a composition of 1 part of manure, 8 parts of water and 100 g of sifted ash. The solution is applied at the root of the plant.
Top dressing number 4	Second half of August	Complex feeding: 30 g of universal composition and 200 g of sifted ash, all this is dissolved in 10 liters of water.

When applying dressings, overfeeding the strawberries should not be allowed, as the deciduous mass will grow in it, but the root will begin to rot . When planting a seedling, they begin to actively feed it from the second year, using organic matter and mineral components. The next year, it is better to abandon organic matter and leave only mineral complexes, and at the 4th year of the plant's life, organic fertilizing is again introduced to it.

When to apply top dressing?

To achieve a high yield of strawberries, it is important to adhere to a feeding schedule. They are performed in spring, summer and after harvest.

In the spring

Fertilizers are applied in spring, during flowering, as well as after the berries are tied and the rosette of leaves grows. At the beginning of flowering, spraying is performed with complex preparations or using boric acid. When ovaries appear, a composition of minerals and organics is prepared: compost - 300 g, ammonium nitrate - 20 g, potassium sulfate - 10 g, superphostphat - 20 g.

The composition is watered at the root of the plant.

Summer

In the summer, after fruiting, it is also important to feed the crop, when she gave all her strength to the harvest and new flower buds and mustaches began to form in her. Fertilizers are applied in July and August. During the ripening period of berries, strawberries are fertilized with ash (200 g) and complex fertilizer (20 g). BUT after harvesting, the preparation granules are scattered in the aisles, burying them into the soil and watering the bed abundantly.

In autumn

In the fall, fertilizing will help the strawberries prepare for winter. Top dressing is carried out in September after trimming the leaves. If you didn't have time to do this, you can feed the strawberries in October or November.

The working compositions are applied in the form of liquid root top dressing or the granules are buried in the soil, followed by watering.

Before boarding

When transplanting bushes or preparing holes for seedlings, the soil is prepared in advance by fertilizing it with ash (200 g), superphosphate (20 g) and potassium sulfate (10 g). Preparation is done at least 1 month before the start of planting work, and this will be the first feeding for young plants . The composition is dug up with soil and watered with water. When planting seedlings, you can add an additional little complex ready-made fertilizers with nitrogen and potassium to the hole.

Expert advice

Fertilizing strawberries depends on the conditions in which they are grown. For specimens growing in a pot on a windowsill at home, as well as on a balcony, terrace or in an apartment, complex compositions are suitable, in convenient packaging - granular or liquid forms. If we are talking about growing crops on an industrial scale, the amount of fertilizer applied will depend on weather conditions and soil composition.

In this case, you will need to use not only mineral, but also organic complexes.

Repaired strawberries, which bloom and bear fruit all summer long, need frequent feeding, and plants intended for hydroponics are fertilized by foliar methods and fertilizers are added to irrigation solutions. In this case, only mineral compositions can be used, since organic matter will clog all the drainage holes of the system.

Sprouts in a greenhouse, like seedlings in vertical beds, are fertilized by fertigation, when mineral components are dissolved in water for irrigation . In addition, in these cases, foliar dressing is also used.