Preparing a bed for strawberries

Content

1 Best place for strawberries
2 Crop rotation rules and choosing neighbors for strawberries
3 Soil preparation
4 How to prepare beds for strawberries in the fall
5 Conclusion

It is difficult to find a person who does not love strawberries, and it is also difficult to find a garden where this berry does not grow. Strawberries are grown everywhere in open areas land and even in greenhouses. Many varieties allow you to select plants with the most preferred taste characteristics of berries and a long fruiting period. Regular and remontant varieties of strawberries are grown in various ways, however, the quality and quantity of the harvest largely depends on the fertility of the soil and the place of cultivation. That is why preparation beds under strawberries is a responsible and very important matter. We will talk about how to properly prepare the soil and how best to form ridges in this article.

Best place for strawberries

It is recommended to grow strawberries only in sunny areas of the land. Shadow and strong winds can significantly reduce crop yields. Preferably, the site should be flat, without strong differences in height and holes. A slight slope of the ridges is acceptable, but its direction will have a certain effect on the quality and early maturity of the crop:

on the southern slopes, strawberries ripen very early and smoothly, their taste is less sour;
on the northern slopes the ripening period of the crop is long, but the berries are always larger;
The optimal placement of ridges is from east to west.

Important! On steep slopes, winds in winter blow away the snow cover from the beds, which can cause the bushes to freeze.

It will not be possible to grow strawberries in the lowlands, since increased soil moisture provokes active growth of foliage and reduces the mass of berries. Fungal, viral, putrefactive diseases actively develop in humid conditions, which can completely lead to the extinction of the crop.

To protect strawberries from the winds, some farmers recommend forming beds along fences or building walls. You can also protect the beds from the wind by growing tall shrubs or annual crops. However, this method of protecting strawberries cannot be used in places with high levels of humidity, since putrefactive diseases successfully develop in conditions of dampness and poor air circulation. Also, when constructing a wind barrier, it is necessary to eliminate possible shading of the strawberry beds.

Crop rotation rules and choosing neighbors for strawberries

For every culture there are good and bad predecessors. Good predecessors for strawberries are radishes, peas, garlic, parsley, and beans. You can also form ridges in the place where carrots, celery, bulbous flowers, and turnips previously grew. It is not recommended to plant strawberries in places where nightshade crops, cucumbers or sunflowers previously grew.

Slugs can pose a threat to strawberries in garden beds.For preventive control of them, you can choose sage or parsley as a neighbor for strawberries; they will scare away this voracious pest. Also favorable neighbors for berry crops are onions, beets, and radishes.

Soil preparation

Strawberries are quite unpretentious to the composition of the soil. It can grow on almost any soil with the exception of sandstone. Loams are considered the most favorable soils for cultivation. At the same time, soil fertility increases productivity and improves the quality of berries.

The acidity of the soil in strawberry beds should be average, approximately 5-5.5 pH. If the indicator exceeds the specified limits, then the soil should be limed. To do this, you need to add dolomite flour, slaked lime or cement dust to the soil. It is important to know that strawberries do not respond well to fresh lime: their roots slow down their growth. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare the land by liming 1-2 years before planting strawberry bushes.

Fertilizers should also be added to the soil for growing strawberries in advance:

if you plan to plant strawberries in the spring, then you need to fertilize the soil in the fall;
if planting of a crop is planned in August, then fertilizers are applied to the soil at the beginning of the summer season.

For normal growth and fruiting, strawberries require a whole complex of organic and mineral substances. Manure is applied while digging the soil. The volume of fertilizer should be 5-6 kg/m². Superphosphate (50 g), potassium chloride (15 g) and ammonium sulfate (25 g) are sprinkled over the dug up soil and covered with a rake. The digging depth for planting strawberries should be at least 20 cm.

Important! You can replace the listed minerals with a universal complex fertilizer.

How to prepare beds for strawberries in the fall

There are a huge number of different ways to form beds for strawberries. Thus, ordinary bulk, high, decorative ridges and ridges under agrofibre are often used. Each type of beds has its own advantages and characteristics. Below in the article we will try to talk in detail about how to prepare a bed for strawberries using the most well-known technologies.

Low embankment ridges

This method of forming beds is most often used by conservative gardeners. It does not require financial costs for the purchase of material and can be easily done on your own. To understand this technology can be described in several stages:

The soil is dug up and fertilizers are added.
Ridges are formed, dividing the dug up area with furrows. If you plan to grow strawberries in a garden bed in one row, then the width of the bed can be 20 cm, if in two rows, then at least 50 cm.
The height of the bed above the furrow level should be at least 20 cm. This will allow storm water not to stagnate in the soil.
It is recommended to make furrows between the ridges 60-80 cm wide.
Strawberries are planted on ready-made beds according to a single-line or two-line pattern. Recommended distances and an example of such plantings can be seen in the photo below.

Low embankment ridges should always be made in the shape of a trapezoid. This will prevent the soil from falling off the edges. The disadvantages of this ridge formation scheme are:

contact of berries with the soil, as a result of which they become contaminated;
the low location of the bed complicates the process of cultivating the land;
berries that come into contact with wet soil may rot.

Important! Farmers do not at all recommend growing strawberries on elevated ridges, since this prevents the roots from accessing moisture and nutrients located in the depths of the soil.

However, this method is the only correct solution for areas with high groundwater levels.

After strawberries are planted on the prepared beds, open areas of soil need to be mulched. This will allow you to retain moisture in the soil for as long as possible after each watering and will partially prevent contamination and rotting of the berries. Straw or sawdust can be used as mulch. Fir branches are also great for mulching strawberries: they repel slugs, prevent the germination of weeds and give the berries a special, rich aroma.

High bed

Raised beds for strawberries are distinguished by their decorative properties and ease of maintenance. The principle of their creation is that the beds are limited not by furrows, but by artificially created fences. You can create high beds by performing the following steps:

A trench is dug in the ground with a width of 40 to 80 cm and a depth of 20-40 cm. The width of the trench should correspond to the width of the bed.
A frame made of boards, pieces of slate, brick or other materials is installed along the perimeter of the trench. The height of the frame can vary from 30 to 80 cm. The higher the bed, the more convenient it will be to care for the plants.
A drainage layer is laid at the bottom of the strawberry bed. This could be a mound of expanded clay, tree branches, or remnants of lumber. The recommended thickness of this layer is 15-20 cm.
A layer of fallen leaves, straw, and weeds is poured over the drainage.During the decay process, this layer will serve as an additional source of organic matter to feed the strawberries.
Rotted manure, peat or compost should become the next layer high beds.
After laying all the components, the frame of the high strawberry bed is filled with nutritious soil and lightly compacted.
You can plant strawberries on a high bed in 2-4 rows. The number of rows depends on the width of the structure.

Important! It is not recommended to use natural stone to create a frame for raised beds, since it quickly cools down in the evening hours and does not retain heat in the ground.

In addition to ease of maintenance and aesthetics, raised beds for strawberries also have a number of other significant advantages:

the drainage layer will reliably protect the plants from flooding, which makes it possible to place such structures for growing strawberries even in low-lying areas;
raised beds can be an excellent option in areas with strong elevation changes;
During the process of decay, organic matter releases heat and additionally warms up the strawberry roots from the inside;
Snow melts quickly on high beds, which allows you to get an early harvest of berries;
high beds for strawberries allow you to grow a heat-loving crop in the northern regions;
Paths between high beds do not need to be weeded. Weeds can be mowed with a trimmer or the free space can be lined with small stones or paving slabs.

Among the disadvantages of this technology, of course, one should highlight the financial costs of purchasing the material and the complexity of creating the structure. You can see the process of creating high breasts and hear comments from an experienced farmer in the video:

Beds under agrofibre

This technology for creating beds for strawberries is a relative novelty, but due to its many advantages, over time it is gaining an increasing number of adherents among beginners and experienced gardeners. The technology is based on the use of a special cover - black agrofibre. It warms the roots of plants, prevents contact of berries with damp soil, and eliminates the need to weed the beds. Breathable material acts as mulch. It allows moisture and air to pass through unhindered.

Preparing a bed for planting strawberries using agrofibre consists of the following steps:

The location of future ridges is marked on a plot of land.
The soil is dug up with the addition of organic and mineral fertilizers.
Trapezoidal beds for strawberries with a width of 50 to 80 cm are formed. Their height can vary from 20 to 50 cm. The edges of such high beds will be covered with material, so that the soil will not crumble when the wind blows or the flow of storm water flows.
Black agrofibre is laid on top of the ridges in a continuous carpet, covering the furrows as well. The edges of the agrofibre are secured with metal pins or staples. Additionally, you can press the material into the furrows with stones or an earthen embankment.
On the surface of the agrofibre, markings are made of how the strawberry bushes are subsequently planned to be placed in the garden bed.
In the designated places, cuts are made on the fiber, into which strawberry bushes are planted.

This technology for creating beds for strawberries may seem quite complicated at first glance, but after watching the video and hearing the comments of the farmer, it will certainly become clear that this method of growing strawberries is not only very effective, but also quite simple:

Decorative vertical beds

Due to the lack of free space in the garden, many farmers try to grow strawberries in vertical beds. They not only save space, but also add a “zest” to the design of the site.

A decorative bed for strawberries can be made from boards or from car tires or scrap materials. An example of such a strawberry bed is shown in the photo:

The difficulty in creating such beds lies only in making the boxes. Caring for strawberries with this method of growing is similar to that carried out in ordinary beds.

Pipes are widely used in creating decorative beds for strawberries. For example, by cutting a pipe along its entire length and soldering its ends, you can get an oblong container for plants, which is filled with nutritious soil and fixed to a wooden stand. This method allows you to grow a large number of plants on a small piece of land. The mobility of the structure allows it to be moved if necessary. By analogy with pipes, you can make an oblong container from other available materials, for example, boards.

Vertical beds can be done using pipes in another way. For this:

Small holes with a diameter of 3-5 cm are evenly cut out on the entire surface of the pipe.
Another pipe (piece of hose) of smaller diameter is inserted inside the pipe.It is also necessary to make small holes on its surface through which moisture will flow to the roots of the plants.
The lower end of the inner and outer pipes must be hermetically sealed.
Fill the internal space between pipes of different diameters with nutrient soil.
Strawberry bushes are planted in the holes.
Watering of plants is carried out by filling the internal hose with water.
Necessary mineral fertilizers are added to water for irrigation.

The excellent appearance of such decorative beds can be appreciated by looking at the photo:

Important! When growing strawberries in decorative beds, you should pay special attention to fertilizing and watering, since in this case the natural source of nutrition and moisture in the bowels of the earth is inaccessible to the strawberries.

An important advantage of pipe beds is mobility. Thus, strawberry beds in the fall with the arrival of severe frosts can be moved to more favorable conditions, thereby preventing freezing. And if you grow remontant varieties of continuous fruiting in such mobile beds, you can maintain favorable conditions for the crop not only in summer, but also in winter and at the same time collect tasty and healthy berries.

Conclusion

Thus, there are many ways to grow strawberries. At the same time, traditional open beds are no longer preferable for most diligent farmers, because by creating high beds, you can speed up the ripening process of the first berries, agrofibre will make it easier to care for plantings, and decorative structures will save space on the site and decorate it. But no matter what method of creating beds the farmer chooses, he must still follow the basic rules of crop rotation and soil preparation.After all, it would be very disappointing to put a lot of effort and effort into creating strawberry beds and get a meager harvest just because their location does not meet the requirements for growing the crop. In general, every nuance in creating beds will in a certain way affect the intensity of fruiting and the quality of berries, so you need to approach this issue especially carefully.

How to prepare a bed for strawberries in the fall