Mulching Strawberry Beds
Mulching is strongly recommended for strawberries, as it helps keep down weeds,
conserves moisture, feeds the plants, and keeps berries clean. It also protects
plants against low temperatures and soil heaving. The plants should be mulched
right 
after planting, at least before really hot weather is expected - unless
black plastic film is used, in which case the plastic is spread over the patch,
anchored down with soil or stones, and the plants are set in the ground through
holes cut in the plastic. Good mulching materials include clean straw, salt
marsh hay, pine needles, very strawy manures, leaves, cottonseed hulls, peanut
shells, bagasse (sugar cane fiber), grass clippings, and even old newspapers and
rags. Apply the mulch to a depth of 3 to 4 inches after the ground has been
thoroughly watered, covering the soil all around the plants, but not the plants
themselves. About the only trouble you'll have all season will be with runners
sent out by the mother plant. These new plants will find it hard rooting in a
mulch, and if you want your plants to multiply you'll have to help the runners
by moving the mulch aside a bit so that they make contact with the soil and
root. By the approach of winter most mulching materials will have about rotted
out. At this time, after the temperature reaches 20' F, completely cover the
plants, as described in Winter Protection. This winter covering can be used as
next year's mulch when it is pulled off in the spring.
Weeding
Nothing is more important in growing strawberries than keeping weeds down in the
bed. This can be done by mulching (see above), but most growers don't practice
mulching the first year and many never mulch their plants. If you don't mulch
the first year or any year thereafter, constantly keep after the weeds in the
patch. Hoe, rake, or weed by hand as often as is needed - at least once every
two weeks - to clean out all weeds between plants otherwise the planting will
become a disease ridden, inextricable mat that is almost impossible to cultivate
and bears very little quality fruit.
To cut down on weeds strawberry plants are sometimes planted in clear
plastic and watered with a soaker hose. Plastic is later covered
with a bar mulch to prevent overheating in the sun.If you cultivate strawberry plants with a hoe or tined fork, be careful not to
cultivate too deep. Strawberries are shallow rooted plants, with 95 per cent of
their roots in the top 9 inches of soil and few roots penetrating deeper than 12
inches. Hoe toward the plants when cultivating, to keep the roots from being
killed by exposure to air, and keep the crowns of the plants at ground level at
all times.
It goes without saying that weeding will be much less of a problem if a proper
site for the strawberry patch is chosen - one with few weeds - and if any weeds
present are eliminated before planting (see Choosing a Planting Site).
Thinning Plants and Removing Blossoms
Strawberry plants and runners should be thinned according to the spacing system
used (see Strawberry Spacing Systems). During the first growing season, all
flowering stems on the plants should also be removed so that no berries can
form. Steel yourself to do this, even though it hurts, for it will greatly
strengthen the mother plants and increase the number of daughter or runner
plants, which bear the most fruit the following year. In other words, by
pinching off the first year's blossoms, you are assuring a large crop next year
instead of two meager crops. Entirely remove the flower stems as soon as they
appear, preferably before the blossoms atop them open. Do this by pinching the
bottom of the stem between your fingernails or snipping them with shears never
try to pull the stem off or the plant might be pulled out of the ground. Ever
bearing strawberries are the only exception to this rule. Flowers should be
removed from them the first year until the end of July. After that let fruit
form to be picked in the fall.
Fertilizing and Watering
There are two schools of opinion about fertilizing strawberries. One holds that
if the strawberry patch is prepared properly and the plants are growing
vigorously with dark green leaves, they have enough fertilizer. Others feed each
plant with about a pint of half strength balanced liquid fertilizer immediately
after planting, and fertilize a second time in late summer by scattering 5-10-5
or 10-10-10 fertilizer around the plant at the rate of one pound per 100 square
feet, working it into the soil or spreading it atop the mulch and watering it
in. Still other gardeners fertilize every two weeks until the end of August with
a balanced liquid fertilizer or liquid manure. After the first year,
strawberries should never be fertilized in the spring prior to fruiting - this
leads to excessive green growth at the expense of fruit set. If a patch is
renewed after a year or so, it should be fertilized as above.
Strawberry plants usually require more water than they get from the average
rainfall, although some varieties like Dunlap and Robinson do very well even
when drought strikes. Commercial growers generally irrigate once every 3 to 4
days. Take a tip from them and see that the plants are watered deeply once a
week if possible, especially if you don't mulch. An inch of water a week will
produce fine, large berries.
Winter Protection
Strawberry plants don't have to be protected in the South, where winter
temperatures are normally not low enough to hurt them, but in the North they
should be covered as soon as a temperature of 20' F has occurred and the plants
have hardened off. This is about November 16 25 in the New York metropolitan
area, earlier as you go farther north. Some varieties (see the main variety
list) do withstand temperatures of 40' below zero, but covering plants in winter
not only protects their sensitive crowns, it prevents alternate freezing and
thawing of the soil that heaves plants out of the ground or breaks their roots,
and often kills them. Cover the plants with about a four inch blanket of either
clean straw, salt marsh hay, pine needles, or leaves (which aren't the best
choice, for they tend to mat and make it hard for the plants to push through in
spring). Leave the covering on until the plants begin to grow in early spring,
when it should be removed so that the plants aren't smothered. The covering can
be pulled into the alleys between rows or stored for use again the following
winter.
Spring Frost Protection
Strawberry blossoms are killed at temperatures below 31" F and unexpected frost
can ruin an entire spring crop. If a spring frost is predicted after you have
removed the winter covering from your strawberries, cover the plants with it
again. Or use plastic film held down by rocks or boards, old blankets, burlap
bags, old sheets, whatever you have handy. Another method is to spray your
plants with a fine spray of water from the garden sprinkler, which will often
keep frost off the blossoms by raising the air temperature around the plants.
Leave the sprinkler on until the temperature rises above freezing and any ice on
the plants disappears.