THE FRUIT GARDEN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22368, 15 September 1934, Page 21

THE FRUIT GARDEN

NOTES ON STRAWBERRIES. I ■ Since it has been found as a result of recent experimental work on strawberries that they make many new fibrous roots during April, the practice of May planting has been superseded, and Margh is now recognised to be the best planting month. But this holiday time is inconvenient, if not actually impossible 'for most amateurs, who must needs leave the making of a new strawberry bed until autumn or the following spring. For spring planting the site should be chosen and .the ground prepared at once if this has not been done already. An open, sunny position is good, and a slight south slope ideal for early fruiting. The first year of the plant’s life is most important, and one of the chief factors in giving them g good start is the satisfactory preparation of the soil. Lack of thoroughness now can never be remedied afterwards. SOIL PREPARATION.

* Few strawberry roots will be found to penetrate lower than eight or nine inches, so double digging will be sufficient. This will ensure thorough cultivation of the top spit, in which most of the roots Jive, and a breaking up of the second spit or subsoil to provide adequate drainage and a medium for any deeper-going roots of older plants. A strawberry bed lasts three years, or possibly four, and when once planted only surface cultivation can be carried out, so the initial digging is important.

. At this time, too, a fairly heavy dressing of farm-yard manure should he dug in, for it will provide a moisture-holding medium for the roots, which strawberries like, and will maintain fertility for a considerable period. In fact, an annual dressing of artificial manures should supply all that is necessary in after years. If the bulk of the organic manure be' placed over the loosened subsoil and a small quantity incorporated in the lower part of the top spit it will be at the most useful depth for the roots. Among the best varieties are the Duke and Royal Sovereign for early fruit, with Sir Joseph Paxton and Fil'lbasket for the main crop, followed by Laxtou’s Latest and Givon’s Late Prolific. Correct planting is important. Putting the plants too deep and too close together are pitfalls to he avoided, for they are the two most common mistakes which are made in the planting of strawberries. _ A method which is sometimes adopted is to plant in triangular groups of three, with the points of the triangle one foot apart and two feet and a-half between each group. This gives ample space, but the straight row method is, perhaps, more usual. In this case, the plants are 13 inches asunder in rows two feet, or even two feet and a-half apart if space allows. A line should be used to get the rows quite straight and a trowel for the actual planting. The hole made with the trowel for each plant must be large enough to avoid any cramping of the roots, which should have room to spread oqt naturally, both sideways and downwards, and the soil should he made firm about them. On no account should the crown and the base of the leaf-stalks be buried, or rot will set in. It is equally bad to . leave the crown too high above the ground, for then the fibrous roots which are produced just below it will he lost. The crown should be just level with the surface, so that the leaves rest in a horizontal position on the ground when planting is finished.

The plants should be watered in, and the soil afterwards stirred and kept hoed throughout the summer to conserve moisture for the , roots and prevent annual weeds from flowering. Any runners which appear should be cut away and the flower trusses pinched off, or else the plants will not build up enough strength to fruit well next year. AUTUMN PLANTED BEDS.

In gardens where new beds were planted in the autumn it will he wise to examine the plants, and make firm any that have been loosened by frosts, for roots cannot work unless they have a firm hold on the soil. In many districts continuous frosts will have loosened the surface of the soil sufficiently to make hoeing unnecessary just now, but wherever a hard surface exists it should be broken up by running a Dutch hoe between the rows. A dusting of old soot or a light dressing of a nitrogenous fertiliser will stimulate the new growth that is just beginning. Older beds will also benefit by a dressing of chemical fertilisers which can be forked in lightly. A complete recipe which will furnish the three ingredients most necessary for plants can be made by mixing three-parts of either fine bone flour or superphosphate, two-parts of sulphate of potash, and one-part of either nitrate of soda or sulphate of ammonia, using the mixture at the rate of two ounces to the square yard. This is only advocated bn the presumption that a trood supply of farmyard manure was dug in when the bed was originally made, for artificials supply the nlant food onlv and not {he hninns which results from the decay of onranie_ manure. —Y. E. W„ in Amateur Gardening.