STRAWBERRY CULTURE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLII, Issue 20587, 28 November 1936, Page 10 (Supplement)

STRAWBERRY CULTURE

(Continued) than from lack of it. and if the fruit is beaten down into the straw, there will be danger of damp and rot setting in. In such a case, the bed should be examined during a dry interval, the straw being shaken up by hand, and the berries lifted carefully above the leaves to keep them dry and expose them to all the sunlight available.

During the flowering period and until the berries actually begin to colour, weak liquid manure or soot-water, if available, may be given after rain or watering, but stimulants should never be applied when the soil is dry. Liquid manure is prepared by steeping a small sack containing about a peck of manure, for a few days in a tub or other large receptacle of rain water. The resultant liquid should be the colour of weak tea; if it is darker, it is too strong, and needs diluting with more water before use. It is better to give mo?« frequent applications of a weak stimulant than an occasional strong dose. Soot water can be made similarly by soaking a bag of soot in rain water.

Although the need for protecting the fruit from the ravages of birds will not arise until the berries are on the point of showing colour, it is a good plan to place the nets in position at once in any district which is subject to late frosts, for some protection will thus be provided for the blossoms, which are very easily damaged when fully open, exposing their pollen. A framework of posts supplies the best means of supporting the netting. Place strong posts at each corner of the bed, with lighter ones in between, and join them with galvanised wire. For comfort when subsequent picking is to be done, the posts should be five feet or five feet and a-half high, but this is a matter for the convenience of the picker solely, and it is not essential to have them higher than will keep the netting well above the strawberries. A double layer of fish netting will make the flowers safe from several degrees of frost, or tiffany or canvas can be used if sufficient netting is not now to hand. The same framework will be ready later when fish netting is freed from other uses. The protective material should be open up at the sides during the day to allow bees to have free access to the blossoms. Tanned small-mesh fish netting for protection from birds is advertised in various widths from one yard upwards, and the purchaser will be guided by t lie size and shape of his strawberry bed as to what width will be the most suitable to obtain. The sides of this birdproof cage may be fenced round with one-inch mesh wire netting, two or three feet to which fish lotting is