When to cut strawberries and how to do it right: in summer, spring and autumn with video

Garden strawberry is considered the most common berry. One aspect of plant care is pruning. To find out when to trim the mustache and leaves of strawberries, you need to find out which variety the plant belongs to. For example, remontant varieties have almost no whiskers, and only the leaves need to be trimmed.

Should strawberries be cut off leaves?

Whether or not to cut strawberry leaves for the winter is up to each summer resident to decide on their own. There are significant advantages to leaf pruning, but there are also disadvantages. If you cut the deciduous part in the fall, the nutrients will only go to the root.In the spring, this will favorably affect the growth of the bushes.

When the plant is pruned

The timing of pruning depends on what exactly the strawberries are going to cut. Mustaches are removed in the middle of summer. They begin to grow after flowering, but the mustache is small for the first few weeks and it is undesirable to touch them during this period. It is recommended to wait until they grow up.

Also in late autumn, if they are, you should not touch them. Foliage is pruned before the onset of frost. In summer, even after harvesting, the foliage is not touched.

It is best to focus not on the calendar, but on the age of the leaves when pruning strawberries. Prune foliage as it ages. The leaves begin to turn yellow gradually, within about two weeks. When the leaves turn completely yellow and become covered with red spots, they begin to cut them. This usually happens towards the end of July. After the procedure, the bushes have time to become covered with new green leaves until autumn.

Pros and cons of autumn pruning

Benefits of pruning garden strawberry leaves in autumn:

• The main advantage of cutting the deciduous part is that the nutrients go only to the root. The root system becomes powerful and developed, which helps strawberries survive frosty winters.
• Many gardeners are of the opinion that frost resistance is increasing. The statement, of course, is controversial, but suddenly it really becomes easier for strawberries to endure frost.
• Together with the cut foliage, pests are destroyed, which often remain on the foliage until late autumn.

The disadvantages include the following points:

• Together with leaves, buds are cut off in autumn, which bear fruit in spring, strawberry buds are laid in autumn, and start growing in spring. If you cut all the leaves, next year there will be problems with yields.
• When pruning, pests and fungal spores fall to the ground, spreading diseases around the site.
• Spring strawberries grow longer.

Despite the benefits, cutting leaves in the fall has significant disadvantages that cannot be ignored. Mustaches, for example, are not recommended to be cut at all from strawberries, this has a bad effect on productivity.

Advantages and disadvantages of spring pruning

Some summer residents cut off the ground part of strawberries in the spring. The benefits of the spring procedure are:

• Together with old leaves, they destroy pests that wintered in the bushes and larvae.
• Nutrients from the soil only reach the root system, it grows strong and he althy.
• With the timely removal of the mustache, nutrients and moisture enter only the mother plant and berries. Productivity increases.

Disadvantages include the following factors:

• Spores and pests may enter the soil during the procedure.
• If you don't know what fruit buds look like, you can cut them along with the leaves.
• The bushes will take some time to grow back, so the timing of fruiting in this case will shift.

Carry out the procedure in the spring in the last days of April.

Advantages and disadvantages of summer pruning

In summer, garden strawberries are cut at the end of July. Benefits of pruning strawberries in summer:

• Mustache is trimmed in summer, leaves are left until autumn. This allows nutrients from the soil to flow only to the mother plants.
• Pruning the mustache in August helps rejuvenate adult plants.

There are no shortcomings in summer cutting, because during the procedure they get rid of only unnecessary mustaches on strawberries. Summer pruning dates are at the end of July - beginning of August.

Cutting Tools

The procedure does not require many devices. What you need to cut the foliage of garden strawberries:

• sharp garden shears or pruner;
• rake;
• newspaper or thick cloth.

During the procedure, a newspaper is laid out next to the bush. This will allow fungal spores and insects to fall on the newspaper, and not on the soil (if they are on strawberries). Then the newspaper is burned, and pests and diseases are not spread throughout the site. A rake is needed to quickly collect cut foliage. Blunt pruning shears or shears are not suitable. An unsharpened blade will damage the bushes, which will adversely affect the he alth of the strawberries.

Many gardeners prefer to trim leaves and whiskers because it's faster than fiddling with garden shears. But you shouldn't do that. When cut off, the bush is injured and grows poorly in the future.

How to prune strawberry bushes

Pruning is carried out according to a special scheme. Before the procedure, you need to study which parts of the plant belong to the fruit buds, so as not to accidentally cut them off.

Pruning leaves

In the spring, leaves are removed along with rosettes. As soon as the positive temperature is set on the street, the mulching material is removed from the garden and the bushes are inspected. Then cut diseased and dry leaves. Correctly cutting foliage can only be done with a sharp sector, so it must be sharpened before the procedure.

Pruning foliage in summer should be after harvest.If the berries are still unripe on the strawberries, then pruning will have to be postponed for several days until they ripen. When pruning in spring, the foliage is not completely cut off, petioles 5-8 cm long are left. There is no need to be too zealous in this matter, especially in spring. If you cut off the entire deciduous part under the root, the strawberries will spend all their energy on the growth of new foliage, and not on the formation of ovaries.

Sequence of the procedure:

• Cut off damaged, dry and diseased leaves. Frozen stems are picked off by hand as they are very brittle.
• Then cut off all deformed leaves. They not only spoil the appearance of the entire bush, but also block the sun's rays from the inflorescences and berries.

At the end of the procedure loosen the soil and remove weeds. The more oxygen there is in the soil, the sweeter and larger the berries will grow in summer. When pruning is completed, cut leaves are raked from the site and burned.Such a measure is necessary for prevention purposes if fungal spores or insect eggs and larvae remain on the foliage.

During the autumn pruning, most of the strawberry foliage is cut off. Leave only large he althy leaves. Everything else is removed, especially if there are stains, dry leaves or insect marks. The cut leaves are also burned.

Autumn pruning is considered the most traumatic for strawberries. Many summer residents before winter prefer to cut off the deciduous part under the root. And this leads to the fact that strawberries endure winter harder and grow worse in spring.

Moustache Trimming

Circumcision is done with a sharp pruner or garden shears. It is not recommended to cut the mustache with your hands. In open ground, pruning is carried out on a dry sunny day. 5-7 cm are measured from the mother bush, then the mustache is cut off. Carefully pull it out of the soil. If the soil is dense, loosen the soil near the sockets to make it easier to pull the mustache out of the ground.

Features of pruning remontant varieties

Pruning remontant strawberry varieties is practically no different from ordinary varieties. Remontant varieties differ from the usual ones in that they bear fruit twice a year. You will have to wait for the strawberries to finish fruiting a second time, and only after that proceed with pruning. It is held approximately in mid-August. Also cut off diseased, damaged leaves and all yellowed foliage. The mustache is then removed. The cut leaves are burned away from the strawberry beds.

In principle, remontant strawberries can not be cut at all so as not to violate the fruiting time. Especially in those varieties that yield more than twice a year, or grow in a greenhouse. Yellow and damaged leaves in such varieties are removed as soon as they appear.

The only thing that will definitely have to be cut on remontant varieties is late flower stalks. Berries will not grow on them anyway, and the nutrients in them leave without getting into the root system, which needs it more in autumn.

Processing and top dressing after pruning

After pruning the bushes, strawberries are the most vulnerable, so during this period the plant needs increased care. After the procedure, the bushes are treated with folk remedies. Store-bought drugs are more aggressive. For spraying, decoctions of chamomile, a solution of hydrogen peroxide or iodine are suitable. 2-3 drops of iodine are mixed with 3 liters of warm water and the beds are watered with the resulting solution. Peroxide is also diluted in warm water and irrigated along with the leaves.

The types of fertilizer applied depend on the season in which the strawberries were cut. If garden strawberries were cut in the spring, then top dressing is applied several times a month. In this case, they are aimed not only at maintaining the bushes, but also at increasing fruiting.

For example, use nitrogen, rotted manure, chicken manure or wood ash.

In the event that the procedure took place in the fall, the bushes are fed less often and in smaller quantities. Autumn top dressing should be aimed at preparing the bushes for winter. Superphosphate or organic fertilizers are applied to the soil. When pruning in the summer, top dressing is not necessary, only if the bush began to grow poorly after the procedure. In this case, it can be additionally fed with complex mineral fertilizers.

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