Our strawberries did not do so well this year. Looking back and thinking about it some I think we had several factor leading to this:1) unfavorable weather - It was cool, wet, and most definitely unsunny.
2) potassium - Our soil in the beds developed a potassium deficiency. I can solve this with bone meal, but if someone can think of another organic solution I would love to hear it.
3) plant age - I think we bought plants a year older than normal. This means they produced early but may be nearing the end of their productive time.
4) failure to properly perform winter care - we did not properly close the beds last year.
This year we properly closed the beds. I cut all the old foliage back. Covered up with straw, held that down with some sticks, etc, for weight, put some slug repellent down.
This spring I will be putting some fresh compost down, some potassium supplement of some sort, maybe a few fresh plants, particularly on the underused bed, and hope for some more affable weather.
You can add hard wood ash, it's a great source. As is greensand, kelp meal, compost (especially if it has banana peels), granite dust is also a good source. I like to use hard wood ash since I can make it here at home from fallen trees, branches & sticks I pick up around the lawn. In the spring you can give them a dose of liquid seaweed which will give them a good quick dose of potassium to get them going until your soil amendments start to work.
ReplyDeleteI added kelp meal to my strawberries this spring and they grew wonderfully. They were tall, had nice big dark green leaves and they fruited nicely.
Pretty much what CR said above. But especially seaweed, some people really swear by it and pics of plants feed seaweed always look better to me for some reason.
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