Detailed Explanation of Strawberry Planting Methods and Key Technical Points

Growing Techniques Jan 1, 1970By Emily Carter 0 views

Strawberry (scientific name: Fragaria × ananassa Duch.), a perennial herbaceous plant. It grows 10-40 cm tall, with stems shorter than or nearly equal to the leaves, densely covered with spreading yellow fine hairs. The leaves are trifoliate, the leaflets short-stalked, relatively thick in texture, obovate or rhombic, dark green and nearly hairless above, pale white-green beneath with sparse hairs that are denser along the veins; the petioles are densely covered with spreading yellow fine hairs.

Planting Methods

Site Selection

The strawberry plot should be chosen on fertile land that is slightly elevated, level in surface, convenient for drainage and irrigation, well lit, rich in organic matter, strong in water retention, good in aeration, and weakly acidic or neutral in pH. Better preceding crops are vegetables, legumes, cucurbits, wheat, and the like.

Before planting strawberries, weeds should be thoroughly cleared, and decomposed farmyard manure applied. Generally, per mu, apply 5000 kg of organic fertilizer, 50 kg of superphosphate, and 50 kg of potassium chloride as base fertilizer. After spreading evenly, plow to a depth of 30-40 cm to promote soil maturation. After the land is leveled, make beds at 100 cm, with a bed surface width of 80 cm, a bed ditch width of 20 cm, a bed height of 15 cm, and a bed length of 20 m.

Transplanting

The quality of transplanting has a great impact on strawberry growth and subsequent management, so careful effort must be put into transplanting.

When transplanting strawberries, attention should be paid to oriented transplanting, with the arched back of the seedling facing the side of the ditch, so that the inflorescences are positioned in the same direction. Plant one seedling per hole, and the planting depth should be such that the crown is not buried above and the roots are not exposed below.
Reasonable close planting: the planting density of strawberries is closely related to the planting level. Weak seedlings, late planting, and fertilizer-deficient plots should be denser, with a transplanting density of about 8000 plants per mu being preferable. Conversely, strong seedlings, early planting, sufficient fertilizer, and the use of plastic film mulching techniques should be planted more sparsely, with 6000 plants per mu being preferable, and a plant-to-row spacing of 50 cm x 20 cm being suitable.

Watering

After planting, water thoroughly once. Within one week after planting, generally water once in the morning and once in the evening, and afterward keep the soil often moist to help survival.

Fertilizing

From transplanting to flowering and fruiting, strawberries need a relatively large amount of fertilizer. In addition to applying sufficient base fertilizer, supplemental fertilizer must also be added at the right time. During the fruit enlargement stage and the beginning of harvest, apply 10 kg per mu of strawberry special-purpose fertilizer or diammonium phosphate. Combined with watering, applying it in the form of a 200-fold liquid fertilizer in furrows gives better results. For plots with good growth, spraying only 0.1-0.2% potassium dihydrogen phosphate 2-3 times also has a certain yield-increasing effect, and in principle it is not sprayed during the flowering stage. The fertilizing principle for fruit-harvesting plots is adequate N with emphasis on P and K, and a reasonable ratio must be maintained to obtain higher yield and maximum benefit.

Mulching

Plastic film mulching has a notable effect of promoting early maturity and increasing yield, and can also improve fruit quality and increase the rate of marketable fruit. Generally, mulching begins in mid-to-late March. Note that before mulching, dead leaves and old leaves on the plants must be removed.

Harvesting

The harvest period is a busy season for strawberry growers, in addition to doing a good job of harvesting for market.

Other

Other field management tasks also need to be carried out at the same time:

Frequently remove diseased leaves, withered yellow leaves, and diseased fruits, take them out of the strawberry field and bury them deeply to reduce pests and diseases.
Frequently remove newly emerged stems.
During harvesting, if fruits are found with one half red (the sun-facing side) and one half green, they can be turned over to promote even ripening.
Frequently clean ditches and manage soil moisture so that water does not accumulate after rain, reducing field humidity and lessening diseased and rotten fruit.