Strawberries are doing well so far...are there any types of food I should be feeding them to really make them thrive?
Thanks
-
- Cool Member
- Posts: 81
- Joined: Thu May 12, 2011 5:31 pm
- Location: North Carolina
- PunkRotten
- Greener Thumb
- Posts: 1989
- Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2011 8:48 pm
- Location: Monterey, CA.
-
- Cool Member
- Posts: 81
- Joined: Thu May 12, 2011 5:31 pm
- Location: North Carolina
-
- Cool Member
- Posts: 81
- Joined: Thu May 12, 2011 5:31 pm
- Location: North Carolina
I'm afraid that I can not help from this side of the pond as too what is available to you.brandon558 wrote:Thanks ruggr.
I will pick some up...is Holly Tone something good to use on all vegetables in the garden?
All I would say is that you make sure it is a product designed for fruiting plants.
General ferts are usually too high in Nitrogen for straw production.
Ideal ratios are around 1-1-3.
- rainbowgardener
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 25279
- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
- Location: TN/GA 7b
- PunkRotten
- Greener Thumb
- Posts: 1989
- Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2011 8:48 pm
- Location: Monterey, CA.
JONA878 wrote:I'm afraid that I can not help from this side of the pond as too what is available to you.brandon558 wrote:Thanks ruggr.
I will pick some up...is Holly Tone something good to use on all vegetables in the garden?
All I would say is that you make sure it is a product designed for fruiting plants.
General ferts are usually too high in Nitrogen for straw production.
Ideal ratios are around 1-1-3.
Would the 4-4-4 I added at time of transplant be too much? All my straws are everbearing and they had some flowers that I pinched off. Hoping for a Fall harvest.
- applestar
- Mod
- Posts: 30551
- Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
- Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)
When I'm being really attentive, I toss some compost over them just as they are waking up in spring. This helps with crowns that heaved up a little and settle back the soil that got disturbed from the first weeding. Then after the leaves grow out and are creating canopies, I spread tomato fertilizer around and scratch it in as I weed again, and when the berries start to develop, I mulch with clean fresh straw.
There is a patch of wild strawberries in my front yard that doesn't get the fancy treatment -- they live with vetch that self seeds and spreads. So other than a little compost and yanking out the honey suckle that some bird started in the patch, I don't do much except to water when absolutely necessary. if I happened to have it handy and it's going to rain, I *might* scatter some tomato fertilizer (I can't scratch it in here since everything is so tangled up).
I suppose it helps that most of my garden beds are full of earthworms.
There is a patch of wild strawberries in my front yard that doesn't get the fancy treatment -- they live with vetch that self seeds and spreads. So other than a little compost and yanking out the honey suckle that some bird started in the patch, I don't do much except to water when absolutely necessary. if I happened to have it handy and it's going to rain, I *might* scatter some tomato fertilizer (I can't scratch it in here since everything is so tangled up).
I suppose it helps that most of my garden beds are full of earthworms.
Too much nitrogen will not harm any strawberry plants but it can get them to produce a very heavy flush of leaf instead of concentrating on fruit production.PunkRotten wrote:JONA878 wrote:I'm afraid that I can not help from this side of the pond as too what is available to you.brandon558 wrote:Thanks ruggr.
I will pick some up...is Holly Tone something good to use on all vegetables in the garden?
All I would say is that you make sure it is a product designed for fruiting plants.
General ferts are usually too high in Nitrogen for straw production.
Ideal ratios are around 1-1-3.
Would the 4-4-4 I added at time of transplant be too much? All my straws are everbearing and they had some flowers that I pinched off. Hoping for a Fall harvest.
In the garden where we expect our straws to last for several years this is not a great problem and encourages runner production for matted beds.
Commercial growers only expect their plants to last for two crops in protected croping and at best three to four years outdoor...so they want maximum production and only just enough leaf to give the plant the food it needs.
- PunkRotten
- Greener Thumb
- Posts: 1989
- Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2011 8:48 pm
- Location: Monterey, CA.
At the start of the growing season it helps the plant to get gowing if they have just a light feed of something light like blood and bone etc.PunkRotten wrote:Should straws get ongoing fertilizer? What I mean is, some fertilizers say to fertilize every 3 weeks or something. Does this apply to straws? Or should they only get some during fruit production?
A steady feed of high potash dureing fruiting is always a good thing.
The best extra feed though is to give them a good dose of a general fertiliser straight after they have finished fruiting....this builds up their reserves for the coming dormant period and helps build a strong and healthy crown on the plant.
One thing I would add...
If you are growing strawberries in a container...pot...grow-bag etc...then at the end of the season it always pays to give the soil a very heavy flush through with water.
High useage of fertiliser builds up salts levels in the soil and this can act as a blockage to the root system for the coming season.
- PunkRotten
- Greener Thumb
- Posts: 1989
- Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2011 8:48 pm
- Location: Monterey, CA.