Planning and Planting' the Strawberry Patch 



J. C. BlacK. Truro, Novo Scotia 



MOST any soil, if properly manured 

 and cultivated, suits the straw- 

 berry ; but most varieties prefer 

 either a sandy or clay loam. Low land 

 is very good, but there is always the 

 danger of late spring frosts killing the 

 blossoms on locations of that nature. 

 Since frost is like water and runs down 

 hill, it is wise to plant only late flowering 

 varieties on relatively low ground, and 

 leave the early flowering kinds for the 

 higher land. 



The chief factors in strawberry culture 

 are manure and tillage. In manure, 

 four things are essential : humus, nitro- 

 gen, potash and phosphoric acid. 

 Humus, or decayed vegetable matter, 

 makes the soil mellow, so that air will 

 readily circulate through it, and spongy, 

 so that it will hold moisture. All four 

 is found in good stable manure, which, 

 in my experience, has proved to be the 

 best fertilizer for strawberry soils. It 

 may be applied in large quantities by 

 itself, or in small quantities and supple- 

 mented with bone meal, wood ashes or 

 poultry droppings. Ashes should not 

 be mixed with manure until appHed to 

 the land, as it sets free the ammonia of 

 the manure and causes it to be lost in 

 the air. 



Stable manure is best applied in the 

 fall and plowed in at once. When 

 necessarj- to apply it in the spring, par- 

 ticularly if raw or green, see that it is 

 thoroughly mixed and incorporated 

 with the soil, so that no green manure 

 will come in contact with the roots of 

 the plants. 



My experience with commercial fer- 

 tilizers is Hmited, except with ground 

 bones. A complete commercial fertil- 

 izer for strawberries should contain, it 

 is said, 3 to 4 per cent, nitrogen, 10 to 12 

 per cent, pure potash, and 12 to 14 per 

 cent, available phosphoric acid. Com- 

 mercial fertilizers are better used in con- 

 nection with stable manure, or with 

 leguminous cover crops for turning under. 

 I have found it a good plan, however, 



to sow a little fertiUzer along both sides 

 of the row just before the vines begin to 

 run, and work it into the soil. 



PLANTS AND PLANTING 



Plants should be selected from a plot 

 that has not fruited, so as to get them 

 strong and vigorous. It is best to dig 

 up the whole row with a fork, shake out 

 the dirt and select only the best plants, 

 rejecting tip plants and all that are not 

 well rooted or well matured. 



For planting, use a tool something like 

 a cooper's adze or a grub hoe. It can 

 be made by any blacksmith. The 

 blade should be about eight inches long 

 and four inches wide with a shank turned 

 on the end of it, bearing a handle about 

 1 5 or 1 8 inches long. Strike this into the 

 ground and draw back, then place the 

 plant in the hole with roots as near fan- 

 shaped as possible, withdraw the tool 

 and firm the soil around the plant. The 

 crown of the plant should be on a level 

 with the surface of the ground. Do not 

 expose plants to sun and wind. A boy 

 should drop the plants only as they are 

 wanted by the planters. By this method 

 a large area can be planted in a day. 



The number of plants required to 

 plant an acre depends, of course, upon 

 the distance apart. When 30 by 24 

 inches apart, approximately 9,000 plants 

 are required ; when 30 by 30 inches 

 apart 7,000 plants; when farther apart 

 a smaller number, etc. 



INTERPOLLINATION 



In strawberr^^ varieties, there are two 

 kinds of flowers, perfect and imperfect, 

 or male and female. The perfect or 

 bisexual flower is the only one that pro- 

 duces pollen ; the imperfect or pistillate 

 flower is barren unless fertilized by 

 pollen from a perfect flowering variety. 

 When planted alone, imperfect varieties 

 produce no fruit, nothing but deform- 

 ities in the shape of nubbins. To insure 

 a crop from an imperfect variety, it is- 

 necessary to plant second or third rows 

 with plants of a perfect variety for cross 



fertilization. This must be borne 

 mind when selecting varieties. 



SYSTEMS OF CULTURE 



There are three methods of growing 

 strawberries, viz., hill culture, hedge 

 rows and the matted row system. Hill 

 culture is probably the best for small 

 gardens. It consists of setting the 

 plants about 15 inches apart and of cut- 

 ting off the vines as fast as they appear. 

 The ground should be kept stirred 

 around the plants so the}- will stool out 

 and develop many fruit crowns. Keep 

 the blossoms off the first season, and the 

 plants will produce fruit of superior 

 quality and size the second season. 



The hedge row system is compara- 

 tively new, and is suitable for either 

 garden or field culture. For the garden 

 the rows may be made about 18 inches 

 apart ; for the field, about 30 inches 

 apart or more, with plants about 24 

 inches apart in the row. On both sides 

 of the mother plant, one vine is trained in 

 a straight line and two or three plants 

 are allowed to set on a vine, all others 

 being pinched or cut off. This keeps 

 the rows narrow so that a cultivator may 

 be run close to the rows, leaving little 

 work to be done by hand. 



The matted row system is the old 

 reliable for commercial plantations. 

 Have the ground level and smooth, then 

 mark out rows 36 to 42 inches apart and 

 set the plants 18 to 24 inches in the rows. 

 The rows should be perfectly straight 

 for ease in cultivating without disturb- 

 ing the plants. When the vines begin 

 to run train them into the spaces between 

 the plants and keep narrowing up the 

 cultivator, always going the same way 

 so as not to disturb the new plants that 

 have rooted. By this system a larger 

 yield per acre can be secured than from 

 the other systems described, but the 

 fruit may not be as fine in quality. 

 One objection I have to the matted row 

 system is that the rows are liable to get 

 too thick in places and thus prevent 

 a proper development of the fruit. 



Herbaceous Borders tbat Bloom for Seven MontKs 



PLANT lovers, people who know, 

 and feel, and appreciate the 

 beautiful in home surroundings, 

 realize that the ordinary floral effect, 

 even in our best gardens, is inordinately 

 dull, commonplace, and whollv un- 

 satisfactory. A few beds cut in the 

 lawn, and hbpelessly destroying the 

 repose and restfulness that an un- 

 broken stretch of green grass produces, 

 these beds laid out in stiff, formal rows 



E.. By field, Toronto 



of cannas, geraniums, coleus and a few 

 other greenhouse productions, such are 

 the ordinary, orthodox gardens of On- 

 tario, one exactly like another, monot- 

 onous in arrangement, monotonous 

 in ever recurring uniformity, and 

 monotonous in never varying colors for 

 the few short months between early 

 summer and early fall that our short, 

 free-from-frost season will permit. 

 With the first light frost in fall the 



plants are changed in a night to pulp, 

 and the beds become unsightly mounds .: 

 of bare earth to still further disfigure [ 

 the lawns until the next June, then j 

 another stock of greenhouse plants to I 

 be bought to stand in unchanging < 

 stiffness for three or four months in the t 

 broken and disfigured lawn, then as . 

 before to disappear with the first frost, 

 and thus on with unvarying annual 

 recurrence. 



