STRAWBERRY 



STRAWBERRY 



1735 



tliev should be avoided. Pots are s;oiiietimes plung:ed 

 under the new runners iu dune and July, and they l)e- 

 L'onie filled with roots by August or Septeud_ier. Thrse 

 pot-grown plants are excellent for fail setting in tlie 

 home gar<len, Imt they are sehlnni employed in exten- 

 sive commercial prae-tiee. Fig. 2-iU>. 



In Florida, according to Koifs, beds need to Ik- reset 

 annually, in September or October; plants set at this 



'.S^ 





2414. Strawberry plant ready for setting. 



time produce a good crop in the following Feln-nary, 

 March and April. The plants may be produced at 

 home, or they may be secured from the North. Excel- 

 lent plants for Florida conditions are procured from 

 North C'ari>lina. 



For the very finest l.erries. each plant is allowed a 

 space or hill by itself, and cultivation is given both 

 ways. For general commercial results, however, plants 

 are" generally set in narrow rows. The old method was 

 to plant in "rows 3-;!^2 feet apart and the plants from 

 12-15 inches apart in rows, keeidug off the runners un- 

 til late in July and then allowing the runners to grow 

 and root at will, making a matted row. In this system 

 some plants are almost on top of others, the roots 

 barely in the ground, and they suffer in a season of 

 drought. The rows are so wide' that to pick fruit in the 

 center it is almost necessary to crush fruits on the out- 

 side of the row. This system gives few large first-class 

 fruits, and is now passing away. The up-to-date grower 

 starts with the assumption that the largest and highest 

 colored fruits are found on plants along the outside of 

 the rows, and therefore he plans to have as many out- 

 side rows as possible. This he accomplishes by having 

 his rows closer together and much narrower. The rows 

 are made from 30-30 inches apart and the plants from 

 18-24 or even ;-!0 inclies apart in the rows, much depend- 

 ing on the prolificacy of the variety as a plant-maker. 

 If ^the plants used for a new bed are strong and start 

 into growth vigorously, tlie first runners are used, as it 

 has been found that under most conditions the plants 

 about twelve montlis old yield the greatest numlier of 

 fine fruits. These first runners are usually "bethled in," 

 i. e., planted bv hand, training them along the wide way 

 of the rows, using from four'to eight of the first run- 

 ners and cutting off those growing later. This metlxKl 

 of planting allows cultivation both ways until the run- 

 ners start, retaining moisture and suvini:- hibor in hoe- 

 ing. This system "is shown, in a full-bearing bed, in 

 Fig. 1480, Vol. III. 



Strawberries are usually mulched in the fall in order to 

 protect them in the winter and early spring and to pre- 

 vent the soil from heaving. In some cases the mulch is 

 allowed to remain on the plants rather late in the sprinL^ 



im. Sometimes 

 ■n days by this 

 it has Iieen de- 

 )iat longer than 

 n-y in re^dous of 

 ose in whi(di tIjg 

 ■ us uf 



in order to retard the season of hloi 

 the cro}! may Im' retarded a week or t 

 means, and cases an/ re^mrled in wliici 

 laved with commercial results souu.'W 

 this. The mulch is usually more necess 

 light and precarious snowfall than in tl 

 snow blanket is deep and lies all winter. In rei; 

 deep and continuous snu\\fall. a hea\'y nadch is likely 

 to prove injurious. Experience has shown that the l.iest 

 mulch is usually some strawy malerial. Along the sea- 

 C(.iast, salt hay fi'oui the tide marshes is mxich use<l. In 

 interior phu-es clean straw, in wluch there is no grain 

 to sprout and to make weeds, is \"ery largely ernjiloyed. 

 Fig. 2417. In the boulh, pine needles are used. Some- 

 times loose strawy maimre is used, and the mulch adds 

 fertilizer to the svul as well as affords protection. Fuder 

 ordinary conditions the mulch is three or f<mr inches 

 deep over the plants after it is fairly well packed down. 

 It is not always possilile, however, to muhdi as heavily 

 as til is. sinee the material is likel\' to be ex])ensive \\ hen 

 one has a laru'e area. The nuilch is usually applied late 

 in the fall after the ground has frozen, and if the 

 material is abundant both the plants and the interven- 

 ing spaces are covered. In the spring the mulch is, 

 raked from the plants as soon as they begin to start. 

 Some persons allow it to lie between the rows as a 

 cover to retain moisture and to keep the berries clean. 

 The most expert growers, however, prefer to take the 

 nnilch from the field and to till the plantation once or 

 twice before the plants are in bloom. The material is 

 sometimes returned and spread on the loose soil be- 

 tween the rows. In the northern prairie states, heavy 

 mulching is essential. Professt)r S. B. Gree]i advisi.-s 

 for western Minnesota and Dakota a covering of at 

 least six inches of straw. This mulch is easily pro- 

 vided, since straw is so abundant in that country that 

 it is often burned as the readiest means of ^retting 

 rid of it. When not nudched in that rei^ioti, the 

 (dants are likely to be killed outright or to start with 

 a very weak gmwth. 



Strawberry flowers may be either perfect or imperfect, 

 and the n.ature of the llower is characteristic of tlie va- 

 riety. In some kinds, the fiower is perfect or hermaphro- 

 dite (having both stamens and pistils) and is conse- 

 tiuently self-fertile. In others it is pistillate, producing 

 no pollen, and requiring a pollen-hearing variety to pol- 



<5" 







2415. Old Strawberry plant, usually not desirable 

 for setting. 



linatp it. Fis. 241,^. There are no varifties Iiearinu' only 

 staminate or .sterile flowers. The perfect-flowered varie- 

 ties differ sreafly in the amount of pollen they produce. 

 Some, as the Crescent and (-lien Mary, bear so few sta- 



