
TOWNSEND NURSERIES - SALISBURY - MARYLAND 7 
STRAWBERRY 
DIRECTIONS 
Write us if you are confronted 
with any special problems. 
VARIETY SELECTION. Perhaps the most important 
task of all is the correct selection of varieties for the par- 
ticular territory in which they are to be planted. A careful 
study of the variety recommendations in this catalog, and 
personal communication with the Townsend Nurseries will 
eliminate the possibility of the buyer purchasing varieties 
which have not the greatest profit-making possibilities in 
his territory. 
SOIL PREPARATION. In the first place, be sure that 
the land is reasonably fertile and as nearly as possible free 
of weeds and grass. Plow the land to be used carefully 
in the fall or spring and spread a liberal coat of barnyard 
manure over the plot during the winter or early spring. 
Potato fields, tomato or cow-pea plots, or any site where 
the land has been enriched by growing truck crops makes 
an ideal plot for the strawberry patch. 
If manure is not available, broadcast a heavy application 
of commercial fertilizer over the plot just before the plants 
are set in the spring.| (Two or three weeks in advance is 
just about right). Sheep manure or a mixture of 1500 
pounds of tankage and 500 lbs. of acid phosphate is good, 
distributed at the r of 1000 lbs. per acre. Raw bone 
meal will not injuré the plant roots and is the only fer- 
tilizer recommended /for use directly under the plants. 
The soil should be worked up into as good condition as 
possible before setting the plants. If the ground is manured, 
drag the soil level, marking the rows with a light marker, 
setting the plants on the side of the mark, using the same 
side of the mark on each row for equal width. 
CARE OF PLANTS ON ARRIVAL. Townsends’ plants 
come to you properly cleaned and bunched ready to set. 
If the roots are too long to set in a stony soil, clip off 
a portion of them cleanly. 
If the plants a6 received before the soil is ready, open 
the boxes and ta the plants out, dampen the roots up 
to the string, redampen the moss and repack in the 
same box, place in a cool cellar and the plants, if gtill 
dormant, will keep from 7 to 10 days without injury. 
Heeling in is permissible, if done by an experienced man 
but it is slow and tedious and the tops and crowns may 
get wet. The first method is best. 
SETTING THE PLANTS. For large plantings, a horse 
drawn transplanter is good to use if a good operator is 
available. For small plots, or in stumpy new land, the 
garden trowel is best to use. On stony soils use a spade. 
Set the plant roots straight down without crowding and 
pack the earth firmly around them. 
PLANTING DISTANCE FOR MATTED ROW SYSTEM. 
Generally, the matted row system is considered the best 
and most practical. Plant rows 3% to 444 feet apart, de- 
pending on varieties used. A matted row should be 3 feet 
wide when the plants are laid by, and sufficient room should 
be left for the pickers. Keep the space between the rows 
cultivated as long as the runner plants form. Plants 
should be set 15 to 24 inches apart. Good, rank growing 
varieties like the Premier, Aberdeen, Blakemore, Dunlap, 
Howard Supreme and Jupiter should be set 24 inches apart 
in the row, with rows 4 feet apart. 
_ EVERBEARING IN HILL SYSTEM. The hill system 
is the only way to grow everbearing strawberries success- 
fully. Keep the runner plants cut off, not allowing more 
than five or six well-spaced runner plants to form. This 
produces large, vigorous plants, each plant set often yield- 
ing a quart of berries during the summer and fall. Space 
these rows 30 inches apart to allow for horse cultivation. 
The two rows in the bed are spaced 12 inches part, and the 
plants set 18 inches apart down the rows. With this spac- 
ing, 16,000 plants will set an acre. Such spacing allows 
room to work with a hoe around the plants at all times. 
Plant food can easily be applied as the cultivation continues 
through the summer months. Feeding the plants while they 
are fruiting is easily done without injury by broadcasting 
fertilizer or chicken manure around the plants. Cultivation 
1S easy, as such spacing affcrds sufficient room around the 
plants to keep down all grass and properly mulch by shal- 
low working with the hoe during dry weather. 


Too shallow 
CULTIVATING. Tillage in newly set strawberry fields 
should be thorough in the early part of the season, in order 
to preserve moisture so that plants can become established 
thoroughly in the soil and later in the season to conserve 
moisture so that the plants can develop runners. Weeds 
and grass should be kept out of the fields at all times, as 
they will take the moisture needed by the strawberry plants. 
Most sucessful growers use the cultivator as often as once 
each week throughout the first growing season, and during 
periods of drought even more frequently. Hoeing should be 
done as often as it is found necessary to clean out all 
weeds and grass. Cultivating should be shallow near the 
plants, both because of the danger of loosening them in the 
soil and because if too deep the roots near the surface will 
be broken. The teeth on each side of the cultivator should 
be shortened, so they will not stir the soil near the row to 
a depth of more than 1 or 2 inches, as many kinds of weeds 
continue to grow in late autumn and start to grow in early 
spring. We advise working the plants until hard frosts 
occur. The field will then be free from weeds, and in the 
following year very few will have time to grow before the 
harvest season. 
@ ONE OF THE SECRETS IN 
GROWING STRAWBERRIES 
While there should be no secrets in the growing of Straw- 
berries when every grower is exchanging ideas with his 
neighbors, there seems to be one point that has not been 
given enough publicity by the neighbor, journals and nurs- 
erymen. With the majority of the plant growers in the 
North it has always been a practice to hold off setting plants 
until all frosts and freezing is over. On low springy type 
soils this probably is a logical practice. However, on land 
with a good drainage and which dries out early in the 
spring this practice should not be followed. Strawberry 
plants, when properly grown and hardened, will stand con- 
siderable cold weather after setting. 
MULCHING STRAWBERRIES 
In regions of heavy snowfall Strawberries should have 8 
mulch to keep the ground from freezing and thawing in 
early winter and in the spring. In the Northern part of 
the Middle West all varieties should be protected in the 
winter against the severe drying winds which occur in those 
regions. A mulch conserves moisture in the spring and in 
certain localities the crop may be increased from one_third 
to one-half by its use. 
The mulch should be applied as soon as the ground is 
frozen from one to two inches deep. In some localities 
growers have found it unsafe to await freezing weather 
because of the danger of severe storms or heavy falls of 
snow which remain throughout the winter, mulch being 
put on as soon as active growth has ceased. The mulch 
should be scattered over the fields so that some will fall 
on the plants, but more of it between the rows. In the 
spring the plants will grow up through the straw and the 
berries will be kept clean. If mulch is put on heavy, some 
of it should be raked off into the middle of rows at time 
growth starts. Wheat, rye, oats and buckwheat straw are 
More commonly used. From 8 to 5 tons of straw is re- 
quired per acre. Marsh hay is also used to advantage when 
obtainable, 1 to 8 tons per acre being required. 
@ NUMBER PLANTS REQUIRED TO SET AN ACRE 
Number Plants 
Plants Spacing 
Strawberries, Field Culture... 00... 8000 Si4xly 
Strawberries, Garden Culture... we 216xll,g 
Everbearing Strawberries, Field ................ 8000 Sigxlly 
Everbearing Strawberries, Garden... .......- 144x1 
Everbearing, Double Row Hill System ...16000 244x1%x12 
LAVA AS eR, Oe a SE eee 1700 &x38 
Red Raspberries, Hill System.....00................. 2400 6x3 
Red Raspberries, Hill Systeme... 1800 5x5 
Black Raspberries: .........cccsccccccesccccse tie AO 7x34 
Dewberries, Solid Rows ...........00000000000cc-----. 2400 6x3 
Cire Net waren ne ee re At ee ve, 490 9x10 
JCP a ee SER GRE SR eee 3200 7x2 
@ Complete Culture Guide on Small Fruits Will Be 
Sent Free to Anyone Requesting This Booklet 
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