CULTURE DIRECTIONS ON STRAWBERRIES 



Selecting and Preparing Soil 



In growing strawberries your success depends more on 

 securing good plants than on any other one item of 

 expense. 



It is of course necessary to secure the right site for 

 the berry patch. The land should be reasonably fertile 

 to grow good berries. It is preferable to plant straw- 

 berries in a spot where the land will be as free from 

 weeds and grass as possible. Old sod land should not 

 be used if any other site can be secured. 



Fall plowing while not absolutely necessary is much 

 to be preferred over spring plowing. 



Most any soil by fall plowing deep and spreading a 

 good coat of any barnyard manure after plowing any 

 time during the winter or early spring makes a good 

 soil for strawberries. Another good plan is to follow 

 the potato field. Where either white potatoes or sweet 

 potatoes are grown strawberries grow well as a usual 

 thing. Tomatoes, cowpeas, or most any site where the 

 land has been made rich by growing truck crops will be 

 found ideal spots for the strawberry patch. 



Where home manures are not convenient, it is a good 

 plan to broadcast a heavy application of commercial 

 fertilizers just before the plants are set in the spring 

 (two to three weeks in advance is not too much). Sheep 

 manure is good, also a mixture of 1500 pounds of tankage 

 and 500 pounds Acid Phosphate is another good mixture, 

 apply 1,000 pounds per acre. Pure raw bone meal broad- 

 cast or applied in the drill directly under the plants is 

 safe at the rate of 600 to 800 pounds per acre. Raw 

 bone meal will not injure the plant roots no matter 

 how heavy you apply it, and is about all the fertilizer 

 I can recommend to use directly under the plants. 



It is desirable to have the soil worked in as good con- 

 dition as possible before setting the plants. Where the 

 manure has been broadcast, we prefer dragging the soil 

 level and marking off 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 so as to have the 

 rows the same width. 



Method of Setting Plants 



In large plantings a horse-drawn transplanter where 

 good operators are obtainable can do a good job setting 

 the plants. Where small plots are set or in stumpy new 

 land, we find the garden trowel the ideal tool to set 

 plants. On stony soil it is best to use a spade. Just 

 so the plant's roots are set straight down and firmly 

 packed they are all right to grow. 



Care of Strawberry Plants on Arrival 

 TOWNSEND'S PLANTS come to you properly cleaned 

 and bunched ready to set. 



Some varieties may have roots too long to get into 

 stony soil. In this event it is necessary to take the 

 shears and clip off a portion of the roots, making them 

 shorter. 



If the plants are received a few days before the soil is 

 ready, it is a good plan to open the boxes, take the 

 plants out and dampen the roots up to the string, re- 

 dampen the moss and repack in same box, place in a 

 cool cellar, and the plants, if dormant, will keep for a 

 week or ten days in good order. Healing in is all right 

 if done by an experienced hand, but it is slow and 

 tedious, and the danger is getting the tops and crowns 

 wet when handling and watering, and for this reason 

 we prefer to keep the plants in the box packed in moss. 



Distance to Plant for Matted Row System 



For most sections of the country, the matted row system 

 is considered the best and most practical of all. Rows 

 three and a half to four and a half feet, depending on 

 varieties used. Usually a matted row should be three 

 feet wide when plants are laid by, and sufficient room 

 should be left for the pickers. It is always best to keep 

 the middles of the row cultivated out as long as the 

 runner plants form. Plants should be set from 15 to 24 

 inches apart. Good rank growing varieties like Premier, 

 Aberdeen, Blakemore, Dunlap, Howard's Supreme and 

 Jupiter should be set 24 inches apart in the row, with 

 rows four feet apart. 



Everbearing in Hill System 



The photograph on page 20 carries with it a convincing 

 story that the Hill System is one way to grow Ever- 

 bearing Strawberries successfully. We recommend keep- 

 ing the runner plants cut off, or not allowing more 

 than five or six well-spaced runner plants to form. 

 Large, vigorous plants are grown in this way, and it is 

 nothing unusual for each plant to pick a quart of ber- 

 ries during Summer and Fall. Some of our customers 

 reporting yields much larger than this. These rows are 

 spaced 30 inches apart to allow for horse cultivation; 

 the two rows in the bed are spaced 12 inches apart and 

 the plants are set 18 inches apart down the rows. With 

 this spacing it requires sixteen thousand plants to set 

 an acre. This spacing allows plenty of room to work 

 with a hoe around the plants at all times. Applications 

 of plant food can be easily applied any time during the 

 summer months as cultivation continues. Feeding the 

 plants while they are fruiting can be readily accom- 

 plished by broadcasting fertilizer or chicken manure 

 around the plants without injury to them. Cultivation 

 is made much easier as each space affords sufficient 

 room around plant to keep down all grass and properly 

 mulch by shallow working with the hoe during dry 

 weather. 



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 thor- 

 oughly in the soil and later in the season to conserve 

 moisture 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 successful growers use the cultivator as 

 often as once each week throughout the first growing 

 season, and during periods of drought even more fre- 

 quently. 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 one or two 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. 



Mating Varieties 



If you order all perfect flowering varieties, plant them in 

 large plots just as they come. But, if you order part 

 imperfect flowering you should plant every third or 

 fourth row to some perfect flowering sort of the same 

 season (and there are some mighty fine imperfect sorts 

 that should not be overlooked). We offer four imperfect 

 flowering varieties in our list, May Queen, Howard's Su- 

 preme, Townsend's Big Late and Sample. 



Varieties that are not marked in our price-list Like, 

 Premier, or Big Joe. Need no other varieties planted with 

 them as they are Perfect flowering varieties. Also all the 

 everbearing varieties listed are Perfect flowering, and can 

 be planted alone. 



Number Plants Required to Set An Acre 



Number Plant 

 Plants Spacing 



Strawberries, Field Culture 8000 3V 2 xlV 2 



Strawberries, Garden Culture 2 1 / 2 xl 1 / 2 



Everbearing Strawberries, Field 8000 3Vzxiy z 



Everbearing Strawberries, Garden IV2XI 



Everbearing, Double Row Hill System 16000 2 1 / 2 xl 1 / / 2 xl2 



Blackberries 1700 8x3 



Red Raspberries, Hedge Row 2400 6x3 



Red Raspberries, Hill System 1800 5x5 



Black Raspberries 1700 7x3 x / 2 



Dewberries, Solid Rows 2400 6x3 



Grapes 490 9x10 



Asparagus 3200 7x2 



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