TOWNSEND NURSERIES - SALISBURY - MARYLAND 



STRAWBERRY 



Cultural 



DIRECTIONS 



Write us if you ore confronted 

 with any special problems. 



Just right 



Too deep 



Too shallow 



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 carefu 

 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 rate of 1000 lbs. per acre. Raw bone 

 meal will not injure 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. TownsendV 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 are received before the soil is ready, open 

 the boxes and take 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 still 

 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 6pade. 

 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 3Vfe to 4V6 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 

 is easy, as such spacing affords sufficient room around the 

 plants to keep down all grass and properly mulch by shal- 

 low 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 

 thoroughly in the soil and later in the season to conserve 

 moisture so that the plants can develop runners. Weeda 

 and grass should be kept out of the fields at all times, a* 

 they will take the moisture needed by the strawberry plants. 

 Most succssful growers use the cultivator as often as once 

 each week throughout the first growing season, and dunnr 

 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 frost* 

 occur. The field will then be free from weeds, and in the 

 following year very few will have time to grow before th« 

 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 a 

 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 heayy. some 

 of it should be raked off into the middle of rows at time 

 growth starts. Wheat, rye, oats and buckwheat stravv are 

 more commonly used. From 3 to 5 tons of straw is re- 

 quired per acre. Marsh hay is also used to advantage when 

 obtainable, 1 to 3 tons per acre being required. 



• NUMBER PLANTS REQUIRED TO SET AN ACRE 



Number Plants 



Plants Spacing 



Strawberries, Field Culture B000 *$ x }}* 



Strawberries, Garden Culture - EJ? ,2 



Everbearing Strawberries. Field _ S000 ^V 1 ^ 



Everbearing Strawberries. Garden -.--. J}? X J- 



Everbearing, Double Row Hill System 16000 2^x1^*12 



Blackberries I 7 ™ *5 



Red Raspberries. Hill System 2400 t>x3 



Red Raspberries, Hill System 1S00 



Black Raspberries — 1700 



Dewberries, Solid Rows 2400 6x3 



Grapes - - «J £J° 



Asparagus - »*w 



• Complete Culture Guide on Small Fruits Will Be 



Sent Free to Anyone Requesting This Booklet 



