What Care Do Plants Need? They should be 

 set promptly on arrival if possible. Dip the 

 roots in water and keep them protected 

 when taken to the garden or field for setting. 

 A hot day is bad for setting strawberry 

 plants. A hot windy day is terrible. A cool 

 cloudy day is fine. Sometimes plants must be 

 kept a while because the ground is not ready 

 or for some other reason. Small lots of plants 

 can be kept in the family refrigerator if there 

 is room. Burying the crate or package for a 

 while in a snowbank is satisfactory. Never, 

 never put your plants in a deep freezer where 

 the temperature will go below 28 degrees 

 Fahrenheit. 



The very best way to hold plants is in 

 cold storage at 28 to 32 degrees Fahrenheit. 

 If such storage is not available, open the 

 bundles and spread the plants in thin layers 

 along a V-shaped trench about four or five 

 inches deep. Cover the roots with two or 

 three inches of soil, leaving the buds exposed. 

 Wet the soil and plants thoroughly. A light 

 covering may be necessary. Incidentally, 

 there is one way to play safe. If you have 

 cold storage available, order your plants 

 shipped in March while they are still thor- 

 oughly dormant. Moderate delays in transit 

 won't hurt them at that time and they will 

 keep perfectly in cold storage at 28 to 32 

 degrees F. until planting conditions are just 

 right. If plants are dug after they have made 

 lots of foliage and possibly blossoms, they 

 should not be held more than a few days 

 even in storage. 



What Is The Best Method Of Setting Plants? 



Any method is good which leaves the roots 

 reasonably straight down in the soil. It is best 

 if the roots are spread with the soil pressed 

 tightly against them and the bud just at the 

 surface. With plants that have very long 

 roots, clipping them off to about 4 to 5 inches, 

 which will not hurt the plants, will make a 

 good job of setting easier. No matter how 

 long or how short the leaf stems, fruit stems 

 or roots may be at time of setting, the bud 

 must be just at the surface. (See picture) 



As far as setting tools are concerned, a 

 good garden trowel is best for work in small 

 plots; in larger fields it is common practice 

 to use a transplanter. With a transplanter, it 

 is very important that the setting depth of the 

 plants be checked behind the planter. 



How Far Apart Should Plants Be Set? In 



general we recommend setting plants 18 to 

 20 inches apart in rows 4 feet apart. This 

 requires a little over 7,000 plants per acre. 

 (See table) Somewhat closer planting is 

 satisfactory in small gardens where space is 

 limited, for the hill system as with ever- 

 bearers, or for late setting where a good 

 stand is uncertain. Closer setting is suggested 

 also for varieties that make few plants and 

 for varieties which are not virus free. 



For the small garden order 7 plants for 

 each 10 feet of row you want to set or figure 

 1 plant for each 5 square feet. Thus for a 

 plot 10 x 10 you would need about 20 plants. 



High yields can be had from small plots 

 by using the hill system where all runners 

 are cut off. Use planting plan suggested for 

 everbearers on page 30. There are many 

 variations of the hill system. One of the most 

 practical is to use a double hill row with 

 plants 12 inches apart in the row and 30 

 inches between each double hill row. This 

 plan makes possible economies in cultivation 

 and runner cutting. All hill system plans re- 

 quire extra plants. 



Hoeing, Cultivating and Training. Frequent 

 hoeing and cultivating make larger, stronger 

 fruiting beds and a better crop of berries. The 

 purpose is to keep down weeds and grass 

 and to keep the top soil loose. Loose top soil 

 helps conserve soil moisture and makes it 

 easier for new runners to take root. Shallow 

 cultivation is best, 1 to U/2 inches deep with 

 the hoe or slightly deeper with cultivator. 



(1) Uncover the buds. At the first or second 

 hoeing any of the plant buds which have be- 

 come covered with packed or caked dirt must 

 be uncovered. Neglect in doing this is often 

 the greatest single cause of a poor stand. 

 The outside leaves may remain fresh and 

 green for sometime but if the bud is smoth- 

 ered the whole plant will eventually die. 



(2) Cut off the blossoms at each hoeing. The 

 vitality necessary to mature a cluster or two 

 of berries is needed by the newly set plant 

 to make a strong, vigorous plant growth. 



(3) Most of the training of new runners is 

 done at hoeing time. A well spaced matted 

 row is the best system for getting the largest 

 crops of the best berries. . It will not pay to 

 be too fussy about exact spacing distances 

 but it should be kept in mind that 4 to 8 

 plants per square foot of fruiting bed is 

 enough. An excess is no better than weeds. 

 Train the first strong new runners out like 

 spokes from a wheel and root them until a 

 fruiting row 1 V2 to V-1% feet wide has been 

 formed. When that has been done as many 



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