26 
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 thoroughly dormant. Even 
moderate delays in transit won't hurt them 
at that time and they will keep perfectly in 
cold storage at 32 Degrees F. until planting 
conditions are just right. If plants are dug 
after they have made lots of foliage and pos- 
sibly blossoms, they should not be held 
more than a few days even in storage. 
U. S. Government and New York State 
experiments have shown that anyone who 
cannot normally set plants by April 15th, 
could confidently expect much better re- 
sults with stored dormant plants than with 
freshly dug ones. 
WHAT IS THE BEST METHOD OF SET- 
TING PLANTS? Any method is good which 
TOO SHALLOW JUST RIGHT TOO DEEP 
leaves the roots reasonably straight down 
in the soil, spread some if possible, with the 
soil pressed firmly against the roots and the 
bud just at the surface of the packed down 
soil. A good garden trowel is the best tool 
for the work in small plots. Others are a 
spade, dibble! paddle, a big spoon or in 
larger fields a horse or tractor drawn trans- 
planter. With plants that have very long 
roots clipping them off to about 4 or 5 
inches in length will make it easier to get -a 
good job of setting. It will not hurt the 
plants. 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). 
HOW FAR APART SHOULD PLANTS BE 
SET? In general, we recommend setting 
plants 18 to 20 inches apart in rows 3V£ to 
4 feet apart. This requires about 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 everbearers, or for late setting 
where a good stand is uncertain. 
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 ft. you would need about 20 
plants. 
HOEING, CULTIVATING AND TRAIN- 
ING. 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 1 Vi inches deep with the hoe or 
slightly deeper with horse cultivator. 
There are three other important jobs to 
be done along with the hoeing work. 
(1) Uncover the buds. At the first or 
second hoeing any of the plant buds which 
have become covered with packed or caked 
dirt must be uncovered. Neglect in this is 
often the greatest single cause of a poor 
stand. The outside leaves may remain fresh 
and green for some time but if the bud is 
smothered 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. Blossoms may be left on vigorous 
plants of Everbearing varieties after July 20. 
(3) Most of the training of new runners 
is done at hoeing time. A well spaced mat- 
ted 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 dis- 
tances but it should be kept in mind that 
4 to 8 plants per square foot of fruiting bed 
is plenty. 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 IV2 to 2Vz feet wide has 
been formed. When that has been done as 
many as possible of the later runners 
should be pulled off or cut off. 
