COMMERCIAL FERTILIZER 
The sharp growth in fertilizer use in the past few years indicates 
that we are just now realizing its importance. If commercial fertilizer 
will show a profit on our general farm crops, it will certainly show to 
much more advantage on crops like strawberries, where the returns per 
acre are so much higher. 
We would recommend broadcasting and working into the soil just 
prior to planting at least 1000 lbs. per acre of some good high analysis 
fertilizer. A soil analysis will show what kind of fertilizer to use, but 
something between 4-16-16 and 10-10-10 is a pretty good shot in the 
dark. 
Supplemental to this, an application of ancther 250 ibs. per acre 
as a side dressing later in the season, say in August, is a very good 
plan. 
In transplanting, avoid putting too much fertilizer right 
around the plant. 
Be careful in buying fertilizer put up in small bags and having a 
trade name. It is generally good fertilizer, all right, but is nothing 
special and costs much more than it should. 
PLANT SPACING 
Fruiting rows in commercial fields should be spaced at about four 
feet. In small plantings this distance can be held down to three and one- 
half feet, maybe a little less. 
The distance in the row will depend upon the ability of the 
variety used to make new runners. We set such kinds as Pre- 
mier, Fairland, Vermilion and Fairfax about eighteen inches, 
varieties like Catskill, Temple and Dorsett about two feet. 
Such free running kinds as Blakemore, Robinson, Dunlap, Ten- 
nessee Beauty and Armore will generally make a good row if 
set as far apart as thirty inches. 
The number of plants needed per acre therefore depends upon the 
variety used. From the above spacing, it will take slightly more than 
7000 plants for an acre of Premier, Fairland and Vermilion. About 5500 
plants will set an acre of Catskill or Temple, while Robinson, Blake- 
more, Tennessee Beauty and Armore need only 4500 plants. 
We favor the matted row system for the best and cheapest pro- 
ducticn, but strawberries will not do well in size of fruit or in total mar- 
ketable fruit if the plants are too close together. By matted row we 
mean a row twelve or fourteen inches wide with the individual plants 
about four inches apart in the row. If the year’s growth leaves them 
closer, the smaller plants should be xyigorously thinned out. 
6. 
