Fertilizing Strawberries

Categories: Soils, Fertilizers and Irrigation

I have half an acre of strawberries which will fruit their second season

this spring, and half an acre set last month. I had intended to use

nitrate of soda on them, but was talking to a friend who told me it

would kill my soil. That the first year it would produce an enormous

crop and the next year I couldn't raise anything. Which would be better

to use here, stable manure or commercial fertilizer?



It is true that nitrate of soda is a stimulant of plants, and by

rendering soil fertility immediately available may seem to reduce the

supply later, and yet it is a most available forcing fertilizer if used

with great caution, not over 200 pounds to the acre evenly scattered

over the whole surface or a less amount, of course, if confined to

particular areas. If used in excess it may actually kill the plants.

Still nitrate of soda is being used actively and intelligently by nearly

all growers of plants and must be counted on the whole a valuable

agency. If you can get stable manure, nothing is better as a complete

plant food. Application to strawberries must be made at the close of the

season, rubbish scraped away and manure applied and allowed to stand on

the surface during the early rains, being worked into the soil during

the rainy season. If the soil is light, sandy loam, too much coarse

material must be avoided. Therefore, well-rotted manure is important on

such soils while on a heavy soil coarser material may be used to

advantage if applied early in the rainy season. If you have no

well-rotted manure, a complete commercial fertilizer will give best

results.