How to treat weeds on strawberries: the best herbicides and application rules

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Modern herbicides are chemicals used to kill weeds and the spread of other unwanted plants on a plot of land. There are 2 groups of herbicides that have individual effects:

continuous action - all vegetation on the land plot is destroyed, without exception;
selective action (selective) - thus, only certain types of plants are destroyed. The crops needed for cultivation will be preserved.

Today we will learn in more detail how to properly use selective substances, namely herbicides for strawberries against plants and weeds.

Is it possible to protect strawberries from weeds?

Weeds in strawberry beds are a common occurrence. There are three ways to cope with this problem: mulching the soil, weeding, and treating with herbicide solutions.

In households, it is customary to fight weeds with the help of an ordinary hoe. Weeding helps get rid of weeds only for a few days. A longer period of protection provides soil mulching for strawberries. True, over a large area this method is too expensive, and it also requires drip irrigation systems.

It is much easier to treat strawberries with a herbicide solution. Various herbicides are produced with contact or systemic, continuous or selective action. All these chemicals can protect strawberry beds for the entire growing season. True, each type of herbicide has its own rules of application.

Considering the fact that strawberries are a perennial crop that grows in the same place for several years, it is better to use systemic selective herbicides to treat and protect against weeds.

Such preparations are sold in the form of a powder or a concentrated emulsion or suspension, and before use they must be diluted with water.

Newly emerging weeds are sprayed with a herbicidal solution in early spring, before strawberries bloom, or the plantings are treated in the fall, after harvesting. If the beds are heavily clogged with various grasses that take away nutrients and water from the strawberries, then treatment with a selective herbicide can be carried out in the summer.

Advantages and disadvantages

The advantages of this method are obvious:

saving effort and time;
effective control of even the most difficult to remove weeds;
the ability to quickly process large areas;
availability of choice of a specific drug depending on the type of weed, neglect of the site, environmental conditions;
after 2 weeks there is nothing left of them in the soil, the substances do not accumulate.

Disadvantages of chemical control:

Continuous action drugs, which are the most effective, destroy not only unnecessary things, but also cultivated crops, and therefore require special care. These agents are useless against seeds, so plants that are not destroyed before maturation and reproduction have time to become a source of new problems in the future. You should also know that seeds can lie in the ground for several years and then sprout. Toxicity

It is necessary to work with these products in protective equipment and in compliance with all prescribed safety rules.

If it is necessary to repeat the treatment, it is better to alternate the drugs.

Review of herbicides for strawberries

Throughout the growing season, strawberries have many enemies. Weeds take away nutrients and water, collect dew on leaves and promote the development of fungal infections. Insects eat leaves and berries. Fungi affect foliage, roots and lead to the appearance of mold and rot on the fruit.

Tiovit Jet

It is a sulfur-based fungicidal powder that protects strawberries from powdery mildew and other fungal diseases. The drug is used as a remedy against ticks. In addition, sulfur itself is one of the components necessary for the normal growth of strawberries.

The powder is dissolved in water, after which the strawberry leaves, dry from dew, are treated with the working solution. The released sulfur disrupts the life processes of pathogenic cells. True, the drug only lasts 1-2 weeks. Rainfall washes the sulfur off the leaves. This drug does not affect weeds.

Nuclear mixture

This is a mixture of various drugs that can be bought at any pharmacy. All substances are dissolved in water, and the prepared solution is sprayed on strawberry beds before or after flowering. The nuclear mixture helps protect strawberries from fungal diseases and insects (weevils, ants, aphids). True, this remedy does not work on weeds.

Recipe for preparing the mixture:

40 liters of water;
80 milliliters (1 bottle) birch tar;
25 milliliters of iodine (1 bottle);
10 grams of boric acid (1 sachet);
40 milliliters of 10 percent ammonia solution (1 bottle);
30 milliliters of fir oil (1 bottle).

A glass of the resulting mixture is diluted in a bucket of water and sprayed on the strawberry beds. This solution can be used to treat the entire vegetable garden. A nuclear or hellish mixture will improve the quality of fruits and increase the yield of all crops.

Other means

Weeds on strawberries need to be controlled with herbicides. Lontrel 300 will protect against wheatgrass, knotweed, sow thistle, dandelion, chamomile, and plantain. You can get rid of annual and perennial weeds using the herbicides Goltix and Betanal. Strawberry beds are sprayed with these substances at the very beginning of weed growth.

Trifluralin is used a month before planting seedlings. Tornado, Roundup, Glyphosate are used during the period of active growth of weeds. Young strawberry plantings can be treated with the herbicides Daktal, Phenmedifan, Desmedifam. In summer, PAB and Prism will help get rid of weeds.

Mechanical methods of struggle

Primary treatment of strawberries against weeds is of no small importance. It involves the implementation of a set of mechanical measures aimed at complete depletion, suffocation, and weakening of weeds:

harrowing;
cultivation;
plowing;
weeding.

Timely implementation of all operations allows you to get rid of most types of weeds for a long time.

The most effective way to combat weeds is considered to be mechanical removal of roots and periodic weeding of beds throughout the season. Timely removal of perennials and preventing their flowering can significantly reduce the spread of weeds not only on strawberries, but throughout the entire summer cottage. The combined use of chemical and mechanical methods gives more clear results.

Which one is better to choose?

Herbicides are chemicals that are used to get rid of unwanted vegetation, that is, weeds. Before planting strawberries, you can use the following products: Goltix, Betanal, Venzar, Glyphosate, Trifluralin. Newly planted seedlings can be treated with Dactal, Phenmedipham, Fluazifop-P-butyl.

In summer, the following herbicides can be used to protect strawberry beds: PAB, Prism, Lontrel 300, Select, Fusilad. The preparations Sinbar and Devrinol are suitable for autumn treatment. After removing the strawberry leaves, Lenacil is used.

Pre-treatment of the area

To prevent your berry crop from being attacked by weeds, it is necessary to process the land in a timely manner. For effective, and most importantly - correct, cleaning, it is necessary to use the following herbicides for strawberries:

Some experienced gardeners claim that just 5 grams of a strawberry herbicide like Astera is enough and your plot of land will be clean and suitable for growing.

To get maximum results, you need to properly handle fresh weeds. This must be done in damp soil. If the weather is dry, then before treating strawberries with herbicides, it is necessary to moisten the land. If you use one of the proposed options correctly, you can destroy the weeds on your site and forget about them for a long time.

How to Apply Herbicides

Selective herbicides can be used in early spring, before strawberries bloom, in summer, during the period of active weed growth, or in autumn, after picking berries. There are a number of chemicals that are best applied to the soil before planting strawberry seedlings.

Typically, one type of herbicide is used for treatment. The chemical is dissolved in water according to the instructions, after which fresh weeds are irrigated with the working solution. It is advisable to spray the weeds with water before treatment or use a herbicide immediately after rain.

During one growing season, 1-2 treatments with herbicides are done.

Weeds die in 1-3 weeks, and the protective effect of the herbicide lasts throughout the summer.

Effective microorganisms

A new technology for cultivating various crops in agronomy is the use of preparations containing effective microorganisms. The technology completely eliminates the plowing process, however, it is an effective measure for weed control.

The use of effective microorganisms when growing strawberries has a number of advantages:

environmental friendliness of the product;
low cost;
high efficiency.

Weed control is carried out in the fall on an empty plot of land, where strawberries are planned to be planted next spring. The area is cultivated and thoroughly watered with a solution containing effective microorganisms. The destruction of cut roots is carried out by lactic acid bacteria living in the solution. Numerous seeds in the soil begin to grow actively. When exposed to frost, they freeze completely.

The most effective results are obtained by double treatment with drugs in autumn and spring.

Features of pruning strawberries on agrofibre and in pipes

Growing berries under a black film makes caring for them much easier. In this case, the problem of how to thin out strawberries does not arise at all, the tendrils do not take root on the synthetic material, and the berry does not grow spontaneously.

Bushes that have died after wintering, are exhausted, and are infected with fungus are uprooted so that new ones can be planted in their place. Pruning involves removing old leaves and new tendrils. Strawberries grown in vertical pipes are pruned in the same way.