Is it necessary to process garden strawberries in the fall: timing, rules, means

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Published: 06/30/2020

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Having harvested delicious berries, experienced gardeners do not “throw” the plantings to the mercy of fate. After fruiting, the crop requires full care: pruning, fertilizing, processing strawberries in the fall, covering. Then next year she will thank the owners in full. It is especially important to spray Victoria’s plantings against pests and diseases, and to protect them from new infections.

• 1 The benefits of autumn treatments
• 2 Protecting strawberries from diseases
• 3 Pest treatments: compositions
• 4 Recommendations for caring for crops

Why process strawberries in the fall?

Healthy strawberries produce a bountiful harvest, high-quality berries, ready for processing or sale. But even if the bushes were not sick in spring and summer, they can be affected in the fall, because pests hide at this time for the winter, and strawberry bushes are quite a suitable place for them. At the same time, strong winds and frequent rains are favorable weather conditions for the proliferation of fungal and viral diseases.

Photo of strawberry processing in autumn

Important!

In the summer, you need to carefully monitor what the strawberries were sick with, what pests affected them, so that in the fall you can use drugs specifically against those pests and diseases that are present on the site. Thus, processing strawberries in the fall will be more effective and bring more benefits.

Autumn processing of strawberries is aimed at destroying all pests that hide in the axils of strawberry leaves, near the root system, as well as diseases that have already settled on them.

Frost protection

To protect bushes from freezing, gardeners use different tactics.

Mulching

As mulch, you can use pine litter or spruce branches , leaves (after making sure that they are not affected by any diseases), humus or compost.

Important! Avoid using straw as mulch. It easily picks up moisture and can begin to rot under the snow, which will damage the strawberries.

Agrofibre

In regions with mild, snowy winters, you can do without additional shelters for strawberries. But regions with harsh climates require a more thorough approach to organizing the wintering of bushes.

The undeniable advantage of agrofibre is its ability to transmit moisture, which eliminates the accumulation of condensation . But this same quality means that the use of the material in regions with winter thaws is contraindicated.

Moisture, penetrating under the material, will settle on the bushes, and they may become icy as the temperature drops.

When is the treatment carried out?

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Strawberries are processed in the fall after the last harvest has been harvested. If you grow simple strawberries, you can do it at the end of September. But if the strawberries are remontant, then the processing is postponed until October-November, when the last berries are collected.

Before processing, it is necessary to remove the bed. All old, dry leaves, in which pests and diseases can hide, are removed from the bushes, the rows are thoroughly cleaned of weeds, fallen leaves - a hotbed for the spread of fungal spores. You can also dig up the row spacing so that during treatment the drug can easily penetrate into the soil and not just get on the leaves of the plants.

What to do before processing

Before spraying the bushes, they must be carefully prepared.

1. Remove all dried foliage.
2. Collect plant debris and burn.
3. Digging and loosening the soil.
4. Remove all weeds.

If you need to replant strawberries, since plantings are renewed every 5 years, then do this and destroy the plants in the old beds.

How to treat strawberries against diseases in the fall?

Most often, strawberries are threatened by diseases such as gray rot, powdery mildew, brown and white spot. You should also be wary of black root rot, verticillium wilt, late blight, spotting, and red root rot. In autumn it is difficult to cope with all diseases, so you can carry out several treatments with complex drugs that help against many diseases.

The photo shows a variety of strawberry diseases

• "Topaz" is used against powdery mildew, white and brown spot. It is suitable in the early stages of the disease and when the problem is already advanced.
• “Nitrophen” is also considered a good product; it destroys fungal spores that are present on the strawberries themselves and those that have fallen into the ground.
• "Bayleton" copes well with powdery mildew and spotting.
• "Teldor" is used against gray and black rot.
• If plants are severely affected by white or brown spotting, they need to be treated with a special compound. For 300 g of copper sulfate, take 300 g of lime and 10 liters of water.

Important!

When late blight or horse rot appears, the affected bushes should be removed from the site and new ones planted, but preferably not in the same place, but in a new one.

The preparation for autumn processing of strawberries is selected depending on what preparations are available on the market and what diseases are most often found on the site.

Features of preparation for winter of different varieties

The rules for preparing strawberries for winter are identical for different varieties of berries. There are only small nuances for the usual and remontant type of plant.

Regular

The berry begins to bear fruit early and finishes yielding by the end of July. Basic procedures for preparing for winter can begin as early as August.

The variety tolerates winter well. Vegetable mulch is suitable as a cover. For example, pine needles. It should be laid out after the start of frost.

Remontantnaya

Remontant varieties of strawberries continue to bloom until the onset of cold weather. It is recommended to start preparing for winter no earlier than September.

This variety should be well saturated with moisture before winter. It is necessary to regularly water in the morning or evening with 5 liters of water per sq.m.

Plants usually do not tolerate winter well. You need to make a good shelter. For this purpose, use a thick layer of straw or dry leaves.

Strawberry pests

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Pests that often plague strawberries include earthen and spider mites, aphids, strawberry-raspberry weevils, slugs, and snails. Bushes can also be affected by nematodes, small black mowers, alfalfa mowers, and strawberry sawflies.

Pests of strawberry leaves

Important!

Some pests, such as nematodes (strawberry, stem), are not eliminated by insecticides. To remove them from the site, it is necessary to replace the bushes with new, healthy ones. It is also advisable to change the soil if possible!

Processing strawberries in the fall involves the use of insecticides against pests. Since it is carried out after the harvest, you can use quite strong drugs that will certainly help get rid of annoying insects.

Snails and slugs

Snails and slugs are not easy to remove. But if you systematically fight them, they will definitely leave the area. To begin with, you should use the mechanical method. They are simply collected by hand as they appear. It is better to do this in cool weather, when they crawl out of their shelters.

The slug not only spoils the leaves, but also eats strawberries

When mechanical cleaning does not produce results, insecticides can be used. During the autumn processing of strawberries, the insecticide “Metaldehyde” is used. It copes well with snails and slugs. Plants are not sprayed with it, but granules are simply scattered around the bushes where these pests most often appear.

Treating strawberries against aphids and mites

If strawberry or spider mites often appear on your site, you should definitely treat the strawberries with a remedy against them in the fall. For example, “Aktellik”, “Karbofos”, “Aktofit” or “Fitoferm”. True, "Actofit" is usually used when the plant is growing - in the spring, and after harvesting, "Fitoverm", "Aktellik" and "Karbofos" are considered more effective. You can also use a solution of Bordeaux mixture (3-4%), potassium permanganate or copper sulfate (2-3%).

Aphids on strawberries

These same products help effectively fight aphids on strawberries. Treatment of strawberries in the fall is sometimes carried out after the old leaves have been cut off, some gardeners cut off young leaves, that is, aphids may not be visible, but if they were there in the summer, even in small numbers, it won’t hurt to treat them.

Interesting!

Folk remedies against diseases and pests can be used, but when processing strawberries in the fall, this is only suitable if in the spring and summer the crop was not sick and was not affected by insects or diseases.

Among the folk remedies for ticks and other pests, a solution of 10 liters of water, 2 tablespoons of liquid soap, 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil, 2 tablespoons of vinegar and 2 tablespoons of ash will help. All this is mixed well and used for spraying. To prevent aphids, you can also simply sprinkle the top of the bushes with wood ash ground into dust.

Treatment of diseases

Diseases can destroy plants

In autumn, the immunity of the berry crop is weakened. At the first symptoms of the disease, measures must be taken to save the plant.

Treatment with Ailirin-B is carried out several times per season (before and after flowering and after harvesting).

Treatment of strawberries in the fall from weevils and other beetles

There are two types of weevils that harm strawberries: earthy and gray root. If they are not dealt with, they can quickly spread throughout the area and destroy strawberry plantings. Autumn processing of strawberries allows you to cope with beetle larvae, which live on the roots and feed on their juices, and adults, which can hide in hard-to-reach places of the bush.

Photo of beetles on strawberries

If we talk about strong chemical preparations, Actellik, Intavir, and Aktara are good for removing weevils. Most often they are used when flower stalks or buds appear, but the products are also effective in the fall. And what’s more, they help not only against weevils, but also against a number of other pests, including sawflies, mowers, and ticks.

Autumn processing of strawberries is an important part of plant care. If you carry it out year after year, there will be no pests or diseases on the bushes. The plant will be able to fully develop and produce abundant harvests.

Pests and drugs against them

Nematode

At the beginning of autumn, carefully inspect your strawberries. If you see tiny worms with virtually no color, up to 1 mm long, then this is a nematode.

True, the nematode is very difficult to see, so its presence is determined by swellings on the stems or veins of the leaves. If the petioles become short and curved, the foliage wrinkles and falls off, and swellings are found on the upper side of the foliage, then it is a nematode.

In these cases, remove the diseased bush and 2 more nearby bushes from the ground and burn them. A crop can be planted in this area in 2–3 years.

Strawberry-raspberry weevil

These are small even-numbered bugs, their bodies are oblong, they are up to 2 mm long, covered with small hairs. Protruding eyes are visible on the head.

Weevils lay larvae in unopened buds. They eat the center of the bud, then crawl into the soil and pupate. If you find punctures on the leaves, this means that the pest is drinking sap from the plant. Treat strawberries with Aktara, Intavir, Fitoverm or Iskra-bio.

Whiteflies

These are small whitish butterflies, up to 1.5 mm long and 0.3 mm wide. They have two pairs of wings, and they have a wax-like coating on them. Butterflies are located at the bottom of the leaves and suck out the juices. There they lay eggs, which hatch into flat, oval-shaped larvae with six legs.

Spray strawberries against whiteflies with Aktara, prepare the working composition in the tank of a backpack sprayer. First, make a concentrated solution by dissolving 4 g of Aktara in 1 liter of warm water (+25 ⁰C) in a separate container. Then take ¼ of this and pour it into the tank, that is, 250 g of concentrated solution. Then pour water into the tank, filling it ¼ full. Close and shake the sprayer, then apply the composition. You can also treat it with Intavir. To do this, place 1 Intavir tablet in 1 liter of water, stir until the tablet dissolves, then pour in another 9 liters of clean water.

Strawberry leaf beetle

These are brown beetles, their bodies are 3–4 mm long. They eat the leaves. They are destroyed by spraying strawberries with Nurell D, Shar Pei, Karate and Zolon.

Strawberry mite

These are transparent, very tiny insects. Females are up to 0.2 mm in length, and males are 0.13 mm. They are almost impossible to see. Young insects are transparent, after which they turn yellow or brown. If strawberries are attacked by mites, the bushes will grow dwarf. If pests are detected, the strawberries are sprayed with a 0.3% solution of Karbofos (pour 30 g of Karbofos into a 10-liter bucket of water).

You can also spray the bushes with potassium permanganate, a 3% solution of copper sulfate (300 g of copper sulfate per 10 liter bucket of water), and a 4% solution of Bordeaux mixture.

Spider mite

It is discovered by cobwebs on the bushes. The ticks themselves are tiny, up to half a millimeter long, and they are whitish. They are still visible as light spots on the top of the leaves.

The culture is treated with colloidal sulfur, Apollo, Neoron, Karbofos, Fosbecid, these substances are poisonous. But you can also use the safe “Fitoferm”, pour 1 ampoule into 1 liter of water.

Aphid

You can treat strawberries with Nitrofen against aphids. You can also spray the bushes with a solution of iodine and water.

Snails and slugs

Snails and slugs are removed from strawberries by hand and destroyed. You can place Metaldehyde granules near the strawberries. How else can you treat strawberries against pests and diseases?

Nitrophen helps not only against scab, gray mold and spotting, but also eliminates aphids and mites. Pour 150 g of the composition into a bucket of warm water (10 l) and spray the crop, as well as the ground near it.