CULTIVATION
The field for experiment in cultivation with different fertilizers,
soils, climates, and varieties is indeed a wide one, and yet for
practical purposes the question is simple enough.
There are three well-known systems of cultivation, each of which has
its advantages and disadvantages. The first is termed the "matted bed
system." Under this plan the ground between the rows is cultivated and
kept clean during the spring and early summer. As soon, however, as the
new runners begin to push out vigorously, cultivation ceases, or else,
with the more thorough, the cultivator is narrowed down till it stirs
scarcely more than a foot of surface, care being taken to go up one row
and down another, so as always to draw the runners one way. This
prevents them from being tangled up and broken off. By winter, the
entire ground is covered with plants, which are protected as will be
explained further on. In the spring the coarsest of the covering is
raked off, and between the rows is dug a space about a foot or eighteen
inches wide, which serves as a path for the pickers. This path is often
cheaply and quickly made by throwing two light furrows together with a
corn plow. Under this system, the first crop is usually the best, and
in strong lands adapted to grasses the beds often become so foul that
it does not pay to leave them to bear a second year. If so, they are
plowed under as soon as the fruit has been gathered. More often two
crops are taken, and then the land is put in some other crop for a year
or two before being planted with strawberries again. This rude,
inexpensive system is perhaps more followed than any other. It is best
adapted to light soils and cheap lands. Where an abundance of cool
fertilizers has been used, or the ground has been generously prepared
with green crops, plowed under, the yield is often large and
profitable. But as often it is quite the reverse, especially if the
season proves dry and hot. Usually, plants sodded together cannot
mature fine fruit, especially after they have exhausted half their
vitality in running. In clayey loams, the surface in the matted rows
becomes as hard as a brick. Light showers make little impression on it,
and the fruit often dries upon the vines. Remembering that the
strawberry's chief need is moisture, it will be seen that it can
scarcely be maintained in a hard-matted sod. Under this system the
fruit is small at best, and it all matures together. If adopted in the
garden, the family has but a few days of berries instead of a few
weeks. The marketman may find his whole crop ripening at a time of
over-supply, and his small berries may scarcely pay for picking. To
many of this class the cheapness of the system will so commend itself
that they will continue to practice it until some enterprising neighbor
teaches them better, by his larger cash returns. In the garden,
however, it is the most expensive method. When the plants are sodded
together, the hoe and fork cannot be used. The whole space must be
weeded by hand, and there are some pests whose roots interlace
horizontally above and below the ground, and which cannot be eradicated
from the matted rows. Too often, therefore, even in the neatest garden,
the strawberry bed is the place where vegetable evil triumphs.
There are modifications of this system that are seen to better
advantage on paper than in the field or garden. The one most often
described in print--I have never seen it working successfully--may be
termed the "renewal system." Instead of plowing the matted beds under,
after the first or second crop, the paths between the beds are enriched
and spaded or plowed. The old plants are allowed to fill these former
paths with new plants; which process being completed, the old matted
beds are turned under, and the new plants that have taken the places of
the paths bear the fruit of the coming year. But suppose the old beds
have within them sorrel, white clover, wire-grass, and a dozen other
perennial enemies, what practical man does not know that these pests
will fill the vacant spaces faster than can the strawberry plants?
There is no chance for cultivation by hoe or horse power. Only frequent
and laborious weedings by hand can prevent the evil, and this but
partially, for, as has been said, the roots of many weeds are out of
reach unless there is room for the fork, hoe, or cultivator to go
beneath them.
In direct contrast with the above is the "hill system." This, in brief,
may be suggested by saying that the strawberry plants are set out three
feet--more or less--apart, and treated like hills of corn, with the
exception that the ground is kept level, or should be. They are often
so arranged that the cultivator can pass between them each way, thus
obviating nearly all necessity for hand work. When carried out to such
an extent, I consider this plan more objectionable than the former,
especially at the North. In the first place, when the plants are so
distant from each other, much of the ground is left unoccupied and
unproductive. In the second place, the fruit grower is at the mercy of
the strawberry's worst enemy, the _Lachnosterna_, or white grub. Few
fields in our region are wholly free from them and a few of the
voracious pests would leave the ground bare, for they devour the roots
all summer long. In the third place, where so much of the ground is
unoccupied, the labor of mulching, so that the soil can be kept moist
and the fruit clean, is very great.
In small garden-plots, when the plants can be set only two feet apart
each way, the results of this system are often most admirable. The
entire spaces between them can be kept mellow and loose, and therefore
moist. There is room to dig out and eradicate the roots of the worst
weeds. By frequently raking the ground over, the annual weeds do not
get a chance to start. In the rich soil the plants make great, bushy
crowns that nearly touch each other, and as they begin to blossom, the
whole space between them can be mulched with straw, grass, etc. The
runners can easily be cut away when the plants are thus isolated. Where
there are not many white grubs in the soil, the hill system is well
adapted to meet garden culture, and the result, in a prolonged season
of large, beautiful fruit, will be most satisfactory. Moreover, the
berries, being exposed on all sides to the sun, will be of the best
flavor.
In the South, the hill system is the only one that can be adopted to
advantage. There the plants are set in the summer and autumn, and the
crop is taken from them the following spring. Therefore each plant must
be kept from running, and be stimulated to do its best within a given
space of time. In the South, however, the plants are set but one foot
apart in the rows, and thus little space is lost.
I am satisfied that the method best adapted to our Eastern and Western
conditions is what is termed the "narrow row system," believing that it
will give the greatest amount of fine fruit with the least degree of
trouble and expense. The plants are set one foot from each other in
line, and not allowed to make runners. In good soil, they will touch
each other after one year's growth, and make a continuous bushy row.
The spaces between the rows may be two and a half to three feet.
Through these spaces the cultivator can be run as often as you please,
and the ground can be thus kept clean, mellow, and moist. The soil can
be worked--not deeply, of course--within an inch or two of the plants,
and thus but little space is left for hand-weeding. I have found this
latter task best accomplished by a simple tool made of a fork-tine,
with a section of the top left attached thus: T. Old broken forks can
thus be utilized. This tool can be thrust deeply between the plants
without disturbing many roots, and the most stubborn weed can be pried
out. Under this system, the ground is occupied to the fullest extent
that is profitable. The berries are exposed to light and air on either
side, and mulch can be applied with the least degree of trouble. The
feeding-ground for the roots can be kept mellow by horse-power; if
irrigation is adopted, the spaces between the rows form the natural
channels for the water. Chief of all, it is the most successful way of
fighting the white grub. These enemies are not found scattered evenly
through the soil, but abound in patches. Here they can be dug out if
not too numerous, and the plants allowed to run and fill up the gaps.
To all intents and purposes, the narrow row system is hill culture with
the evils of the latter subtracted. Even where it is not carried out
accurately, and many plants take root in the rows, most of them will
become large, strong, and productive under the hasty culture which
destroys the greater number of the side-runners.
[Illustration: NARROW ROW AND HILL SYSTEMS]
Where this system is fairly tried, the improvement in the quality,
size, and, therefore, measuring bulk of the crop, is astonishing. This
is especially true of some varieties, like the Duchess, which, even in
a matted bed, tends to stool out into great bushy plants. Doctor
Thurber, editor of the "American Agriculturist," unhesitatingly
pronounced it the most productive and best early variety in my
specimen-bed, containing fifty different kinds. If given a chance to
develop its stooling-out qualities, it is able to compete even with the
Crescent and Wilson in productiveness. At the same time its fruit
becomes large, and as regular in shape as if turned with a lathe. Many
who have never tried this system would be surprised to find what a
change for the better it makes in the old popular kinds, like the
Charles Downing, Kentucky, and Wilson. The Golden Defiance also, which
is so vigorous in the matted beds that weeds stand but little chance
before it, almost doubles in size and productiveness if restricted to a
narrow row.
The following remarks will have reference to this system, as I consider
it the best. We will start with plants that have just been set out. If
fruit is our aim, we should remember that the first and strongest
impulse of each plant will be to propagate itself; but to the degree
that it does so it lessens its own vitality and power to produce
berries the following season. Therefore every runner that a plant makes
means so much less and so much smaller fruit from that plant. Remove
the runners as they appear, and the life of the plant goes to make
vigorous foliage and a correspondingly large fruit bud. The sap is
stored up as a miller collects and keeps for future use, the water of a
stream. Moreover, a plant thus curbed abounds in vitality and does not
throw down its burden of prematurely ripe fruit after a few hot days.
It works evenly and continuously, as strength only can, and leisurely
perfects the last berry on the vines. You will often find blossoms and
ripe fruit on the same plant--something rarely seen where the plants
are crowded and the soil dry. I have had rows of Tromphe de Gand in
bearing for seven weeks.
With these facts before us, the culture of strawberries is simple
enough. A few days after planting, as soon as it is evident that they
will live, stir the surface just about them _not more than half an inch
deep_. Insist on this; for most workmen will half hoe them out of the
ground. A fine-tooth rake is one of the best tools for stirring the
surface merely. After the plants become well rooted, keep the ground
mellow and clean as you would between any other hoed crop, using
horse-power as far as possible, since it is the cheapest and most
effective. If the plants have been set out in spring, take oft the
fruit buds as soon as they appear. Unless the plants are very strong
and are set out very early, fruiting the same year means feebleness and
often death. If berries are wanted within a year, the plants must be
set in summer or autumn. Then they can be permitted to bear all they
will the following season. A child with a pair of shears or a knife,
not too dull, can easily keep a large garden-plot free from runners,
unless there are long periods of neglect. Half an hour's work once a
week, in the cool of the evening, will be sufficient. A boy paid at the
rate of twenty-five cents a day can keep acres clipped if he tries.
If the ground were poor, or one were desirous of large fruit, it would
be well to give a liberal autumn top-dressing of fine compost or any
well-rotted fertilizer not containing crude lime. Bone-dust and
wood-ashes are excellent. Scatter this along the rows, and hoe it in
the last time they are cultivated in the fall. With the exception of
guano and other quick-acting stimulants, I believe in fall
top-dressing. The melting snows and March rains carry the fertilizing
properties down to the roots, which begin growing and feeding very
early in the spring. If compost or barnyard manure is used, it aids in
protecting the plants during the winter, warms and mellows the soil,
and starts them into a prompt, vigorous growth, thus enabling them to
store up sufficient vitality in the cool growing season to produce
large fruit in abundance. If top-dressings are applied in the spring,
and a dry period follows, they scarcely reach the roots in time to aid
in forming the fruit buds. The crop of the following year, however,
will be increased. Of course, it is far better to top-dress the rows in
spring than not at all. I only wish to suggest that usually the best
results are obtained by doing this work in the fall; and this would be
true especially of heavy soils.
When the ground begins to freeze, protect the plants for the winter by
covering the rows lightly with straw, leaves, or--better than all--with
light, strawy horse-manure, that has been piled up to heat and turned
over once or twice, so that in its violent fermentation all grass seeds
have been killed. Do not cover so heavily as to smother the plants, nor
so lightly that the wind and rains will dissipate the mulch. Your aim
is not to keep the plants from freezing, but from freezing and thawing
with every alternation of our variable winters and springs. On
ordinarily dry land two or three inches of light material is
sufficient. Moreover, the thawing out of the fruit beds or crown, under
the direct rays of the sun, injures them, I think. Most of the damage
is done in February and March. The good gardener watches his plants,
adds to the covering where it has been washed away or is insufficient,
and drains off puddles, which are soon fatal to all the plants beneath
them. Wet ground, moreover, heaves ten times as badly as that which is
dry. If one neglects to do these things, he may find half of the plants
thrown out of the ground, after a day or two of alternate freezing and
thawing. Good drainage alone, with three or four inches of covering of
light material, can prevent this, although some varieties, like the
Golden Defiance, seem to resist the heaving action of frost remarkably.
Never cover with hot, heavy manure, nor too deeply with leaves, as the
rains beat these down too flatly. Let the winter mulch not only coyer
the row, but reach a foot on either side.
Just before very cold weather begins--from the middle of November to
December 1st, in our latitude--we may, if we choose, cover our beds so
deeply with leaves, or litter of some kind, as to keep out the frost
completely. We thus may be able to dig plants on mild winter days and
early spring, in case we have orders from the far South. This heavy
covering should be lightened sufficiently early in the spring to
prevent smothering. Plants well protected have a fine green appearance
early in spring, and, even if no better, will give much better
satisfaction than those whose leaves are sere and black from frost.
As the weather begins to grow warm in March, push aside the covering a
little from the crown of the plants, so as to let in air. If early
fruit is desired, the mulch can be raked aside and the ground worked
between the rows, as soon as danger of severe frost is over. If late
fruit is wanted, let in air to the crown of the plants, but leave the
mulch on the ground, which is thus shielded from the sun, warm showers,
and the south wind, for two or three weeks.
I have now reached a point at which I differ from most horticultural
writers. As a rule, it is advised that there be no spring cultivation
of bearing plants. It has been said that merely pushing the winter
mulch aside sufficiently to let the new growth come through is all that
is needed. I admit that the results are often satisfactory under this
method, especially if there has been deep, thorough culture in the
fall, and if the mulch between and around the plants is very abundant.
At the same time, I have so often seen unsatisfactory results that I
take a decided stand in favor of spring cultivation if done properly
and _sufficiently early_. I think my reasons will commend themselves to
practical men. Even where the soil has been left mellow by fall
cultivation, the beating rains and the weight of melting snows pack the
earth. All loamy land settles and tends to grow hard after the frost
leaves it. While the mulch checks this tendency, it cannot wholly
prevent it. As a matter of fact, the spaces between the rows are seldom
thoroughly loosened late in the fall. The mulch too often is scattered
over a comparatively hard surface, which, by the following June has
become so solid as to suffer disastrously from drought in the
blossoming and bearing season. I have seen well-mulched fields with
their plants faltering and wilting, unable to mature the crop because
the ground had become so hard that an ordinary shower could make but
little impression. Moreover, even if kept moist by the mulch, land long
shielded from sun and air tends to become sour, heavy, and devoid of
that life which gives vitality and vigor to the plant. The winter mulch
need not be laboriously raked from the garden-bed or field, and then
carted back again. Begin on one side of a plantation and rake toward
the other, until three or four rows and the spaces between them are
bare; then fork the spaces, or run the cultivator--often the subsoil
plow--deeply through them, and then immediately, before the moist,
newly made surface dries, rake the winter mulch back into its place as
a summer mulch. Then take another strip and treat it in like manner,
until the generous impulse of spring air and sunshine has been given to
the soil of the entire plantation.
This spring cultivation should be done early--as soon as possible after
the ground is dry enough to work. The roots of a plant or tree should
never be seriously disturbed in the blossoming or bearing period; and
yet I would rather stir the _surface_, even when my beds were in full
bloom, than leave it hard, baked, and dry; for, heed this truth
well--unless a plant, from the time it blossoms until the fruit
matures, has an abundance of moisture, it will fail in almost the exact
proportion that moisture fails. A liberal summer mulch under and around
the plants not only keeps the fruit clean, but renders a watering much
more lasting, by shielding the soil from the sun. Never sprinkle the
plants a little in dry weather. If you water at all, _soak_ the ground
and _keep it moist all the time_ till the crop matures. Insufficient
watering will injure and perhaps destroy the best of beds. But this
subject and that of irrigation will be treated in a later chapter.
When prize berries are sought, enormous fruit can be obtained by the
use of liquid manure, but it should be applied with skill and judgment,
or else its very strength may dwarf the plants. In this case, also, all
the little green berries, save the three or four lowest ones, may be
picked from the fruit truss, and the force of the plant will be
expended in maturing a few mammoth specimens. Never seek to stimulate
with plaster or lime, directly. Other plants' meat is the strawberry's
poison in respect to the immediate action of these two agents. Horse
manure composted with muck, vegetable mould, wood-ashes, bone meal,
and, best of all, the product of the cow-stable, if thoroughly decayed
and incorporated with the soil, will probably give the largest
strawberries that can be grown, if steady moisture, but not wetness, is
maintained.
Many advise the mowing off of the old foliage after the fruit has been
gathered. I doubt the wisdom of this practice. The crowns of the plants
and the surface of the bed are laid open to the midsummer sun. The
foliage is needed to sustain or develop the roots. In the case of a few
petted and valuable plants, it might be well to take off some of the
old dying leaves, but it seems reasonable to think that the wholesale
destruction of healthful foliage must be a severe blow to the vitality
of the plants. Still, the beds should not be left to weeds and drought.
Neglect would be ungracious, indeed, just after receiving such
delicious gifts. I would advise that the coarsest of the mulch be raked
off and stored for winter covering, and then the remainder forked very
lightly or cultivated into the soil, as a fertilizer immediately after
a soaking rain, but not when the ground is dry. Do not disturb the
roots of a plant during a dry period. Many advise a liberal manuring
after the fruit is gathered. This is the English method, and is all
right in their humid climate, but dangerous in our land of hot suns and
long droughts. Dark-colored fertilizers absorb and intensify the heat.
A sprinkling of bone dust can be used to advantage as a summer
stimulant, and stronger manures, containing a larger per cent of
nitrogen, can be applied just before the late fall rains. A plant just
after bearing needs rest.
After fruiting, the foliage of some of our best kinds turns red and
seemingly burns and shrivels away. This is not necessarily a disease,
but merely the decay of old leaves which have fulfilled their mission.
From the crown a new and vigorous growth will eventually take their
place. When one is engaged in the nursery business, the young plants
form a crop far more valuable than the fruit. Therefore, every effort
is made to increase the number of runners rather than to destroy them.
Stimulating manures, which promote a growth of vines rather than of
fruit, are the most useful. The process of rooting is often greatly
hastened by layering; that is, by pressing the incipient plant forming
on the runner into the soil, and by laying on it a pebble or lump of
earth to keep it in its place. When a bed is closely covered with young
plants that have not taken root, a top-dressing of fine compost will
greatly hasten their development. Moisture is even more essential to
the nurseryman than to the fruit grower, and he needs it especially
during the hot months of July, August, and September, for it is then
that the new crop of plants is growing. Therefore, his need of damp but
well-drained ground; and if the means of irrigation are within his
reach, he may accomplish wonders, and can take two or three crops of
plants from the same area in one season.
While the growing of strawberry plants may be very profitable, it must
be expensive, since large areas must be laboriously weeded by hand
several times in the season. Instead of keeping the spaces between the
rows clear, for the use of horse-power, it is our aim to have them
covered as soon as possible with runners and young plants. The Golden
Defiance, Crescent Seedling and a few others will keep pace with most
weeds, and even master them; but nearly all varieties require much help
in the unequal fight, or our beds become melancholy examples of the
survival of the unfittest.