Many summer residents who love to grow strawberries on the site, probably faced with a problem when the plant does not bloom.
What to do in this case and what are the reasons?
Why the strawberry bed does not bloom
Reasons for planting strawberries do not give flowers:
1. Flowering does not occur if the bushes were planted in the fall.
The strawberry season has come, but there is still no harvest on the beds? The reason lies in the too late planting of berries. Bushes should be planted in early August, but no later. At the end of the month, the plant lays new flower buds for next year's harvest. Late planting weakens the bushes, and full buds are not laid. It's a shame, but a year has passed. It remains to take care of the plantings and wait for flowering next year.
2. Improper planting of bushes.
If planting is still carried out in the spring, but there is still no flowering? This indicates excessive deepening of the bush. Flowering and fruiting in this case does not occur for a long time.
When planting strawberries, you need to correctly place the bushes on the bed. Make sure that the "hearts" are not covered with earth.
If the reason for the lack of flowering in the wrong planting, you should remove the soil from the bush, open the core.
3. Excessive dressing.
Gardeners try to feed their strawberry plantings, but this does not always benefit the plant. Do not abuse fertilizers with a nitrogen content. In this case, the overfed plant abundantly grows greenery, but is not going to bloom. Even if flowers appear on separate bushes, the berries will still not be tied.
What to do in this case? To begin with, to understand that this season there will be no more harvest and help the plant lay flower buds.
Reduce or completely abolish nitrogen supplementation. In the summer, mow all the leaves that take part of the nitrogen with them, and continue to water the strawberries. When new leaf rosettes begin to grow, conduct potash dressing with the addition of ash. Before the onset of frost, strawberries build up good leaf mass, lay flower buds and are ready for wintering.
4. Lack of nutrition.
It may sound corny, but summer residents either overfeed the plantings or do not overfeed. If there is not enough food, then the bushes that used to bloom and bear fruit deplete their resources. Regularly need to feed strawberries, taking into account the stage of its development. It is not worth neglecting top dressing, as a result, the berries are smaller, flowering stops and the plant degenerates.
Straw needs to be fed correctly. From early spring, fertilizing is carried out with nitrogen fertilizers, which help strawberries build up good leaf cover. More often used infusion of chicken droppings or yeast. Yeast supplementation is useful for the root system of the plant and helps to adapt faster after winter.
The second dressing should be done before flowering. To do this, use complex mineral fertilizers that affect the taste and size of berries.
The third time you need to fertilize planting after picking berries, when the old foliage is cut. Feeding is carried out with phosphorus-potassium fertilizers and ash.
Weather factors and strawberry bloom: why strawberry does not want to bloom
Strawberry plantings are quite capricious to the effects of external factors and weather conditions. Plants are demanding of the sun and heat, due to the lack of which they refuse to bloom.
1. Freezing of the bush core in winter frosts.
Strawberries do not bloom because they are exposed to frost. In order to avoid this, you need to well cover the strawberry garden for the winter. Hay, straw or fallen leaves can serve as a shelter. In winter, you need to make sure that there is always enough snow on the landings. In snowless winters, plantings are covered with agrofibre. Bushes that have frozen out must be removed and replaced with new ones.
2. Poor frost protection.
Spring is in full swing and gardeners forget about the cold nights that happen back in May. And the delicate strawberry bushes, from which the shelters have already been removed, are not able to endure night frosts.
It is simply necessary to cover strawberry plantings on cold nights, otherwise the summer resident risks losing crop. On cold spring nights, the "hearts" of the bush freeze, and flowering does not occur. If frost occurred during the flowering period, then the flowers will fall off and the berries will not set. As a covering material, you can apply: agrofibre, spunbond, film or mulch peat plantings.
3. Lack of sunlight.
Oddly enough, but the most delicious and juicy berries ripen in the sun. Strawberries love the sun very much. In the shade of trees or shrubs, it will not give flowers and berries.
To plant a good crop, provide planting with sunlight. If possible, move the bed to a more lit place, remove tree branches.
Why does not want to bloom strawberries: pests and diseases of the bush
Sometimes gardeners are at a loss. Strawberries bloom, but the flowers dry out and fall off, the berries are not tied. The reason for the lack of harvest lies in the diseases and pests that attacked the strawberry plantation.
1. Strawberry weevil.
The pest settles on strawberry buds and damages them even before blooming. Pedicels fade and fall.
To combat the pest in the autumn, they remove all the remains of old leaves, well loosen the earth in the aisles. With the onset of spring, the bed is processed with Fitoverm.
2. Leaf spotting.
The disease develops on strawberry leaves. Brown spots cause the flower stalks to die. The peak of the disease occurs precisely during the flowering period of the bush. If last year the bed fell ill, then the next harvest will be gone.
From early spring, as soon as the snow falls, all the leaves and garbage are removed from the beds. The plantings are treated with Bordeaux liquid before the start of leaf growth. During the flowering period, spraying is repeated.
3. Powdery mildew.
The disease produces during flowering, affects peduncles. The pollination and fruit setting processes are disrupted. The berries have an unattractive appearance, there is a smell of fungus. Strawberry leaves turn purple with a powdery coating.
Spraying is carried out before flowering and immediately after the harvest. For processing, they take copper sulfate and the drug "Topaz".
Strawberry does not want to bloom: the reasons cannot be established
It happens that all the rules of planting and agricultural technology of strawberries are observed, but flowering still does not occur. What can be and how to deal with it?
1. Natural aging of bushes.
The reason for the lack of flowering is often the aging of the bushes. In past years, the garden bloomed and produced, but gradually the berries are smaller, and flowering occurs less and less. This indicates a banal aging of the plantation.
Strawberry beds need planting rejuvenation every five years. If the bushes are much larger, then expect a good harvest is not worth it. It's time to rejuvenate the plants.
2. The problem is the strawberry variety.
If flowering does not occur within a few years, and all the rules of cultivation are observed, then we can say that the variety simply did not take root on the site. There are also weed varieties of strawberries that do not bloom at all. Acquired elite varieties refuse to bloom because they are too capricious and may not fit the conditions of the site. In this case, it is better to purchase young plants suitable for the site, which must be selected taking into account the state of the soil and climate.
