I’m concerned about mine, because they’re on WET bare dirt. ie, mud
I may put mulch down, but I’ve been spraying every week since they first bloomed
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What do you spray?
I understand your angst with all the rain, we had a very wet winter, and early spring. But, it’s really been pretty dry here. So much so, the Surround I sprayed on my fruit trees a week ago is still mostly there. It was dry this time last year, but around late July/August, it started raining more. Not every day, but a couple times a week, enough to make it oppresively humid.
i always keep wood chips around all my plants but when the strawberries start to flower i get a bale of chopped straw from TSC and put about 3in of it around each plant. because its chopped it stays fluffy and i never have rot issues since doing this.
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I used to do straw, but it harbors slugs and weeds. With soil, I can apply Preen regularly to keep the weeds down
I was happy at first with plastic, but then something went wrong
I spray with a mix of captan and thiomyl
I’ve been trying something new this year because i had an issue with mulch/straw holding pests and slugs. Its kind of a pain but I’m sure I’ve wasted more time on dumber stuff. I’ve been holding berry bunches off the ground using bamboo skewers and hair clips. I know it’ll take too long once the bed fills out but it makes it easy to pick the ripe berries.
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Goodness sakes! It would take me a week to do that in my strawberry patch. That looks very nice, we’re just fortunate to not have problems with our berries.
Southern Highbush look good this year. O’Neil, Star, Emerald and Legacy. I prefer the taste of Emerald, but frost can be a problem on these with their low chill hours. Picking the first three now and Legacy in a couple of weeks. Just need to keep the birds off the fruit because nobody likes bird pecks on their Blueberries!
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I’ve never had any weeds from this straw. maybe they sterilize it . idk.
I agree, it took me about 10 minutes and I only have 75 plants. After the runners take off it wont be an option. I’ll have so many berries at that point though that I wont mind a little loss to dirt rot.
Have you try cardboard box strips and lay them along under the plants. it killed the weeds and kept the berries off the soils.
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That’s a good idea. Often I use them in the fall to cover my beds. I put some compost on top. But I have so much cardboard I have been throwing it out. I hate to do that. I think I will do this as I didn’t spray my plants this year.
Where can one get thiomyl? I spray like every third year or so. Usually just captan.
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I order it from Southern Ag
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Problem is cardboard blows away
I’ve got some old boards I use for that purpose and as walkway in the mud, but now I have more strawberries
I never had that happen, ever. A rock would work if an issue. Now that I said that all my cardboard is going to blow away!
I have done this but then I have to handle a muddy board. I would rather use something I can just leave there. Landscape cloth would work but then I have to buy yet another item.
I have the cardboard, and if you have the boards, why not?
Thanks!
I do have cardboard, but I use it to block sprays in the lawn, so I’m concerned about herbicide residue
I don’t use much herbicide, usually their never is a problem, but this year I got some drift on a couple currant bushes. I hosed them down right away and it seems to have worked. I don’t see any damage, 2 weeks now.
I’m a big fan of cardboard for grass / weed control. So it seems like all my blackberries have resprouted again but only one TC will have any flower buds and sadly most of my mulberries got snap froze with our two days of freeze and snow, Contorted handled it the best (Maybe some buds still alive) the weeping, girardi and wellington mulberry look pretty toasted. The strawberries and raspberries appreciated the moisture
My 1st batch of the year!
Soon will have pineberries.
Plenty of little wild types (I have 2 or 3 varieties)
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Some goumi and raspberries are starting to color up. I’m not sure when goumi ripen because this is my first year fruiting them but likely being able to harvest raspberries before June is crazy for Pennsylvania. Not sure how appealing goumi look. They are so tiny.
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goumi ripen here in mid july. they are pretty tasty. i leave mine to hang until they are soft and deep red. makes great fruit leather!
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