Strawberry Prep
How we Prepped for Strawberries
We started with a bed of Sunn Hemp. It grew to over 12 feet tall. Sunn Hemp fights root knot nematodes and stinging nematodes that attack strawberries.
After pulling out the Sunn Hemp we left it to dry out for a few days, stripped off the remaining leaves that had not fallen off and saved all of the stems for winter fire starters. The leaves were swept up and put onto the now empty bed.
A bag of rabbit manure, half a bag of peat moss, some time-release 10-10-10 fertilizer with micro-nutrients, and a half a bag of bio char were added to the bed and turned under. Drip irrigation was set into place.
The bed was then covered with nursery fabric for weed control and the drip was left on to water the bed.
We cut X holes every spade distance (sorry we don't measure) in the fabric and planted our strawberries. After pressing in, we tugged the plant upwards, above the soil level. Strawberry plants only like its roots in the soil, not the plant. Then we are keeping them VERY moist until they grip hold. This guy is only two days in the ground and very, very happy.
