What is the best way to treat weeds on strawberries? This problem can be dealt with using herbicides. These are chemicals that help get rid of unwanted vegetation in the strawberry bed. There are a number of selective herbicides that do not cause any harm to strawberries, but get rid of weeds in a few days, and also maintain their protective effect throughout the entire growing season.
Is it possible to protect strawberries from weeds?
Weeds in strawberry beds are a common occurrence.There are three ways to cope with this problem: mulching the soil, weeding, and treating with herbicide solutions.
In households, it is customary to fight weeds with the help of an ordinary hoe. Weeding helps get rid of weeds only for a few days. A longer period of protection provides soil mulching for strawberries. True, over a large area this method is too expensive, and it also requires drip irrigation systems.
It is much easier to treat strawberries with a herbicide solution. Various herbicides are produced with contact or systemic, continuous or selective action. All these chemicals can protect strawberry beds for the entire growing season. True, each type of herbicide has its own rules of application.
Considering the fact that strawberries are a perennial crop that grows in the same place for several years, it is better to use systemic selective herbicides to treat and protect against weeds.
Such preparations are sold in the form of a powder or a concentrated emulsion or suspension, and before use they must be diluted with water.
Newly emerging weeds are sprayed with a herbicidal solution in early spring, before strawberries bloom, or the plantings are treated in the fall, after harvesting. If the beds are heavily clogged with various grasses that take away nutrients and water from the strawberries, then treatment with a selective herbicide can be carried out in the summer.
Review of herbicides for strawberries
Throughout the growing season, strawberries have many enemies. Weeds take away nutrients and water, collect dew on leaves and promote the development of fungal infections. Insects eat leaves and berries.Fungi affect foliage, roots and lead to the appearance of mold and rot on the fruit.
All these problems can be combated with the help of chemicals: fungicides (for fungi), insecticides (for insects) and herbicides (for weeds).
Tiovit Jet
It is a sulfur-based fungicidal powder that protects strawberries from powdery mildew and other fungal diseases. The drug is used as a remedy against ticks. In addition, sulfur itself is one of the components necessary for the normal growth of strawberries.
The powder is dissolved in water, after which the strawberry leaves, dry from dew, are treated with the working solution. The released sulfur disrupts the life processes of pathogenic cells. True, the drug only lasts 1-2 weeks. Rainfall washes the sulfur off the leaves. This drug does not affect weeds.
Nuclear mixture
This is a mixture of various drugs that can be bought at any pharmacy. All substances are dissolved in water, and the prepared solution is sprayed on strawberry beds before or after flowering. The nuclear mixture helps protect strawberries from fungal diseases and insects (weevils, ants, aphids). True, this remedy does not work on weeds.
Recipe for preparing the mixture:
- 40 liters of water;
- 80 milliliters (1 bottle) birch tar;
- 25 milliliters of iodine (1 bottle);
- 10 grams of boric acid (1 sachet);
- 40 milliliters of 10 percent ammonia solution (1 bottle);
- 30 milliliters of fir oil (1 bottle).
A glass of the resulting mixture is diluted in a bucket of water and sprayed on the strawberry beds. This solution can be used to treat the entire vegetable garden. A nuclear or hellish mixture will improve the quality of fruits and increase the yield of all crops.
Other means
Weeds on strawberries need to be controlled with herbicides.Lontrel 300 will protect you from wheatgrass, knotweed, thistle, dandelion, chamomile, and plantain. You can get rid of annual and perennial weeds using the herbicides Goltix and Betanal. Strawberry beds are sprayed with these substances at the very beginning of weed growth.
Trifluralin is used a month before planting seedlings. Tornado, Roundup, Glyphosate are used during the period of active growth of weeds. Young strawberry plantings can be treated with the herbicides Daktal, Phenmedifan, Desmedifam. In summer, PAB and Prism will help get rid of weeds.
Which one is better to choose?
Herbicides are chemicals that are used to get rid of unwanted vegetation, that is, weeds. Before planting strawberries, you can use the following products: Goltix, Betanal, Venzar, Glyphosate, Trifluralin. Newly planted seedlings can be treated with Dactal, Phenmedipham, Fluazifop-P-butyl.
In summer, the following herbicides can be used to protect strawberry beds: PAB, Prism, Lontrel 300, Select, Fusilad. The preparations Sinbar and Devrinol are suitable for autumn treatment. After removing the strawberry leaves, Lenacil is used.
How to Apply Herbicides
Selective herbicides can be used in early spring, before strawberries bloom, in summer, during the period of active weed growth, or in autumn, after picking berries. There are a number of chemicals that are best applied to the soil before planting strawberry seedlings.
Typically, one type of herbicide is used for treatment. The chemical is dissolved in water according to the instructions, after which fresh weeds are irrigated with the working solution. It is advisable to spray the weeds with water before treatment or use a herbicide immediately after rain.
During one growing season, 1-2 treatments with herbicides are done.
Weeds die in 1-3 weeks, and the protective effect of the herbicide lasts throughout the summer.
How to perform chemical weeding
The herbicide is diluted with water before use. The exact dosage is indicated in the instructions on the label or packaging. The concentration of the solution must not be exceeded. The herbicide composition is used to irrigate the weeds at the very beginning of their development. If there are a lot of cereals in the garden, first use preparations for these weeds, then use herbicides for annual and perennial dicotyledonous weeds.
Folk remedies
To protect strawberries, you can use safe folk remedies. For example, a soda mixture is used to irrigate a crop to get rid of fungi. Spraying with mustard, ash, tobacco, and garlic solution saves from insects.
For better adhesion, a little soapy liquid is added to such mixtures. You can control weeds using a vinegar-salt solution.
