Annual Plasticulture Strawberry Production Tips

[j5farm]

TIP #1: SITE ROTATION

Experts tell me the single-most overlooked opportunity to stack the deck in your favor is rotating ground.  Re-planting in the same ground increases the odds of soil-borne disease as pathogen populations grow.  Ideally, you'll not plant in the same ground for 3-5 years.  Cover crops, including legumes & those that "fix" nitrogen from the air, are great for building the soil & containing erosion.  Just be careful what else you plant prior to strawberries again - especially the immediate year prior.

There will be plenty of things work against you that you cannot control, so it's best to do everything you can do in an effort to realize as close as possible the theoretical 100% potential of the plant.

That's easier said than done, of course, as getting a new piece of ground each season can require that you put out much labor taking dominion over an otherwise wild & untamed chunk of ground.  Here were are slaying trees, limbing & burning piles, lopping & lugging firewood... and otherwise just trying to get to the point of being able to work the ground:

[heavyhitterokra]

Thanks for the great tip Scott.

Have you ever used Austrian Winter Peas as a Fall cover crop in a field that you expect to plant later? The reason I ask is that Austrian Winter Peas will die when Summer's heat comes and will leave a thick mat of dead vines on the ground that will choke out weeds for most of the season. Nothing can survive below the mat of green vines as they mature, so early Spring weeds and grasses will be controlled very well. They also set nitrogen in the soil as a legume.  The problem is that they get at least two feet tall and will also choke out the plants in your raised beds when they fall over, so don't use them in a spot that you can't mow and plow later.

When it's time to mulch them in, just brush hog them down first, then plow them under. Their wide leaves make great organic matter, similar to alfalfa.

(By the way) that Red Oak in the above photo would make some really good homestead smoker wood for bar-b-que ribs. That stuff is hard to find around here and adds a great flavor.