DISCARD OLD STRAWBERRIES

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 956, 26 April 1930, Page 32

DISCARD OLD STRAWBERRIES

THEY NEVER PAY Old strawberry plants are not profitable. Considering bow freely the plants of most varieties produce nice, strong runners, it is bad policy to retain the old ones beyond three years. Some cultivators treat the strawberry plant as an annual, raising rooted runners and planting them every auttumn. The plants are planted out 9in apart. Expert cultivators can succeed well and some amateurs may. It is well worth while trying a few plants in this way. But the main object of this note is to induce cultivators to ♦crap all three-year-old plants and replace them with newly-rooted runners, not, however,'on the same plot, but on one previously occupied by a totally different kind of plant —preferably potatoes. The plants should be 9in apart in rows 18in asitnder. Deeply dig the soil first and enrich it with rotted manure if it is poor. The best time to work the soil is when it is moderately dry, as then it can be firmed again a little after the digging. Rich soil need not have any manure added to it now; a surface mulch after planting and one again in spring will be sufficient. When an autumn mulch is put on care should be taken that the crowns of the plants are not buried under it for any great, length of time, or the crowns so covered up will decay and eventually rot away.