FLOWERS - 80f7.jpg
Flower
flowers - Picture8129218.jpg
Strawberry blossom is VERY frost sensitive! VERY !! One single frosty night will turn your beautiful white blossom with the yellow center into a white flower with dark, black center. That is proof that your strawberry blossom is frozen and death = NO strawberries for one season.
I grew up in Switzerland and in central Europe it is common to have around mid May a few days of frosty nights. Hence during these annual weeks a daily weather forecast is needed. If frost is announced, then all strawberry plants need to be covered with straw before night and uncovered again next morning.
One single night with a few frosty below freezing hours is enough to destroy the complete harvest for an entire season. The very same btw applies also for wine yard. We happened to have both, wine and strawberries. both blossom about the same time in Europe, around mid May. Strawberry plants are covered, Wine get a "skirt" made of straw as protection for the night.
Once the strawberry bloom is over and all flowers have been successfully pollinated it takes another few weeks until the fruits become ready for harvest. These few weeks all plants need care and protection, else the harvest is either eaten by snails, birds or fouling in wet rainy soil.
In album Fruits of the Philippine islands
Without care plant may be overgrown by larger plants or eaten up. In this location farmers use to actually flood the fields once or several times a week as shown here in the picture. The foam on the water is from chemicals added.
Plants are water sensitive during the final phase of strawberry growth before harvest. Hence the plants are elevated, the water flows lower and gets the roots wet while leaving the actual plant and berries dry.
In rainy season strawberries become soft and foul easily. Hence the extra effort to keep the water away and lower than the plants.
Wet plants also attract more snails - who feed on strawberries BECAUSE all other plants have been carefully removed.
Smart farmers offer other plants such as salad, vegetable, flowers, grass to snails to safeguard the strawberries !!
In album Fruits of the Philippine islands
Info from:
Private Club
No comments:
Post a Comment