Everbearers produce strawberries over a lengthy period; fruit is picked from each plant several times for a period of 5 - 6 months. This process takes a lot of energy from a plant. You can keep the plant healthy by stimulating its natural growing conditions and protecting it (where possible) from stress. Give your plants a good start and include biostimulants as part of your cultivation strategy. We are happy to explain how to do that.
As a grower, you know better than anyone that sufficient moisture, nutrition, temperature and light are essential for your everbearers to grow, flower and produce. You can find the perfect balance yourself. However, you can’t always influence, for example, abiotic stress factors, such as heat, a lack of moisture or a mineral deficiency. The same applies to other types of stress, such as fruit rot, mildew, spider mites and thrips.
To achieve an optimal growth balance, it is important to make strawberry plants resilient from the very start. Ideally this process should be started before the plants arrive at your farm. You can then follow our cultivation strategy. This ensures robust, resilient plants that grow better from the start and produce more fruit until the end of the season. Talk to your plant supplier about propagating your plants in line with this strategy.
To get the growth balance to the desired level as soon as possible after planting out, our advice is to start drip feeding Nutricin within 3 days of planting. This biostimulant combines willow bark extract, silicon, seaweed extract and amino acids.
The willow bark extract stimulates the plant’s own immune system from the inside out and therefore its self-healing capacity. Silicon strengthens the cell walls and the epidermis of the stalk, leaf and fruit. Harder leaves are less susceptible to moulds and piercing pests. Firmer fruit has fewer problems with bruising during and post-harvest. Willow bark extract, seaweed extract and silicon stimulate root development; your crop grows more evenly and has a greater capacity to absorb water and nutrients. The flower clusters are also longer, more visible and hang out further from the plant.
The seaweed extract also helps during flower formation: 5% more flowers, 5% more fruit on the plants treated with Nutricin.
Recommended dosage/advice for use - Nutricin in everbearers
If high numbers of insects are present in the crops during the growing season, we recommend not only administering Nutricin, but also fertilising the plants with ConSecta. This nitrogen fertiliser, enriched with herbs, boosts crop resilience and improves everbearer vitality. A vital, healthy crop emits fewer stress signals, therefore attracting fewer pests.
Recommended dosage/advice - ConSecta in everbearers
Experience has shown that it isn’t always easy to keep an irrigation system free from blockages for the entire season. To help with this, our solution is to add two - 100% natural – water-maintenance products to the irrigation water. These products clean up organic contamination, but also prevent the contaminants from adhering to the inner walls of pipes and drippers.
Blue Bac-1 is a product that contains useful and harmless specific working bacteria that reduces algae growth to a minimum in basins and water silos. It also helps in the digestion process of dead algae. Over time, you will see the water becoming clear again.
Recommended dosage/advice for use - Blue Bac-1
The special Bacillus bacteria in Blue Bac-2 keep your irrigation system free from the dreaded ‘green film’ and organic material blockages. The enzymes produced by the product have the unique quality of forming a very smooth ‘coating’ on the inner walls of pipes, hoses and drippers, which organic contaminants cannot adhere to. Blue Bac-2 also boosts root development and provides a more stable pH (6.0 – 6.3) without further acidification of the irrigation water.
Recommended dosage/advice - Blue Bac-2
Tip when using hydrogen peroxide
The recommended products, Nutricin and ConSecta, are organic products that cannot be used at the same time as hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Blue Bac-1 and Blue Bac-2 are natural alternatives to H2O2 or other chemical disinfectants. Contact our advisor to discuss our solution if you nevertheless wish to use hydrogen peroxide at the same time as Nutricin or ConSecta.
Do you have any questions, or would you like advice?
Do you have any additional questions, or would you like tailor-made advice concerning your own cultivation situation? Contact your dealer or our advisor Alwin Scholten. Alwin can be contacted on telephone number +31 (0)6 49 30 49 33, or by email on alwin.scholten@plantosys.nl.
Give your strawberry plants a good start, allowing them to grow into a healthy and resilient crop that can cope with stress. You will harvest more and heavier fruits! Our biostimulants are harmless to bees, bumblebees and natural predators.
