Strawberry plants don't survive our winters without a something to keep them warm and protected. All they need is a few inches of straw to keep them happy, until the warm weather returns next spring. In the photo, you can see the straw blowing out the side of the straw chopper. The yellow drum holds one of those giant round bales, and slowly spins around. It's loud and dusty, I'm glad I have a sealed cab on the tractor -it's heated too!
It's best to wait until the plants are dormant before covering them, so I start mid to late November, and timing is everything:
- too warm -the ground is soft and squishy
- too cold -berries suffer
- to late -danger of deep snow or bitterly cold weather
- wet straw? doesn't spread evenly, and the twine may be frozen to the straw and a challenge to remove.
- too windy -the straw blows away
- too rainy -the farmer gets grumpy
- too snowy -can't see what needs covering, can be too deep to drive through.
Our berries are now all covered, I just need to take off the straw chopper and put on the snow plow. We're all ready for winter!
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