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Nature has endowed the strawberry-plant with the power of taking root and growing readily at almost any season when young plants can be obtained. My best success, however, has been in November and early spring. The latter part of May and the month of June is the only time at which I have not planted with satisfactory results. In Northern latitudes, early spring is preferable, for at this season the ground is moist, showers are abundant, and the impulse of growth is strong. The weather is cool, also, and therefore the plants rarely heat or dry out during transportation.
In the South, autumn is by far the best time to plant. When the young plants are grown on the same place, they may be transferred to the fruiting beds and fields any time between July and the middle of November. The earlier they are set out, if they can be kept growing during the remainder of the hot season, the larger will be the yield the following spring. As a rule, plants, unless grown in pots, can not be shipped from the North or South until cold weather. The forwarding to the latitude of Richmond begins in September, and to points further south in October and November; from Florida to Louisiana I hear of almost unvarying success.
Of late years the practice of growing plants in pots and sending them out as the florists do flowers has become very prevalent. These potted plants can be set out in July, August and September, and the ball of earth clinging to their roots prevents wilting, and, unless they are neglected, insures their living. Pot-grown plants are readily obtained by sinking two and a half or three inch pots up to their rims in the propagating-beds, and filling them with rich earth mingled with old, thoroughly rotted compost, leaf mould, decayed sods, etc., but never with fresh, unfermented manure. I have found the admixture of a little fine bone meal with the soil to be strong aid to vigorous growth. The young runners are then so guided and held down by a small stone or lump of earth that they will take root in the pots, indeed, quite large plants, if still attached to thrifty runners, may be taken up, their roots shortened to one-quarter of an inch, and these inserted in the little pots, which will be speedily filled with a new growth of roots. It is very important that abundant and continuous moisture should be maintained. A hot wind or a scorching sun will dry out within a few hours the small amount of earth the pots contain, and the plants thus receive a check from which they may never recover. The amateur should watch them closely, and the plant grower should employ a man with the clear understanding that he would lose his position if he permitted moisture to fail even for half a day.
In about two weeks, with good management, the plants will fill the pots with roots, which so interlace as to hold the ball of earth compactly together during transportation. This ball of earth with the roots, separates readily from the pot, and the plant, thus sustained, could be shipped around the world if kept from drying out and the foliage protected from the effects of alternate heat and cold. The agricultural editor of the "New York Weekly Times" writes me that the potted plants are worth their increased cost, if for no other reason, because they are so easily planted in hot weather.
The chief advantage of summer planting lies in the fact that we obtain a good crop the following season, while plants set out in spring should not be permitted to bear at all the same year. If we discover in May or June that our supply is insufficient, or that some new varieties offer us paradisiacal flavors, we can set out the plants in the summer or autumn of the same year, and within eight or ten months gather the fruits of our labors. If the season is somewhat showery, or if one is willing to take the trouble to water and shade the young plants, ordinary layers—that is, plants that have grown naturally in the open ground—will answer almost as well as those that have been rooted in pots. The fact that they do not cost half as much is also in their favor.
The disposition to plant in summer or autumn is steadily increasing, and the following reasons are good and substantial ones for the practice. In our gardens and fields there are many crops that mature in July, August, and September. The cultivation of these crops has probably left the ground mellow, and in good condition for strawberries. Instead of leaving this land idle, or a place for weeds to grow and seed, it can be deeply forked or plowed, and enriched, as has been explained. Even in July, potted plants may be bought, and unless the ground is full of the larvae of the June beetle, or the plants are treated with utter neglect, not one in a hundred will fail. Say the plants cost us two and a half cents each by the time they are planted, instead of one half to one cent as in the spring, is there not a prospect of an equal or larger profit? A potted plant set out in summer or early autumn, and allowed to make no runners, will yield at least a pint of fruit; and usually these first berries are very large and fine, bringing the best prices. Suppose, however, we are able to obtain but ten cents a quart, you still have a margin of two and one- half cents on each plant. Adding two cents to the cost of each plant to cover the expense of cultivation, winter protection, spring mulching, picking, etc., there still remains a profit of half a cent on each plant. Supposing we have an acre containing 14,520 plants, our estimate gives a profit of $72.60 for the first year. If we clear but a quarter of a cent on each plant, we have a profit of $36.30. The prospects are, however, that if we plant early in the summer, on rich ground, and give good cultivation, our plants will yield more than a pint each, and the fruit sell for more than ten cents a quart.
This estimate applies to the common market varieties raised with only ordinary skill and success. Suppose, in contrast, one plants the large, showy, high-flavored varieties, and is able to obtain from fifteen to thirty cents per quart. The expenses in this case are no greater, while the profits are very largely increased.
[Illustration: A Potted Plant]
Good potted plants can be bought for about $2.50 per 100, or $20 per 2,000. I do not think that they can be properly grown and sold at much lower rates and afford a living profit. Freight and express charges are a heavy item of expense, since the earth encasing the roots renders the packages very heavy, and but comparatively few plants can be shipped in one box. But, allowing for all expenses, I think it is evident that people can obtain a fair profit from potted plants within eight or ten months from the time of planting. Moreover, autumn-set plants start with double vigor in early spring, and make a fine growth before the hot, dry weather checks them; and the crop from them the second year will be the very best that they are capable of producing. Two paying crops are thus obtained within two years, and the cost of cultivation the first year is slight, for the plants are set after the great impulse of annual weed growth is past. With spring-set plants you get but one crop in two years. The first year yields nothing unless plants are sold, and yet the cultivation must be unceasing through May, June and July, when Nature seems to give no little thought to the problem of how many weeds can be grown to the square inch. If one wishes early plants, he certainly should practice autumn planting, for a plant set even in November will begin to make runners nearly a month earlier than one set in spring.
Thus far we have looked at the subject from a business standpoint.
Those who wish plants for the home supply certainly should not hesitate to furnish their gardens as early in the summer as possible. To wait two years of our short lives for strawberries because the plants are a little cheaper in the spring is a phase of economy that suggests the moon. Such self-denial in a good cause would be heroic.
If people will use a little forethought, they can practice summer and autumn planting with double success, independently of the plant grower. We have shown that there is no mystery in raising potted plants. Moreover, in the hottest summers there are showery, cloudy days when ordinary layer plants can be set with perfect safety. If the field or garden bed is near where the layer plants are growing, the latter can be taken up with earth clinging to their roots, and thus have all the advantages of potted plants. Even under the Southern sun, hundreds of acres are, in this manner, set annually in the vicinity of Charleston.
As the autumn grows cool and moist, layer plants can be obtained from a distance and set out profitably in large quantities. The chief danger in late planting results from the tendency of the plants to be thrown out of the ground by the action of the frost, and a few varieties do not seem sufficiently hardy to endure severe cold. I obviate this difficulty by simply hoeing upon the plants two inches of earth, just before the ground freezes in November or December. This winter covering of soil enables me to plant with entire success at any time in the fall—even late in November—instead of spring, when there is a rush of work.
The earth is raked off the plants in March or April, as soon as severe freezing weather is over; otherwise they would decay. Do not first put manure on the plants and then cover with earth—cover with earth only.
Thus it will be seen that each period has its advantages, which will vary with different seasons. If drought and heat come in early May, spring-set plants may suffer badly. Again, periods in summer and autumn may be so hot and dry that even potted plants can only be kept alive by repeated waterings. My practice is to divide my plantings about equally between summer, fall, and spring. I thus take no chances of failure.