

Fruit plants need help to survive winter

3:16 PM, Nov. 15, 2013  |  Comments

Question: Do I need to do anything special to protect my strawberry plants and apple trees from the cold and snow?

Answer: A heavy snow that persists during the coldest days of winter actually helps strawberries survive better. In the meantime, any fallen fruits from fruit trees, grapes or berries should be picked up from the ground and destroyed. Any shriveled fruits (called "mummies") still in the tree or on the vines should be picked off and destroyed. This will help reduce the levels of harmful insects and diseases next year. Don't fertilize fruit crops until February, and don't prune fruit trees until late February or March.

Apply mulch and remove grass and weeds around fruit trees, keeping the mulch several inches away from tree trunks to discourage voles and field mice from chewing on the bark overwinter. Mulch piled up against tree trunks also leads to bark decay.

Strawberry plants also need mulched, but wait until colder weather (usually early to mid-December) to do that. Mulch helps reduce the freezing and thawing of the soil that breaks off the small roots during the winter, and in some cases can lift the strawberry plants partially out of the ground, translating into smaller berries and reduced yields.

Mulching also slows strawberry plant development in the spring, which is a good thing because this reduces the chance of frost injury to the flowers.

Mulch conserves moisture, keeps berries off the ground, which reduces fruit rot, and keeps dirt off the berries. It can also reduce weed development, making harvest much nicer under wet conditions.

Wheat straw is the preferred mulch material for strawberries, but oat and rye straw also work well. Try to acquire mulch that does not contain a lot of weed, wheat, oat or rye seeds as this can substantially increase weed control requirements in the spring. Apply the mulch when the night temperature is expected to reach about 20 degrees F, which is usually sometime in mid-December in Kentucky.


When spring comes, don't hurry mulch removal. The mulch will protect the strawberry fruit buds as long as it remains on the plant.

If you are a commercial fruit or vegetable grower or are thinking about selling at Farmers Market, the Kentucky Fruit and Vegetable Conference will be held Jan. 6-7 at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Lexington. The program usually includes topics such as commercial fruit and vegetable production, growing wine grapes to sell, winemaking, farmers' markets, organic farming and gardening, high tunnel production, direct marketing and home-based produce micro processing.

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