Jasper County Democrat, Volume 14, Number 76, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 December 1911 — MULCHING THE STRAWBERRY BED [ARTICLE]

MULCHING THE STRAWBERRY BED

Where Straw Is Not Readtlv Obtainable it Is Difficult to Get a Covering of Ri«ht Thickness. J (By H. F. GRINSTEAD, Missouri.) Where straw is readily obtainable It Is difficult to spread properly over the strawberry plants so that It will be thick enough yet not smother the plants or require raking off In thei string. j A mulch of oats or sorghum Is the best thing I know of that may be sown between the rows. Oats alone has been tried, but from the fact that we often have a very dry fall it has not always made a satisfactory growth before frost. Sorghum or kaffir corn are dry} weather plants, and If there is suffl-i cient moisture in the soil to germin-i ate the seed they will grow till frost.; * A good plan is to sow oats and sorghum or oats and kaffir corn in mlxand thick enough so that It will! not be coarse. ' ■ . As soon as it is killed by the frost! the sorghum will fall, making an Ideal! mulch. Then, as the weather becomes! more severe the oats will be killed. Mulch grown in this way will always be found thickest where needed —in bare places ■ and between ' the rows, . It cannot possibly smother out the plants no matter how rank it grows, and is the best for keeping the fruit off the ground in the spring One of the greatest advantages in mulch of this kind Is that you are reasonably sure to have no weedssown with it, as Is often the case when using wheat straw.