The Revival Of The Apple Orchard On The Farm

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

I often pondered the meaning of the word "gardener". We say it many times, it has become common, and a gardener is a person who creates a garden. So our family has also been engaged in this noble cause for the second decade. Our gardening is 12 years old. The site here is low, on blue clay, and that says it all. All my attempts to grow apple trees for ten years ended in failure.

Plants remained frail, did not bloom, froze out. Over time, I realized that it would hardly be possible to grow apples on our land. True, the last two four-year periods have finally given the first harvest. And this, apparently, because I approached their landing, having already had some experience. They were planted as annuals in a higher and sheltered location. But there was one desire in my soul - to have a real garden.

And two years ago, in the spring of 2004, we bought a neighboring plot, which had a rather neglected orchard of ten apple trees aged 10-12 years old, of unknown varieties, with a small garden house. There were also berry bushes and a few cherries. The husband immediately called this site "khutor". And the truth is - there is no electricity, there is no fence and a lot of other things that are necessary for a dacha life are not.

In the spring of 2004 we got down to work. Correctly say: "The eyes are afraid, but the hands are doing." The apple trees survived the winter of 2003-2004 badly, they were like "homeless people". Lanky, thin, all in lichen, with frostbites, with lacerated wounds. Moreover, they also stood in the water. Throughout the season, we dug drainage, mowed grass, covered tree trunks, sprayed the crown, pruned and cut branches and twigs, painted trunks, repaired wounds and did more, God knows what hard work. And still, even these efforts did not help: we lost one apple tree, there are nine of them left. But these were no longer "bums", but, as the neighbors say, well-groomed apple-brides standing on ankle feet.

The branches of one of the apple trees - it turned out to be the Melba variety, however, it turned out only in the next season - I stretched them, bending them to the ground, and throughout the season I plucked a one-year growth over the second new leaf on all branches. Thus, there was a decrease in the crown, its thorough thinning and rejuvenation of the branches. On all the other apple trees, we did the same work to remove and rejuvenate the growing branches.

Sections were made above the bifurcations located in the middle of the branch. All the big work yielded results only in the next year. And in the first spring the apple trees never really bloomed. They had about a dozen apples without any varietal characteristics.

Autumn and the next spring passed in worries: they painted the trunks, loosened the tree-trunk circles, cut the grass, sprayed, fed - and the garden bloomed. And already in the fall, the apple harvest was simply fantastic. They were large, clean, and varietal characteristics appeared. Although I am not a specialist, the main varieties - Antonovka of two types, Glory to the Winner, Autumn Striped, Melba - could already be identified. Other apple varieties have not yet been assigned to a specific variety. Their fruits are winter, lie well and are stored until February. Here one more problem came to light: few apples on trees are bad, but a lot of them are also bad - you need to somehow process, store. And our friends helped us in this. They were provided with apples, and I got help.

Thus, my dream of a garden came true, although there are still a lot of things to do, ideas, there would be only health.