Growing Cherry Blossoms

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

Obtaining planting material from varieties of cherries of national selection

Own- rooted cherry growth has been known for a long time. And nowadays, on many household plots, there are cherry thickets of own-rooted (unvaccinated) trees. For industrial orchards, cherry overgrowth culture is unacceptable because of the low reproduction rate and the risk of contamination of plantings with low-yielding forms, and in home gardening, with careful selection of high-yielding healthy plants, from which planting material is harvested, cherry overgrowth culture can occupy a certain place, especially with a lack of grafted planting material.

The well-known old varieties of cherry of national selection Apukhtinskaya, Vladimirskaya, Rastunya, Shubinka, Korostynskaya and others, growing in coppice form in the form of bushes, form root shoots that retain all the properties of the variety and serve as a replacement for mother trees. This growth is used as planting material.

× Gardener's handbook Plant nurseries Stores of goods for summer cottages Landscape design studios

The coppice plantations have some advantages over the grafted ones, but at the same time they are not without a number of disadvantages.

The advantages include a higher winter hardiness of plantings. And when growing cherries in areas with critical winters, where there is a possibility of freezing of the aboveground part of the plants, mother trees can be restored at the expense of the shoots that have grown around them.

The disadvantages include the later entry of trees into the season of fruiting compared to grafted trees, clogging of the row spacing of the garden with the resulting shoots, the uprooting of which requires additional labor costs. In addition, one should take into account the fact that in self-rooted undergrowth plantations there are often forms with an undesirable deviation from the typical varietal characteristics (low yield, small fruits). Such forms can be discarded even before abundant growth. Therefore, to obtain planting material, shoots are separated only from the sampled, selected in advance during fruiting, fruitful mother trees, distinguished by valuable qualities of fruits and high frost resistance.

The shoots are dug up in autumn and early spring (but better in spring). It is not recommended to take the growth that is located close to the trunk of the mother bush, as it usually has an underdeveloped aerial part and root system. In addition, when it is excavated, the roots of the mother plant are severely damaged. The best offspring are 1-2 years old with a developed aerial part and a well-developed root system. They usually grow at some distance from the crown of the mother tree in a sufficiently illuminated place.

The technique of harvesting root shoots is as follows. In the spring, at some distance from the growth (15-20 cm), the root coming from the mother plant is cut alternately on both sides, leaving it in place so that it forms its own root system. The fact is that the growth is formed on the roots of the uterine bush and feeds on it, and the resulting growing roots develop poorly in it, which negatively affects the survival rate.

In the fall or next spring, when the shoots are well rooted, they are dug up and sorted according to the strength of the development of the root system. Offspring with a well-developed root system are planted in a permanent place, and with weak roots - for growing. With proper care after a year, they are also suitable for transferring to the garden.

A bush of overgrown cherries is formed as follows: from the offspring growing closer to the trunk, 3-4 of the strongest, developed in a less shaded place, are left to replace fruiting aging plants. All other offspring are slaughtered annually.

From this time on, pruning of the mother plant should be carried out in such a way that the new branches on the offspring left to replace the old parts have more space. These branches, replacing an old bush, first form in the same way as a young grafted tree. The only difference is that their crown will be more one-sided, since the lateral branches appearing on them need to be directed outward from the bush and into a freer space. Thus, the coppice cherry turns into a bush with uneven-aged plants coming from the ground. As the young left undergrowth of the bush begins to bear fruit, and the original crown grows old, the mother plant is cut completely to the soil surface. By this time, you need to start preparing a new shift, leaving again 3-4 strong root suckers and shaping and pruning them accordingly. Since there are plants of different ages in the bush, the nature of the pruning also changes with respect to each of them.

× Notice board Kittens for sale Puppies for sale Horses for sale

Thus, undergrowth stands can remain in one place for a very long time, although it is necessary to take into account the depletion of the soil and aging of the root system, which in turn leads to the appearance of gum flow and other diseases and reduces the yield. Therefore, after three shifts, the bushes should be uprooted and the planting should be transferred to a new place.

It should be borne in mind that in many grafted trees with age (about 15-20 years), when large skeletal branches begin to dry out and gum flow appears, shoots from the rootstock begin to grow vigorously from the root - wild. Such shoots cannot be used as planting material, they must be cut out or used as a stock, for grafting cultivars on them.

In recent years, one of the most promising and accelerated methods has been used for cherry propagation - propagation by green cuttings. The special value of this method lies in obtaining rooted genetically homogeneous plants, repeating the varietal characteristics of the mother tree and causing a long life span and high yield. The development of this method of propagation has opened up wider possibilities for obtaining and using a native-rooted cherry culture. All the shoots formed in self-rooted plants propagated by the method of green cuttings can be used as planting material.