Growing Apricots And Peaches In Risky Farming Areas

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

For more than 40 years, apricot and peach have been cultivated by gardeners of the Nizhny Novgorod region. There are no apricot trees in our small Vachsky district in a rare garden. Not everyone has a peach, because at first everyone believed that this culture is more capricious than apricot. But it turned out that the opposite is true.

The fact is that there are non-covering varieties of apricot, while peaches are harvested even in Ukraine. For some reason, covering grapes, roses and some other plants is considered a normal thing, but covering a peach for the winter is, it turns out, an insoluble problem. Although almost everything is required the same.

Growing apricots and peaches is a disease, and, apparently, contagious. I got so sick that I even gave up fishing. Here the fishermen will understand me. In the sense that fishing is also a disease and, as fishermen say, for life. But when I first saw the blossoming peach and apricot trees! And then their fruits! Everything was immediately decided finally and irrevocably. Even if they did not bear fruit in our area, I would still grow these plants because of their amazing, fascinatingly exuberant flowering.

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Many gardeners are still convinced that these plants in our area will not grow and bear fruit. However, thanks to the efforts of the breeders of the Main Botanical Garden of the Russian Academy of Sciences, who have been creating cultural populations of apricot in Moscow for more than 50 years, varieties have been created that grow and bear fruit in our area. Eight varieties were included in the State Register in 2005.

Experienced gardeners also made a significant contribution to the creation of varieties. Our gardeners began to deal with peach relatively recently and, as it turned out, growing it is not at all more difficult than apricot.

Now, for many gardeners, a vegetable garden and a garden are not just breadwinners, they have become rather a hobby, a hobby, a passion. And the point here is not the number of newly acquired plants, the main thing is aesthetic pleasure, the desire for something new, unusual. I would like the garden to please and be, above all, a place of relaxation. And, indeed, what could be more beautiful than flowering peach, apricot trees, similar at this time to pink fireworks of a delicate, exquisite color scheme, comparable only to the flowering of Japanese sakura. And hung with fruits, these trees are no less beautiful and attractive.

Peach

The first peach seedlings were sent to me by an amateur gardener from Primorsky Krai. This was nine years ago. The plant interested me because the conditions there are more severe than in our Nizhny Novgorod region. The seedlings have taken root and bear fruit every year. Imagine this picture: in spring there is not a single leaf in the garden, and a peach tree 3.5 meters high is already in bloom. An indescribably beautiful sight! Passers-by are surprised, asking what it is, and you feel even more pleasure when you see surprised eyes and open mouths, when you answer that it is a peach blossom.

The fruits ripen in late August, they are attractive in appearance, pubescent, the pulp is tender, juicy, pleasant sweet taste with a slight sourness. The bone is well separated from the pulp. This peach begins to bear fruit in our region for 3-4 years.

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Apricot

I have several varieties of apricot growing in my garden.

Ilyusha variety. A tree of medium vigor with a rounded crown. In autumn, the leaves turn red and crimson. The tree has large flowers with pinkish veins, its flowering is very beautiful. Differs in the earliest term of fruit ripening - in late July - early August. Fruits weighing up to 50 g, the skin is bright yellow with a blush, the pubescence is small, the flesh is dense, orange, tasty, the stone separates perfectly.

Variety Lel. The fruits of this variety are the tastiest, the combination of acid and sugar in them is more harmonious. Fruit ripening earlier, but later than the Ilyusha variety. Fruits weighing 25-30 g. Average yield. Reliability, stability and moderation in everything are inherent in this variety.

There are also varieties of Piquant and Success, Tsarsky, Monastyrsky, Alyosha.

But our climate in the Nizhny Novgorod region, if we compare it with the South-West of Russia, is also not a gift. And besides, all kinds of natural disasters, which have become more frequent in recent years, also affect. Last winter, almost until the New Year, there was no snow, and the frost went off scale at -25 ° C. And two winters ago, before the New Year, we went to the forest for mushrooms, dug wild animals for grafting, and it was then + 10 ° C during the day. In 2003, the temperature dropped to -47 ° С.

It was not without losses, of course, but basically we survived, became even more stubborn and more experienced. There are varieties that survived without any shelter even in this kind of weather.

Only non-covering varieties are created in state breeding centers. They have been creating for over 100 years. We started before Michurin. But it became clear to gardeners-practitioners long ago that tasty, large, sweet, juicy and aromatic varieties of peaches and apricots cannot be grown without shelter for the winter. Breeding stations operate on the principle of creating a new variety and observing: will it freeze - will it not freeze? It would be something like this, if you put a naked negro in a snowdrift and observe: freeze - not freeze? And if you give him boots with a fur coat and other warm clothes? Here are experienced gardeners and give shelter to their pets. Apparently, it is necessary to clearly distinguish between industrial and amateur gardening. All articles and recommendations of doctors and candidates of science refer mainly to industrial gardens. And amateur gardeners will grow whatever they want.

For example, Pavlovsky lemon appeared in Russia. And then there was a large industrial lemonarium in Pavlovo-on-Oka. And what - he, alas, has long been gone. And here I was recently in the garden of an amateur. So he has a huge greenhouse of lemons, and in the middle of it is a pond with carp. The sight is impressive! The same thing happens with peaches and apricots. They grew up in tsarist Russia, now, it turns out, we can't?

Then these southerners were grown in collapsible garden sheds. We are slowly moving on to the main topic of our conversation. These sheds were packed with straw, and they had a waterproof roof. This is for those who were with less income. Those who were richer built greenhouses and winter gardens. Where did it all go? And they do not want to revive it, although there are such opportunities. So the simplest shelter is a shock of straw covered with a film on top.

I recently read an article by N. Yefimova, Candidate of Agricultural Sciences, in which she claims that all shelters are useless! As proof, he cites the following example: "… take out the warmest fur coat in the cold, and soon it will both outside and inside become as cold as all objects on the street, including trees." Immediately a question to her from amateur gardeners: "Is a living tree a heat generator?" If you wrap an apricot in the “warmest fur coat”, then it will be of great benefit, if only because we will protect it from the northern winds and from the heat of the sun.

We all know how laundry dries quickly in cold weather with strong winds. The same thing happens with the branches of a tree. In winter, they sometimes just dry out rather than freeze. It is even worse when, in the middle of winter, the sun suddenly becomes very warm. "Hurry" stone fruit crops quickly wake up, the buds swell - and then frost. That's all - at least don't expect a harvest. And then the "fur coat" will do the second good deed. And most importantly, it is a heat source. Descend in a frost at -40 ° C into the cellar. Why is it warm there? It operates the largest heat generator on Earth. So you need to use it as efficiently as possible.

Many experienced gardeners advise shoveling snow off the trunk of an apricot. And academics advise. For what? You have to ask them that. I have a layer of sawdust under the trees, which I apply annually, after adding nitrogen fertilizers to them. Foam crumbs - also there. In this case, the ground never freezes and gives warmth under the shelter. And in prefabricated garden sheds, the earth was not allowed to freeze, the plants were covered in time with straw. And now there are so many different covering materials!

Here you need to understand that the garden is a testing ground for creativity, a place for the embodiment of the most fantastic ideas. When planting an apricot, it is necessary to build a frame, it will be useful both for shelter and later, because sometimes the harvest is such that each branch has to be strengthened, tied. Inside the shelter, you can make a large cone from fresh manure, pour boiling water over it and cover it with sawdust on top. Here's another heat generator! I can continue indefinitely.

One important addition. When hiding, you should always remember about the root collar. In stone fruit crops, this is a sore spot. Damping out of the root collar is a frequent occurrence among gardeners who do not pay enough attention to this. There is no need to allow contact with the same manure or cover with materials that do not allow moisture to pass through - film, roofing felt, etc. It is best to close the trunk with a box of three to four boards. Pour foam crumbs or polyurethane foam inside the box. Pull the crown of trees neatly with a wire to reduce the consumption of covering material. It is advisable to plant the peach obliquely and then try to grow it in stanza form. Although, of course, he stubbornly resists it. It is necessary to constantly bend and pin the shoots, remove unnecessary ones.

Warmth for trees can be found in the most unexpected places. I advised a gardener who bought apricot seedlings from me to plant them on the south side of the bath. Which he did. After the harsh winter of 2003, almost no one had any fruit. He asked: how is he doing? Says: it's okay - we collect apricots in buckets. Let's go to him. It turned out that he had all the apricot crowns on the roof of the bathhouse. And in the bathhouse there is a boiler that heats the house. And from above everything was covered with snow. It turns out that everyone needs a roof, even an apricot.

Another example: they planted a peach by the window. Living with windows to the garden is happiness. From the side of the street they covered, from the room we open the window. In village houses, where there is gas heating, half of the heat goes to the vegetable garden, where the so-called brick "hog" is built, into which gases and heat go (you know the efficiency of our boilers). A pipe goes up - it is also very hot. But few people use this heat. There are gardeners who do not mind anything for their pets. They put them under the shelter in advance, in the fall - some light bulbs, some heating elements. For those who are especially fearful, I will say that all this can be converted to 12 volts. And one gardener friend buried an iron in the ground !?

As you can see, nature is multifaceted, and the imagination of gardeners is limitless.

If you are interested in these crops, as well as lemon seedlings, which I talked about in the previous issue, write. Best regards, Valery Svistunov: 606160, Nizhny Novgorod region, Vachsky district, p. Novoselki, st. Youth, 4/2; tel.: 8-904-796-81-39, 8-831-737-42-57; e-mail [email protected]