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How To Properly Prepare For Planting And Plant Apple And Pear Trees - 2
How To Properly Prepare For Planting And Plant Apple And Pear Trees - 2

Video: How To Properly Prepare For Planting And Plant Apple And Pear Trees - 2

Video: How To Properly Prepare For Planting And Plant Apple And Pear Trees - 2
Video: Don't Plant Fruit Trees Until You Watch This - Raintree 2024, March
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Continuation. To the beginning

Site selection and soil preparation

For the successful cultivation of pome fruit crops, it is important to know the acidity of the soil of your backyard plot. It is designated by the sign "pH" (concentration of hydrogen ions). Experts recommend evaluating soil acidity by its external features, by the thickness of the arable layer and podzolic horizon. A thin arable layer (undeveloped sod), with a thick whitish podzolic horizon under it, indicates an acidic soil. The soil with a weak podzolic horizon and a thick dark-colored plow layer has low acidity. Optimal pH values for orchards are in the range 5.5 … 6.5. At lower values, lime is applied to regulate it (on average 3.5-5 kg / 10 m 2) before digging the soil to a depth of 20 cm. Liming is combined with the simultaneous use of organic matter. Ground limestone, dolomite flour, limestone tuff and other substances are used as limestone materials. When laying a garden, its entire area is lime.

It should be noted that on all soils suitable for gardens, row crops and vegetable crops are the best predecessors, after which the soil becomes loose, weed-free and more fertile.

When planting single purchased seedlings in a small (already developed) plot, it is quite difficult to choose the optimal place for the soil composition, so you need to focus on the one that you have already outlined. You just need to diligently ennoble it if the quality of fertility there does not meet the optimal indicators. I want to remind you that it is categorically unacceptable to plant a seed crop in the same place where its predecessor was recently uprooted, for example, an old sick apple tree. After all, a remote tree during its life period poisons a significant amount of land around the secretions of its root system.

The apple tree is a fairly moisture-loving culture. However, it also copes with minor droughts, and also successfully tolerates severe frosts. It is thanks to these properties that she was able to go so far into the northern latitudes, in contrast to the "sissy" pear.

Pear blossoms fruit trees garden
Pear blossoms fruit trees garden

A pear is more demanding on light and heat than an apple tree. With a lack of light, pear trees develop slowly, a lack of illumination even affects the nature of its growth and the shape of the crown. Poorly lit pear plants are characterized by a low yield, since this culture places especially high demands on light during the period of flowering and fruit formation. For the best growth of pear trees, the soil must be loose, permeable to water, air, and at the same time able to retain a sufficient supply of moisture in the root layer. It is important for both crops to grow in a well-lit area. Although the apple tree is able to put up with partial shade, but in the excessively humid North-West region, and so suffering from a lack of light, low illumination leads to its rapid defeat by lichen, moss, diseases and pests.

When planting a more whimsical pear, you should also take into account the relief conditions of the terrain; slopes of any direction are suitable for it, although southwestern, western and southern (with a steepness of no more than 1-3º) are preferable. Every gardener understands that the slopes of the southern direction have more heat than the northern ones, which contributes to an earlier ripening of the crop and less damage to it with scab. On such slopes, the bark and wood of pears mature better.

Both the apple tree and the pear prefer a soil with a neutral, at least slightly acidic reaction, rich in organic matter and a set of mineral elements. These crops are very potassium-loving, but a pear needs a little more phosphorus and less potassium than an apple tree. Carbonate, acidic and saline soils are not suitable for them. Actually, an apple tree is able to grow and bear fruit on clay and peat, even on sparse sandy and stony soils, but this seriously affects its yield. Both of these plants do not suit too dry places, but most importantly, they do not like the proximity of groundwater. Their roots, getting into an overly moist layer, begin to rot. As a result, trees die after a long illness.

Preparing the soil for a large garden should be started 1-3 years before planting trees. When laying a garden, it is most optimal to use two-year-old seedlings

Apple tree in spring fruit trees garden
Apple tree in spring fruit trees garden

When will you develop a tree planting schemein a large garden (and on a six-hundredth plot too), then you should always be guided by the following rule: “Measure seven times, cut one”, because the tree will suffer from the wrong location and the gardener himself will feel inconvenience. Trees should be placed no closer than 3 m from various buildings. This distance must be maintained so that tall buildings do not give shade on the trees during daylight hours. In a row of plantings, apple and pear trees with voluminous crowns on vigorous rootstocks are placed at a distance of 3-4 m from each other, and plants on low-growing stocks - after 2-3 m. The distance between rows is left at 4-5 m for trees on vigorous stocks and 3-4 m - for seedlings on low-growing rootstocks. If a mixed placement of fruit and berry crops is necessary, the distances between trees are increased in a row by 1-2 m,and between the rows - by 1-1.5 m.

When laying a garden on steep slopes (more than 8-10 °), seedlings are placed across the slope (3-4 m from each other). After that, sodding is carried out around the trees. This will subsequently prevent soil washout and nutrient compounds leaching from the slope. The rows of fruit trees can also be alternated with the planting of berry bushes, increasing their feeding area as described above.

Apple and pear seedlings are planted in autumn (in September before the onset of cold weather) and in spring(late April-early May; preferably before the buds swell and no later than the blooming of the leaves, but better immediately after thawing the soil). If necessary, planting at other times, the roots of the seedling should be with a lump of earth. However, when buying in spring and autumn, plants with a closed root system should be preferred. And the autumn purchase of seedlings without a clod of earth, and even leafy, is completely unacceptable, since the leaves indicate that these plants have not entered a state of dormancy, have not completed the ripening period of their wood. As a last resort, if this nevertheless happened, and you bought such a seedling, you must cut off the foliage immediately after purchase and keep the plant in a cool place until planting, wrapping the root system with a damp cloth to avoid drying out the roots. By the way, when buying, the gardener does not hurt to check with the seller,where is the grafting site of the seedling, as this may be useful in the future Some experts sometimes practice grafting into the root or close to the root collar (the place where the root system transitions to the aerial part of the trunk). And if the grafting was done low enough, then in case of damage or freezing of the upper part of the plant, the gardener can hope to awaken the buds of the seedling in the lower part of the scion.

Before planting, the seedling is carefully examined. There should be no outgrowths-tumors and even traces of neoplasms on the root system (bacterial cancer). If even minor cracks are found on the trunk, they are covered with garden varnish, all broken or rotted ends of the roots are cut off to healthy tissue. The rest of the root system is carefully preserved: the better it is developed (the longer and more branchy the roots), the faster the seedling will take root after planting. All work with plants is carried out at an air temperature above 0 ° C.

The most dangerous thing for a seedling before planting is excessive drying of the root system, so it must be protected from the sun and wind. It is useful to soak the roots in water for at least a few hours before planting. By the way, the survival and development of seedlings with an open root system significantly improves the treatment of their roots by dipping before planting in a soil mash, diluted on the basis of heteroauxin (0.002%, i.e. 1 g / 50 l) or on the basis of mullein.

According to the ingrained opinion for spring planting, it is recommended to prepare a planting pit.(approximately measuring 1x0.6x0.6 m) in the fall. And at the same time (before the onset of frost) fill it with soil with the addition of fertilizers. In the spring, during planting, in a hole prepared in the fall and filled with soil, only a small depression is dug in it - of such a size that the roots of the seedlings can freely fit in it. In my opinion, the need for such an early preparation of the landing pit is not very clear. If it is necessary to compact the bottom of the pit (say, to maintain water balance), then after digging the hole in the spring, it is enough to simply trample the bottom well and compact the walls. Fertilizers applied to the soil in autumn can be partially washed out either during early winter rains, which are not uncommon in recent years, or in April bad weather. But the main purpose of pre-planting soil filling is precisely the accumulation in it for the longest possible period of the most important nutrients in a form accessible to plants.

The ending follows

Alexander Lazarev

Candidate of Biological Sciences, Senior Researcher, All-Russian Research Institute of Plant Protection, Pushkin

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