Northern apricots - cultivated in the middle zone
Apricots in central Russia - planting and care
I like to go up to the tree in July, strewn with scented yellow-orange fruits. So tasty! I think that there is no one who is indifferent to fragrant tasty fruits.
Acquaintance with this culture I started in the south, from a distant childhood. In a wide but quiet street, where my parents lived, they grew in two rows between the fence and the road and were very abundant and annually fruited in apricot trees. They were grown from bones.
Each tree is unique! The fruits varied greatly in color, size, taste and aroma. But they all gave an abundant harvest - at the time of ripening, the entire near-trunk circle was densely strewn with fragrant sweet fruits! Yes Yes. it is densely strewn - under each tree - its own colored carpet! Either lemon, then bright yellow, then raspberry yellow (with a blush) ... It would be a wealth here on our Volga expanses! But there, this crop was mostly rotted on the ground.
The fact is that in the south, preference is given to cultivated (varietal) trees, the fruits of which are much larger (20-40 g), while in the wild only from 5 to 25
Of course, if there is a choice, choose a more worthy one. Here and at us then in a court yard grew 2 cultural trees of an apricot. All attention and care went to them! Fruits from them were collected without waiting until they softened. And they made a wonderful jam from them! Finely ripened fruit ate fresh.
On the street, the "wild women" grew on their own, even without watering, but in terms of yield they were not inferior to cultural ones.
And in middle strip of Russia apricot difficult, will give birth to little and not every year.
The fact is that winter is longer and harsher, spring is not friendly - it is a thaw, then frost again. And the apricot has a very short period of deep dormancy (until January). Next - forced peace and a very quick reaction to warming. In the south, the spring is friendly and early, in February the first greens already appear.
In the first heat apricot starts to wake up, flower buds swell, their tissues become more juicy and vulnerable to frost. He blooms very early. By the southern spring apricot is well adapted.
But in more northern regions, flower buds, hitting under recurrent frosts, are damaged and there is no harvest. Subprime apricot habits!
therefore Southern varieties of apricot and seedlings are not suitable for the middle band.
How to be? We need to look around!
For example, in the Saratov Volga region apricot is cultivated for more than one century. Selection was natural. H
The person only sowed the bones from the fruits he liked, from the trees most adapted to the local climate. And today the local population is widely used by gardeners.
If you are not a collector, and apricots you need only for family consumption, then this option is for you.
Sow local or obtained from close in the climate places bones, plant seedlings, grown in local nurseries. Although the seedlings do not retain their maternal qualities, most of them are well-fruitful and give tasty, fragrant, quite suitable for consumption fruits.
Harvesting of apricot seeds for sowing has its own characteristics
Bones should be fresh (freshly separated from the pulp). They are immediately washed and soaked for 1-2 days in water, which is changed 2-3 times a day (or use flowing). Since the seeds must pass stratification within 3 months, they are mixed with a small amount of raw sand, placed in a plastic bag and stored in a cool place in the garden until the fall. Sand should not dry out, but there should not be too much moisture.
In the fall, when the soil accumulates natural moisture and there is no danger of drying out the seeds, they can be sown on a previously prepared garden bed. The sowing depth is 5-6 cm. Before sowing, the seeds are washed from the sand.
The distance in the row is 5-6 cm. Between the rows 25-30 cm. For better contact between the bones and the ground, the surface of the bed is compacted and well watered. Being in the soil all winter, apricot seeds undergo a natural stratification.
If there are problems with the snow cover in the region (there is little or no), then the bed should be covered with a film or a tight spunbond, and the top should be covered with a small layer of earth. As soon as possible in the spring, this shelter should be carefully removed. Friendly shoots in April-May will be a reward for these troubles!
See also: Apricot cultivation - planting and varieties, recipes and care tips
Secrets of growing apricot
On a permanent place, apricot is transplanted in autumn or spring at one-year-old age. Plant better with freshly saplings or soak their roots in water for 1-2 days. More adult saplings during transplantation get worse and get sick longer. Before planting, the seedlings undercut the central root at a distance of 15-20 cm from the root collar.
To plant it is necessary so that the long root at landing did not bend upwards. Also, the central strong shoot (if any) is shortened in the crown at an altitude of 60-70 cm to form the crown.
In adverse areas, apricot trees are short-lived. Long winter frosts A below -25 ° C damage the wood.
With winter thaws and recurrent spring frosts, the tissues of trees come out of a state of deep rest and begin active life activity. At this time, their frost resistance sharply decreases, and recurrent frosts, which often happen, damage tissues. And then when the heat comes in conditions of increased
moisture (with an abundance of snow), another misfortune arises - the heating of the root neck, bark of the stem, damaged by frost. Such a tree is doomed.
Therefore, the gardener should prepare the replacement all the time, so as not to stay without his favorite apricots, and have the opportunity to choose the tree with the most liked fruits. So in practice in the garden there should be several trees of different ages. Apricot is very demanding not only for warmth, but for light. When planted, select well-lit and sheltered from the prevailing winds.
This culture does not tolerate any shading. I had a case when apricots began to climb the creepers actinidia. In time, attention was not given to this, and the tree was lost, as the vines quickly reached the crown and grew there, obscuring the branches of the apricot. Given the love of apricot for light, you need to thin out its crown in time, not allowing thickening.
Otherwise, part of the shoots inside the crown bare and dies, and the yield decreases. Apricot does not tolerate a lack of moisture. He has a predominantly superficial root system.
Searing of the chain of trees adversely affects the condition of the tree and the crop.
In my childhood, my father cherished the trees of the apricot planted in the garden. Before flowering did not water. This technique is applied not only to the apricot, but also to other fruit crops and promotes abundant fruit setting. After flowering, the ovary begins to increase actively in size, inspiring the grower to hope for a rich harvest.
But after a while, the tree begins to lose excess fruit - there is not enough food for numerous offspring. This is a signal to start watering. Father shovel dug a tree around the trunk, retreating 0,7-1 m from the stem. He made the groove deep so that it could receive 15-20 buckets of water. After the water is absorbed, he covered it with earth. After such irrigation, the shedding of the ovary ceases, the fruits increase in size every day. After 2-3 weeks, watering can be repeated if necessary.
With a significant lack of moisture, the growth stops, the flower buds are retarded and reduced, the fruits grow smaller, become small, and they do not absorb sugar. But excess moisture is also undesirable, especially the moisture of the air. If the summer turned out to be rainy, apricot can suffer from fungal diseases.
Author Andrianova, OP Saratov
Below other entries on the topic "Dacha and garden - with their own hands"
- Apricots - planting and care: tips from Bashkiria
- Apricots in the Middle lane: planting and care - K / S \ x science advises
- Cultivation of apricot in the North of Russia - is this real?
- Apricot from the bone - how to grow properly
- Black apricot (photo) varieties and description
- Why Apricot Fruits Irregularly - Care Tips
- So the apricot does not freeze - the correct landing and grafting on the turn
- Apricot cultivation - planting and care (Vladimir region)
- Apricot in the Moscow region - varieties of planting and care (advice of the candidate of science)
- Conditions for growing apricot - AGRONOM advises
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In the garden grow 2 apricot tree, im for 6 years. Before this season there were no fruits at all, although the trees bloomed well. This year there were fruits only on one tree. Apricots are almost ripe, but began to crumble. Only touch the branches - they immediately fall to the ground. What is the reason?
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Grafted varietal apricot seedlings enter fruiting at 3-4 year after planting. The trees growing in your garden are propagated, apparently, by sowing apricot seeds. In this case, the first fruiting at the 6 year is quite common.
And as for fruits - even varietal apricots tend to crumble at the beginning of ripening. It is helped by hot dry weather. By the way, the fruits of apricot, which have fallen off at the beginning of ripening, ripen well within a week, without losing taste qualities.
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Svetlana. Try feeding your trees with dolomite flour. Make a groove around your trees 1 meter away from the trunk 10 cm deep and wide. Pour about 3-4 handfuls of dolomite into the groove. flour (this is Ca – calcium and its deficiency provokes shedding of fruits on stone fruits) and pour this groove with 2-3 buckets of water. This should be done in April - in May.
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Apricot is dying!
For about 20 years I have been growing apricot. With the exception of the first three seasons, he bore fruit abundantly annually. All this time, all sorts of ailments and pests bypassed him, and then noticed that most of the fruits, barely yellowing, dry out. Moreover, they hold tight on the branches - literally have to peel off. Tell me what happened to the apricot? Is it a disease or malnutrition? Can anyone help him?