Recommendations for planting and caring for dogwood

The cornel at the dachas of our compatriots is completely unfairly ignored. Meanwhile, this plant can grow in the same place for more than 200 years, with 2/3 of its life it gives its owners a harvest of tasty and nutritious berries. In our article we will talk about how to plant cornel and care for it.

As the ancient legend says, the dogwood somehow liked the devil very much for his unusually beautiful flowering. The devil decided that since the tree is the very first to bloom, then he will also give the berries before anyone else. But he miscalculated - all the fruit trees around have already presented their owners with juicy ripe fruits, and on the cornels there were green fruits. Then Satan got angry and threw the plant out of his garden.

In late autumn, the mushroom pickers who walked through the forest saw an extraordinary beautiful shrub, all strewn with scarlet berries with an incredibly sweet taste, and took it to themselves.

The shaitan learned about this and decided to take revenge - the next year the hosts reaped a huge harvest of berries, but in order for them to ripen, the sun would spend all its warmth, so the winter was very cold and harsh.

The plant is a tree or a tall shrub, its height varies depending on the climatic zone in which it grows. On average, the height of the bush is about 3 meters, although in favorable conditions the plant can grow up to 7-8 meters.

All varieties of dogwood are divided into tree and shrub, but regardless of this, at an early age they all actively grow small young shoots that have a pleasant yellowish-green tint. As they grow older, the plant becomes covered with gray and uneven bark, which over time acquires a reddish tint.

The cornel of the dogwood can be pyramidal or round, the leaf plates are elongated and pointed at the ends. The color of the leaves above is usually bright green, glossy, and the bottom is dull and slightly lighter.

Flowering plant looks very decorative. In early spring, right in March, even before young leaves begin to peek out, quite lush umbrellas of bright inflorescences of a pleasant yellow color bloom.

The fruits begin to ripen only in early September. The berries are small, their length does not exceed 4 cm, and the mass is within 7-8 g. The flesh is quite juicy. The taste is sweet and sour with pronounced tart notes. Berries that remain on the tree during the November frosts usually become much more tart and sweet.

The color of ripe berries depends entirely on the characteristics of the variety. Known cultures that produce fruits in a variety of shades of red and yellow, and in addition, scientists have developed a white variety of dogwood. Regardless of the color, all the berries are extremely beneficial and nutritious due to the high content of various vitamins that the body needs macro and micro elements. It is not only very tasty, but also a useful berry, as it is successfully used in the treatment of many bacterial and viral diseases.

Cornel is very popular with housewives. From the berries of this culture they cook sweet jam, as well as compotes, syrups and tinctures. Fruits can be frozen, dried and wilted.

In the middle part of Russia, early-growing varieties are more often grown.

• "Alesha" - This is a type of cornel, which is distinguished by the earliest possible timing of swelling. The fruits have a rich yellowish tint, the mass of each is equal to about 3-3.5 g, the skin is quite thin and very tender.
• At "Elena" fruits are rather rounded, the color is often dark red. Unlike other red varieties, the Helena berries never turn black.The flesh includes an increased amount of sugar - up to 8%, so its taste is rather sweet. The berries are juicy, thin skin. When ripe, showered from the branches, so they should always be collected in a timely manner.

• "Nikolka"Is an early ripe variety, giving fruit of pear-shaped form weighing 6-8 g. The flesh is very juicy, the taste of fruits is sweet and slightly sour.
• "Elegant" the variety produces medium-sized berries, their weight is about 5 g, the shape of the fruit is bottled, the color during ripening varies from rich cherry to completely black. Fruits do not fall from the trees, so they can hang for quite a long time.

To the mid-early varieties include these varieties.

• "Bukovinsky" gives oval berries of a yellow shade weighing about 4 grams. Productivity largely depends on natural conditions. Scattering is almost zero.
• "Vyshgorodsky" - a very useful variety, fruits contain a high concentration of vitamin C, thereby strengthening the body's resistance to infections and viral diseases. The flesh is red-scarlet, the peel is cherry, the taste is sweet-sour.

• "Grenadier" - this is a rather beautiful variety that gives the most delicious fruits of a rounded shape with a slightly narrowed neck. The hue of the berries is red-black, and this shade appears at the very early stage of ripening. The fruits of this variety are suitable for making jam, as well as jam, marmalade and sweet candied fruits.
• Variety "Gentle" differs in high decorative effect during flowering period. The fruits are yellow, small - about 3.5 cm, the shape is slightly pear-shaped, the taste is sweetish.

The following varieties are most popular among the varieties of medium ripening.

• "Amber" - This is a plant that gives yellow and very small fruits - not more than 1.5 cm, their skin is very thin, with a translucent bone. The flesh is juicy and rather sweet.

• "Firstborn" - this species is distinguished by shiny elongated fruits, the color of the skin is from red-brown to black, the size of the berry is about 3 cm, and the mass is about 6-7 g. The fruits are juicy, but the bone quickly separates. Berries contain a high amount of sugar - up to 6.5%, and pectins - up to 1%, therefore more than all other varieties are suitable for processing and winter canning.
• "Glowworm" - dogwood with fairly large fruits weighing up to 10 g, the shape of the berries is bottle. Ripened fruits have a dark red color. The variety is characterized by high yield and good keeping quality.

Of the late ripening, the seed variety is more often planted. It is characterized by sour-sweet fruits of rich dark cherry color, the weight of each is less than 1 gram, its length is up to 2 cm. The berry is juicy and with a tart pleasant aroma.

Breeders recommend planting dogwood in the fall, and it’s pretty easy to determine the appropriate time for planting - it coincides with the beginning of leaf fall on poplars. Autumn planting has an important advantage over spring. It can be carried out with work for quite a long time, while in the spring you will have to act as quickly as possible - choosing a short time between the period when the earth warms up and the start of blooming of the shrub buds.

Usually landing in the first decade of October, about a couple of weeks before the arrival of the first frost. Well-planted, watered and poured plants have time to fully take root in their new place and withstand the winter frosts withstand, and are actively growing in early spring.

The advantages of autumn planting a lot.

• The bushes planted under the winter have time to completely heal all their damaged roots during the winter season and grow new ones to the spring heat.Due to this, the plant is capable of enduring drought and dry winds, which are characteristic of southern areas in early spring, without damage.
• Prices for garden cornel saplings in September are much lower than in spring. This is due to the fact that large nurseries and private gardeners are trying to implement the freshly dug material as quickly as possible, so that prices become affordable and more than affordable.
• Autumn planting does not require any special troubles - during this period it is enough just to moisten the sapling, and everything else should be placed on Mother Nature.

In the spring, any area already needs a lot of time and effort, so the autumn planting will significantly relieve the gardener and give him the opportunity to fully engage in planting.

However, autumn growing dogwood has its drawbacks. So, sometimes extreme frosts ruin the still weak and immature young plants, in addition, in winter there are often strong winds, storms, blizzards and other bad weather, which can break the thin trunk of the seedling.

Rodents that feed on the bark of trees in cold weather are also dangerous for the young sapling.

To reduce the risk of death of the plant in the late fall and winter, it is necessary to adhere to several recommendations when planting dogwood.

• The plant prefers shaded places. It is optimal to plant it between other fruit trees, so you can not only save the useful area of ​​the site, but also get rid of the problem of little illuminated areas.
• The roots branch at about 1 meter from the soil surface, therefore, when choosing the optimal place for the cornel, one should take into account the features of the location of groundwater.
• Optimally plant in the garden plot several seedlings of different varieties. They bloom at the same time, so pollinability will be significantly higher.
• When planting a young plant does not need the traditional for any other crops, humus, manure and mineral dressings. All that is needed for this plant is land and ordinary water.

It is very important to properly prepare the seedling. When buying planting material, special attention should be paid to the root system - the more developed it is, the better the plant will grow and develop. If you have a sapling with weak, thin and pale roots, it is better to abandon the purchase.

It is desirable that the young plant has a couple of root branches, so that the length of each is at least 30 cm. Pay special attention to the state of the bark of the tree and the branches - they must be intact without any visible defects or damage.

You can check the plant for viability. For this you need to cut the bark a little. If the cut is green, the plant is strong and healthy, and if the cut is brown, it makes sense to continue the search for a suitable planting dogwood. If you are forced to spend considerable time on transporting a young plant, then it must be wrapped with a wet cloth and covered with film.

Let us dwell a little more on the features of the site where young dogwood is planned to be planted. As we have already seen, it should be darkened, but this is not the only condition for the normal growth and development of the tree. Cornel prefers drained, well-hydrated and alkaline soils. To expressly check the level of acidity, a little vinegar should be dropped on the ground. If bubbles appear, it means the soil contains the necessary amount of lime and can be used for planting cornels. It is better to carry out such a test in advance, so that in the absence of the necessary reaction, the liming of the earth and its acidity be reduced.

Marshy soils are unsuitable for planting this crop.It is not necessary to plant the plant and in clay lands. Cornels coexist fairly well with any crops, the only exception is walnut - these two plants should be placed in different corners of the garden.

Before planting, the plant must be re-inspected, remove all damaged branches and cut off the defective roots. Before planting the roots should be smeared with a self-made clay mash made in advance. Also, the plant must be removed all the foliage.

The pit should be dug to a depth of 40-50 cm so that it easily accommodates the entire rhizome. It is necessary to drive a stake into the prepared hole - later it will become a support for the young plant.

It is advisable to lay a drainage layer on the bottom of the prepared pit. For this, pebbles or claydite are best suited. If the land is not very fertile, then the pit can be one-third filled with humus and peat.

Cornel loves potassium. If there is not enough alkali in the soil, then the substrate should be enriched with lime in the proportion of 150 g per 1 mg.

When placing the roots in a hole, it is necessary to straighten each root and prikopat it so that the neck of the rhizome is located 2-4 cm from the ground level. When digging in the roots, it is important to ensure that there are no voids around the rhizomes. In order to avoid their appearance, the hole needs to be tapped and watered very abundantly.

Shrub certainly mulch by 10-20 cm. If this is not done, then the roots located near the surface will dry out. Straw should be taken as mulch, sawdust or conifer needles are also suitable.

Caring for garden dogwood does not give the cottager any particular trouble. In the very first year after planting, the plant requires abundant and frequent watering, and over time the volume of irrigation can be reduced - the perennial fully adapts to changing conditions and can do without moisture for quite a long time.

After each watering, the ground is covered with a dense, cracked crust, which does not allow oxygen to pass through to the roots, therefore, after moistening, the ground must be loosened.

Periodically remove the weeds, otherwise they simply drown the young plant. In short, the care of the culture of dogwood is exactly the same as for any other fruit crops.

But the formation of the crown is important to pay special attention. It is desirable to create its contour immediately after landing - at the same time, one stem is left 50 cm long and 5-6 skeletal branches. In subsequent periods, each spring should be additional pruning, sawing off all the young shoots, remove the affected and curving branches, as well as those that grow inside the bush.

When the plant is 20-25 years old, it is desirable to rejuvenate the bush. To do this, cut off all branches at the age of 4-5 years, as a result, the process of the emergence of new shoots will be stimulated.

Cornel perfectly dispenses with dressings. However, from time to time it should be fertilized to increase yields. The standard scheme: in the spring, dogwood should be fed with nitrogen and phosphate fertilizers, in the summer they prefer organic matter, and in the fall potash and humus are added to the ground. Once in 3-5 years ash can be dug into the trunk circle to enrich the soil.

It should be noted that dogwood is resistant to fungal diseases, and pests try to fly around with it. However, powdery mildew sometimes appears on the foliage, and on broken branches there are fungi that can migrate to healthy branches.

Dogwood can be propagated in several ways. Let us dwell on the most common.

This method is considered the most unreliable, and it takes several years, so it is used quite rarely. However, if you intend to grow a cornel seedling at home from a stone, you should know a few characteristic features:

• overripe fruit must be poured with cool water and left in a warm place for several days to start the fermentation process;
• From the softened pulp they take the seeds, wash them and put them in sawdust for 1.5 years, but in this condition the material should be stored strictly in a cool place - a refrigerator or a cellar of a private house;
• in the second year at the end of winter and early spring, the bone is taken out and put in heat (optimally near the battery) for 7-10 days;
• while the seed warms up, you should prepare an earthy mixture - take in equal parts river sand, humus and fertile land (it is best to go into the forest and collect soil from under wild dogwood);

• the seeds are very neatly cut to accelerate germination;
• after planting, the ground is watered abundantly, covered with glass or film on top and placed on the windows on the sunny side or in any other warm place;
• as soon as shoots appear, cover should be removed and the container should be placed so that the sun's rays will not damage the seedlings;
• the plant is put on a permanent place after the arrival of the final heat in the spring - this usually happens in May.

This method is more common. In the middle of July, young annual shoots are cut from the mother tree, all lower leaves are removed and they are lowered into the root growth stimulator solution by a third, where they are kept for 6-7 hours.

The cuttings prepared in this way are placed in penumbra and periodically watered. With this approach to the onset of autumn, about half of such cuttings start small roots and form a strong seedling.

This method is more suitable for bush dogwood, since it is quite problematic to bend down a tree, and more often it is completely impossible.

In the spring of shoots at the age of 1-2 years, you must bend to the ground and sprinkle with earth. The branches are constantly irrigated and in most cases by the fall it takes root. Then it can be safely separated from the main plant and planted in a permanent place in the open ground.

In nature, dogwood is most often found in the mountainous regions of the Caucasus and Transcaucasia, as well as in Transcarpathia, in addition, quite a lot of wild crops can be found on the Crimean peninsula, in the Krasnodar Territory and in Western Asia - in this area natural conditions are ideal for successful flowering and fruiting of the crop. . Rarely, but still you can find a plant in the Urals and Siberia. It is noteworthy that cornels can grow even in the mountains, although habitat conditions leave their imprint on the appearance of the plant. For example, in Armenia, a plant peeps literally from crevices in the rocks. In this region, the plant has the appearance of a low perennial with a short stem.

In the middle zone of our country, dogwood is also quite common, because it has good resistance to frost, but in these climatic conditions a special approach to growing dogwood is required, especially if you plant it not only for hedges, but also intend to harvest a good harvest of sweet berries . Keep in mind that the dogwood is blooming quite early, but the crop ripens more than two hundred days, so in the Moscow region and other regions of the central zone it is preferable to plant early ripening varieties. Otherwise, the berries may simply not have time to ripen before the onset of the first autumn frosts.

About dogwood and its benefits, see the following video.