Features of the cultivation of cherries

The most common fruit tree, available in almost every garden, is cherry. Compotes, syrups, liqueurs are made from cherry berries. Cherry is used for cooking dumplings, pies, pastries. It makes delicious jam. It has established itself as an indispensable component used in the food industry and catering.

The cherry tree is not among the capricious cultures.

It can grow in different regions of the country. In order for the cherry to take root in the soil and then grow and develop well, it is necessary to plant it in the ground, observing the rules.

When planting cherries in any region of the country, it is best to pick up a sapling that can tolerate frosts and various diseases well. For good fruiting choose an escape of two years old. In height, it can be 1.4-1.5 meters. The thickness of the trunk in young seedlings reaches 1-1.5 cm. Chubuk roots should be in the amount of 3-4 well-developed processes.

When a tree is planted too early in the spring, there is a chance that the cold in the form of frost may suddenly return. At low temperatures, the young tree will die.

Planting a cherry in the fall with a delay will serve to the fact that the tree does not have time to adapt before the onset of cold weather, the crown will not develop, the trunk will not be able to get stronger. The root system of the plant, planted in late autumn, will be poorly prepared for winter frosts, the growth of roots will slow.

In the spring, when only the snow melts and the soil becomes dry, you can start planting a cherry tree. The landing is possible from the end of March, including the whole of April.

In the fall, planting is recommended before the soil begins to freeze.

Cherry should be planted from August to the first week of October, inclusive.

In the harsh climate of Siberia and the Urals, the planting of fruit crops should be done in the spring. The seedling will have a few months left before the arrival of autumn to settle down, grow strong, take deep roots and begin to grow. You can plant trees at the end of April or the whole of May.

Particular attention should be paid to the variety. It is necessary to select a type of tree taking into account the climatic features of the region. It should be frost-resistant saplings with a strong root structure.

The most suitable varieties for Siberia and the Urals include such varieties as “Zhelannaya”, “Ob”, “Kristina”, “Altai Early 2” and a number of other crops.

In the suburbs are planted varieties of cherries with high frost resistance and resistance to pests that actively destroy the bark of trees. The “Apukhtinskaya” cherry has got accustomed to this region. But also the varieties “Molodezhnaya”, “Lyubskaya”, “Turgenevka” also successfully grow and bear fruit.

Spring and autumn plantings do not have significant differences. They differ in the fact that during the autumn period they make a mound around the planted tree, and it is spud. This process allows you to protect the roots of the planted culture from death (freezing).

The lush and fragrant flowering of cherry trees begins in late April and lasts until early May.

In sunny weather, the cherry can bloom for 8-12 days, in the rain and cloudy weather, flowering lasts up to 14 days and ends when vegetative buds appear.

Cherry blossom is characterized by two halves and five petals. The ovary occurs in the upper part of the flower, which ensures good availability of bees at the time of pollination.

In central Russia and the Moscow region, flowering of a tree occurs in the time interval from May 7 to 15 inclusive. In Siberia and the Urals, the cherry crop begins to bloom at the end of May and blooms until June 7.

Cherry grows and ripens at different times depending on its variety and planting region. The cherry tree, which bears fruit at the beginning of July, belongs to the early ripening variety. This cherry is the following varieties:

• "Youth";
• "Baby";
• "Chocolate".

Mid-ripening cherry ripens from mid to late July. These include the varieties “Vladimirskaya”, “Kharitonovskaya”, “Zhukovskaya”. In August, late varieties of cherry trees are sown: "Lyubskaya", "Shchedrovka" and other trees.

The ripening of berries is influenced by the climatic characteristics of the landing region. Cherries love heat. In the same garden, a tree planted on the sunny side will be the first to harvest.

Cherry saplings sell with open and closed root system. The closed root system is seedlings planted in containers. With an open system, seedlings are sold individually, without special packaging of their roots.

When the root system is closed, the roots are not susceptible to damage, but it is impossible to see them, as they are immersed in the soil.

When you get a seedling with open roots, you should pay attention to the fact that a healthy stem has a branchy and developed root part. On the roots there will be many small roots. These seedlings can be safely planted in the ground throughout the planting season.

In the soil, cherry roots are at a depth of half a meter. If the soil is poor or poorly fertilized, the cherry can be fixed in it at the level of 15-35 cm.

Cherry roots grow quite extensively. They can be horizontal and vertical. Horizontal roots take away all nutrients necessary for the growth and vital activity of the cherry tree from the surface layers of the soil. The roots that go deep into the soil saturate the entire trunk with water during irrigation and enable the tree to maintain a strong stable position. The number of roots and their location is affected by the variety of cherry.

Since cherries love heat and light, they should be planted in open and well-lit areas. Plant in the lowlands and drafts of the tree can not be. A fruit plant does not tolerate transplants, so planting should be done once.

Groundwater has a negative effect on the growth and development of saplings. They should not be close, at least at a depth of 1.5-2 m.

When planting cherries close to other berry crops, she will not be able to develop well. The branches of the cherry tree will become intertwined with the branches of other trees. As a result, they may die and low yields in the future.

On sites of gardeners cherry self-fertile trees well proved. They give impressive yields, they do not need pollinators. If the cherry is grown for the purpose of further selling the berries, then the yield and fruiting of the tree increase when the pollinators are planted next to it.

The most common varieties of self-fruited cherries are “Garland”, “Annushka”, “Youth”. Among the undersized, Cinderella, Apukhtinskaya, Shokoladnitsa, and other types of wood have proven themselves well.

Often gardeners do not have the knowledge as to which neighborhood between trees is acceptable and which is undesirable. For example, cherry gets along well with an apple tree or plum. Bush grapes and gooseberry crops have a positive effect on its growth and development.

When a walnut or peach tree, an apricot grows next to a cherry tree, they negatively affect the cherry tree, taking all the moisture and nourishment from the soil. Black currant is also an undesirable neighbor for cherries. Planting a tree should be carried out at a distance.

The scheme of planting fruit trees in the garden is selected for each site individually.To plant trees is best staggered, following the rules of their neighborhood.

There are several ways to reproduce cherries.It is propagated by root shoots and grafting, as well as by planting stones from a cherry berry in the ground.

The easiest and most reliable method for the reproduction of cherries is grafting. With a proper cut, with a proper care, you can grow a branchy, fruit-bearing tree.

Before you propagate the cherries with green cuttings and begin to cut them, you need to prepare the container. Planting is made in a medium size box with a depth of 10-15 cm.

It is filled with soil mixture. The mixture should be loose and treated with a disinfectant solution. Black earth mixed with sand in proportion 1/1 is taken as a basis. Box complement the top. They make a kind of arcuate mounts that increase the height of the box by 20-25 cm. Subsequently, polyethylene is laid on them. It turns out a mini greenhouse.

Shoots need to pick green and strong, with developed buds and foliage. Tree donor must be no older than 5 years.

After cutting, the tubers are placed in water for some time, and then they are removed and form planting material. Each branch is cut to a size of 10-15 cm. There should be several leaves on the top of this cutting. The remaining leaves below are removed.

The finished stalk is planted in the soil prepared in a box to a depth of 2.5-3 cm. The soil around it is tamped with fingers. Thus all the cuttings are planted before filling the box.

Planted cuttings cover the top with a film that allows you to maintain soil moisture and air humidity at a stable level. Next, the box is left in a well-lit place until the formation of the roots of the cuttings.

As soon as the roots have appeared, they harden and air the seedlings. The cuttings rooted in the ground together with the box are buried in the ground for the winter period, flush with the soil of the garden plot. Tops of seedlings covered with sawdust or peat. So they are stored until the arrival of spring.

In the spring, the seedlings are planted in the ground at a permanent place for their growth or for rearing.

Before proceeding to planting a cherry tree, the land should be dug up and removed weeds and other plants. When spring planting soil prepared in the fall. Fertilizers are applied to the excavated soil. This may be manure in the amount of 7-10 kg per 1 square. m

Superphosphate and potassium chloride are added to it. Superphosphate per 1 square. m goes up to 60 grams, potassium up to 30 grams.

It is best to fertilize the soil with lime. The amount of lime per 1 square. m varies in each region. It all depends on the acidity of the soil. 400-500 grams of lime are added to sandy soil. In the soil with lime loam will take up to 700 grams. Lime can not be put in the planting pit, because it can burn the roots of seedlings.

Cherry loves fertile soil that can conduct air well to the root system. The best option for its growth and development is a light soil, with clay and sand (loam) content. Additional fertilizers before planting and after planting the seedling will have a positive effect on the development of the cherry crop.

For full growth cherry needs territorial space. It should be planted at a distance of 3 meters from other trees. If you plant a cherry crop in a garden at a close distance from other trees, it will grow upwards without forming a lush crown. As a result, the yield will be greatly reduced. The fruits of such a tree are formed only at the crown.

A distinctive feature in the formation of a garden with cherry trees is that the height of the trees is directly proportional to the allowable distance at which they can be planted from each other in the ground.For example, if a cherry reaches 3 meters in height in its adult state, then it should be planted at a distance of 3 meters from other fruit trees. With a height of cherry 2 meters, the distance to neighboring trees should be at least 2 meters.

The landing pit is prepared from autumn or spring at least 14 days before planting the cherry. A peg is driven into a hole. He will support the planted tree. Next, it immerses fertile soil. The width of the pit under the cherry should be from 50 to 80 cm. The depth of the pit is dug 55-60 cm.

Fertilizers are applied to the planting pit, a soil composition of humus is prepared in the amount of two buckets, 200-300 grams of superphosphate is added, and potassium sulphate in a volume of 30 grams is added. It is advisable to mix the entire composition with wood resin. The soil in the pit settles naturally. If the pit is dug in the spring before planting, then fertilizer should be applied to it two weeks before the landing of the cherry.

Step-by-step instructions for planting a cherry are as follows:

• fertile soil is extracted from a dug pit with a spade;
• an upper layer of soil is poured into the pit at the bottom, forming a mound;
• a sapling is placed on this hillock, straightening its roots along the entire circumference;
• after they are covered with soil with fertilizers and tamped, especially the soil at the roots of the seedling needs to be compacted.

The trunk of the seedling is tied to a peg that will support it in a vertical position and protect it from the wind. Above the ground level there should be a root neck of a seedling at a height of 3-4 cm.

Around the planted tree you need to make a small earthen mound. After this, it is necessary to water the young tree. Water can pour 2 buckets. When it is absorbed into the ground, the embankment level. If it was planted several cherry trees, then the tops of their trunks, it is desirable to cut at the same level in the range of 70-75 cm in height.

At this planting cherry ends. It remains to wait for the tree to take root in the soil and begin to grow.

In order to grow on a plot or in a country house in an open field a massive cherry tree that gives a good harvest, it is necessary to properly care for the seedlings.

Saplings need to be watered, to loosen the soil, to apply fertilizer (to feed), to carry out timely pruning of excess shoots. Cultivation also includes a range of measures to protect the cherry from various diseases and pests.

In the summer, cherries should be watered more often than in spring, especially if the summer is dry. For one-time watering up to 5 buckets of water are needed. Water the tree should be after the cherry blossomed.

The next stage of irrigation is carried out when the berries appeared and matured.

A planted tree of fertile soil receives all the necessary nutrients for good development and growth.

If the soil is poor, then fertilizer can be applied annually until the tree reaches the age of seven. In early spring, over the first three years of growth, cherries are fed with urea, ammonium nitrate, potassium sulfate and superphosphate.

• In the first spring after planting cherries, 70-100 g of urea are added to the soil under each tree.
• After two years, it is fed ammonium nitrate at the rate of 15 g per volume of water 5 liters.
• After three years of growth, 200 g of urea is fertilized with cherries applied to each tree. Urea is applied in spring, and in the fall, potassium up to 100 g under wood or superphosphate in a volume of 300 g for each cherry.
• After five years, they fertilize cherries with ammofosca at the rate of 30 g of substance per bucket of water.
• After six years of tree growth, 250-300 g of urea is added to each cherry in the spring. In autumn, the plant is fertilized with double superphosphate (0.5 kg) and potassium sulfate (150 g) for each tree.

The best organic fertilizer for cherries would be chicken manure, humus or sawdust. In the spring you can make ash and nitrogen.

Feeding is carried out as follows.The tree is dug in a circle at a distance of 15-20 cm from the trunk and loosen the soil. Then spend watering each cherry (at least two buckets under the seedling). After the soil absorbs water, fertilizer is applied.

Pruning of the cherry tree can be carried out both in the early months of spring, before the buds swell, and in the summer after harvest and in the fall. Cherry shoots grow very quickly, so that becomes a dense crown. This circumstance adversely affects the yield and size of ripe berries. They ripen smaller and less juicy.

Skeletal branches of the tree are left in the amount of 6-7 pieces, and they should be located at a height of 40-50 cm above the trunk. In the lower tier leave 3-4 branches, above - 2 branches. The upper tier contains one branch (central shoot). Over the years, new shoots will grow along each branch on any tier, thus forming a beautiful crown.

Autumn pruning is carried out if there are broken branches or areas affected by disease.

If you need to transplant the cherry, then this procedure should be carried out in early spring, before the sap begins to move along the tree. In the autumn, you can make a transplant after the foliage falls. This is usually done in September. In order to pollinate well, transplantation should be carried out in a place where cherries still grow. The distance between them should remain at 3 meters. Trees over 10 years old are not recommended for replanting.

Replanting a tree from place to place, you need to take care to keep the roots intact. It is better to undermine the tree to extract the roots with a large handful of earth. When a cherry crop is transplanted in spring, the pit is prepared in autumn, and when it is transplanted in autumn, the pit is prepared in spring. Fertile soil is poured into the excavated pit, prepared as a composition of soil and organic fertilizers containing potassium and phosphorus.

The process of planting a transplanted tree into the ground does not differ from the process of planting a cherry seedling. After transplanting to a new place, the cherries are watered.

When a planted tree does not bear fruit for a year or two, this indicates that there is a reason for this behavior of the cherry.

There may be several:

• a tree can get sick, for example, monilioz, when the top begins to dry, and the branches lose their vitality;
• cherry does not bear fruit if the landing site is on the shady side of the garden;
• the soil may be high in acidity;
• trees planted near the cherry tree have a bad effect on its development and growth (unsuccessful neighbors);
• no bees pollinating the tree, or not enough;
• pruning cherries have not been done for years.

All of these factors affect flowering and the appearance of fruits.

Near the main tree trunk shoots can grow that have not been planted before. They germinate themselves from the main roots and, as a rule, appear within 10-40 cm from the tree. They are called shoots. These shoots need to be removed, because they take nutrients from the main trunk and prevent the growth of the tree. If a young growth has appeared around the main trunk, then it must be removed at the level of the roots. To do this, take the pruner and cut it above the ground level at a height of 20-30 cm. In such a simple way, the shoots will be damaged and new shoots will not be able to form from their roots. You will remove dried up growth over time, and bring it out completely.

Among the measures to fight rodents and insects, much attention is paid to methods of fighting the shield. A shield is an insect that lays eggs in the bark of a tree. From this cherry perishes.

The spraying of the tree "Aktar" or "Aktellik" helps in the fight against it. The emulsion is sold in ampoules. For two liters of water use one ampoule, and in such a composition carefully spray the affected areas on the tree.In the autumn or spring, spraying is recommended to be carried out with drug No. 30.

Ovaries can fall off if a cherry of the same variety is planted next to the cherry. As a result, pollination does not occur. It is advisable to plant next to several varieties of wood.

The occurrence of groundwater near, bad weather during flowering of the tree, lack of nutrients in the soil affect the ovary. Pollination also influences. In order to attract bees to a tree, it must be sprayed with a composition of water, sugar or honey. 100 g of sugar or a spoonful of honey are put on a liter of water.

Cherry berry can be wormy. Worms appear because the cherry fly lays its larvae on the branches and leaves.

When buying seedlings for planting it is best to purchase their early varieties. In this case, the fly will not have time to spoil the fruits of your cherry and set aside its larvae.

The soil around the trunk in the spring must be dug up after the winter cold. This will give the opportunity to remove the pupae of the flies left over from the fall.

The fruits of the tree, which have fallen, must be quickly removed, with harvesting can not be delayed. Cherries must be ripe, juicy and intact.

There are several ways to protect the cherry berry from birds.

Rusty objects are fastened on the branches of the tree. It can be anything from foil, cellophane. Birds are afraid of unusual sounds emanating from such items. Adding to the branches of the New Year's rain will increase the chances of saving cherry berries from bird beaks.

Stunted cherries live from 15 to 20 years. Life expectancy of tall trees (up to 7 meters) reaches 25-30 years.

Cherry berry is removed by fruit growers, which are on sale in large quantities.

You can independently make a puller from an aluminum tube. One end of it is cut obliquely and split it with a knife. The two halves are bent outward in opposite directions in the form of a hook. The reverse end is strung on a pole. Such a device will allow you to pick berries from the top of the tree.

Experienced gardeners have a wealth of experience in growing various fruit crops.

• Not only trees, but also shrubs can positively or negatively affect the fruiting of the cherry, as gardeners say. For example, they do not recommend growing tomatoes, eggplants or solanaceous crops next to cherries.
• Under the cherry in the garden should not grow raspberries. Cherry and raspberry are subject to the same diseases. Planted close to each other, they can become infected. It is recommended to plant honeysuckle next to the cherry.
• Under the cherry, you can plant mint or lemon balm. These plants actively release oils that destroy pests and thereby preserve trees from damage.

How to plant a cherry, see the next video.