Siberian Apricot

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Siberian apricot (Latin Prunus sibirica) - fruit and ornamental crops; a representative of the genus Plum of the Pink family. It occurs naturally in Mongolia, North China, Primorsky Krai and Eastern Siberia. It grows mainly on dry areas, talus, sandy and rocky slopes, often in union with Siberian apple or rhododendrons.

Characteristics of culture

Siberian apricot is a shrub or small tree up to 3-4 m high with a wide spreading crown. Leaves are ovate or heart-shaped, petiolate, pointed at the ends, blunt-serrated or finely serrate along the edge, up to 5 cm long. Flowers are white or pink, numerous, sessile. The fruits are round, yellowish-green with a burgundy blush, flattened from the sides, with truncated smooth seeds and the pericarp cracking when ripe.

The pulp of the fruit is bitter with an almond flavor, this is due to the presence of cyanide derivatives in the fruit. For food purposes, the fruits of Siberian apricot are not used, their use can cause irreparable harm to human health. Siberian apricot blooms in April - May for 7-10 days. The culture is drought-resistant, frost-resistant and photophilous, it is an excellent honey plant. Spring frosts do not affect flowering (unlike other types of apricot, the flowers of which are sensitive to sudden changes in temperature and temperatures below zero). In general, the species under consideration outwardly differs little from the Manchurian apricot, the main difference is in the size and shape of the leaves.

Siberian apricot is the ancestor of the following varieties: Satser, Comrade, Best Michurinsky and Mongol. The listed varieties are good material for landscaping parks, gardens and alleys, as well as personal backyard plots. The main advantage of Siberian apricot is its high frost-resistant properties; plants tolerate frosts down to -45C without any problems, but they have a negative attitude to sharp changes (alternation of frost and thaw) in temperatures in February. In Buryatia, Siberian apricot is listed in the Red Book.

Reproduction and care

The Siberian apricot is propagated most often by pitted seeds. The best time for planting is spring or autumn. Before sowing, the seeds must be soaked in water at room temperature for three days. When sowing in spring, the seeds are subjected to preliminary stratification. To do this, they are placed in wet sand and removed to a cold place for 2, 5-3 months. Embedding depth - 2-5 cm (depending on the size of the stone). After a year, one-year-old seedlings are pruned, then damaged, weak and frozen shoots, as well as branches thickening the crown, are removed. Slices after the procedure are treated with garden varnish. Young apricots are transplanted to a permanent place after 2-3 years. The transplant can be carried out both in the spring and in the fall.

For the winter, young bushes are covered with non-woven material, and the soil in the near-trunk zone is mulched with peat, pine litter or dry fallen leaves. In the spring, the shelter is removed. If the warming layer of mulch is not removed in time, there is a high probability of podoprevanie and decay of the root collar, and this, as you know, leads to inevitable death. Optimal soils for Siberian apricot are fertile, structural, loose, moderately moist. When planting seedlings on peat, clay or sandy substrates, good drainage is formed at the bottom of the pit, and the voids are filled with nutritious soil mixture. Young plants in the first 2-3 years need regular watering, further watering is carried out as needed.

Application

Siberian apricot is a highly decorative and unpretentious plant; it has no equal among the representatives of the subgenus. The trees look very impressive throughout the growing season. Siberian apricot is often used to create unusually beautiful and mesmerizing landscape compositions. This variety of apricot is suitable for automalii (gardens of autumn flowers), in September - October the foliage on the trees changes the color of the leaves from green to yellow-orange and red-purple.

Also, Siberian apricot is appropriate for creating hedges and alpine slides (and other types of rocky gardens). As mentioned above, fruits are not used in cooking, but they are widely used in traditional medicine. Drops with various types of action are made from seeds, for example, for the treatment of nervous disorders or coughs.