2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Berry apple tree (lat. Malus baccata) - fruit and ornamental crops; a representative of the genus Apple-tree of the Pink family. It belongs to small-fruited species, fruits are practically not used for food, they are eagerly eaten by birds. It occurs naturally in Northern China, Manchuria and Eastern Siberia. Typical habitats are forests, forest edges, forest-steppe, steppe, river floodplains.
Characteristics of culture
The berry apple tree is a deciduous tree up to 5 m high with an umbrella-shaped or rounded crown and a shortened slightly winding trunk covered with gray bark. The leaves are green, glossy, elliptical or ovate, pointed, with a wedge-shaped base, up to 7 cm long. The flowers are large, white, white-pink or pinkish, fragrant, sit on long pedicels, collected in a few-flowered umbellate shields. Sepals pubescent on the inside, have a linear-lanceolate shape.
Fruits are spherical, orange-red or red, up to 1 cm in diameter, equipped with a long peduncle. The flowering of the berry apple tree begins in the first decade of May and lasts about 1, 5-2 weeks, the fruits ripen in September-October. It is an early ripening crop, yields its first fruits 3-4 years after planting. A relatively fast growing species. Frost-resistant, unpretentious, undemanding to soil conditions.
Quite often, the berry apple tree is used as a stock. Compatible varieties turned out to be: Pepin saffron, Borovinka, Melba, Antonovka saffron, Autumn striped and Saffron-Chinese. With European varieties, the culture is absolutely incompatible or partially compatible.
By crossing the berry apple tree with the varieties of the domestic apple tree, the following varieties were obtained: Dobrynya, Berdskoe, Komsomolets of Buryatia, Alenky flower, Malinka, Gornoaltaiskoe, Vasilek, Altai speckled, Altai crimson, Altai purple, Winter saffron, Altai pigeon varieties and others. frost resistance, unpretentiousness, active growth and a large yield.
The subtleties of growing and care
Soils for the berry apple tree are preferable fertile, loose, moist, slightly acidic or neutral, with a sufficient nitrogen content. Does not tolerate cultures of strongly acidic substrates, cultivation in such areas is possible only on condition of preliminary liming. Waterlogged, swampy and highly saline soils are also not suitable for the apple berry tree. The yield of the species in question largely depends on the location; in sunny areas, the plants bloom profusely and, accordingly, give good yields. The distance between plants should be at least 5-7 m, this condition is important, otherwise the plants will bear poor fruit, and there is also a high probability of being affected by various diseases and pests.
You can propagate a berry apple tree by seeds and cuttings, but gardeners follow a simpler and more effective way - planting seedlings. It is recommended to purchase seedlings in nurseries, preferably 2 or 3-year old specimens. It is advisable to plant seedlings in the spring, but before the onset of sap flow. The depth of the planting pit varies from 45 to 60 cm, which depends on the size of the seedling and the degree of development of its root system. The roots of a young tree are carefully straightened, trying not to damage, covered with a soil mixture consisting of leafy soil, river sand and humus (or compost) in a ratio of 1: 2: 3, thoroughly tamped and watered. It is important to provide plants with good care, which boils down to fertilizing, watering, loosening and removing weeds.
Separately, it is necessary to touch upon the topic of dressings. In the first year after planting, young plants do not need feeding. Starting from the second year, phosphorus, potash and nitrogen fertilizers are applied to the near-trunk zone. The dosage depends on the fertility of the soil and the degree of development of the trees, and is usually 15-20 g. Fertilizers are applied dissolved in water. Forming and sanitary pruning is very important for the berry apple tree. From the first year of life, weak and intersecting shoots are removed from plants, they are able to disrupt the correct shape of the crown. Only old trees are pruned to rejuvenate.
With proper care and favorable growth conditions, the berry apple tree is practically not affected by pests and diseases. As a preventive measure, the following are appropriate: whitewashing trunks with diluted lime, digging the near-trunk zone, destruction of fallen leaves. If insects and other unpleasant consequences are found on trees, they are treated with plant infusions, in severe cases - with chemicals.
Recommended:
Berry Hedge
Berry bushes are used to grow the "green wall" and obtain fruits: barberry, irgu, hawthorn, chokeberry, etc. What kind of berries to choose, how to plant and quickly get impenetrable thickets is described in detail in this article
Blister Berry
Blister berry is one of the plants of the family called cloves, in Latin the name of this plant will sound like this: Cacubulus baccifer L. As for the name of the berry blister family, in Latin it will be like this: Caryophillaceae Juss. Description of berry blister Blister berry is a perennial herb, the height of which can be about eighty centimeters - two meters.
Stone Berry
Bone bone (lat.Rubus saxatilis) - berry culture, representative of the Pink family. Description Boneberry is a small herbaceous perennial, the height of which almost never goes beyond thirty centimeters. The plant is endowed with rather long shoots spreading on the ground, which take root with the onset of autumn and reach a length of up to one and a half meters.
Apple Blossom Beetle - Apple Tree Pest
You can meet the apple blossom beetle almost everywhere. Its larvae and beetles are capable of quite badly damaging apple trees. The most dangerous is damage to vulnerable buds with the onset of early spring, when beetles gnaw deep enough pits into them with something resembling pricks. The harmful larvae feed on pistils and stamens and, gnawing out the receptacle, strongly glue the petals from the inside. The result of a similar activity of the apple blossom beetle is unblown, brown and dried buds
Red-gall Gray Apple Aphid - The Enemy Of Apple Trees
The red-haired gray apple aphid can be found almost everywhere there are apple trees. During the period of mass reproduction, it severely damages the fruits, and red spots that significantly reduce the commercial quality of apples are formed on the surfaces of pricks on their surfaces. It is noteworthy that the red-gall gray apple aphid can harm almost any varieties of apple trees, and all generations of this pest are equally harmful