Colon-shaped apple trees, due to their botanical features, made a serious competition to ordinary varieties. We will learn how to plant pyramidal trees, how to care for them, and what varieties breeders offer gardeners.
Description of the Colony Apple Tree
Colon-shaped varieties are called apple clones, in which the branches, in relation to the trunk, are located at an acute angle. They are so pressed against the trunk that the tree in shape resembles a pyramidal poplar or column.
Features of the columnar varieties:
- Height. Depends on which stock was used to grow the seedling. Today, breeders prefer to take dwarf and semi-dwarf rootstocks for colonized varieties, occasionally - medium and tall. The average height of the columnar apple tree is 2.5 m.
Dwarf varieties are less prone to branching. From 3-4 years of age, the tree ends with the growth of side branches. - Productivity 10-15 kg of apples are harvested from one tree. From 1 hectare of the garden receive an average of 140 tons of fruits.
- Fruiting dates. The tree reaches its peak yield at 4-5 years of age.
- Duration of fruiting. The tree, giving large yields, is rapidly depleted, and by the age of 15 it reaches the stage at which the yield begins to decline rapidly. Regular feeding and proper care help prolong fruiting.
- The roots The stock has a fibrous root system, which is located at a shallow depth. Because of this, columnar varieties need regular and plentiful watering. It is important that the water does not stagnate in the near-stem circle - the roots may rot.
All columnar apple trees are divided into two species - having a special Co gene, and simple varieties grafted onto a super-dwarf clonal stock.
Advantages and disadvantages
Column-shaped varieties have earned popularity due to their compact size. At a low height, the trees produce fruits of standard sizes.
Benefits:
- Compactness. Trees take up little space, so they are very popular with owners of cottages and small personal plots. One tree occupies 0.5-1 square meters. m
- High yield. Given the miniature nature of the tree, a crop of 1-1.5 buckets of apples looks impressive.
- Decorativeness. Column-shaped trees are also decoration of the garden. They look like small pyramids, which are especially beautiful during flowering and fruiting.
- Frost resistance. Saplings with winter-hardy stocks safely grow and bear fruit in a harsh climate.
- High immunity. Pyramidal apple trees are characterized by endurance and good health.
- Comfort. Due to its low growth and compactness, harvesting is as simple as possible. You can pick fruit in a few minutes, without putting much effort, and without risking falling from a tree or a stepladder.
Disadvantages:
- Price. Due to the high cost of columnar seedlings, many gardeners choose cheaper - non-columnar varieties.
- Life span. An ordinary apple tree, with good care, is able to live and bear fruit for 30-50 years. Pyramidal apple trees live many times less.
- Big investments. Despite the fact that the columnar and ordinary apple trees have the same yield per area, the former have to be planted many times more. Given the high cost of seedlings, planting, even a small garden, is not cheap.
- Exactingness. Careful maintenance is required - regular watering, fertilizing, creating shelter, forming a crown.
How to plant a columnar apple tree?
Column-shaped apple trees, like other fruit trees, are planted in spring or autumn. When choosing a planting time, gardeners take into account local climatic conditions. So, for example, in regions with severe winters, landing is safer in the spring.
Optimal timing
When to plant seedlings:
- In the spring. Planting is done before the kidneys open. In central Russia, suitable conditions occur in the second half of April. In the Urals and Siberia a couple of weeks later.
- In the fall. In the middle lane, seedlings are planted in late September and early October. In the more northern regions, landing begins a little earlier. The benchmark for starting work is falling leaves. Before frosts should remain 25-30 days.
Planting trees in spring or autumn, you can not focus only on calendar dates, it is necessary to make adjustments for meteorological conditions.
When planting seedlings of columnar apple trees, preference is given to the spring season.
Autumn landing
Colon-shaped apple trees are best planted in rows. The optimal distance between adjacent seedlings is 0.5 m. The row spacing is 1 m.
The order of autumn planting:
- A couple of weeks before planting, dig holes for planting with a depth and diameter of 90 cm. This will prevent soil sediment after planting a seedling and the root of the neck deep into the ground.
- When digging a hole, fold the top layer of soil separately - it will be needed to create a soil mixture. Do not allow it to mix with bad soil from the depths.
- If the soil is heavy, clayey, drain to prevent root decay. To do this, lay broken crushed stone mixed with sand at the bottom of the pit. The thickness of the drainage layer is 10-15 cm.
- Mix the fertile soil layer obtained by digging a pit with 3-4 buckets of humus or compost. Pour 100 g of potash fertilizers and superphosphate, and add a glass of dolomite flour - for deoxidation.
- Pour half of the obtained soil mixture into the pit. Flatten and leave for two weeks - for shrinkage and compaction of the soil.
- Half a month after digging a hole, proceed to landing. Start by pouring the rest of the soil mixture into the pit. Do not level the resulting “slide” - you will have seedling roots on its top.
- Set the apple tree so that the roots are evenly located on an earthen hill, and the grafting site is above ground level - you can not bury it.
- Pour into the pit the bad soil that was excavated. Tamp the soil.
- Having departed from the trunk 0.3 m, make around the perimeter an earthen rampart 10-15 cm high - it will prevent the outflow of water during irrigation.
- Pour seedlings with 1-2 buckets of settled water.
- When the water is absorbed into the soil, sprinkle the trunk circle with mulch - sawdust, peat or cut grass.
If there is doubt about the strength of the seedling, or there is a risk of strong winds, install a support next to it. Tie the tree with soft material - rope or twine.
Spring planting
The technology of spring planting is practically no different from autumn. The main feature is the timing of the preparation of the pit. Prepare it since the fall. During the winter, the soil will settle well, compact, and fertilizers will dissolve and absorb into the soil.
The preparation of the pit in the autumn allows the apple trees planted in the spring to quickly take root, since during the winter the seat is ideally prepared for receiving the seedling. Apple trees planted in the "autumn" pit often bloom in the same spring.
Colon-shaped apple tree care
Pyramidal apple trees are generous in harvest, but in order for a small tree to give a bucket of large and juicy apples, it is necessary to take care of it from early spring to late autumn.
By seasons
Caring for a colon-shaped apple tree depends on the season, age and health of the tree. For each season, there is a set of mandatory agricultural activities, without which you can not count on the return of the tree.
Spring events:
- cut dry, diseased and damaged branches;
- spray the crown and trunk from potential diseases and pests;
- apply nitrogen fertilizers;
- in seedlings of the first year of life, tear off all the buds, in two-year-olds, leave about a dozen buds;
- water and loosen the trunk circle in time.
If the seedling has a clonal stock, its roots are easily injured when loosening. In this case, it is recommended that the sidebar circle be seeded with siderata.
The load on the apple tree is increasing gradually. At the age of three, they leave buds twice as much as the fruits to be harvested.
Summer Care:
- in the beginning of summer spend a complex mineral top dressing;
- re-thin the buds - leave 50% of the ovaries;
- when the fruits reach the size of a cherry, remove another part of the ovaries - two pieces should remain in each inflorescence;
- after the apples become the size of a walnut, remove one of the two - one fruit should remain on one link;
- carry out preventive examinations, and if diseases or pests are found, spray the tree or take other measures;
- in August, apply only potash fertilizers, nitrogen is contraindicated in this period.
A month before harvesting, stop processing apples with insecticides and fungicides.
Autumn care and preparation for wintering:
- shorten the topmost shoots by two-thirds - to prevent freezing;
- after harvest, fertilize and spray the tree against fungal infections;
- treat the crown, trunk and trunk circle from pests hiding in the bark and soil;
- if necessary, carry out a second sanitary pruning;
- immediately before the onset of frost cover the tree stamb with fern;
- when the snow falls, throw them the base of the stem.
You can not use straw as a covering material - rodents that can damage the bark of an apple tree will definitely get into it. If the trunk circles were mulched with straw, then before winter it must be removed.
Spraying
For the treatment of colon-shaped apple trees, various means are used - chemical, biological, folk. The emphasis is on prevention - it is important to prevent the problem in time. If the moths larvae settle inside the apples, the crop will be spoiled, and no treatment will help.
How and when to spray apple trees:
- In the spring, even before the start of sap flow, and in the fall, after leaf fall, trees and trunks are treated with 1% Bordeaux liquid or Nitrafen solution.
- Before budding, the tree can be treated with a 7% urea solution. It acts not only as a fungicide and insecticide, but also as nitrogen top dressing.
The tree should be inspected regularly. If there are signs of a disease or a pest, urgent measures must be taken - spray the tree with a suitable antifungal or antiparasitic agent.
Watering
In the columnar apple trees there is no core root, thanks to which other trees can extract moisture from the deep layers of the earth. Pyramidal trees with fibrous roots need regular hydration, as they are unable to receive water from the depths.
Features of watering:
- Water the young seedlings every 3 days - a bucket of water on one tree. If there is heat and drought - once every 2 days.
- Adult apple trees watered once a week.
- Reduce watering slightly from mid-June.
- From the beginning of August, completely stop watering.
- Dosed drip irrigation can be used. But once a month it is recommended to water the tree abundantly so that the soil gets wet to the entire depth of the roots.
Once or twice a week, after sunset, water the crown of a tree from a hose.
Fertilizers
Due to the surface location of the roots, top dressing of the pyramidal apple trees is recommended to be scattered in solid form, planting 2-3 cm into the soil.
When and how to feed a tree:
- Feed the apple tree for the first time during the blooming period. Add 50-60 g nitroammofoski per 1 square. m. If the soil is poor, you can make 2-3 buckets of humus under each tree.
- The following dressings are carried out with an interval of 3-4 weeks. During the second feeding, add 80 g of superphosphate and 50 g of sulfate or potassium chloride. Instead, you can use urea or slurry.
To add urea - 2-3 tbsp. l dissolve in 10 l of water. On one tree - 2-3 liters of solution. After feeding, mulch the soil. - The third top dressing is carried out in two stages. In mid-July, add urea or ammonium nitrate. In late July, a phosphorus-potassium mixture or complex fertilizer.
Additionally, you can fertilize the tree with wood ash. Under each apple tree scatter a couple of glasses of ash. The culture is also responsive to dressing with decoctions of herbs, trace elements, biological products, sodium humate.
After each dressing, the tree must be watered and mulched. Due to the large amount of water, fertilizers will not burn the roots of the tree, and mulch will prevent the rapid evaporation of water.
How to crop?
Since there should be no lateral branches in colonized trees, they do not need pruning aimed at forming a crown. To maintain the pyramidal shape, it is enough to regularly cut the side shoots. The procedure begins with 2 years of age.
Pruning is performed three times a year - in the spring, before the start of sap flow, in summer and autumn, after leaf fall. The main condition of the procedure is the prohibition of trimming the central conductor. Otherwise, the growth point will be affected, and the side branches will begin to grow intensively in the apple tree.
Colon-shaped trees are cut already in the first year after planting. If the seedling is planted in the spring, the first pruning is carried out in the fall. If the apple tree is planted in the fall, it is pruned in the first spring.
The pruning scheme is selected taking into account the time of year, the age of the tree and the density of the crown. The main volume of work falls on periods of rest, when there is no sap flow. Old trees are pruned in winter so that in spring they release new branches.
How to prune an apple tree in spring:
- Cut frozen branches with a sharp secateurs. If the buds do not swell on the shoots, cut them off completely.
- If the tip is frozen, cut it off and select a new young shoot that will replace the cut off central conductor.
How to prune an apple tree in the fall:
- Immediately after planting, tear off all the leaves and cut the side shoots.
- The next year, shorten young shoots longer than 30 cm. Leave two or three buds on each. Choose the strongest escape - it will become the central conductor.
- In the third year, cut the shoots longer than 40 cm. Remove all the shoots that grow inside the crown. Pinch the central shoot 25 cm from the stem.
- In the fourth year, thin out all the branches. Leave only the young shoots, the strongest and correctly growing.
In summer, pruning is done manually - gardeners pinch new side branches. At the same time, shoots damaged by rot, spotting, rust or scab are removed.
How to prune an old apple tree in winter:
- Retreat from the ground 0.5-0.7 m and choose the strongest escape. The optimal length is 0.7-1 m.
- Step up from the selected branch of 5 cm and cut the center conductor into a ring. In this way, you will transfer the apple tree to a young shoot.
- Trim the shoots that grow at an obtuse angle or inside the apple tree. Leave some strong branches, cutting them into a couple of buds.
- Coat all the saw cuts with garden var.
Propagation of Colon-shaped Apple Trees
Only experienced gardeners can propagate a pyramidal tree. All other lovers of apples and compact fruit trees are advised to purchase seedlings in a reliable nursery.
Reproduction Methods:
- The seeds. This is the most inefficient method of propagation - long, and not guaranteeing the receipt of a tree with parental varietal characteristics.
- Vaccination on a stock. This option is used by experienced gardeners. As rootstocks take local seedlings or dwarf rootstocks, for example, Paradise or Baby Budakovsky.
- Air layering. This method is suitable for inexperienced gardeners. An apple tree can be propagated by two types of layering:
- Horizontal. In spring, stocks are planted and cut to 2-3 buds. In the place of the cut shoots grow. Planting material will grow next spring.
- Vertical. They are obtained from the uterine shoots of clonal stocks, cut in the spring. In summer, shoots grow, which are cut and planted in autumn.
Pests and diseases
Pest control begins with spring and autumn preventative treatment. To prevent diseases, trees are sprayed with fungicides - Horus, Fitolavin, etc. They usually act only on a certain type of fungus.
The most effective antifungal agent is Bordeaux liquid - with its help several types of fungus are destroyed.
For the prevention and destruction of pests, apple trees are sprayed with insecticides - Aktara, Karbofos, Aktellik, etc. (strictly according to the instructions).
The main pests of columnar apple trees:
- Apple moth. The caterpillars of this unprepossessing butterfly quickly eat up shoots and spoil the fruits. To prevent damage to the tree, after flowering it is sprayed with chlorophos or metaphos. After 2 weeks, the treatment is repeated.
- Spider mite. Sucks out juices from leaves. On the underside of the leaves leaves a small cobweb - by its presence they also judge the defeat of the tick. Before budding, the tree is sprayed with Nitrafen, and during the budding by Karbofos.
- Aphid. These are small sucking insects living on leaves and shoots in colonies. Before budding, the kidneys are treated with a 3% solution of Karbofos, Aktara, Fitoverm. After budding, it is recommended to use a 2% solution of Karbofos.
You need to spray the trees in dry, cloudy weather or in the evening / morning when there is no sun. If a strong wind blows, the treatment will have to be postponed - it will damage both the tree and the person.
The most common diseases of the colonized apple tree:
- Scab. From this fungal disease affects all parts of the apple tree, including the fruit. It occurs with high humidity. If light green lettuce spots appear on the leaves, then the tree is affected by scab. Then the apple leaves turn brown and die, and the scab spreads over apples.
To combat scab, use 4% Bordeaux fluid before the buds open. If you do not have time, spray the tree during the formation of the buds, but with a 1% solution. After flowering, spray the tree again. - Sheet rust. The leaves are covered with rusty spots, which, growing, capture all the plates. The disease leads to leaf decay and a decrease in frost resistance. Sprinkle the apple tree with any suitable fungicide, for example, Soon.
- Powdery Mildew The disease affects the entire aerial part of the apple tree. The tree grows poorly, its productivity decreases. For treatment, use 1% Bordeaux fluid or Topaz. Repeatedly spray the apple with copper chloride.
Popular varieties of columnar apple trees
The most popular varieties of columnar apple trees include:
- Nectar. A popular summer variety. The taste of his apples felt honey notes. The pulp is juicy. The skin color is yellowish white. The fruits are delicious fresh, but also suitable for harvesting. Not stored for long. The weight of one apple is 100-250 g.
The tree is semi-dwarf, its height is 2-2.5 m. It has developed roots. It tolerates frosts, has high immunity.
- Ostankino. This summer variety has sour-sweet fruits. The skin color is yellow with a blurry red blush. The pulp is white or with a greenish tint. The weight of one apple is 100-230 g. It belongs to medium-sized varieties. It has a high immunity to scab, tolerates frosts.
- The president. This semi-dwarf variety ripens in September. The apples are large, from 150 to 300 g. The flesh is white, fragrant, tender, and the peel is yellow or pale green. The fruit tastes sweet and sour. In relation to drought, it is medium tolerant.
- Dialogue. Harvest medium-sized variety. Apples ripen in July. The fruit mass is 100-150 g. The fruits are light yellow, sweet and sour, with white flesh. The variety tolerates drought well, is resistant to frost, disease and pests.
- Arbat. Green-red apples ripen in September-October. The weight of one fruit is 100-120 g. Peel with a glossy sheen. The flesh is light cream in color with a sugar flavor and light acidity. The variety is frost-resistant, with high immunity.
- Triumph. Medium-sized apple trees with small fruits of 100-140 g. The skin color is greenish with a dark red blush. The form is round, slightly ribbed. The taste is dessert, with a slight acidity. The pulp is white, crunchy.
- Gin. Crop self-fertile variety resistant to frost and summer droughts. Harvest ripens in the fall. The fruits are red, spherical. The skin color is red. The taste is dessert, sweet and sour. Weight - up to 200 g. Apples are stored until January.
- Malyukha. Autumn dwarf variety with excellent taste. The shape is conically truncated. Weight - 150-200 g. The skin is dense, yellow, with a glossy coating. The pulp is creamy, sweet, juicy. The variety belongs to the early, gives the crop in the second year of planting.
- Amber necklace. Ripening apple tree with one-dimensional rounded fruits. The weight of one apple is about 130 g. Color - greenish-yellow with a pinkish blush. Needs a pollinator. Height - about 2 m. It tolerates frosts. Suitable for Siberian climate.
- Bolero. Self-fertile fruit variety with greenish apples, reaching a weight of 200 g. There is a red blush on the skin. The taste is slightly sour. The variety resists scab and other fungal infections.
- Moscow necklace. A self-infertile variety with rounded greenish apples. As it ripens, a red blush appears. Weight - 130-170 g. Taste dessert with sourness.
- Yesenia. Late mid-height hybrid with high immunity. The apples are beautiful, red with a bluish coating, weighing 170 g. The variety is resistant to scab and low temperatures.
If there is no extra space in the garden, plant a few columnar apple trees. But remember, in order to get decent crops, you will have to regularly take care of them. Without watering, fertilizing, pruning and spraying, quality apples can not be seen.
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