Before the beginning of industrial fruiting, the gardenis called young. His trees are in the preparatory period, which P. G. Shitt calls the period of increased growth. The more quickly the tree takes root in a new place, the better and faster it will grow in subsequent years, the sooner this preparatory stage will be passed and the plant will begin to bear fruit sooner. It is believed that the annual growths of apple trees in this period should not be less than 50 cm. The task of agrotechnics in a young garden is to create the most favorable conditions for the normal growth of trees (supply of water and nutrients, protection against diseases and pests). It is also necessary in these years to form a regular, solid, sufficiently sparse crown, able to lay and carry high yields. One should not forget, especially in the early years, about caring for garden and windbreaks, which have a great influence on the condition and growth of fruit trees in the garden.
Soil content system
Very serious is the issue of inter-rowcultures in young gardens. On the one hand, it is economically unprofitable to leave the row sprouts still not occupied by the roots, but on the other hand, the introduction of inter-row crops will require considerable expenditure of manual labor to process not only themselves but also the stubble strips. Practice has shown that, in most cases, in large gardens, row crops lead to an end to the processing of these bands, overgrowing the garden with weeds and settling in mice. In the absence of intercrop cultures, cross-dressing yields excellent results in such gardens. When cultivating inter-row crops, it is necessary to reduce the width of the strip occupied by them every year, taking into account the growth of roots. In no case is it allowed in the garden to sow as intercrop cultures of grain breads, corn and sunflower seeds for grain. Absolutely necessary elements of any system of soil content in a young garden should be black steam, 1 -2 sowing perennial grasses, but necessarily stratified, and in non-chernozem regions and lupines for gradual cultivation of soil in front of growing roots. In small gardens, intercropping is necessary. Here, in addition to vegetables, berry bushes (except raspberries) and especially strawberries should be included among them. It is clear that when fertilizing the garden soil in the case of intercropping, their needs must be taken into account. It must also be remembered that in the presence of interrow crops in both industrial and private gardens, the struggle against pests and diseases of the garden is very much complicated, at least when using modern poisons that are toxic to humans and warm-blooded animals and possess the property of accumulating in the body. One of the more promising intercrop cultures is potatoes, especially early varieties. With the nesting planting of this crop, it is possible to cultivate the soil in two directions, carry out the control of pests and diseases and timely autumn tillage. Even before the roots of the apple tree close, usually 5 to 6 years after the planting of the garden (at a row spacing of 8 m), the sowing of inter-row crops in the gardens is stopped, as the width of the tapes free from the roots of the apple tree tapers excessively. Usually, by this time, industrial crops of many varieties are already beginning to be harvested, and this also makes it necessary to stop the sowing of inter-row crops.
Soil cultivation
The works of Ye. G. Bisti and other researchers found that the roots of apple trees often already in the year of planting cover the entire pit or even go beyond it. Further, the annual growths of the roots along the radii reach 30 -50 cm. Consequently, the width of the strip occupied by the roots will increase annually by 60-100 cm (on average by 80 cm). This means that at eight-meter distances between the trees, after 10 years, the roots of the apple tree will occupy all the aisles. In this regard, paying maximum attention to the first years after planting the garden care of the stumpy strips, we should not forget about the inter-rows, in which it is necessary to continue and strengthen the deep cultivation of the soil ahead of the roots, begun before planting the garden. Zyablovaya treatment of row spacing is carried out in September to a depth of 15 -20 cm, and the trenches are trenched. To reduce the costs of manual labor, the soil is processed along and across the rows. In the presence of a slope, plow or cultivate first along it, from top to bottom, to a depth of 12 -15 cm, and then crosswise, to retard the runoff of water. With this treatment, only small trunks remain near the trees, which are manually loosened to a depth of no more than 10 -12 cm. To avoid damaging the roots, the blade of the shovel is always placed sideways to the tree. It is better to apply soil forks near the trees. It should be noted that plowing in the garden has a number of shortcomings, the main one of which is the inevitable more or less serious damage to the skeletal roots. To reduce manual work on digging stump bars or circles, they try to plow the soil with a plow closer to the tree, so the plow often grabs with the share and tears the skeletal roots that lie here close to the soil surface. The existing rule is to plow at the first pass in a number of smaller trees and then gradually increase the depth, in practice it is rarely observed, and it does not help much, especially on the dried up soils, where the plow jumps out completely to the surface, then it becomes too deep and tears On the way, the skeletal roots are sometimes up to 5-7 cm in diameter, and sometimes the tree sits on one side. In addition, when working, the plow always moves the earth, forming the crests on the right, and furrows on the left, and even in spite of the regular change in the plowing directions, the soil in the garden becomes uneven after a few years. When plowing in one direction, rows of trees are standing on the shafts, and when plowing in two transverse directions-on square hills. Apparently, in the Kuban with its heavy cohesive soils, it was first thought of replacing plowing with treatment with heavy disc harrows and obtained good results. Now the disk cultivation of the soil is spreading more and more. At the Rossoshanskoye fruit berry experimental station, E. G. Bysti set an experiment comparing the effects of conventional plowing and disking, which showed the advantage of the latter method of processing, and now it is widely introduced by the station into production. The main advantages of treating the soil with heavy disc harrows are the following: the roots of trees are not torn; due to the possibility of a close approach of the discs to the tree trunks, the area of rough trenches or areas is sharply reduced, especially when passing in two directions; The surface of the soil is much more leveled than when treated with a plow; Due to the lower traction effort, tillage is much cheaper and faster. Plowed and dug in autumn, the soil early in the spring is harrowed with a heavy disc harrow to cover the moisture. At the time of the first harrowing, the introduction of nitrogen fertilizers is timed. The soil of the trunks is loosened by rakes or choppers. Immediately after the first spring loosening, the surface of the trunks is mulched with manure, peat, compost, with a layer of about 10 cm. This layer of mulch retains moisture well, supports the soil in loose condition, prevents the development of weeds and serves as a source of fertilizer. Mulching is an extremely important agricultural technique, especially in a young garden. It must, however, be taken into account that if in the southern part of the central strip there is not enough water, for the preservation of which mulching is mainly directed, there may not be enough heat in the northern and even the middle part. By reducing the warming of the soil in early spring, the mulching material can cause a delay in the activity of the roots and the development of nitrifying bacteria, therefore it is more profitable to mulch the soil later when the ground is sufficiently warm. The soil content of rows and trunks in a loose and weed-free state is the most important condition for maintaining moisture in the soil, as well as enhancing the activity of beneficial soil microorganisms. The number of loosening during the vegetation period depends on the type of soil and the contamination, weather, but should be at least 4 -5. The depth of loosening is not less than 6-8 cm. The loosened layer of soil of this thickness keeps moisture well enough, so loosening is often called dry watering. It is especially necessary to loosen the soil during the formation of the crust after rain or watering. For loosening use a garden tractor disc harrow (STDB - 20). In the case of strong soil compaction, a heavy disk harrow is used, and when the garden is overgrown with large weeds, a multipurpose scion plow is a scraper with removed piles. Great value for the life of lard has the retention of meltwater with the help of plow furrows carried out after the termination of autumn plowing. These furrows must be made across the slope, tearing the ground always down. To prevent water flow along the furrows, arrange jumpers. On the aligned areas furrows spend along and across the rows. The distances between the furrows depend on the steepness of the slope: the more steep it is, the more often the furrows are located. To accumulate moisture in a young garden, snow retention should be widely used in the usual ways (placement of shields, fences, sheaves of corn or sunflower). In large gardens near the trees make snow shafts with the help of tractor snowshoes.
Fertilizer
Phosphate-potash fertilizers, inthe opposite of nitrogen, are firmly absorbed by the soil, so the practice of applying fertilizer to shallow autumn plowing and digging up stubble strips and row spacing is of very little use. Only the deep introduction of these fertilizers into the zone of propagation of the main mass of roots proves to be quite effective. MN Yazvitsky's works on the former were of great industrial interest. Moscow fruit and berry experimental station (now the Scientific Research Zonal Institute of Horticulture of the Non-chernozem Zone). On the basis of his experiments, MN Yazvitsky came to the conclusion that the annual application of phosphorus-potassium fertilizers under the apple tree is not necessarily and ineffective, that the best way of introducing them will be focal, repeated every 5-7 years. Foci must be either in the form of pits (wells), located along the periphery of the crown, or in the form of grooves around the stump. Mineral phosphorus-potassium fertilizers, introduced into the grooves, increased the yield of apples almost 5-fold in his experiments. When applying the same fertilizer in a mixture with organic, their effect was even stronger-the yield increased 8-fold. MN Yazvitsky conducted experiments on poor podzolic soils of the Moscow region, where the trees are very responsive to fertilizer, so the question arises: can its conclusions be fully extended to the comparatively rich chernozem and gray forest soils of the southern half of the middle zone? The chernozem and gray forest soils are much more fertile than the soddy-podzolic soils, so the effect of deep focal fertilization on them appears to be less, but it will certainly be, since the absorbing capacity of these soils is much larger than that of podzolic soils, and the use of the applied surface phosphorus-potassium fertilizer will be even less. Thus, deep focal application of some phosphorus-potassium fertilizers or better together with organic fertilizers will be promising in the entire middle belt-both on podzols and on chernozems. In the gardens, the best hearth can serve as a ring ditch depth and width of 40 -50 cm, excavated in autumn on the periphery of the crown and filled with soil, fertilized with a mixture of phosphate-potassium fertilizers with humus or manure. In the Moscow area, MN Yazvitsky recommends the introduction of 60 kg of manure, superphosphate 1.5 kg, potassium chloride about 700 g and lime 3 kg on a young tree at the age of 8-10 years. On the chernozems, lime, of course, is not needed and will even bring harm, the norms of the other fertilizers can not be changed. In large industrial gardens, the process of introducing fertilizers and, at the same time, deep cultivation should be mechanized; For this purpose, a grape chisel-cultivator or grape universal machine VUM-60 can be used here, loosening the soil without recourse to the formation and simultaneously allowing deep fertilization. The first pass of the chisel - cultivator or VUM - 60 should be made in the autumn, for the second year after planting the garden, the second - after 5 years. Each time the cultivator or VUM-60 pass is made in both directions (along and across the rows) in such a way that it is ahead of the growing roots and in advance prepared for them a loose and fertilized soil to a depth of 40-60 cm. As phosphorus fertilizers more often in general, superphosphate is used, it is better granulated. On acidic soils, it can be replaced with phosphate flour. Of potassium fertilizers, potassium sulfate is the best, but potassium chloride, contained in potassium salts, is more often used. For 1 hectare, 10 centners of superphosphate and 2 -3 centners of potassium chloride or 3 -4 centners of potassium salt should be added at each pass. When fertilizing private gardens, it is good to replace potash fertilizers with ash ash. It is very useful for plants not only for the high digestibility of phosphorus and potassium in it, but also for a significant content of trace elements. In large gardens, it is necessary, insofar as possible, to replace at least part of the potash fertilizers with ashes. Much easier is the case with the fertilization of apple trees with nitrogen, since nitrogen fertilizers are almost not absorbed by the soil, so they are easily mobile and even with the most superficial application can be rained down to the depth of occurrence of the bulk of the feeding roots. Here lies another danger, as a result of great mobility, nitrogen fertilizers can get into deep layers of soil that are inaccessible to the roots. For this reason, nitrogen fertilizers, with sufficient moisture, first, only superficially, under cultivation or loosening and, secondly, in parts, at different times. In young orchards, where the roots do not occupy the entire width of the rows, nitrogen fertilizers are introduced only within the range of the trunks. Usually it is recommended to introduce nitrogen fertilizers (ammonium sulfate or, better, ammonium nitrate) in a young garden in two steps: in the early spring, under the first loosening of the soil, and in the period of intensive growth of shoots, ie, after flowering, at the end of May. At 1 square. m of the trickle circle give for each reception 20-25 g of ammonium nitrate or 30-35 g of ammonium sulphate. Such a fractional addition of nitrogen can really ensure its contact with the roots only under condition of irrigation or with sufficient precipitation at that time. In arid conditions, when the capillary water in the soil often rises, the superficially introduced nitrogen will not reach the roots and will not produce any effect. In this connection, under these conditions, one-time and, as early as possible, the introduction of ammonium nitrate (ammonium sulphate is more readily absorbed by the soil, and moreover on podzolic soils, in addition, enhances their acidity) is most effective. Thus, soil fertilization in a young garden is reduced to two basic methods:
- periodic refueling of the soil with phosphate-potash (preferably using ash) fertilizers in sufficiently deep foci (wells, grooves, furrows) in front of the growing roots;
- annual surface, one-time or fractional, depending on the conditions, the introduction of nitrogen fertilizers.
Nitrogen fertilizers can be conditionally assigned tomanure. But its significance is much wider: its application to ordinary plowing (15 -20 cm) not only enriches the soil with all elements of nutrition, including microelements and even carbon dioxide, but also improves its physical properties-structure, moisture capacity, air permeability, absorbing capacity, which prevents the formation of excessively high harmful concentrations of soil solution and creates a buffer that maintains the stability of the soil reaction. Fertilizing the soil of gardens with manure at least once every 3 years is highly desirable. The rate of manure application is from 20 to 40 tons per 1 ha (from 2 to 4 kg per 1 sq. M of the near-barrel circle).
Trimming
This is one of the most important care work fora tree in a young garden. In the first year after planting, the plant gets accustomed to a new place, restores the root system, which is very shortened during digging, and usually gives only weak growths, so there is almost nothing to cut off. The next year the established trees form, as a rule, strong growths, and from this year it is necessary to start pruning, whose purpose in the young garden is the continuation and completion of the formation of the krone, started in the nursery. The work of many researchers found that any pruning during the growth period to some extent depresses the tree, weakens its growth and distances the beginning of fruiting. Excessively strong pruning can delay the beginning of fruiting of the young tree for several years. Still, pruning both in this period and in the subsequent is necessary, although for different reasons. In the period of intensive growth, it is necessary because a tree left to itself can form an incorrect, often unnecessarily thickened crown. By trimming, we must help him to form the most correct, translucent, firm crown, capable of carrying large yields. Applying pruning, it is necessary to strive to help the tree, rather than rebuild it in its own way. All kinds of recipes and stamps will be especially harmful here, as each tree grows in its own way: there are not and can not be two trees of even the same variety that would grow and shape their crowns in exactly the same way. The art of pruning is to see the characteristics of each tree, use them and adapt to them when forming it. The cutter also has to foresee what this shoot will turn into after a few years. Removing large twigs causes great damage to apple trees, as a large amount of substances expended for their growth is destroyed along with them, the vascular system of the tree should be seriously restructured and, finally, a large, long-healing wound, a source of possible infection of the tree with black cancer, cytoplasm and other diseases. Strong pruning, reducing the leaf surface, inevitably reflects on the growth of roots, delaying it the stronger, than the greater part of the tree is removed. This explains the well-known phenomenon of aftereffect of excessive pruning, manifested in the inhibition of the growth of young trees not only in the year of pruning, but also in the next few years. "It's better not to cut anything at all, than to cut badly," say gardeners. However, reasonable and correct pruning is a reliable tool for managing the growth and harvest of the fruit tree. There are two main ways to crop-shortening and thinning, or cutting. The degree of pruning can be strong, moderate and weak. Finally, in time we distinguish the trimming in the period of rest (the end of winter - the beginning of spring) and the summer, when the tree is in a leafy state. Summer pruning, accompanied by the removal of the already formed and working leaves, greatly weakens the tree, especially the young, and it must be abandoned. But pinching of the shoot, that is, removing the tip of it with young, still not working leaves, does not harm the tree at all. By delaying for a while the growth of pricked shoots, suppressing them, it serves as the best means for equalizing the growing skeletal branches of the crown, for subordinating individual branches and turning the overgrowing branches into fruit formations. Unfortunately, this method has so far received little attention and, moreover, it is rather laborious. In personal and collective gardens, prickling should take a prominent place. Winter pruning - shortening and thinning - is carried out in the entire middle belt in the early spring before the beginning of the sap movement (from the beginning to the middle of March, when dangerous frosts pass). Shortening and thinning have their own specific features. Shortening, especially systematic, suppressing the growth of shoots in length, at the same time causes their thickening and serves to create a more solid, compact crown. It also allows to regulate the growth force of individual branches in the crown. Fast growing branches shorten more strongly, lagging behind - weaker or not even cut at all. Finally, the shortening causes the sleeping buds located below the cutoff to wake up, which increases the formation of the overgrowing branches from them. In varieties that are strongly branching, with a large shoot-forming ability, shortening can cause even excessive thickening of the crown, so shortening Pepin's Lithuanian. Saffron - Chinese, Pepina saffron, Porcelain and some other varieties should be weak and accompanied by thinning. On the contrary, varieties of weakly branching, such as Cinnamon Striped, Rossoshan Striped, etc., need to be shortened strongly and regularly, but before the beginning of a noticeable fruiting, since in these varieties fruit buds are laid on the ends of annual growths. When thinning, cut out all unnecessary shoots on the ring: thickening the crown, going inside it, hanging down and hindering tillage, rubbing, sick and damaged. Also remove one of the branches running parallel, especially one above the other, leaving a stronger or better positioned relative to the others. It must be remembered that the younger the part that is removed, the less damage is done to the tree. Along with pruning, some other techniques are used to control the growth of individual parts of the fruit tree, in particular apple trees. As already mentioned, in order to contain the growth of a green shoot, they make a pinch. This is one of the best ways to regulate growth, in addition, accelerating fruiting. In order to accelerate the growth of lagging branches, one should completely abandon their pruning. A good means to enhance the growth of individual branches are the semilunar or roof-like cuts of the bark above them, made with a knife, or over larger branches-saw. Increase in growth is also facilitated by the approach of the direction of shoot to the vertical (pulling up the shoot to the trunk). Conversely, pulling the branch downward, i.e., approaching the horizontal position, slows its growth and accelerates the transition to fruit bearing. To cause the growth of a new shoot to fill, for example, an empty place in the crown, make a half-moon cut over the corresponding kidney, which takes it out of rest. Semi-lunar and roof-shaped incisions are made early in the spring before budding begins to bud. To change the direction of growth, shorten the branch or shoot over the appropriately located kidney. Similarly, the direction of growth in older branches changes, cutting them into a branch that is suitable in the direction of the branch. When shortening the annual shoots, the correct choice of the upper left bud is of great importance, from which a new shoot escapes the continuation of the shortened branch. The choice of the kidney determines the direction of this shoot. We recommend making a cut 1 -2 cm above the selected kidney. When the older branches are shortened, they are cut into one of the lateral branches, which has the required direction. When the shoot or branch is completely removed, they are cut into a ring. The cut thus needs to be done exactly over the annular thickening, which always happens at the base of the branch, without affecting it, but at the same time leaving no hemp, which prevents rapid wound overgrowth. Author:
