Beginning gardeners are accustomed to caring for their orchard, including apple trees, in early spring and summer, often forgetting the importance of caring for fruit trees in the fall and preparing them for wintering.
Autumn care and preparation for wintering - basic tips
Caring for an apple tree in the fall is an important reserve for the future harvest.
In August - September
It is important to maintain the stability of branches with heavy fruits, otherwise they will break, and places of breaking can attack diseases and pests. Therefore, gardeners put strong supports under the branches. You also need to collect fallen apples, these fruits are not healthy and are often infected by pests. Spoiled fruits should be collected and taken out of the site.
After harvest
Immediately after harvesting, you need to prepare the plant for wintering. If done correctly, fruiting will be plentiful next year, and apples tasty and juicy.
Leaf picking and digging soil
Cleaning and digging the soil at the base of the tree is an important point in caring for the apple tree. Next to it, it is necessary to collect all fallen leaves in a radius of about 2 meters, as well as to remove weeds and rotten apples. The leaves, although they are a good top dressing and retain heat in the pre-root zone, in the case of fruit trees can lead to diseases, since they thaw in the spring, many fungal spores form on them, which begin to multiply.
As soon as the autumn leaf fall ends, you can immediately collect the leaves. If the plant is healthy, then it is best to put them in a compost pile, it will ripen for 3 years. By the time the compost ripens, all fungal pests die. If the tree hurt in the summer, then it is better to burn the foliage.
After collecting the leaves, the soil around the plant must be dug up at the trunk. You can not dig deeper than 15-20 cm, otherwise the shovel will touch the roots and damage them. Digging is important, as the larvae of pests breed in the ground and if they are turned over together with the soil, they will die on the surface of the ground in frost. This is also important because the weed seeds are at the top, freeze and do not germinate, however, their roots are better to pick and throw. Dig the soil when it is slightly wet, if there is no rain, then it needs to be watered.
Watering
Watering the plant or not depends on the weather. If it rains heavily, then there is no need for watering. With rare rainfall, it is worth watering the apple tree profusely.
If you are not sure how well the soil at the base is moistened, you need to dig a hole 20 cm deep, if the soil is moist inside, then watering is not needed. In any other case, watering is a must. A well-moistened tree does not break before winter and tolerates frosts remarkably. The average volume of water for irrigation is 4-6 liters per plant.
Autumn top dressing
There are several opinions about the best period for feeding. Some hold it in August or September after picking apples, others make it after the leaves fall. Both options are suitable, but keep in mind that all fertilizers are absorbed within three weeks.
The basis for plant nutrition is organic manure or compost. 2 buckets of top dressing are enough for one tree. Before this, you need to dig the soil with a pitchfork throughout the fall zone of the crown shadow, it is important not to cut the roots with a garden tool when digging the ground.
Mulching
This procedure is able to keep the ground well moist and breathable. In addition, mulch is an excellent fertilizer. In winter, it is important for warming the base, protects against sudden changes in temperature. Peat, pine bark, sawdust, straw and compost are suitable as mulch.
Removing moss and lichens, stripping bark
Be sure to clean the bark, removing old places on it. To do this, you need gloves, oilcloth and a sharp piece of ordinary plastic. You need to do this after the rain, if it has not been there for a long time, then you can just moisten the bark. Dry cleaning may damage it. If, nevertheless, a cut of the bark remains, then it is advisable to lubricate it with garden varieties in order to prevent diseases of the apple tree and the spread of infections.
Lichens and moss must also be removed. They close the flow of oxygen to the apple through holes in the cortex. A charged plant dries and gradually dies. They should be removed after falling of all leaves. There are two ways:
- Mashing with iron sulfate. Dilute the solution with water and carefully treat the trunk, branches and soil. After about a week and a half, lichens die off and must be brushed off. To prevent falling to the ground, it is worth spreading oilcloth under a tree.
- First, the trunk is cleaned, then a special solution of copper sulfate is applied, the soil is also sprayed with a substance. The fallen remains of the bark must be burned so as not to infect the earth.
Whitewash trunks
After trimming the excess branches, you can start whitewashing the trunk. It will prevent cracking of the bark, provide protection from insects. This should be done only in dry and sunny weather, otherwise the rain will wash away the solution.
You can whitewash the trees with lime mortar, emulsion or water dispersion paint.
- Whitening based on lime: in 10 liters of water, 3 kg of chalk or slaked lime are bred, 05 kg of copper sulfate, 100 g of casein glue, 3 tbsp. l flour paste. The mass is mixed for a long time, and then insisted.
- The water-based garden paint is safe for trees, it forms a breathable coating that is resistant to direct sunlight and water, which allows steam to pass through.
- Water-dispersion paint in addition to the pigment contains an antiseptic and latex. It is breathable, while not letting the sun in. She also holds on the trunk for a long time - up to two years. You can use this paint at a temperature of at least +3 degrees.
Whitewashing of an adult tree is carried out at arm's length top from the soil, be sure to capture all the central branches.
Pruning branches
Pruning is carried out approximately 3-4 weeks before the onset of frost, since all sections must heal and tighten, otherwise they will freeze. Then, you should definitely sprinkle the branches with special means (insecticides) from pests. This day should be sunny, but not windy.
In autumn, only sanitary pruning is necessary. Only diseased branches and those that have dried are cut off.
The slice should also capture a healthy place near the tree, so the cut will heal faster, and the bark will not crack. All wounds must be treated with garden var. It is important to use only sharp and not rusty tools.
Disease and Pest Treatment
If the apple tree did not hurt in the summer, then insecticide treatment will not be needed, but if there was an invasion of pests, then the treatment must be carried out as soon as the tree drops all the leaves. After harvesting in autumn, it is necessary to collect all the fallen apples and diseased fruits from the branches. If insects appeared, then the plant must be sprayed with insecticides 2 times with a difference of 10 days. In addition to the tree and branches, the solution must be treated with soil.
Caring for an old apple tree
Old apple trees require special care, the main rule is the technique of rejuvenating the tree. It is carried out every 3 years, because pruning all the branches in one year will be very painful for the plant. For the first time, all dry and diseased branches are cut, then they clean out all the old bark of the tree. On the third - remove the branches, thickening the crown. The trunk is whitened and treated with an antibacterial solution, the soil is loosened, watered, fertilized and all weed roots are removed.
Care for young trees
Seedlings only after planting require care and careful care before wintering. Transshipment of the plant is carried out in autumn, it is not worth pulling with it, since the young apple tree should have time to take root and transfer the winter well.
The first thing to do is trim. It takes about 5 years to form a crown. For the first year, it is enough to leave only 4 central branches, pinch the top of the tree. The next time - leave up to 5-6 scraps, after - carry out only sanitary pruning.
Before winter, you need to whiten the trunk, the adhesive solution can be changed to milk with the addition of copper sulfate, this is done to avoid burning the delicate trunk of the apple tree. Also, before wintering, you should insulate the seedling, especially in the north, with spruce branches or special covering material, on the south side it is enough to carry out only mulching.
Mr. Summer resident advises: how to cover an apple tree for the winter?
For covering material, many materials are suitable, mainly use:
- Newspapers
- Burlap (regular bag of sugar or cereal);
- Sunflower stalks;
- Tights and stockings;
- Fiberglass.
To begin with, the base of the trunk is insulated with sawdust or pine bark. As soon as the first snow falls, it can be picked up to a tree and form a hill, under the infusion the apple tree will be warm.
Throughout the winter, it is necessary to periodically trample the snow at the base of the trunk, this trick prevents the penetration of mice to the apple tree.
An excellent means of warming is an ordinary spruce branch, which is laid down with needles down the trunk. You can wrap the base of the plant with burlap, and wrap the net with the top layer, so the tree will be insulated and reliably protected from mice.
Features of preparing apple trees for winter in the Moscow Region, Siberia, and the Urals
Apple trees must be planted based on the climatic conditions of the area, as there are differences in the care of plants in different parts of the country. In any case, in the north the fruit tree will not bring such a good harvest as in the south.
In the suburbs, the plant must be very well prepared for wintering, fed with fertilizers that nourish the tree with nutrients. It is imperative to warm the trunk with covering material and periodically spray it with insecticides in order to avoid infection by insects and pests.
For the cold regions of the country, namely Siberia and the Urals, individual varieties were bred, they are frost-resistant and are not afraid of temperature changes. Seedlings in the regions are still covered with a layer of straw or sawdust for the winter, covering almost the entire small tree. An additional bag or cotton cloth is placed on top and wrapped with ordinary tape.
In these areas, winter comes early enough, you need to have time to prepare the apple tree for wintering before the first snow falls.
Common mistakes in caring for an apple tree in autumn
- Pruning is done in frosts, so the plant freezes.
- Fallen apples and foliage in the root zone are not cleaned, many microbes are formed that affect the plant.
- The cleaning of the old and diseased bark has not been carried out, as a result, insect larvae spread.
- The apple tree does not shelter for the winter, as a result it freezes and dies.
If you do not forget about caring for an apple tree before wintering, then it will delight its juicy and tasty fruits for a long time.
