Apple tree. Choosing and planting an apple tree

The apple tree is the most common fruit crop with a wide growing area. It is an exceptionally high-yielding crop that produces good annual yields with good care.

Depending on the variety, the fruiting period of an apple tree is from 3 to 15 years, but it can live up to 100 years. Cultivation of an apple tree is best done on black soil, floodplain light loamy and sandy loam soils. Sandy soils with a sufficiently close groundwater table are unsuitable for an apple tree. The size and strength of the seedling is determined by the stock, that is, the lower part of the plant, onto which another variety is grafted with a bud or cuttings.

The apple tree, at least most of its varieties, is self-sterile, therefore, it needs pollen for fertilization from other specimens of apple trees. The best time to plant an apple tree is in early autumn (early October) or spring (as soon as the soil allows). Before planting seedlings, the earth is dug up, bringing in rotted manure. It is advisable to prepare the planting holes a week before planting. When planting in a pit, it is recommended to add 3-4 buckets of humus or compost, about a kilogram of phosphorus fertilizers and 150 grams of potash fertilizers (can be replaced with a kilogram of wood ash).

The apple tree is placed in a pit with straightened roots, the neck should be left 4-5 cm above the soil level. Having poured a layer of earth about 10 cm, it should be carefully trampled down, and then the rest of the earth should be filled up. The planted apple tree is watered with one or two buckets of water and the shoots are trimmed by half or a third of their length, processing the cut with garden pitch. After that, the apple tree stem is whitewashed with garden whitewash or a solution of slaked lime.