How to grow a cherry near St. Petersburg

They have been growing in the gardens of our village for many years cherries... In general, everything is fine.

But there are harvests on cherries only once every few years. After all, we grow cherries not only for the sake of the harvest, but also for the sake of beauty.

In recent years, the climate has changed, with cherries producing crops almost every year. Immediately there was an incentive to grow this beautiful crop in the garden. However, one incentive is not enough, because recently a new problem has emerged.

Old cherries in our village grew without any worries. But some gardeners decided to expand the range and started buying new varieties brought from different parts of our country. Together with them, they "bought" various diseases of cherries, which they had never heard of here before. And these diseases went for a walk in the gardens. Indeed, the climate of our region is very conducive to the strong development of diseases. The bark on the trunks is especially affected.

Growing conditions and site selection

Therefore, you need to think very much before starting cherries. Do you have enough time and energy to prevent and treat these diseases? Can you create the right conditions for growth and fruiting? Will you find time to leave?

Let's see what conditions the cherry requires in order for it to grow well, bear fruit and hurt as little as possible.

First of all, soils are important. They should be water- and air-permeable, warm, best of all - light loams filled with organic matter - cherries are very much appreciated. This culture does not like heavy soils, it does not like sandy soils - cherries grow poorly on such soils, they often get sick. They do not want to bear fruit on peat soils.

In no case should the soil be acidic, otherwise the cherry will shed all its flowers without even tying the berries. Best acidity pH = 7. If, nevertheless, the cherry strongly discards flowers and ovaries, it is necessary at this time to water the near-trunk circle with water with lime stirred in it.

During flowering and active growth of shoots and leaves, cherries need moisture. If the weather is dry at this time, the cherry will also shed flowers and ovaries. At the end of summer, the cherry again really needs moisture, because at this time the active growth of the roots begins. However, moisture should still be in moderation. With its excess, the roots die off, the leaves turn yellow, the growth of the bush stops.

Cherry needs a lot of sun. If there is not enough sunlight, then it sharply reduces the yield, because its fruiting moves to the very tips of the branches.

Cherries grow well and bear fruit only in warm places. Therefore, a place in the garden for it must be chosen protected from cold winds, well lit by the sun, so that in winter a lot of snow accumulates under it. In the spring, this snow will melt and give the cherry the moisture it needs so much at this time.

Particular attention should be paid to return frosts during the period when plants are blooming or preparing to bloom. Frost damage can damage flower pistils and even young ovaries. Spring now comes early here, but no one canceled return frosts. Usually they are brought by the northern and northeastern air masses. Therefore, when planting new cherry trees and bushes, you need to choose a place that would be protected from these winds - by the wall of a house or a barn, a fence or a dense wall of trees, tall shrubs.

In general, in the garden there are usually many applicants for a place near a warm wall, for example, grapes, apple trees, all sorts of exotic things like almonds, peaches. They will have to give way to the front row, closer to the sun, cherry.

Varieties for our region

And one more subtlety: the overwhelming majority of cherry varieties are self-fertile, for their re-pollination it will be necessary to plant at least two or three varieties. The most unassuming varieties for our places are Lyubskaya (self-fertile), Vladimirskaya, Shokoladnitsa. These varieties practically do not get sick, and yields are almost annually.

Cherry planting

So, you have the desire to have cherries in the garden, and there was a place for them. Dreaming of cherry jam, you bought seedlings now, in spring or autumn, and now they are dug in. Now you need to drop them off as soon as possible. Let's get down to business as soon as the ground thaws.

At the selected place, you must first prepare the soil. We first produce acidic soil. When liming, you need to remember a useful rule: in order to raise the pH by one unit, you need to add 350 g of lime per square meter of area. It is very useful to add old crushed plaster to the soil, I even add old broken bricks that have been washed well by the rain.

Now, in the designated places, we will make for each plant a personal hole 40–50 cm deep and about 70 cm in diameter. The distance between the holes is at least 2 meters. Fill the pits with fertilizers: a bucket of organic matter, a half-liter can of superphosphate, a liter can of ash for the pit. You can experiment: add a tablespoon of AUA fertilizer with medium granules. There will be no harm from this, but most likely there will be benefits.

After two weeks or more, when the soil settles in the holes, we plant the seedlings. Here, the operations are the same as when planting an apple tree: we make a mound in the center of the hole, put a cherry on it, spread the roots over the surface of the mound, fill it with earth, water it. We make sure that the root collar is not buried. For the first time, you can wrap the seedling with a newspaper, on top of it - with film or lutrasil - this is protection against excessive drying while the roots are not working. In two or three weeks we'll take it all off. That's all.

Now our cherries can only grow, and we - to take care of them. And with all eyes to look, whether cracks appeared on the bark, whether twigs with leaves began to dry out. But this is already the subject of a special conversation.

Lyubov Bobrovskaya

Photo by the author

How to plant a cherry from a stone: step by step instructions with a photo

The process of growing one of the most delicate fruit crops of the Russian garden from seeds involves the following simple steps:

1. Select the ripe, beautiful, large berries.
2. Remove the cherry pits from the pulp, rinse with water, then with a pink solution of potassium permanganate, dry in a shaded place. In the photo below, the bones are cleared of pulp using a simple device - a bone pusher. Housewives are familiar with him, who prefer to harvest pitted cherry jam.

It is most convenient to remove the seeds and keep the berries as intact as possible with the help of a stone pusher

Attention! City dwellers most often have access to only construction sand, but it is undesirable to take it. It is distinguished from the river one by the absence of the necessary looseness, water and air permeability. When moistened, it sticks together, blocking the access to air. In such sand, there is a high probability of damage to the bones. Coarse river sand should be taken. It is also called quartz.

River, or quartz sand is the best substrate for storing bones

This method has its drawbacks - it is difficult to control the process. This method is not suitable for those who have only a few seeds of a particularly valuable cherry variety. Also, it will not work if the region has unstable frosty winters with a weak snow cover - nevertheless, the cherry culture is quite tender. Some cherries, for example, the Troitskaya varieties, reproduce well by self-sowing in Siberia. But in such cases we are talking about seeds obtained from a tree already adapted to the difficult conditions of the region.

Therefore, you can save the cherry pits until December, and then artificially stratify. During storage, observe the required humidity and temperature - up to 20 ° C. The bones should be periodically inspected for damage and mold. You can mix them not only with sand, but also with peat, and with moss, and with sawdust - any loose material, the main thing is that the bones do not dry out, and at the same time do not get damp. Of course, it is optimal to plant stone fruits immediately after they have been eaten, but this is not always possible. It is important not to dry them out - this is one of the common reasons that seeds do not germinate at all. It is enough to dry the bones slightly, and then immediately place them in the desired substrate. It is not recommended to keep the seeds dry - they germinate worse. There is such a concept - post-harvest ripening of seeds. Cherry seeds, like many crops that have to go through a long winter, also tend to ripen, so sowing dry seeds before winter is a mistake.

Sphagnum moss grows everywhere in mixed and coniferous forests, but you can buy it

Instructions for growing cherries from the pits for those who want to control the process look like this:

1. Take pits from frozen cherries to be thawed in early March, or simply keep pits in the refrigerator until then. Thus, the bones will already be stratified.
2. In March, put the seeds in coarse (river) sand or wet sawdust. Cover with glass, put in a bright place. The heat is unusual for cherry pits, find a cool windowsill with a temperature of 15–20 ° С
3. The crops should be ventilated and moistened periodically.
4. After two months, the bones will sprout.
5. Now they can be sorted, the strongest can be planted in several pieces in holes prepared in the garden, or in pots. A cracked bone with the main root that appears is sagging on its side, sprinkled with soil so that it cannot be seen, and after a couple of days, excess soil is removed, exposing the bone by two-thirds. Or you should immediately dig in half. It is important that the root "understand" that it needs to grow downward, but that the seed could be observed.

This method is more convenient in that you can immediately select the most powerful plants and plant them in a permanent place.

Young, just emerged cherry plant with cotyledons and two true leaves

Below we will consider the two most important stages of growing cherries from the seed: what other stratification options are there and how you can accelerate germination by properly processing the seed.

Determination and acidity of soil for planting cherries and cherries

It is not difficult to assess the acidity of the soil. The simplest method is to take a closer look at which herbs prevail on the site:

• Horse sorrel, mosses, horsetail, crowberry, blueberry, and meadowsweet will indicate high acidity. You cannot grow cherries and cherries.
• Lingonberry, wild rosemary, oxalis, mint, bearberry, marsh spool, "cat's paw" - for medium acidity. Growing cherries and cherries is highly undesirable.
• Bellflower broad-leaved, hairy sedge, Kupena, dwarf plant grow on soils with a slightly acidic and neutral reaction. You can plant cherries and cherries.
• Mother-and-stepmother, yarrow, chemist's chamomile, meadow clover, wild strawberry, quinoa, nettle, shepherd's purse, sow thistle, runny - the reaction of the soil is neutral. Cherries and cherries will grow well.
• Shaggy sedge, "goose foot", wormwood, vetch, alfalfa, meadow arzhanets, sharp fire - alkaline soil. You can grow cherries and sweet cherries if there is a lot of humus in the soil.

However, this visual assessment is only a rough guide. It is much more accurate to determine the acidity of the soil with the help of litmus strips. Litmus test strips are sold at garden centers. To carry out the analysis, you will need a small soil sample taken from a depth of about 30 cm and distilled water.

You cannot use ordinary tap water or well water - its own salt composition affects the analysis results. The soil sample must be placed in water. After 15 minutes, dip the litmus strip into the resulting solution. When the indicator is colored, you just need to compare its color with the scale on the package. Read also the article: → "Soil acidity: methods of determination and correction."

To understand whether the soil is suitable or not suitable for planting cherries and cherries, the table will help:

Tip # 1. Soil acidity can vary depending on the depth of soil sampling. Therefore, an accurate estimate pH is more convenient to do with portable garden pH meters.

Diseases and pests, methods of dealing with them

As already mentioned, Bessei has no pests. They, fortunately, fly around her side. Some varieties in some years with high humidity can be affected by fungal diseases - coccomycosis and moniliosis. Rarely (in cold and rainy summers) it is possible to be affected by clasterosporiosis.

Coccomycosis

Coccomycosis manifests itself as follows:

1. Brownish or reddish spots appear on the outside of the leaves.
2. Over time, they increase, the pulp of the leaves dries up, purple spots appear on the inside of the leaves.
3. By the end of July, the affected leaves completely dry up and fall off. The bush can lose foliage (the so-called summer leaf fall).

With coccomycosis, spots appear on the leaves

All fallen leaves are collected and burned. The bushes are treated with systemic fungicides (drugs to combat fungal diseases). Horus and Quadris have proven themselves well. Treatments are carried out at intervals of 2 weeks, alternating preparations. Since the products are addictive, it is advisable to use them no more than 3 times a season each. You can eat berries 3-5 days after processing with Quadris and 7 days after processing with Horus. In autumn and (or) early spring, it is advisable to treat the plant with a 3% solution of ferrous sulfate or Bordeaux mixture for prevention.

Moniliosis

Moniliosis, or monilial burn, appears in spring, during flowering. The spores of the fungus enter the wood through the bud. Affected branches, leaves, flowers look as if burnt, but many gardeners believe that these are signs of winter frostbite or excessive spring treatment with chemicals.

The defeat of monniliosis looks like a burn

The affected shoots must be cut and burned, the remaining ones treated with systemic fungicides, as in coccomycosis. In autumn and spring, the plant must be treated with a 3% solution of ferrous sulfate or Bordeaux mixture.

Clasterosporium disease

Clasterosporium disease, or perforated spot, affects leaves, shoots, flowers. The disease begins with the appearance of red-brown spots on the leaves. The spots, as they grow, dry out inside and form holes. Leaves and berries dry up and fall off. Spores of the fungus overwinter in the bark, on leaves, in the soil. Control measures are similar to the previous ones.

With clotterosporia, holes form on cherry leaves

Reproduction by shoots of the root system

Cherry propagation by shoots is considered one of the easiest ways. This method is most often used by gardeners of the Urals and Siberia. Trees grown in this way have the ability to recover faster after freezing.... Such plants have a higher winter hardiness.

To avoid overgrowth of unnecessary bushes, varietal or own-rooted bushes are taken for propagation by shoots.In such cherries, plants similar to their mothers will grow from the shoots.

Cherry propagation by root shoots

The disadvantage of growing cherries from shoots is that they enter fruiting later than grafted... Littering of row spacings with undergrowth. But despite all the disadvantages, this method is easy to reproduce and it is possible to get excellent, winter-hardy plants.

Choose a bush that has less overgrowth around it. Among her, choose a developed and strong one, which is 1-2 years old. Older plants should not be taken, because they feed on the mother bush. and as a result, a weak root system. Shoots that are closer than 1 m are also not suitable.

Cut off the root that comes from the mother bush. Leave the bush in place until it develops its own powerful root system. The above-ground part must be shortened by about ⅓ part. Fertilize a couple of times during the growing season. Regular watering is required. The next year, plants with a powerful root system are transplanted to a permanent place., and the rest, the weaker ones, grow.

Logri rootstock

No matter how simple the vaccination may seem, you need to prepare in advance for its implementation. And the rootstock plays an important role in this "operation". It is he who acts as the basis for the well-being of the future harvest.

Among the numerous requirements for the stock, the main ones are: its frost resistance, resistance to both excessive and insufficient moisture, good adaptability to the climatic conditions of the region and successful compatibility with the scion of the desired variety.