Sooner or later, old trees appear on any garden plot. Beloved apple tree no longer pleases with a plentiful harvest, and after all what wonderful and tasty fruits she gave! Not everyone knows how to propagate apple trees, but everyone wants to keep the variety they like in their garden. And even an inexperienced gardener can do it. A little knowledge, patience - and a lot of pleasure from the fruits that grow on a young and strong tree, is provided.
Winter: time to break branches
Growing your own seedling is not easy. Many tried to put tree branches in a glass of water and wait for the formation of roots. But capricious slices of their favorite fruit varieties stubbornly do not want to breed in captivity. They can (and should) be provoked by this. After all, hand-made propagation of an apple tree by cuttings promises us considerable benefits - as a result we get a well-known variety and at the same time you can prepare any amount of planting material.
The first step is done in the winter, a few months before the start of sap flow. The proposed method can both propagate apple trees and any other fruit trees. It is necessary to choose a good ripened young branch (one or two year old) and “injure” it - break the core without damaging the bark. To do this, the selected area is carefully bent to a light crunch. On one branch, you can make several of these "closed fractures." This is our future cuttings. Each length is not more than 20 cm.
The place of the break in the bent position is wrapped with electrical tape or plaster. The last stage of winter preparation is fixation. For this, any stick or piece of wire is suitable. The branch is fixed so that damaged places do not straighten.
Spring: rooting without stimulants
Any methods of propagation of the apple tree (or other trees) are aimed at obtaining high-quality planting material. In our case, the task is to make the plant independently stimulate the formation of strong seedlings. In the spring, additional nutrients will be sent to the site of damage to the tree to heal the broken areas. In early April, a sufficient number of these elements will already be collected. You can remove the winding and cut the branch in places of breakage.
A clipped dark plastic bottle is filled with rain (or melt) water. It is recommended to dissolve several tablets of activated carbon in it and put on the windowsill. Fill the bottle with no more than 10 cm and place 10 cuttings in it. After 3 weeks, they will have a callus, and under the kidneys, which should be in the water, the roots will begin to grow. When they increase to 7 cm, you can safely transplant cuttings for further cultivation in the open ground. A shaded area and regular watering will help plants quickly adapt to new conditions. Propagation of the apple tree by cuttings according to the described method, as a rule, gives good results - more than 70% of the prepared seedlings are rooted.
Apple Seed: From Grain to Harvest
To get a seedling suitable for planting in open ground is accessible to everyone, you just need to know how. Growing an apple tree from a seed is one of the ways to get planting material. We’ll clarify right away that this is perhaps the most time-consuming and inefficient way. The quality of the seedlings, as a rule, leaves much to be desired.
- Harvesting seeds. It is best to take seeds from varieties that grow in your climatic conditions. You can grow a tree from the seeds of a foreign variety, but most likely there will be no fruits on it.
- Dry the bones on a tissue napkin. When the surface ceases to be wet and glossy, the drying process is completed. You can proceed to the next step.
- Cover dry seeds with a damp towel and refrigerate. Thus, conditions close to natural ones are created - humidity and low temperature. Seeds are hardened and prepared for germination. It is necessary to periodically check the towel - it should not be dry. After a month (or a little more), sprouts begin to appear. It's time to plant future trees in the ground.
- Correctly transplanting a gentle shoot into a pot is an important point in the process of solving such a problem as growing an apple tree from a seed. At the bottom, it is necessary to put drainage. You can buy a soil mixture - it is important to remember that acidity should be neutral. Do not compress the ground strongly so as not to damage the weak sprout. Put in a bright place and pour warm water - a small apple tree will like it.
More than a year will pass until the grown apple tree can be planted in open ground. It is possible that a large and healthy tree will grow out of it, which for many years will delight the owners with a good harvest.
An apple from an apple tree ...
There is a simple answer to the question of how to propagate an apple tree. “Green cuttings,” any experienced gardener will answer. You can harvest cuttings almost all summer. During this period, they are still growing. Hence the name - “green cuttings”. In the morning, when the maximum amount of moisture accumulates in the branches, young shoots of this year are cut off from the plant. They need to be prepared more, because not all of them take root. For further action, a part of the cut branch with three buds is taken. One section is done immediately below the lower kidney, and the second is just above the upper one. In the upper part of the stem, you need to leave a couple of leaves, and all the rest are recommended to be removed. If the remaining leaves are large, they can be trimmed a little without removing. In this way, the surface for moisture evaporation is reduced.
In the container for planting cuttings, you need to put a good garden ground or rotted compost. Another layer of sand is poured on top. It is in it that the cuttings form the roots best. Landing to a depth of 1-2 cm so that the first kidney is below the surface of the sand. For the proper development of plants, they must be covered with a film, make a greenhouse. Depending on the weather, watering is carried out 1-2 times a week. Put in a shaded place. After a few weeks, shoots begin to grow from the buds. This means that the cuttings have taken root. They can be transplanted to a permanent place in autumn or spring.
Easy and simple: there was one tree - there were two
Another solution to the problem "how to breed apple trees quickly and for free." This wonderful method is called dropping. It is perfect if the tree has low branches. In the place where they can touch the ground (but not closer than 25-30 cm from the edge), leaves are removed and small transverse grooves are made on the cortex. Incisions slow down the flow of nutrients, lead to swelling and the formation of roots. It is necessary to make a small depression in the ground and fix the prepared branch with a wire clip. Sprinkle with earth on top. Water depending on the weather 1-2 times a week. In autumn, when the plant takes root, the mother branch needs to be cut, and the seedling should be transplanted to a new place.
Resourceful gardener and turn the earth
But how to propagate apple trees (and not only), if their branches are high and do not reach the ground? Inventive summer residents have long found the answer to this question. If the apple tree does not bend to the ground, then the earth rises to the branches.
On a young branch, it is necessary to cut the bark with a small ring up to 1 cm wide. A hole is made in a plastic bag, and it is worn on the plant. It is fixed with tape or rope 10 cm below the cut ring. A small amount of moist garden soil is poured into the open part of the bag - enough to cover the site of the cut. After that, the bag closes tightly in its upper part. As a result, a small greenhouse is obtained on the branch of the apple tree. After a few weeks, young roots will be visible through the transparent polyethylene. After that, the top of the branch can be cut in half. And in the fall, the package is removed, the stalk with roots is cut from the mother branch and transplanted to a new place.
Almost all the methods described in the article (with the exception of growing an apple tree from a seed) have, in addition to simplicity, another indisputable advantage. The resulting plants will completely repeat all the taste and other qualities of the mother plants. And this means that the harvest of your favorite apples in your garden does not end.