The apple tree is the most popular garden culture not only in our country, but also in the vast expanses of the entire former USSR. This is explained not only by the high taste and nutritional qualities of the fruits, but also by the unpretentiousness of the tree, which makes it possible to grow it in various climatic zones.
Oddly enough, but our gardeners are rare conservative, poorly accustomed to new varieties and varieties. So, the
columnar apple trees, reviews of which we will consider today, belong to such "losers". What is the reason for this?
What it is?
We think it would be worthwhile to recall that apple-trees are called columnar-shaped, in which fruiting occurs almost close to the trunk, and no large branches leave it. In general, such a tree from afar resembles a pole, covered with apples.
The advantages are obvious: the highest compactness and good productivity literally on the "spot" of the square.
What are the problems associated with?
It would seem that everyone should be happy, but the column-shaped apple trees, reviews of which turned out to be imperfect, still have their drawbacks.
So, domestic gardeners found that for the first couple of years the growth pattern of the main trunk is very long, and therefore the tree is very often damaged by frost. As a result, the apex suffers, which leads to the splitting of the trunk.
Instead of the promised single, two or three main branches appear. But negative reviews in this case are associated with a lack of knowledge of agricultural technology: after the onset of warm weather, you need to visually determine which of the trunks is the most powerful, and remove the rest with a sharp garden pruner.
In this case, the columnar apple trees, reviews of which are not always positive, will still be able to produce excellent yields.
Another feature of these species of garden trees is that among them there are both dwarf and tall varieties. We think it’s not worth talking for a long time about the fact that we should not buy tall specimens in the conditions of our middle zone. In this case, the freezing of the top and all the above problems are guaranteed to you.
And further. Many choose to grow columnar apple trees because of the so-called maturity. This outlandish word refers to the phenomenon when flower buds form along the entire length of the trunk.
And many gardeners feel cheated, claiming in the reviews that they do not observe anything like this. And again, ignorance of the basic principles of agricultural technology and craftiness on the part of sellers play a negative role in this matter.
First things first. Firstly, only a few columnar apple trees, reviews of which are so controversial, actually have this feature. For its final manifestation, more than one year of selection will be required.
Secondly, maturity is often detected when cultured dwarf varieties of columnar apple trees are grafted onto ordinary wild animals. But! Even in this case, the lively participation and interest of the gardeners themselves is required, which could select information on the frequency of manifestation of this trait, depending on the type of wild game.
So, often in reviews there are tips from Ural breeders who find that scion of a dwarf “column” on a regular Antonovka gives excellent results.
Thus, columnar apple trees, varieties (photo is in the article) which are still not properly acclimatized in our conditions, really need to be “refined”.