Spring is hot season for gardeners. One of the important things is spring top dressing of fruit trees. The soils of garden sites are very different in their mineral composition and structure. And different types of fruit trees put forward their requirements for normal growth and fruiting, not every soil can provide them with everything necessary. That is why it is very important to properly and thoughtfully feed the garden. Fruit trees especially need them in the spring, when they are preparing for flowering and fruiting.
Why you can not miss this event
To begin with, spring top dressing of fruit trees is not the most time-consuming part of caring for a home garden, but experienced gardeners know that this is the most important agricultural technique. Without this event, it is impossible to achieve the decorative properties of trees and berry bushes, not to wait for a good harvest of berries and fruits. Top dressing can be compared as necessary with spraying the garden from pests. Timely feeding of fruit trees will add the necessary elements to the soil, which in the future will result in excellent flowering and fruiting.
Fruit trees live for many years, so the soil needs additional nutrition. A tree consumes many elements from the soil, especially during the ripening period. It is often asked whether the autumn top dressing will cover the entire need for nutrients. Leading agricultural technicians believe not. Prior to the growing season, the concentration of nutrients decreases, which leads to lower yields and lower quality fruits. Next, we consider the shortage of which elements need to be filled in the first place.
Nutrient Essentials for Fruit Trees
Spring top dressing of fruit trees implies the introduction of the entire set of nutrients needed by these plants. During the growing season, demand changes dramatically, nitrogen comes to the fore, which in the autumn and spring months is washed out by heavy rainfall and water coming after snowmelt. In second place in importance are potassium, phosphorus and nitrogen. This order must be known and taken into account. First of all, the need for nitrogen is aggravated in trees, and only later, during the formation of the ovary, in phosphorus. Fertilizing trees in the spring is the key to a good harvest in the fall. A very important point is the presence of humus in the soil. There is usually a lot of it in heavy fertile soils, but practically none in sandy and sandy soils. Also, the potassium content strongly depends on the structure of the soil.
How to fertilize properly
We are talking specifically about the period when the trees awaken from hibernation. In spring, trees are fed directly under the root of the tree. Moreover, it is introduced into the snow when it melts. That is how, slowly penetrating the soil with melt water, mineral mixtures get to the awakening roots.
The mixture is introduced into the near-stem circle, which should have been well-loosened since autumn. The perimeter should be marked by drawing the width of the crown on the ground. It is here that the largest number of young suction roots is located. A 40-gram complex fertilizer will be enough for a young tree, a larger portion will be needed for adult planting.
The location of the landings matters. If the garden grows on a slope, then fertilizing should be delayed so that the mineral mixture does not wash away along with melt water.
Under the snow make top dressing containing nitrogen. But just do not buy universal mixtures called "spring", often they contain too much of this element, which can lead to the appearance of fungus. A little later, when the snow melts, you can add superphosphate, ash and potassium sulfate to the soil.
May - time of active ovary and fruit growth
Feeding trees in the spring is not limited to this. Flowering is in full swing and the first ovary is already appearing, now the trees need not so much minerals as organic matter. For May feeding, well-prepared manure and compost are perfect. The amount of fertilizer applied depends on the soil. Fertile chernozem requires a minimum of additives, more forest soils, and podzolic soils need to be regularly and abundantly moistened. Manure is usually introduced in the form of an aqueous solution, this method is familiar to every summer resident. Compost also needs to be prepared in the fall, filling the grass in a compost pit.
Processing and feeding fruit trees in the spring will be easy and simple if you take care of such proven products in advance.
Types of Fruit Trees
There are many of them in our garden plots, and each reacts differently to any type of fertilizer. That is why trees should be fed individually in the spring. Fertilizing fruit trees is the key to a rich harvest, so you can not forget about it. Excellent response to such events apple trees. To grow fragrant fruits, they need a huge amount of nutrients. It is equally useful to apply organic fertilizers to the soil where pear and plum grow.
And yet, what fertilizers for fruit trees should be used? Many summer residents will answer that it is enough to take manure - and they will be absolutely right. The exception is only decorative, coniferous species of trees. For them, it is better to choose a balanced top dressing with the appropriate labeling.
Technical Subtleties
How to make top dressing for fruit trees? There are two options. The first is dry mixes that gradually dissolve with water and penetrate the soil. The second one is much better for fruit trees and is an aqueous solution. Liquid dressing plants absorb faster. Moreover, if you have a seedling, then you need to apply fertilizer on a cloudy day, preferably at night. Note that the soil under the tree should be well watered so that the fertilizer solution added to it does not cause a root burn.
Dry mineral mixtures are introduced before watering, so that the tree begins to receive nutrients as quickly as possible . The fruit tree is very responsive to calcium, sodium, iron and potassium. No less important are selenium, magnesium, copper and many other trace elements, which are usually not enough in the soil. In this case, it is very important not to introduce an excess dose. A large amount of nitrogen is detrimental to young plants. By mid-summer, the bark will not have time to take shape, and the plant will freeze in winter. Another point: excess nitrogen stimulates the formation of shoots and slows fruiting.
It is very important at what time of the year fruit trees were planted. Top dressing is most effective in the summer months, while planting in the winter will be prepared for wintering, which means that they do not need fertilizers.
Mulching
There is another way to make the most of your personal garden. Fertilization of fruit trees can occur due to organic mulch. These are peat, manure, organic residues, rotted leaves and straw. All this organic matter is located on a well-loosened layer of fertile soil under a fruit tree. The thickness of the mulch should not be too small, the optimal layer is about 15 cm around the entire perimeter of the crown. If this procedure is performed in the spring, then it will be very good to add mulch and mineral fertilizers. Mulching is a very useful technique, it helps to retain moisture in the soil, inhibits weed growth and maintains the optimal temperature regime of the trunk circle soil.
Foliar top dressing
As you know, a plant is able to absorb nutrients not only through the roots, but also through its green crown. Agrotechnicians have long adopted this knowledge and began to actively use it. Today, the achievements of science allow every gardener to have a huge selection of drugs for working in the garden. Among them are foliar top dressing. You get the opportunity to spray fruit crops with a solution of mineral fertilizers and growth regulators. Such drugs can significantly improve fruiting. Their basis is often a 0.2% urea solution.
During the flowering of fruit plants, it is important to attract as many insects as possible, which will produce pollination. Summer residents go to the trick, making a sweet solution of honey, sugar and water. Such a bait in the spring is reliable. Since the flowering of the main honey plants has not yet begun, not a single bee will miss such a feast.
Saplings, care and top dressing
The first task of these plants is to take root and start growing as quickly as possible. Fruiting is not a priority yet. Usually, in the first few years, a young apple or pear produces only a few fruits, which means that it does not spend too much of its resources. Later, the question will surely arise - what fertilizers for fruit trees should be applied? The best option for top dressing at the time of planting and subsequent fertilizing of the seedling is considered a complex fertilizer "AgroProst." It provides all the essential elements: phosphorus, nitrogen, potassium, as well as trace elements: calcium, zinc, boron and magnesium. This is especially necessary in clay or sandy areas where the soil is poor.
The first top dressing is done by applying a dry product directly to the prepared hole. The following are performed annually, superficially in the trunk circle. Usually they are repeated in spring and autumn. An adult tree can be fully converted to home-grown organic fertilizers.
Adult fruit trees
Starting from the fifth year of life, plants enter the period of active fruiting, and therefore, the requirements for top dressing change. Now the trees are fed with full mineral fertilizer. 15 g of nitrogen, 8 g of phosphorus and 12 g of potassium are consumed per square meter of area. These substances are introduced under the snow. A little later, the turn of organic fertilizers sets in, once every 2 years, about 6 kg of manure is applied per square meter of near-stem circle. After flowering, when the phase of growing the ovary begins, dry shredded bird droppings are great. About 1 kg of such a powder is scattered on 1 m 2 of the trunk circle. Falling asleep with manure may well be replaced by the addition of slurry. To do this, take one liter of solution per square meter of soil surface. Minerals must be added annually.
To summarize
In the spring, as you know, feeds the day a year, so the gardener should not lose time. Spring top dressing of fruit trees, both adult and young seedlings, is guaranteed to ensure their good growth, flowering and fruiting. Despite the abundance of work in the garden, it is necessary to devote time to this. Then autumn will meet you with rosy apples, juicy pears and delicious plums.