Felt cherry, or, as it is also called, Chinese, was loved by the inhabitants of all of Russia. It is decorative, gives high yields of sweet berries, is undemanding in care, resistant to frost - all this allows you to grow varieties in all regions. In addition, this type of cherry begins to bear fruit from the second year after planting, no need to wait for years for the first harvest. So, today we get acquainted with felt cherries. Description, photos and reviews of gardeners are attached. In the same article, you can learn how to plant varieties, rules of care.
General description of felt cherry
In this form, there are many varieties, the best of which we will get to know later on. Now we offer to consider a general description and a photo of varieties of felt cherries.
This is a small openwork tree, or a shrub that reaches a height of two to three meters. In spring, the branches of this beauty are decorated with orange-white, pink-white or pure white flowers. During the fruiting period, felt cherry changes the outfit of flowers to berries, which can be pink or bright red beads. In general, for a long time the plant pleases the eye.
Why felt? The fact is that its shoots, the underside of the leaves, and sometimes the fruits themselves are decorated with delicate light fluff.
This beauty now belongs to the genus of plums. Today, during the transition from generation to generation, it is called both cherry and plum. Despite the fact that there are similarities with ordinary cherries, varieties cannot be crossed. But with cherry plum, plum and peach - please!
Spread
Felt cherries spread all over the world from Southeast Asia, where it grows in the wild. What is interesting is that in the Far East of Russia it is felt felt that this cherry is considered. But strangely enough, many inhabitants do not plant a plant, using it only for decorative purposes. In the gardens of Europe and North America, this is a popular fruit crop, although it appeared there only in the 20th century.
Felt cherry appeared in the European part of Russia thanks to Michurin Ivan Vladimirovich. It was he who first brought the seedling, acclimatized it, bred the first large-fruited Aldo variety.
Benefits
In the description of varieties of felt cherries, there are many advantages, these are:
- fruiting and ripening of berries occurs almost two weeks earlier than in ordinary cherries;
- tolerates winter and severe frosts;
- the crop is stable every year;
- decorative plants;
- does not give root offspring;
- disease resistance.
The advantages include the beginning of fruiting - this is the second year after planting a seedling, or the third or fourth year when grown from seed.
As for the taste, the berries are sweet, very juicy, especially like the taste of children who themselves, without the help of adults, can pick fruits from low bushes.
The average yield of one adult plant is 8 kilograms. But reviews of felt cherry say that if you take good care of the bush, the yield is much higher.
A good harvest from a plant can be obtained for 10 years.
Landing Recommendations
By flowering time, felt cherry, reviews of which will be at the end of the article, is divided into early, middle and late varieties. For example, residents of the Moscow Region, where flowering begins in mid-May, you should not choose early varieties.
If the autumn is long and warm, then the annual shoots may not have time to ripen at the cherry, the growth of which in such a climate becomes protracted. As a result, such shoots freeze and die, but this factor does not affect the quality of the future harvest.
Use of fruits and benefits
Photos of felt cherries are available in this article. It can be seen from them that this is a real decoration of the site! But not only in beauty lies the benefit of the plant. Fruits of felt cherries are used for making juices, compotes, preserves, they are good and fresh.
Their benefit lies in the fact that they are recommended for anemia, cardiovascular diseases. In addition, the fruits are widely used in traditional medicine for:
- temperature reduction;
- raising appetite;
- antiseptic effects;
- mild weakening effect;
- prevention of colds and viral diseases.
The best varieties of felt cherries
Let's talk directly about the varieties. According to gardeners, the best are:
- Tsarevna. This is a winter-hardy variety, mid-season. The bush is miniature - only up to 1 meter in height, the crown is oval, wide. Despite its modest size, the Tsarevna is very generous - up to 10 kilograms of the crop can be harvested from one plant. The berries are shiny, bright pink, weighing an average of 4 grams. Fruits are rich in vitamins, sweet, juicy.
- Tiana. This is also a miniature bush, resistant to frost, self-fertile. Productivity is high - up to 10 kilograms per plant. The berries are dark pink in color, wide, oval, weight on average 4 grams.
- Children’s. Low bush, early ripening grade. The fruits are bright red, sweet. The plant is resistant to fungal diseases, tolerates the winter period.
- Autumn Virovskaya. Winter-hardy and drought-resistant variety of medium ripening. Bush up to 1.8 meters high, abundant productivity. The berries are sweet and sour, juicy, the color is bright red, can reach burgundy when fully ripened. Berry weight up to 3 grams. The plant is resistant to disease.
- Natalie. This is an early-ripening variety of felt cherry. The plant tolerates all the hardships - frost and drought, which do not affect the quality and taste of the fruit. The height of the bush is up to 1.8 meters, the average weight of the berry is 4 grams. The fruits are juicy, sweet.
- Ocean Virovskaya. This is a late-ripening variety, drought-and frost-resistant. The bush is round, low. From one plant, you can collect up to 10 kilograms of burgundy berries. The palatability is good, the fruits are juicy and sweet and sour.
- Damanka. This is one of the new varieties. Late ripening, frost-resistant, fruits are large, burgundy, sweet and sour.
- White. This is a one of a kind albino variety. Fruits of a white color, this applies to the skin, and pulp, and seeds. The taste is sweet and sour, juicy. The weight of the berry is small, only 2.5 grams, no special advantages were noted. This cherry grows well in the suburbs. mid-season variety. Gardeners plant this species not only for food, but for an exotic decorative look.
- Alice. This is a mid-season, winter-hardy variety. Productivity is high, the berries are large.
Unfortunately, we cannot provide all the photos of varieties of felt cherries in the review. They are all very similar, only the color of the fruits and the size of the bush itself vary.
Choose a place to land
This species can be planted both in spring and in autumn. Nevertheless, spring planting is preferable before the buds open. In this case, the seedling will have time to get used to the new "place of residence", get stronger, more easily winter. Using our tips, you can easily find on your site the best place for it, where the bush will grow and bear fruit.
- The place should be open, sunny, with light fertile soil.
- Felt cherry, the photo of which is available in the article, simply does not tolerate acidified soil. One year before the proposed planting, the soil must be produced so that the pH readings are 5.5-6.0.
- The place should be such that the water does not stagnate, and the close passage of groundwater is simply unacceptable. Felt cherry does not like excess moisture; its aboveground part may simply die. There were cases that new shoots from the preserved root grew.
- For a good harvest, it is recommended to plant up to three varieties of felt cherries. You can plant plum, peach tree, cherry plum or apricot nearby. Varieties of ordinary cherries are not suitable for dusting, as has already been written earlier. Some gardeners do not know this, and the productivity of their bushes is lower than that of those who plant on the recommendation for pollination.
Landing rules
Having chosen a suitable site, you need to plant the seedling correctly so that it is more likely to adapt, grow stronger, and next year bring its first crop.
- In the allotted area, you need to dig a hole half a meter deep. It should be about 80 centimeters wide.
- At the bottom you need to lay useful bait, these are: three buckets of humus or compost, a fertile layer of earth, 400 grams of dolomite flour or lime, a tablespoon of superphosphate.
- The seedling should be placed vertically in the pit, sprinkled with earth, without digging in the root neck.
- Abundant watering is the first thing you need for a good engraftment. After planting, water with water in an amount of 20 to 40 liters.
- Mulch the soil around the tree, this will help fight weeds and retain moisture in the dry period (although the tree is not afraid of drought, mulching will not hurt).
When planting several seedlings at once, we must not forget about the distance between them, it should be at least 2 meters. This will allow more even distribution of sunlight, to avoid dimming and thickening.
Care for felt cherries is necessary, like all cultivated plants. It is about him that we will talk further.
Top dressing
The plant itself is not particularly picky, but if you want to get maximum yields every year, you need to make fertilizers every year. how to do it and what is needed?
- After flowering, you need to add from 5 to 7 kilograms of organics, 40 grams of potash, 70 phosphorus and 30 grams of nitrogen fertilizers along the edge of the trunk circle. And so under every bush.
- Fertilizers will be much more effective if liming the soil every five years. To do this, you need to take 200-300 grams of lime or dolomite flour for each square meter of soil, and make during the autumn digging.
Pruning
Start forming the crown of felt cherries, photos and reviews of which are available in this article, you need immediately after planting. If the seedling is annual, then it should be shortened, leaving about 40 centimeters above the ground.
If a seedling of two years of age is purchased, then it is pruned as follows: leave only 5 or 6 main lateral branches, shorten them by a quarter. The remaining branches are cut without pity.
The following years, you need to regularly thin out the crown, removing old, weak and dead branches. From the seventh year of life, anti-aging scraps are needed. Even those old branches that bear fruit well are removed.
Often, felt cherry is planted as a decoration - as a hedge along the paths. In this case, it is recommended to cut it to 80 centimeters above the ground.
How to protect cherries from pests?
Plum and cherry aphids, as well as scale insects, are very indifferent to this type of cherry. If these pests began to attack your beauty, then the actellik and fufanon will help.
Birds also do not mind tasting sweet, juicy fruits. Of course, we will not poison birds, we will be helped from their attacks by a blocking grid.
Diseases to which felt cherry is affected: leaf spotting, gray fruit rot, moniliosis. How to deal with trouble? For the treatment and prevention of diseases, early spring spraying will help:
- The first is carried out immediately after the snow has fallen. A three percent Bordeaux mixture is used.
- The second spraying is carried out before the tree begins to bloom. Here we need a weaker mixture - one percent Bordeaux or copper oxychloride.
After such prophylaxis, not a single “sore” dares to stick to the bush.
Breeding
Felt cherries can be propagated independently, using your own bushes, or by asking a neighbor in the country to share a piece of his. How to do it? There are several ways.
- Seed propagation. Such reproduction gives the most persistent offspring that retained all the basic qualities from the mother. Only large, ripe berries are used. Having removed the seed from the berry, it must be placed in moist sawdust or sand to avoid drying out. You need to store the seed there until planting, which is carried out in the second half of October. To do this, you need to select a bed, dig a hole 3 cm deep, dig a stone, and mulch the soil from the top with peat. All the next season, you need to take care of the seeded seeds: weeding, watering, feeding. If plants grow to 60 centimeters before fall, then you can transplant them to the main place. If not, you will have to wait another year.
- Propagation by green cuttings is carried out in the last days of July. It is necessary to select a strong escape, cut it with three internodes. Remove the bottom sheet when landing. It is necessary to land in river sand mixed in equal parts with peat. Cover with a film to create a greenhouse effect, constantly moisturize.
- Reproduction by horizontal layering. You can plant on native seedlings, and on other types of plants: plum, cherry plum, thorns. It will not be possible to plant felt on ordinary cherries. The ideal time for promising is from mid-July to the first of August.
Gardeners reviews
As promised, at the end of the article we give examples of feedback from gardeners about felt cherry. People who have already dropped her off and well recognized write the following:
The berries sit well on the branches, even ripened; they do not fall for about a month. Remove well from branches without peduncles, so the berries do not need to be peeled before processing. But this is bad, because the harvest is not stored even in the refrigerator, it needs to be processed as quickly as possible. For this reason, felt cherry berries cannot be found on sale.
The seeds in the berries are very small, they are quite difficult to leave the pulp, it is difficult to peel the jam. But the fruits are sweet, for the preparation of preparations requires less sugar than those made from ordinary cherries.
The plant is unpretentious, it patiently waits for the owner to cope with its important affairs and deal with it. It does not dry out and does not discard fruits during drought, which is pleasant to the inhabitants of the southern regions.
In general, in the reviews, basically, only positive comments, there are few comments on the varieties, and even those are not so serious.