Each gardener knows very well that next year’s yield depends on how he looked after the plants and crops on his plot before winter. Many believe that trees can grow without additional care, but this is not so.
Cherry is one of those crops that necessarily requires additional attention from the gardener.
general information
Cherry is a tree or shrub, the height of which can reach up to 10 m. The bark of plants is gray-brown in color, and the leaves are elliptical in shape. The length of the leaf does not exceed 8 cm.
Everyone knows what an unusual aroma spreads around the site at a time when the cherry blossoms with white and pink flowers. This happens in late March or early April. The fruits of cherries are very popular. They can be eaten both fresh and cooked and stewed fruit and jam on their basis. The size of the fruit directly depends on how gardeners looked after the plant.
General conditions for cherry care in the fall: preparation for winter
Many beginning gardeners have a logical question of the need for warming of adult plants. In fact, trees that bear fruit for more than a year are not so afraid of frost. Therefore, to care for the old cherries in autumn, it is enough to cover the trunks with whitewash. You can add a little copper sulfate to the composition. However, even this procedure is not necessary.
If the plant has not yet turned 4 years old, then care for young cherries in the fall is mandatory. To do this, for the winter period, the trunks must be carefully covered with newspapers and burlap, and sprinkled with spruce branches on top. If there are a lot of rodents in the garden, then it is recommended to install a net around the trunk.
How to feed cherries in autumn
As a rule, top dressing of the culture is carried out in mid-autumn. The fact is that this plant begins to bloom one of the very first on the site. Therefore, it needs earlier feeding. In this case, the tree will receive all the necessary components for full growth and fruiting.
Some novice gardeners prefer to fertilize trees in spring, but this is not right. Immediately after fruiting, the cherry is very weak. During this period, she is in great need of additional reserves of micro and macro elements. If you fertilize the soil too late, the culture will be worse tolerate frosts due to increased movement of the juice.
It is recommended to feed only the root method. The fact is that, like any other tree, cherries dump their foliage in the cold season.
If we talk about how to feed cherries in the fall, it directly depends on the state of the land. If sandy soil prevails in the suburban area, then the cherry needs to be provided with a more enhanced nutrition. The fact is that useful elements are washed out of light soils very quickly.
Also, care for cherries in the fall involves top dressing in the form of calcium, phosphorus and potassium. Fertilizing the crop is recommended immediately after all the berries have been picked from the tree. In addition, it is necessary to remove all rotted branches and fruits and foliage. After this, it is necessary to loosen the soil well, clear the soil of weeds and keep 30 kilograms of humus, if we are talking about a young tree.
Old trees, which are already over 9 years old, are advised to apply a larger amount of fertilizing (up to 50 kilograms per 1 bush). In order to save money at this event, you can use chicken manure as fertilizer. However, one must remember that it can burn the root system. Therefore, it is necessary to dilute the litter and not use it in large quantities.
Also, many gardeners prefer to use manure or compost as care for cherries in autumn. In the first case, you can use only rotted natural product, which is already more than 2-3 years old. In no case can you breed manure, otherwise it can turn into a dangerous ammonia mixture.
How to handle barrel trunks
Some novice gardeners are not even aware of the need for such a treatment. The fact is that thanks to the throne circle, the tree is saturated with all the necessary components. It is also about air, water and nutrition.
Based on this, the size of the trunk circle should be larger than the diameter of the tree crown. Accordingly, its value will change annually. To correctly determine what size the trunk circle should be, it is enough to measure the diameter of the tree crown and multiply the resulting value of 1.5.
In the process of spring digging, it is necessary to ensure that the plane of the shovel passes along the entire perimeter of the trunk circle. You should not come closer, since in this case you can injure the rhizome of the plant. It is best to use not a shovel for cultivation, but special forks.
Cherry pruning in the fall
This event is considered mandatory, although many overlook it. If you do not take care of the cherry in a timely manner after harvesting in the fall, then the plant will not only not be able to rejuvenate, but its yield will also decrease.
In addition, without pruning, trees become more vulnerable to pests and diseases. Therefore, be sure to remove all dry, broken or damaged branches. At the same time, it is worth considering some of the rules of this procedure, as well as clarifying when to cut the cherry in the fall.
For the first time, the crop must be processed only a year after planting. It is necessary to remove all branches that grow inside the crown. After removing all unwanted branches, the places of cuts are necessarily processed by garden var. At the same time, cropping in several stages is performed. It is not recommended to remove all damaged branches at once. Pruning is usually done after leaf fall. However, do not delay with this event until the frost. If it was not possible to trim before the onset of winter, then it is better to postpone this event until spring.
There is no exact date for this event, since it all depends on the climatic conditions of a particular region. However, as a rule, in the northern regions, pruning is performed no later than mid-September. Closer to the south, you can perform this event until early November.
Features autumn pruning cherries
Some believe that stone trees do not need such events at all. However, it must be understood that, like any plant, in preparation for the winter period, it must collect as much energy and strength as possible. If all the nutrients go to the branches, then the culture may die.
If we talk about tools for pruning, then, as a rule, for young plants it is enough to use a pruner. A saw can be used for larger trees. Very young shoots are cut with a sharp knife.
After removing the affected branches, they must be burned. It is possible that they already have parasites or some disease has begun to develop. To prevent the spread of infection throughout the suburban area, it is better to burn all the removed material.
In addition, it is recommended to trim very large branches, as well as those branches that begin to form an irregular crown. If the culture grows as it wants, then the air supply of the tree may be disrupted.
If the cherry has not been cut for many years, then you need to perform this procedure very carefully. In the first year, it is only necessary to thin out the culture, leaving some of the affected branches on the bush. Only after a year can the remaining unusable branches be removed.
If you make global pruning, this will lead to very severe depletion and the culture may well die from winter frosts. Such care for cherries in the fall will only harm the culture.
It is also worth considering that young trees are pruned annually. Larger crops need to be thinned out no more than once every several years.
How to protect cherries from winter cold
Despite the fact that this tree has a fairly high frost resistance, it still needs certain measures before the onset of winter. Of course, if you make good top dressing in the autumn period, then the tree will be saturated with all useful microelements, so it will be more resistant to any frosts. However, do not overdo it, as too frequent fertilizing can lead to too much movement of the juice.
In order to carry out protective measures at the end of autumn, it is recommended to mulch near the trunk of a tree. To do this, it is recommended to use compost or manure. The thickness of the mulch layer should not be more than 10 cm. Snow that will fall with the onset of winter will be an excellent protection for the rhizome of the plant.
Before you cover the cherry for the winter, you need to pay attention so that the material does not in any way touch the trunk of the culture. Otherwise, the bark may begin to hurt and rot. In addition, some experienced gardeners in the last days of autumn wrap a tree trunk with several layers of white paper. On top of it, non-woven material or polyethylene is laid. Thanks to this, it will be possible to protect the bark of the tree from sunburn.
Watering a tree
Care for cherries in the fall includes soil moisture. If we are talking about young seedlings, then they must be supplied with water up to 15 times. Adult trees in the autumn are watered a little less often, but more abundantly. Final watering is carried out immediately before digging and fertilizing. In this case, the amount of water should be large. Moisture must pass to a depth of at least 50 cm. To do this, you can use plastic tubes that need to be stuck in the ground. After that, the tree can in no case be watered anymore because the juice has not moved.
Pest protection
To protect cherries from such troubles during the onset of the first frost, it is recommended to spray the trunk circle with a 5% urea solution. It is also worth considering that cherry is very often attacked by a laceworm caterpillar, hawthorn and cherry moth.
These parasites damage the kidneys when they begin to swell intensely. Insects eat not only them, but also juicy young leaves of the plant. In order to get rid of unwanted pests once and for all, it is recommended to spray the trunk and branches of trees with a solution in which the insecticide will be contained.
Diseases
Despite all the efforts of gardeners, trees periodically suffer from ailments. If we talk about cherries, then most often it affects the rust. In this case, young shoots and foliage are most vulnerable. Dark spots may appear on them. If the leaves and flowers on the cherry began to dry out, this may indicate monoliosis.
In addition, some gardeners notice that plants suffer from perforated spotting. In this case, young buds and flowers die off.
Finally
Knowing how to process cherries in autumn, how to properly care for and shelter it for the winter, you can be sure that the crop will bear fruit well. It remains only to start following the recommendations.