Common cherry is one of the favorite fruit crops of Russian gardeners. This plant annually gives a good harvest of tasty and healthy berries. In addition, a novice gardener can grow cherries, because the culture is characterized by an unpretentious character.
Botanical Description
Common Cherry is a bright representative of the Pink family. This variety is almost never found in the wild, but everywhere has been cultivated since antiquity. Moreover, plants of the species are bushy and tree-like. Popular varieties of common cherries:
- Anthracite.
- Victoria.
- Vladimirskaya.
- Chocolate Girl.
- Youth
- Turgenevka.
Depending on the variety, the height of the culture reaches from 2 to 7 meters. The crown is sprawling, lush, covered with dark emerald leaves. In spring, the plant produces peduncles of white and pink hue. The buds exude a pleasant aroma attracting insects. After them, berries are formed - drupes.
With proper care and the fulfillment of all agrotechnical requirements, the yield of ordinary cherries is quite high. From one tree per season, 10 to 25 kg of berries are harvested. The fruits of the culture are juicy drupes of spherical shape. The flesh is burgundy and dark red. The taste is sweet, with a slight acidity.
The fruits of common cherries are universal. They are consumed raw and also used to make jelly, preserves, compotes, juice. In addition, the berries are stored for a long time in dried and frozen form, while not losing beneficial properties.
Seat selection
Like other fruit and berry crops, common cherry does not tolerate a transplant. Therefore, the tree immediately planted in a permanent place. For plants, choose lighted areas that are closed from the wind and bad weather. The best place would be the east or south side.
Cherry does not tolerate stagnation of moisture at the roots, so do not plant it in a lowland. For the same reason, you should not choose a site with a close occurrence of groundwater. The plant prefers light sandy loamy and loamy soil with a neutral and alkaline reaction. If the soil is acidic, dig it in the fall and add dolomite flour or lime. One week after the procedure, fertilize the soil with rotted compost or manure.
Landing
Begin planting cherry trees in the second decade of April, when the earth warms up. Then the seedlings manage to take root before the cold weather and calmly endure the winter. For trees, dig holes with a diameter of 80 cm and a depth of 50-60 cm. Bear in mind that the roots of the culture grow, so keep a distance of 3 meters between the seedlings. Drive a peg into the landing pit, which will prevent the wind from damaging the young tree.
How to plant ordinary cherry:
- Mix the top excavated soil with 1 kg of wood ash, 20 g of potassium chloride and 40 g of superphosphate. If the soil is heavy, clay, then add a bucket of river sand.
- Inspect the roots of the seedling, remove damaged and rotten. Sprinkle places of cuts with activated carbon.
- Put the seedling for 2-3 hours in a bucket of water so that the roots are saturated with moisture.
- Place the plant in a hole, carefully spread the roots and cover the voids with soil. Make sure that the neck is 3-4 cm above the ground.
- Compact the soil, make a watering circle and moisten the planting well.
- When the water settles, mulch the trunk circle with a three-centimeter layer of sawdust or humus. Do not forget to tie the seedling to the peg.
Moisten the soil regularly for the first 2-3 days. In the future, cherries are provided with normal care.
Planting cherries in autumn
You can not plant trees before winter, because young seedlings will not tolerate frost. But if you bought cherries in the fall, then before spring it should be dug. To do this, in a shady area, where snow does not snow for a long time in the spring, a trench 30-40 cm deep is dug. Tucked seedlings are laid under it, the roots are covered with soil and moistened. The trench is covered with spruce branches or lutrasil. Make sure that the branches of cherries do not peek out from behind the shelter, otherwise they will freeze. In winter, shelter should be covered with snow.
Top dressing
Young cherry trees do not need fertilizers, they are quite enough compounds added during planting. But when the culture begins to bear fruit, then without top dressing, high yields cannot be achieved. Organic fertilizers are applied every 2-3 years. Every fall, it is advisable to feed the cherries with ordinary mineral preparations. Use 25 g of potassium sulfate and 25 g of superphosphate per square meter of area.
In spring and after flowering, trees are fed with nitrogen fertilizers at the rate of 15 g of ammonium nitrate or 10 g of urea per 1 sq. Km. m. Keep in mind that drugs are not brought into the near-stem circle of the plant, but are laid out throughout the garden. Before fertilizing, the soil is watered abundantly.
Watering
Young seedlings need regular, plentiful hydration. Mature trees have enough rainfall and groundwater. But in order to increase crop productivity, you need to water the plants at least three times per season:
- Moisten the soil near the cherry immediately after flowering. Pour the soil so that it gets wet to a depth of 40-45 cm.
- Moisten the crop while pouring berries. Use 3-5 buckets of water for each tree, depending on weather conditions.
- In October, after the leaves have fallen, moisten the soil liberally. It is advisable that the soil is wet to a depth of 70-80 cm. Thanks to this, the plant will easily tolerate winter. In addition, moist soil freezes more slowly.
After watering, do not forget to loosen the soil, otherwise a crust will form on the surface, blocking the air access to the roots. A lack of oxygen is bad for crop yields. Along with loosening, weeding, removing young growth and mulching.
Winter preparations
To prevent pests in the plant bark, whiten the trunk and skeletal branches with a solution of lime in autumn. It is advisable to add a little copper sulfate to this mixture. The adult cherry tree suffers severe frosts without shelter. But still it’s worth protecting the roots of the culture from freezing. To do this, cover the near-trunk circle with sawdust, and in winter fill it with snow. Tie up young seedlings after whitewashing with lapnik or non-woven covering material.
Pruning
Common cherries grow rapidly. And if you do not control the growth of its shoots, then they will begin to interfere with each other. And this will affect productivity. Therefore, trees need formative pruning. The event is held in the spring before the kidneys swell. During the procedure, damaged and dry shoots and news are removed, the growth of which is directed deep into the crown.
Propagation by cuttings
An inexperienced gardener will also be able to grow a cherry tree from a green shank, because this method is simple and does not require certain skills. Start the event in the second decade of June, when the shoots are growing rapidly.
For cuttings, choose young twigs or root shoots growing on the south side of the crop. Remove the top from the shoots. Cut the cuttings 10-12 cm long. Remove the bottom pair of leaves. Make the upper cut immediately above the growth bud, the lower one is carried out at an angle of 45 ° by 1 cm under the knot.
For rooting, you will need a box with drainage holes 10-12 cm deep. Fill the container with sand and peat mixed in equal parts. Treat the substrate with a weak solution of potassium permanganate to protect plants from pathogens. How to root cherries:
- Deepen the cuttings in a moistened substrate 2-3 cm. Between the shoots, maintain a distance of 5-8 cm.
- Build a wire frame above the drawer and pull the film on top.
- Put the greenhouse in a warm, lit place, but without direct sunlight.
Care for the cuttings of common cherry consists in periodically spraying with warm water from a spray bottle. As soon as the shoots take root and take root, begin to open the film to harden the crops. Before winter, dig a planting in the garden and cover well with a spruce branches. In the spring, plant seedlings in a permanent place.
Graft
This breeding method is suitable for experienced gardeners. It is used in order to obtain a certain variety of cherries using the root system of another variety. There are several ways to graft cherries on cherries:
- in the cleavage;
- under the bark;
- in a side cut;
- improved copying method.
With any method, you will need to grow a stock. You can get it from seeds or root shoots.
Seed propagation
Growing a new tree from seeds is not difficult, because all you need to do is plant them in the open ground in the fall. Seeds are buried in the soil by 5 cm. The distance between them should reach 15-20 cm. Not all of them will sprout, so plant several seeds at once.
With the advent of spring, the first sprouts will appear. Thin them out if necessary and take care of them as if they were young trees: water, loosen the soil, remove weeds. Before winter, nip the seedlings and cover them with spruce branches. Next spring, the plants are ready for use as a cultural scion.
Disease
This culture is endowed with strong immunity, but it is also susceptible to various diseases. Gardeners have to deal with such diseases of common cherry:
- Brown spotting. The disease is recognized by yellow-reddish spots appearing on the leaves. Black dots are formed on them, increasing in size. Lesions dry out and holes appear in the leaves. Over time, the plate falls off. For treatment, a 1% solution of Bordeaux fluid is used.
- Kleasterosporiosis. This disease, known as hole blotch, affects leaves and fruits. Brown spots form on the plates. And the berries are covered with neoplasms similar to warts. To get rid of the disease, damaged parts of the plant are removed. The tree is treated with a solution of copper sulfate.
- Coccomycosis. The first symptom of the disease is the appearance of red dots on the leaves. Over time, the lesions grow, the leaves dry out and fall off. For treatment after flowering, the culture is treated with fungicide "Chorus". After three weeks, the procedure is repeated. The last time the tree is sprayed 3 weeks after harvest.
- Witch's broom. This fungal disease is dangerous because the shoots of the tree become infertile. You can recognize the disease by wrinkled, pale leaves. At the end of summer, a gray coating is visible on the green part of the plant. For treatment, affected shoots are removed, and the culture is sprayed with iron sulfate.
Pests
Cherry attracts not only pollinating insects. Often the tree is attacked by such pests:
- Plum moth. Pest caterpillars devour berries and can destroy most of the crop. To fight, the trees are sprayed with insecticides such as "Citricor", "Anometrin."
- Cherry Weevil. This greenish bug with raspberry tint damages the ovaries, buds, foliage and buds of cherries. Especially dangerous are insect larvae. They eat out the kernels of the seeds inside, which is why the berries fall off. To get rid of the pest, the tree is treated with Rovikurt or Ambush preparations.
- Subcortical leaflet. This butterfly lays eggs in the cherry bark. The caterpillars that emerged from them gnaw through the moves, thereby causing significant damage to the tree. During the invasion of butterflies, it is recommended to spray the garden with a 10% solution of Karbofos.
- Cherry aphids. A dangerous pest that can destroy the crop and the tree itself. Due to the life of the insect, the growth of young shoots stops. The branches bend, the leaves twist, and the cherry becomes vulnerable to frost. To get rid of the pest, the trees are treated with potent insecticides such as Actellik, Rovikurt.
Fighting pests and diseases is more difficult than preventing their occurrence. Therefore, carry out preventive spraying of the culture. In general, pay some attention to the cherry, and it will certainly thank you with a rich harvest of delicious and healthy berries.