Yew is a coniferous tree or shrub, it has a large number of varieties and varieties. This plant is unpretentious in care and is a long-liver. Gardeners are very fond of using yew when creating hedges on personal plots and summer cottages, in parks and squares. It is widely distributed mainly on the European continent and is a long-lived record holder. Description and photo of yew berry will be presented in the article.
General information
Yew berry refers to conifers of the yew family. Growing up, it reaches a height of 10 to 20 meters, sometimes up to 28 meters. Yew growth is slow, but it has an impressive lifespan - some survive to one and a half or even four thousand years. One of the oldest trees in Europe is the Fortingel yew, growing on the territory of Scotland, which, according to scientists, is from two to five thousand years old.
The tree has a diameter of about one and a half meters and an ovoid-cylindrical dense crown. Very often multi-vertex crown species are found in yew. Its bark is reddish-gray in color, with a plate or smooth texture. The yew buds are round or oval, light brown in color, with a small amount of scales.
The yew berry photo shows that the tree trunk is covered with a large number of "sleeping" buds, which give numerous lateral shoots. The leaves of needles are from 20 to 35 mm in length and 2-2.5 mm in width, they have a dark green color with a brilliant shade.
Habitat
Yew berry is widespread in Central, Western and Southern Europe, in Northern it reaches the territory of Norway, Sweden and the Åland Islands. It also grows in northern Iran, in southwestern Asia and in northwestern Africa. On the territory of Russia and in the countries bordering it, yew forests are well preserved in the Carpathians and the Crimean mountains. It is also distributed in the western part of the North Caucasus (Tisosamshitovaya grove, Caucasian reserve).
In Belarus, there are local places of growth of yew, especially a lot of it in Belovezhskaya Pushcha. It is also widely represented in the Kaliningrad region of Russia and in the western regions of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Yew most often grows in forests, undergrowth and forest stand, on the plains. In the mountains it can be found at an altitude of up to two thousand meters above sea level.
Fastigiata Robusta
The yew berry has several varieties. One of the most common is yew Fastigiata Robusta, or European. In Latin, "fastigiata" means "conical", which hints at the shape of the tree. Let's consider it in more detail.
Yew berry Fastigiata Robusta is an evergreen, large shrub that grows strictly upright. It has a dense, slender crown shape that resembles a column. Robusta branches are not very branched, densely located, with a large number of shoots of small length. Growing up, it reaches a height of four to eight meters, and a width of 0.8 to 1.5 meters.
The structure of the needles is needle-shaped, the arrangement is radial, wide. In shape, it is slightly curved down, has a juicy green color. This type of yew tree prefers to grow on moist soils that are saturated with minerals and many nutrients, as well as on calcareous soils. However, it is not very whimsical and feels good in slightly acidic and moderately dry types of soil, but does not tolerate strongly acidic ones.
Yew berry Fastigiata is resistant to pressure on the root system from other plants, is wind resistant and is well established in urban environments. Robusta fastigiata is a long-lived plant and can reach a millennium. This type of yew is ideal for landscaping, creating various architectural forms and hedges.
Grade Summergold
Another common variety is Summergold, which in translation into Russian sounds like "Golden Summer". Yew berry Summergold is a coniferous, evergreen plant. It grows extremely slowly, like its counterparts of other varieties, ten years after planting, this yew grows to only one meter. Its color depends on the season, while in summer it has a golden yellow tint, then the rest of the time it is greenish brown.
An adult plant can calmly tolerate cold weather, and young ones need to be insulated for the duration of wintering. Yew Summergold also survives windy weather. It is resistant to heat and is not exposed to burns from direct sunlight, but it is preferable to plant it in semi-shaded places.
Yew berry of this variety is a long-liver, especially when growing in favorable conditions. Its needles reaches three centimeters in length and is located quite densely on the shoots, which have a crescent shape and wide edges.
The root system is very flexible, slightly moistened soils are very suitable for it, in which the nutrient medium content is significantly higher than in dry ones. However, very wet soil is not suitable for this yew, as this will lead to rotting of the roots, and lime soil is ideal for it.
Yew berry: planting and care
For proper yew planting, you must first select the right soil. It grows rapidly and develops in a light, moist land with rich nutrients and a good drainage system. Drainage is very easy to do on your own, for this you need to mix turf soil, sand and peat in a ratio of 3: 2: 2.
Do not plant yew in soil with high acidity, it will feel better in a slightly acidic or alkaline environment. And also sandy soil and soil with a high content of salts of heavy metals are contraindicated, since in it the shrub will quickly die.
Planting yew berry requires compliance with certain conditions. If you plan to plant several plants at once in one row, it is necessary to maintain a distance between shrubs from 0.5 to 1 meter. If the size of the site allows you to withstand a larger interval, then it is recommended to increase the distance to 2.5 meters.
Landing
When landing in open soil, you need to take into account a number of nuances. These include the following:
- Landing in the open ground of yew shrubs is carried out in early or mid spring. Before the landing, dig holes with a depth of 60 to 70 cm. If you plan to create a hedge from the bushes, then in this case a trench is excavated with a depth of no more than half a meter.
- In the prepared holes (trench), it is recommended to add a special soil mixture, the so-called coniferous earth. It is rich in soil fungi that help the root system better organize the relationship with the new soil and saturate the bush with trace elements and nitrogen.
- Cuttings of yew berry are placed in the holes and sprinkled with earth, while the root neck does not need to be deepened. After planting, the soil around the seedlings must be tamped slightly and pour plenty of water at room temperature.
Care after landing. Watering
In the first year after planting yew, the bush needs to be watered quite often. This is due to the fact that at this time the root system is still not well developed and is not able to consume nutrients and moisture from the soil in the required quantities.
In the following years, one watering per week will be sufficient, and in the event of a dry period - once every five days. It is especially necessary to pay attention to young plants. For one bush you need to use 10 liters of water.
In order for the evaporation of moisture from the soil surface to occur more slowly, it is necessary to mulch. To do this, the soil around the trunk must be sprinkled with bark or wood chips, while the layer thickness should be from five to seven centimeters. After mulching, the shrub is watered much less frequently.
Yew berry: care with fertilizer
After the first feeding of the yew during planting, the next time it needs to be fertilized after one year. At the same time, the amount of the nutrient mixture is reduced by 30%. Adult yews do not require fertilizer, as they have already formed and get all the substances necessary for the growth and development of soil and moisture.
Young shrubs are recommended to be fed with complex mineral fertilizers. After two years of age, top dressing is completely stopped, since concentrated additives not only will not bring benefits, but can also cause growth delays in the plant.
After the first wintering, young yew is recommended to be fertilized with humus or compost. Immediately before top dressing, you need to dig the soil, and then make an additive. Digging is done so that the root system receives mineral and organic substances in full.
Shrub pruning
The grown yews are pruned. This is done in several cases. Sanitary pruning removes damaged and dry branches. During this operation, the plant is shortened strongly enough to prevent repeated drying. Even after heavy pruning, the shrub regenerates very quickly, regardless of the age of the plant.
Decorative pruning, as well as sanitary pruning, is performed in autumn, spring or summer. Branches are reduced by one third of their length. Garden scissors are used to form the crown of the bush , and branches are pruned with a pruner. To prune young shoots, a garden knife is used, and a garden saw is used to remove thick branches. Forming pruning allows you to give the yew a beautiful look and create any shape. Often from these shrubs create whole sculptural compositions.
Seed propagation
In order to grow yew from seeds, the fruits of the plant must be collected from an adult shrub in late autumn, when they are already fully ripe. After that, they are poured with water at room temperature and allowed to stand for two to three hours. This is done so that it is possible to freely separate the outer shell of the seeds. Planting material must be dried and stratified throughout the year.
Stratification is carried out as follows: yew seeds are placed in a container with previously calcined and sieved sand, which must be moistened. Instead of sand, you can use a special coconut substrate, which is purchased in a store for gardeners. Then the capacity is placed in the refrigerator, the temperature in which does not exceed +4 ... + 5 ° . After one year, stratified yew seeds are planted in a greenhouse, after which the needles are mulched. Provided that all procedures are carried out correctly, in the spring about 70% of seedlings will sprout.
Propagation by cuttings
It is necessary to grow yew with cuttings from the beginning of April to the end of May or from the beginning of September to the third decade of October. The branches of an adult healthy plant are cut and dissolve them into cuttings from 15 to 20 cm long, from three to four shoots are left on each cuttings.
Tanks for planting cuttings are filled with a mixture of peat, sand and chopped coniferous bark. Needles are removed from the base of the cuttings, then they are planted in prepared planting containers, which the ambassadors transfer to the greenhouse for wintering.
In order for the cuttings to be well received and begin their development, they must be treated with growth stimulants. After the cuttings have grown and gained strength, in the spring they can be planted in open ground, observing agro-technical conditions. Five to seven years later, full-grown shrubs or trees will grow, however, if the seedlings are kept in the greenhouse, the growth process may decrease, delaying for two years.
Yew pests and ways to deal with them
The main enemies of the yew are the so-called sucking and pine-eating pests. These sucking insects include:
- Worms.
- Scaffolds.
- False shields.
- Cicadas.
- Aphid.
- Bedbugs.
- Gall mites.
These pests feed on the juice of the bush, which leads to inhibition of the plant and very often to its death. Insects are located on the branches of yew, sometimes in its tissues and gradually destroy it.
Coniferous pests include:
- Spruce leaf needle-eater.
- Pine scoop.
- Larvae of mosquitoes-centipedes.
- Snails.
They destroy directly the needles themselves, blooming buds and the root system.
With all these parasites, it is necessary to fight in a timely manner so that it can not destroy the plants. To do this, you must first remove insects from the trunk and branches with a brush or a blunt knife, and then treat the entire shrub and the soil around it with insecticidal preparations.
Conclusion
From the above description of yew berry, we can conclude that it is unpretentious in care and very convenient in landscape design. Following the simple recommendations and advice of gardeners for planting and growing, you can get a beautiful tree or shrub as a result. He will delight with his beauty all year long for a very large amount of time.