On the limitless territories of Russia and Ukraine, wild animals can be seen everywhere, but most of all they are found in the forest, among thickets, near rivers, on the slopes of ravines.
The wild apple tree prefers to grow in the form of a bush or a small tree. Probably, every person had a childhood memory when, running away from their parents, they enjoyed small fruits with bitterness.
Wild Apple Places
This plant belongs to those few lucky plant worlds to which man turned his attention. Wild apple tree can often be found in our broad-leaved, mixed and coniferous forests. It takes root especially well in northern places. The best apple wild game develops and gives a plentiful harvest, growing in lighted areas. The plant "settles" mostly singly in a field or along roads, sometimes in small groups at the edge of forests.
In the forest itself, under the canopy of other trees, where there is a continuous shadow, the tree feels uncomfortable, which affects growth and productivity. Wild apple trees are used for planting in shelterbelts, in the greenery of settlements as a living protection against harmful "aromas" of roads. It can be found in nurseries.
A large distribution of wild game is observed in the European part of Russia, in Ukraine and Belarus. In summer cottages and near individual houses, it is planted quite rarely, since the plots are small, and the owners are in no hurry to spend the precious area on such a tree.
Wild apple tree: description
Wild apple tree, sour acid, wild game, forest apple tree - this is a tree whose height is from three to five meters, sometimes reaches 10 meters, thickness - 40 centimeters. The crown is dense, mostly rounded, with a brown bark, grayish on old trees, with cracks. Young shoots are grassy, dark brown, some have thorns. The leaves of the wild apple tree are slightly covered with hairs, elliptical in shape, sometimes they are rounded with denticles on the edges. In mature form, they are dark green, sometimes bright green on top and matte below.
It blooms in late April - early May. The appearance of the apple tree at this time is irresistible! The tree is covered with rather large white or pink flowers, which are collected in several pieces in inflorescences - shields. Simultaneously with flowering, the leaves of the wild apple tree begin to bloom. Pollination is cross.
The fruits of the apple tree
The tree begins to bear fruit at the age of ten. The yield of the wild game is simply unbelievable, but the problem is that the fruits of the forest apple tree are bitter-sour and woody. In fresh form, they become edible only a month after collection. Seeds contain a slightly toxic substance - amygdalin.
The fruits are small, of various shapes. Their color is mainly green and yellow, it is red and whitish yellow with a pink blush. It has been scientifically proven that these small apples are superior to other cultivars in their beneficial properties. The reason for this is the beneficial substances that they contain:
• Organic acids (1.9%): malic, tartaric, citric and others.
• About 30 minerals, including iron, calcium, potassium and zinc.
• Carotene and vitamins "B", "C", "PP".
• Up to 16% of various types of sugar (glucose, sucrose and fructose).
• Volatile and essential oil.
These indicators are influenced by age and grade of a tree. The chemical composition of the fruit depends on the location and climatic conditions in which the wild apple tree grows, as well as on the size of the fruit. The smaller the apple, the more vitamin C will be in it. The leaves of the apple tree contain it much more. Flavonoids are present in the peel of the fruit.
Collection and storage of fruits
The timing of harvesting apples depends on the ripening time and lasts from the end of summer to late autumn. Fruit collection should be carried out, taking into account all the qualitative characteristics. Apples must be fully ripened, only then they have rich nutrients and a normal taste, as well as the highest capacity of vitamins.
In order to achieve high labor productivity during harvesting, you will need a high organization, as well as the technique of this work. Since apples are later used for technical processing, the simplest method is used to collect them - the fruit-bearing apple tree is shaken, and the fruits are on the ground. However, with this method, large losses are noted, and apples receive mechanical damage.
Greater productivity will be noted only if you place a stretched cloth under the tree. Falling on it, the fruits are less damaged, are not clogged to such an extent and, most importantly, you do not have to spend a lot of time searching for and selecting fallen fruits. If apples are intended to be consumed fresh, they must be picked by hand.
You need to collect wild apples in solid containers, that is, in boxes. In them they will be in special rooms until they are sent to their destinations. The collected wild raw materials must be sorted by quality and size, it should not have any foreign objects or damaged fruits.
In order to preserve the fruits of the apple tree for a long time, they must be placed in a room with a temperature of 0 degrees or stored in the forest under a thick layer of foliage. The later the fruits ripen, the longer their shelf life, which ranges from two to five months.
Growing apple trees from seeds
Probably, each person had such an occasion in his life when, out of curiosity, he dug a bone from an apple in the ground with the hope of growing a real tree. But this spontaneous desire could not succeed. In order to have a good view of the apple tree and tasty apples, you need to put a lot of work, as well as have the necessary knowledge. A tree grown from the seeds of a wild apple tree will be very frost-resistant, it can withstand even forty-degree frosts and at the same time bear fruit annually.
Before planting an apple tree, young seedlings are grown from ordinary seeds. Usually this work is carried out in nurseries, but you can, using the tips of specialists, get seedlings on your own at home. First you need to pick up high-quality seed material. It is better to take ripened fruits on that part of the crown on which they receive sufficient lighting and are well supplied with nutrients, this is the extreme branch of the apple tree. Good germination is observed in seeds collected from ripened fruits in early autumn.
Preparing seeds for germination
So that the seeds can sprout in the spring, they need to carry out stratification. But first, the collected seeds should be thoroughly washed, dried, then placed in warm water, changing it every day. For best effect, add a growth stimulator.
After swelling, the seed material is placed in a container with a mixture of wet sawdust and moss or wet sand and sawdust. To prevent mold, it is advisable to add activated carbon. Then the container must be sent to the cellar or refrigerator for two to three months.
When it is not possible to create the necessary conditions for growing seeds, you can plant them directly in the ground. In this case, all necessary landing rules must be observed. For wintering, young seedlings are transferred in the fall in the appropriate containers to the greenhouse. With the onset of warm spring days, this tiny wild apple tree moves to its constantly growing place. So that the chance of germination is high, it is recommended to place several pieces of seeds in one planting nest.
Landing area
Just knowing how to grow a plant from seed is not enough. In order for a tree (an apple tree in our case) to be able to develop and bear fruit in the future, you will have to correctly determine when choosing a site for planting. Attention should be paid to the characteristics of the fruit culture.
The open area is not suitable for planting apple trees. They also lag behind in growth and give a poor yield of fruit, planted near the forest and at the foot of the slopes. The best place is considered to be a solar site protected from the winds. If you pay due attention and carry out the right care, a forest apple tree grown by the method of sowing seeds will give positive results. A competent approach to such a procedure makes it possible to obtain strong material for varietal vaccination.
Wild apple grafting
Very often, gardeners are faced with such a case when a seedling bought in the market after five long years does not give the long-awaited results. The fruits are of a completely different variety. Sometimes you want to keep your favorite variety in your garden, not even knowing its name, using wild game, but the question arises whether it is possible to plant a wild apple tree. There is one way out of this situation - to learn how to vaccinate a cultivated variety with your own hands to wild stock.
Such work is very exciting and interesting. On one trunk, you can make several scions from different varieties. In this case, each branch of the apple tree will bear different varieties of beautiful and tasty fruits. Feeling like a breeder is not enough, you need to learn the technique of vaccinating cultivated varieties on a seedling of wild game grown by yourself.
During vaccination, part of one plant is transferred to another, for their further growth. The part that is intended for vaccination is called a scion, the plant on which the vaccination is made is a stock. There are different ways of grafting trees. Wild apple trees are often grafted with cuttings. In spring, this technique is best performed at the beginning of the movement of the juice, when the first leaves begin to appear on the tree.
Scion preparation
The scions are young shoots of the current year. When choosing them, you need to pay attention to the fact that they are strong enough and well developed. Harvesting cuttings is carried out in the fall after the first frost, to give them the opportunity to harden. Branches are taken from the south side of the tree and cut into pieces 20-30 cm long.
For storage, cuttings should be placed in the refrigerator or in an unheated room. An ideal storage method is to bury them in the snow, but it is acceptable only in snowy winters. Sliced branches are placed in a plastic bag, the ends are not tied, then wrapped in thick paper and in a metal mesh to save from rodents. When stored in a refrigerator, the cuttings can be wrapped in a damp cloth and placed in a plastic bag.
For summer vaccination, cuttings are not needed. Everything can be prepared on the spot, and the faster it is done, the better the work will be. For the cuttings, an annual branch with good buds and the right apple tree is selected. All leaves are removed from it, then everything is done according to the vaccination technique in the selected way.
All about the diseases and various troubles of apple trees
None of the gardeners are safe from the fact that some troubles can happen on its site. Good care is not a full guarantee that the garden is not attacked by pests, trees bypass diseases, weeds will be completely destroyed. Of course, experienced gardeners, caring for plants correctly, face such problems infrequently and know how, if necessary, to quickly protect their favorite trees. In life, people who have no experience, if they have a garden, have to face many problems from time to time.
Productivity and decorativeness of trees is greatly reduced due to disease. Wild apple trees are also prone to certain diseases. The plant is affected by living organisms, which are transmitted from plant to plant. But most often, mushrooms become the cause of the disease. There are diseases of leaves, flowers, shoots and fruits caused by bacteria and viruses, against them in our country there are no such chemicals that would work effectively.
The most common diseases of apple trees: powdery mildew, brown spotting, rust, scab and others. As a result of such diseases, the apple tree prematurely loses its foliage, weakens. Flowering does not become so plentiful, resulting in reduced yield. The trunk, branches and roots of the plant suffer from the following diseases: black cancer, cytospore necrosis, rot of roots and trunks.
Unpleasant conditions for apple trees are severe frosts, drought, poor soil nutrients. This all adversely affects the viability of plants. In this case, they begin to hurt, but such diseases are not contagious.
Pests of apple trees
More than 200 species of harmful insects, such as flies, butterflies, beetles, as well as herbivorous mites, develop on apple trees. They feed on various parts of the tree: buds, buds, foliage, fruits, and, very unpleasantly, trunks. Microscopic animals, which are nematodes, and larger ones, proteins and birds, often act as pests.
Pests are divided into the following groups: leaf-eating insects, sucking, gall formers, miners, xylophages or stem pests and fruit pests. The most common pests of apple fruit are the codling moth and apple sawfly. Moth for the season gives three generations. Its caterpillars can harm all the fruits of the apple tree. In winter, a forest apple tree can hide a codling moth under its bark.
Pest protection for apple trees
Protect trees from pests on time, and if the garden is in the private sector, try to use pesticides only in case of emergency. Against sucking pests, herbal preparations have an effective effect. For example, decoctions of grass and black elderberry leaves, Caucasian chamomile, medicinal or Dalmatian are used against aphids.
One of the prerequisites for the normal development of the plant is to increase resistance to such adverse environmental factors as climatic conditions and harmful organisms. To achieve this, you need to apply fertilizer on time, conduct annual pruning of the crown, and destroy weeds. Such a set of agrotechnical measures will enhance the circulation of juice through a conductive system. It will completely fill the passages laid by stem pests. In this regard, the death of larvae will occur.
If you have to treat the trees with chemicals, it is very important to follow all precautions, accurately following the instructions for use of the poison. It is imperative to meet the deadlines after which the fruits can be eaten, which will help maintain human health. The first treatment of the garden with pesticides should be carried out before the sap flow begins.
Unfortunately, spraying with poisons will not save the garden from the invasion of pests. The fight against them begins already during the acquisition of a seedling, and ends with a competent cleaning of the site in late autumn. You need to try to choose a healthy planting material so as not to bring pests and diseases that are better to prevent into the garden. But when they appear, one must act decisively and very quickly. Only then will a wild apple tree planted on the street or in the garden make the air much cleaner and cooler. People nearby will feel much healthier.