A healthy and fertile garden necessarily requires fertilizer for the apple tree in the fall. Which ones are better - organic or mineral? When and in what dose should they be applied? The article discusses these and other issues of planting and caring for the apple orchard.
Is it difficult to grow a garden?
When we admire the well-groomed fruit-bearing garden, it seems to us that gardening is a fairly simple task that does not require special knowledge and skills. What's so hard?
In the spring, stick a seedling in the ground, water well, spray a couple of times a season - that’s all the work. People ignorant of the ability to breed and grow apple trees, it seems that it is very simple every year to have a good fruit harvest. However, experienced gardeners know that growing fruit trees is a serious job requiring experience, patience, and hard work.
One of the most important points in caring for an apple orchard is its competent top dressing. Balanced soil fertilization will enable trees to grow and bear fruit normally. Moreover, the frequency of fruiting is minimized. The tree does not get sick, it is easier to cope with pests, it recovers faster after such stresses as heat in summer and frost in winter.
Fertilizing the soil for planting a seedling
It is known that autumn planting of an apple tree is preferable. This makes it possible for the root system to gain strength over the winter, recover from the stress of transplantation and prepare for future vegetation. The trees should be planted in mid-autumn after leaf fall.
When choosing seedlings of apple trees for planting, you need to know the composition of the soil. This will make it possible to estimate how much and what type of fertilizer needs to be applied to the earth to increase its fertility.
The best fertilizers for planting apple trees are organic. They are introduced in such quantities:
- ash - 1 kg per pit;
- humus - 2 small buckets per pit;
- compost - 3-4 buckets per pit;
- peat - 3-4 buckets per pit.
You can mix all these components in a ratio of 1: 4: 5: 5 and feed the earth with a bucket of the resulting mixture.
Mineral fertilizers for planting should not be made. Often you can find disputes about what fertilizers are needed for apple trees, and tips for applying phosphate, nitrogen or potassium fertilizers for seedlings. However, as practice shows, the application of mineral fertilizers does more harm than good. Trees are sick and often die. This is due to the ability of mineral fertilizers to cause root burns. And the roots of the seedlings are still young and tender, so the injuries endure painfully. Organics only bring benefits. It is better to begin to make mineral fertilizers for apple trees in the fall, for the 3-4th year after planting a tree.
It is also necessary to consider the climatic conditions and the intended use of the apple variety for these conditions. If in the south of our country there are no restrictions on planting any varieties, then in the northern regions it is necessary to control the winter hardiness of apple trees. If you plant a tree unsuitable for harsh conditions, it will simply die, and the effort will be wasted.
Apple care. Fertilizer Schedule
In the spring, areas affected by pests or frosts, old branches or those that do not bring crops, as well as lichens, are removed. After pruning, all exposed areas must be treated with garden varnish so that pests and pathogenic microflora do not enter unprotected areas. It is necessary to apply whitewash on a tree trunk to a sufficient height. Summer care consists mainly in watering if the weather is very hot, and in the timely removal of fallen apples so that they do not rot under the tree.
Throughout the season, fertilizing the garden is mandatory. The first portion is introduced in the spring. Fertilizers are needed both organic (every year) and mineral (for the 3-4th year after planting). It is important to remember that organic fertilizers should consist of humus, as fresh organic matter will damage the roots of the tree.
The main dressings are made in accordance with such a schedule:
- the first is the period of opening the buds before flowering;
- the second - when the ovary reaches the size of a walnut;
- the next one month after flowering, when young shoots begin to grow;
- the final fertilizer application cycle for the apple tree is in the fall, to replenish potassium and create a supply of nutrients in the tree before wintering.
Autumn care, the importance of top dressing in autumn
After harvesting, you need to prepare the tree for the difficult wintering conditions. The harsher the climate, the more carefully it needs to be done. Work must begin at the end of the first month of autumn. By this time, watering of the tree stops, so as not to reduce its winter hardiness. In autumn, the plant is again subjected to a thorough inspection, all unnecessary branches are removed, all places of the saw cut are treated with a solution of copper sulfate, followed by applying a garden var. If the tree is old enough and has a rather thick bark on it, you must also check it for harmful insects. If the result is positive, it is better to remove and burn the bark to prevent the spread of pests.
In order to make it easier for the tree to survive the winter, and in order to get a good harvest next year, mandatory fertilizer is applied for the apple tree in the fall. This is a very important stage of garden care, because it is in the autumn that the future crop is laid, therefore it is important to provide the trees with all the necessary nutrients. Organic or nitrogenous, potassium-phosphorus fertilizers for apple trees are added under the roots in the amount according to the instructions for the specific type of fertilizer. All work must be carried out before the onset of severe cold, in winter the tree should enter fully with a supply of nutrients and well protected externally.
What to choose fertilizers for an apple tree in the fall? How to calculate the dose
To fertilize an apple tree in autumn, it is best to use both types of top dressing - organic and mineral.
In order to calculate the dose required for each particular tree, you need to know and take into account not only climatic conditions, but also the age of the plant, its level of fruiting in the past season. After all, the larger the harvest, the, accordingly, the more the tree spent useful substances and the more it needs to be replenished. Still need to take into account the area of growth of its roots, approximately this will be the size of the tree trunk circle. The trunk circle is determined by the size of the shadow of the tree crown on a summer day. A perennial plant can have a basal circle of up to 50 square meters. meters. Having assessed all these indicators, one can easily calculate the dose of organic matter and mineral fertilizing.
Fertilizing with mineral fertilizers
Simple potash, phosphorus and nitrogen fertilizers for apple trees are applied in the following dosage:
- Potash fertilizers - up to 20 g for each square meter of the trunk circle.
- Phosphoric - up to 35 g per square meter. This is the norm for the middle band, slightly higher for the southern edges - up to 60 g per square meter.
- Nitrogen - 20 grams per 1 square meter of the trunk circle.
When applying mineral fertilizers, it is best to dissolve them in water and water the tree.
Modern gardening successfully uses complex fertilizers, which include several nutrients at once. Such combined preparations primarily include:
- "Nitrofoska" - potassium-nitrogen-phosphorus top dressing, contains in its composition potassium - at least 11%, nitrogen - at least 11%, readily soluble phosphorus - at least 11%. The number of constituent components may vary, which is marked with the marking "Nitrofoski" (grade A, B, etc.). The application rate is on average 50-70 g per 1 m.
- "Nitroammofoska" - in the composition contains nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus at 17%. Under each fruiting apple tree, 200 to 400 g of fertilizer should be applied.
- "Ammophos" - contains at least 10% nitrogen and at least 40% phosphorus. It is successfully applied as autumn top dressing of a garden on chernozems.
Organic apple nutrition
What fertilizers for apple trees in autumn are applied in addition to mineral fertilizers? It is, of course, organic. It is best to use humus or humus for these purposes. The amount of added humus also depends on the age of the apple tree and on the area of root growth. On average, about 10-20 kg of humus must be applied to a young tree up to 4 years old, up to 45-55 kg of fertilizer is applied for a tree of 10 years and older. These standards are suitable for places with a temperate climate, for the southern regions the amount of fertilizer applied can be increased by 20%, since the colds come later in the autumn, the tree manages to absorb all the nutrients and complete its preparation for winter.
Organic fertilizers are applied by digging or when loosening the soil.
Timely fed apple trees will have time to assimilate all the nutrients that make up the fertilizer, and will be better prepared for the difficult wintering conditions.