Cherry: planting and care. Some useful tips

Cherry is, like cherry, a representative of the Rosaceae family, but the taste of its berries is more sweet due to the fact that their pulp contains less acid. The appearance of large, ripe and juicy cherries on the market shelves and on your table is a sure sign that summer has come. Well, if you have your own personal plot or garden, then there must definitely be a place for such a wonderful culture as cherries. Planting and caring for it, of course, require certain skills and attention, but the result in the form of a rich harvest of fragrant berries is worth it!

Step 1: choose seedlings

Cherry seedlings are best purchased in specialized nurseries, while always checking with sellers whether the variety you have chosen is suitable for growing in the conditions of your region. Thanks to the efforts of breeders, with the advent of hardy and frost-resistant hybrids, sweet cherry planting was also possible in the suburbs of Moscow, where long cold winters and short, not very spoiling, warm summers were made.

So, picking up a cherry seedling that has attracted you, you should first of all pay attention to its root system: it must be absolutely healthy and well developed. Any signs of illness or damage to the roots is a good reason to refuse to buy this seedling.

Step 2: choose a place on the site

Sweet cherry, planting and care of which is planned in your garden, prefers the sun, warm and mild climate without drastic changes, such as winds and drafts. Even better, if you plant a young tree on a hill to protect it from stagnating cold air.

The soil for sweet cherry needs light, fertile, through which air and moisture penetrate well. Clay and sandy soils are far from the best option.

Step 3: a few rules for planting seedlings in the ground

First of all, you should figure out when it is better to plant a garden culture such as cherries. Planting and care, pruning and crown formation in the northern regions with more severe climates are most often performed in the spring, and in the southern regions in the autumn. The process of "settling" a new tenant - young cherry - on your site takes place in several stages:

1. Prepare a pit at least 1 m wide and 80 cm deep. It should be borne in mind that the main rhizome of sweet cherry can penetrate into the soil to a depth of more than 2 m, and horizontal roots lie 30-50 cm from the surface of the earth, so you need to not only dig a hole, but also carefully loosen its bottom to it was easier for the roots to adapt.
2. Young cherry, the planting and care of which is planned on your site, is a fragile plant, so it definitely needs support. It is created by securing a strong pole at the bottom of the pit.
3. At the bottom of the pit a mound of soil is poured, consisting of earth mixed with compost and ash, and the seedling itself is installed on top, gently and evenly distributing its roots on the mound.
4. The remaining space of the pit is filled with soil, slightly compacting it. It is important to ensure that the root neck of the seedling is 3-5 cm above the surface of the earth.
5. The soil around the cherry seedling is watered and mulched.

If you want to not only wait for a rich harvest, but also easily harvest it, you need to pay attention to how your sweet cherry grows. Landing and caring for it also involves the competent formation of the crown. Sweet cherry is not a branching garden culture, therefore, all its growths must be regularly shortened - by one fifth of the length. In order for the secondary branches to grow not strictly up, but horizontally, forming a magnificent spreading crown, you can install spacers between them, and hang the load on the strongest shoots.

In a word, good luck in your endeavors!