If you have a small garden plot, and at the same time you dream about an apple orchard, then the cultivation of columnar varieties will be the best option. Recently, they are found more often and deservedly enjoy the attention of summer residents. Still, they do not form side branches and grow vertically upwards, which makes them stunningly convenient for growing. Trees need minimal care, fruit collection is available even for a child, treatment from pests and diseases is maximally facilitated.
Garden of Wonders
Indeed, the garden, in which the apple-tree Dialogue Dialog grows in even rows, is completely different from the usual one for us. The trees here grow in even rows, tight to each other. Usually fruit trees can bear fruit for 40-60 years. But the columns do not live for so long. After about 15 years, their productivity drops dramatically, and the fruits remain only at the tops. Therefore, in 2-3 years, start preparing a shift. When young trees begin to enter the fruiting phase, old ones can be gradually cut.
Over the years, the colony-shaped apple tree Dialog grows fruit branches only 20 cm in each direction. This is what gives gardeners the opportunity to save space and plant trees in thickened rows. The soil here is not dug, between the rows there is only 1 m left, so that you can freely pass and harvest. This is a big plus, because weeds do not develop well in the shade. But the lower part of the trees receives a lot of light, and sometimes the largest fruits are formed there. The height of each apple tree is slightly higher than human height. By old age, some can reach 2.5 meters. Hardwood allows you to grow without bending under the weight of apples.
Garden seating
The columnar apple-tree Dialog is an instance worthy of attention. Below we will consider its main characteristics, but for now let's take some more time to place the landings. On 10 sq. M. planted up to 20 seedlings of apple trees. This is a huge array that will yield a large crop. Each row should be planted with coeval plants. Usually these are annuals. But you can’t plant seedlings between adult apple trees, they are exposed and stretched up. There is another pattern - summer varieties are planted next to summer ones, and winter varieties are planted next to winter ones. In order for you to get a sufficient amount of the crop, you must have pollinators on the variety site. It can be ordinary or columnar apple trees. The main thing is that there should be at least two of them.
Rootstock cultivation
The columnar apple tree Dialog, like most of its brethren, grows extremely poorly on its own roots. Therefore, dwarf stocks are used for it, which gives an excellent result. Trees bear fruit every year, delighting the owner with juicy fruits. These are medium-sized trees, very convenient for processing and harvesting. The fruits are medium in size, about 100 g each apple, a beautiful yellow color. The taste is sweet and sour, with a pleasant aroma, and the flesh is white, juicy, fine-grained. This variety ripens in July, being one of the earliest. As a pollinator variety, you can use the President apple tree, they bloom and ripen at one time.
By the way, if you want to supplement your garden with trees that will give late apples that are well suited for lying, then feel free to choose the Currency variety. The fruits can be harvested in October, and they will lie until the very spring, if your household has not eaten them before. In taste and beauty, they are not inferior to the best southern varieties.
Spring apple grafting for beginners
Since the columns will not grow and bear fruit on their own roots, you will need:
- Good dwarf stock. Any wild game that grows in your garden is not suitable here. It is best to buy seedlings in the nursery, then you will be sure of the result. In the southern regions, the apple tree Dusen and Paradizka is often used as a stock; in the northern part of Russia, the Paradise is red-leaved. The list does not end there, but choose from what is best suited to your climatic conditions.
- Priva, collected and stored in accordance with all the rules.
- A very sharp knife.
- Banding material.
- Wood hacksaw.
- Garden Var.
Planned activities
Have to prepare in advance. It will be required to purchase the necessary number of seedlings, and drop them in pre-prepared pits. Now you have stocks for vaccination. Now it's up to varietal grafting material. In the autumn, when the sap flow is over, after the first frosts, they start harvesting young, healthy shoots of this summer (annuals). They must be bundled and laid in moist sand, then hidden in the basement, where the temperature will be stable, about +2 degrees. If there is no basement, take a damp cloth, wrap the cuttings in it and clean the refrigerator down.
Getting down to business
How is apple tree vaccination performed in spring? For beginners, this can be a daunting task, but there is nothing wrong with this, you just need a knack. There are different vaccination methods you can use in your garden.
- Simple replication. It is easy to practice when the diameter of the branch and the cuttings are the same. On the scion and rootstock, even, oblique sections of 3-4 cm long are made. Now fresh sections are applied to each other, and the joint is fixed with a film.
- Improved copulation - in fact, this is the same procedure. To improve the connection of the two parts, an additional transverse is made in the middle of each main section to make a sharp tongue.
- Vaccination in the split. If your stocks have managed to develop into serious, young trees, and young branches are very different in diameter, then you can use the following method. Therefore, the stock is split with a sharp ax to a depth of 10 cm, and on the scion a one-sided cut is made at an acute angle. Now the slices are smeared with var and the place of grafting is wrapped with a film.
Next, you need to monitor the status of the vaccine. As soon as she begins to collect kidneys, you can breathe a sigh of relief. Now you can remove the bandage.
Buying ready-made seedlings
Not all gardeners have the opportunity to find high-quality stock, as well as varietal scion. But what if you really want to plant a Dialog column on your site? Contact your local nursery. Surely you will be offered not even one, but several varieties of columnar apple trees to choose from. What do you need to pay attention to? It is best to plant trees in early spring, before the buds begin to bloom in the trees. This is especially true for early ripening varieties, such as the colony-shaped apple tree Dialog. Seedlings that are already two years old are usually sold in special containers. In this case, the plant almost does not feel its move to a new place and may already this year please you with flowering.
One or two year
A beginner gardener will definitely pay attention to the one that is older. But this is not always correct. Cultivation of a columnar apple-tree Dialog gives reason to believe that annual seedlings take root and start growing much faster than biennials. But be sure to pay attention that the roots of the seedlings are not too dry or rotten. The site should be selected sunny, open, but protected from strong winds. It is imperative that the soil is moisture-permeable, fertile, and the occurrence of groundwater is not higher than 2 meters.
Spring planting of seedlings
For spring planting, you need to prepare pits for the future apple orchard in the fall . To do this, dig them at a distance of half a meter from each other, leaving a row spacing of 1 meter wide. When digging, do not forget to lay the top fertile layer of earth on one side of the pit, and the bottom on the other. Add to the quality soil several buckets of compost or humus, 100 g of potassium fertilizer and superphosphate. Pour coarse sand or gravel at the bottom of the pit, and cover it with a layer of soil about halfway down.
Planting and care of the column-shaped apple tree Dialogue is not too complicated, there are a huge number of details that must be taken into account. With the onset of warm days, we place the young tree in the planting pit, straighten the roots and fill up the fertile soil remaining from the fall. Now water well and leave for a few days. When the soil sags, you can supplement the pit just with soil from the lower layers of the soil.
Landing care
So, on your site there appeared your own columnar apple tree, and not some, but varietal. The dialogue begins to please liquid fruits from the end of June, and is in a hurry to bloom immediately after planting. But for now this is not necessary at all. Before budding, the pruning and prophylactic treatment from pests and diseases, as well as fertilizing with nitrogen fertilizers, is carried out. But that's it for next year. Now it’s your business to water the plantings and observe.
When the buds appear, they will need to be removed. Gradually, the load can be increased. In the second year, leave ten flowers, and then gradually increase this amount. In addition to pruning, top dressing and thinning, the colony-shaped apple trees of the Dialog variety need regular watering and loosening of the trunk circle. However, if the trees grow on clonal stocks, then you risk damaging the roots. In this case, it is not mulching, but tinning. That is, siderates are sown within a radius of 25 cm from the trunk, and they are regularly mowed.
Summer care
Before planting, it would be nice to find out what conditions the Dialog apple-tree apple tree likes. The description of the variety, photos and reviews of which we provide for you today, contains information that this is an early summer variety. That is, in the spring the plant will need a huge supply of nutrients in order to grow the crop.
In early June, it is necessary to make mineral fertilizers. As soon as the first ovaries appear, it is necessary to perform their thinning. Only half of the resulting ovaries remain on the branches. When future apples reach the size of a cherry, two ovaries are left in each inflorescence, and when they grow to the size of a walnut, one of the two should remain.
Disease prevention
Description of the apple tree Dialog emphasizes its high winter hardiness and resistance to diseases and pests. Therefore, you do not have to water the garden with chemicals throughout the season. However, it will be necessary to monitor the condition of the trees regularly, because the diseases mutate, and the pests adapt. Do not forget that the harvest begins in July, which means that the last processing can be done in June. From August, stop feeding apple trees with organic and nitrogen fertilizers. At this time, plants really need potassium, which helps to ripen young shoots faster.
Fall and spring
It is not surprising that the Dialog apple tree is so popular. Reviews say that this compact, neat plant gives a fantastic amount of apples. Of course, they are not stored for long, but for a month and a half it will be possible to enjoy delicious, juicy fruits. In order to get the same result next year, you need to feed the apple tree with organics, treat it against pests hidden in the bark and soil.
In early spring, the columns are re-treated for diseases and pests. To do this, use a one percent solution of Bordeaux liquid or nitrafen. The goal is to destroy microorganisms and pests that have taken refuge in the bark and soil. Urea can be used as nitrogen fertilizer.
Features of watering
The productivity of the colon-shaped apple-tree Dialog is simply fantastic, about 6 kg of selected, large fruits from one tree. In the presence of nutritious soil and sufficient watering, this amount can be doubled. Here I want to stop at watering. This column does not have a core root that goes deep, and the entire root system is located on the surface of the earth. Therefore, you need to water every other day in moderate weather, and in the heat every day. A lack of water can lead to a complete loss of crop.
Once again about top dressing
The formation of a huge number of fruits requires nutrition, therefore, colony-shaped gardens need nutrients throughout the growing season. In spring, it is good to introduce slurry or chicken droppings, and urea solution as a nitrogen fertilizer. All this is done before the swelling of the kidneys. Until mid-summer, it is recommended to spray twice more with urea with a concentration of 0.1%. In the first half of June, complex mineral fertilizers are applied, and in August we focus on potassium.
Instead of a conclusion
Column-shaped apple trees Dialog is a modern and very productive variety that is worthy of the attention of gardeners throughout Russia. Well adapted for wintering under the most severe conditions, these apple trees will delight for many years delicious fruits with juicy pulp and a wonderful aroma. Collected in early July, they can lie on the windowsill until the very end of summer. If you additionally plant winter varieties on the site, you will eat homemade apples almost all year round.