So you became the owner of a summer cottage! Congratulations! What to plant in the first place? Which garden crops to prefer? Of course, there should be trees, even if the plot is not very large. And start landscaping your summer cottage or garden plots with the bookmarks of a small apple orchard.
When to plant
apple seedlings? How to do this in order to guarantee a large harvest? What place to choose for landing? We will answer these and other questions in this article.
So how to plant an apple tree? In autumn, cold-resistant varieties can be planted a month and a half before the onset of the first frost. For the southern regions, this is October; in the northern regions, September.
What kind of apples to choose?
First, decide on your preferred varieties. If only one tree is planted, then think about a "neighbor" for it, because the apple trees need cross-pollination. And if the neighbors in the country at the site do not grow apple trees, then find a place on your site and plant at least two seedlings.
Further, if an apple orchard is planted, then buy seedlings of both summer, early, autumn, and winter varieties.
Cooking pits
Prepare the landing pits. The distance between the seedlings should be at least 3 meters. For columnar and dwarf varieties, the distance can be reduced to a meter. The depth of the pits should be at least 80 cm, and the width should be about 1 meter.
How to plant an apple tree in the fall? When landing, one must not forget the basic rules. Firstly, seedlings grown in greenhouses should not be immediately planted in open ground. If the young trees were not hardened before the sale, then the probability of engraftment is very low. Temperature extremes, direct sunlight - all this can lead to illness and death of the seedling.
Further, the right choice of landing site is the key to success. Apple trees do not like the high occurrence of groundwater, and, consequently, wetlands. Choose a sunny, elevated location, preferably sheltered from the wind.
Fertilizers - to be or not to be?
Any experienced gardener can, based on their own experience, tell you how to plant apple trees. In the autumn, a month before the onset of cold weather, organic and mineral fertilizers must be added to the previously prepared pits. We recommend mixing the top fertile layer of earth taken out of the pit with two buckets of rotted horse manure, 200 grams of superphosphate and 60 grams of potassium sulfate. Remember that the more fertilizer you make, the more powerful and taller the tree will be. However, this does not affect the number of fruits on it. Moreover, a tree “overfed” with fertilizers does not bear fruit well.
How to plant an apple tree - in autumn or spring, there is no fundamental difference. The main thing is that the young seedling should not be frozen, and should be at rest when planting. In the fall - when it has already "retired", and in the spring - until the active vegetation has begun.
When planting, you do not need to deepen the neck of the sprout. Handle the root system very carefully. The less affected the roots of the tree, the higher the percentage of survival of the plant.
So to summarize. How to plant an apple tree in the fall? The right place, planting dates, varieties of apples that are resistant to low temperatures, and the desire to break an apple orchard or grow a family apple tree - this is the key to success!