Apricot - a large tree with a strong trunk, belongs to the Rosaceae family. China is considered its homeland, then it spread to Armenia and Iran. In the warm regions of Russia is very common. Growing an apricot tree in the middle lane will require a lot of effort.
Apricot Dessert: variety description and benefits
- One of the best northern species.
- Excellent product specifications.
- Recommended for cultivation as a garden crop.
- It does not require the creation of special conditions for winter time.
Apricot has an excellent sweet and sour taste. The fruits are light, with a thin skin, a small bone and juicy tender flesh. Their weight is about 30 g. Apricot fruits contain a small amount of inulin, pectin, starch, malic, citric, ascorbic acid, potassium and vitamin B15. The carotene in the fruit gives it a beautiful orange tint.
Pollinating a variety of Louise with a mixture of pollen from the varieties Comrade and Best of Michurinsky, the apricot Desert was bred.
The fruit tree grows quickly and tolerates cold well. It has a dense rounded crown. In height it grows to 5 meters. Fruits appear in the fourth year. Apricot is resistant to numerous diseases. You can get high yields if you plant another variety next to dessert apricot.
We select a pollinator
Amateur gardeners who want to maintain the purity of a certain type of apricot plant self-fertile varieties of wood. Their peculiarity lies in good fruiting when apricots of the same variety are located on a summer cottage. Apricot Mid-Rice Dessert has these characteristics.
However, self-fertility is a variable indicator. A richer harvest is obtained by pollinating trees with pollen of another variety.
Scientists have developed special lists that indicate the best and most acceptable pollinator varieties for each type of apricot. In order to prevent mistakes in plantings, one should arm himself with knowledge.
If you take a variety such as Dessert apricot, pollinators for it are selected according to the following criteria:
- The flowering phase of the main species and pollinator should coincide.
- Pollinating varieties must bear fruit simultaneously with the main ones.
- Pollinators are selected from the best varieties recommended for cultivation in a particular area.
Fruit tree planting
Apricot Dessert, landing and care for which will not bring much care, unpretentious. They plant it before the awakening of the kidneys, in the last days of April. Landing pit size 0.7 x 0.7 x 0.7 m is prepared in the fall. The bottom is covered with gravel or gravel. Then add the soil mixture of humus, mineral fertilizers, lime and ammonium nitrate. Then everything is thoroughly mixed and covered with soil, so that the roots do not directly contact the mixture. Apricot should be located on a hill, so the pit must be filled up to ground level. Around the hill make a watering circle. After the apricot seedling is planted, it is required to water it with two buckets of water. The distance between the trees should be approximately 5 m.
There is a horizontal version of planting apricot. To do this, dessert apricot seedlings need to be fixed at an angle of 40 degrees for the branches, so he will receive heat from the ground.
Apricot propagation
- Growing from the seed. In March, select the best seeds, soak in water for three days. Prepare a substrate from river sand and sawdust, and plant seeds in it. Boxes put in the basement. In May, after freezing, plant the seeds in a permanent place. Apricot Dessert (the variety description is presented above), which is grown from the seeds of a plant growing in a similar climate, will become significantly stable, and will also inherit the best properties of the previous one. Thus, seeds are a great way to grow apricot.
- Graft. A stock of a quality fruit tree is grafted onto a stock rootstock. The procedure is carried out in early spring.
Apricot Dessert: reviews
Gardeners in this form note only positive aspects:
- refers to the most popular cultivar cultivar;
- corresponds to fully declared indicators of cold resistance;
- tolerates significant decreases in ambient temperature in the winter.
Apricot pruning
Immediately after planting the apricot, the first pruning is done and the so-called sparse-tier appearance of the crown is created. Then each spring regularly shorten fruiting twigs twice. They do this in order to rejuvenate the tree and better penetrate the depths of the spreading crown of sunlight. In the summer, you can also do pruning.
The best fertilizers for the fruit tree Dessert apricot (you already know the description of the variety) are:
- organic
- potash;
- with microelements;
- complex chlorine-free;
- nitrogen.
Cleaning and storage
Apricots are harvested starting from the lower branches when they are fully ripe. Unripe fruits in the room do not ripen.
Confiture, compote, marmalade, jam are prepared from the collected fruits. And fresh and dried apricots are useful for people suffering from anemia and cardiovascular diseases.
Diseases and Pests
Untreated apricot Dessert in a timely manner, the cultivation features of which are reduced to protection against diseases, can get fungal infections. To combat them, trees are periodically sprayed with copper sulphate, Bordeaux liquid, or “Fundazol”, “Horus” preparations.
Viral diseases that are not treatable are very dangerous for
apricot trees . For prevention, it is necessary to use healthy seedlings, maintain order in the garden and fight pests that transmit infections in a timely manner.
Often on apricot trees you can find aphids, moths, leafworms. In this case, the plantings are sprayed with onion and tobacco infusion, a soap solution will also help, or you can use "Karbofos".
Winter preparations
In order for apricot trees to comfortably winter, the following should be done in autumn:
- remove and burn fallen leaves;
- dig the ground near the trunk circle;
- treat the crown and trunk with insecticides.
Mature trees winter without shelter. In young seedlings, the base of the trunk is high spud. In the early years, seedlings are tied with spruce branches and wrapped with a non-woven fabric.
Apricot varieties for Moscow region
Not every apricot variety is suitable for growing in the suburbs. Given the climatic conditions of the area, breeders bred fruit trees that can tolerate fairly low temperatures.
The best apricot varieties for Moscow region:
- Red-cheeked. One of the most beloved and popular varieties. The tree reaches considerable size, undemanding to the soil, has a spreading crown, high productivity, frost-resistant. The fruits look like an egg, have a rich golden-orange color, weighing about 50 g, taste sweet, the bone is easily detached. Three years after planting, the apricot tree is ready for fruiting. The fruits ripen in late July.
- Russian. The tree has a high yield, is resistant to frost, low, with large fruits of an orange-yellow hue of a rounded shape. Fragrant yellow flesh.
- Hardy. The tree is very tall, copes well with low temperatures. Begins to bear fruit after the age of five, the yield is high. Fruits weighing up to 45 g have a flat-rounded shape, they are saturated orange with a golden hue. The pulp is fragrant, sweet, orange. Ripening begins in early August.
- Honey. The height of the tree reaches 5 meters, the crown is wide and spreading, can tolerate frosts up to -35 degrees. Fruits are small in size yellow with small red dots. The pulp is fibrous, dense, yellow, the taste is sweetish. Harvested in the second half of July.
- Snegirek. Fruit tree up to one and a half meters, grows on any soil, frost-resistant. Fruits are well stored and transported. Among the disadvantages of this species, instability to moniliosis and leaf spotting is noted.
It is these best apricot varieties for the Moscow Region that received the best reviews from gardening enthusiasts.
It is interesting
- To obtain a daily norm of vitamin A, it is enough to eat 5 average apricots.
- The astronauts diet includes these wonderful fruits.
- In ancient times, Chinese healers believed that apricot fruits increase female fertility.
- Regular consumption of apricots enhances immunity.
- The intake of dried and fresh fruits has a beneficial effect on health in case of anemia, heart failure, and edema.
- The apricot fruit, unlike other fruit-stone plants, ripens from the inside.
- “Golden Apricot” is the name of the international film festival held in Armenia.
- “Armenian apple” is called apricot in Greece.
- "Armenian plum" called him in ancient Rome.
- In Russia, in the southern regions, he was called the Perch.
Having planted such a demanding crop on the site as Dessert apricot (the description of the variety of which is known to many gardeners), it will be necessary to work hard, caring for it. The reward for the labors will be the excellent harvest of delicious juicy fruits.