Conifers are of great interest to gardeners. Among them, a very popular plant that can give the garden landscape a particularly beautiful view is spruce, or Canadian spruce. Under natural conditions, this tree is quite rare, but in summer cottages it can be found almost everywhere.
Description
Canadian spruce is an evergreen coniferous tree, the height of which in nature can reach up to 40 m. It is a long-lived plant, its lifespan is from 300 to 500 years. The shape of the crown varies depending on age. So, in young trees it is cone-shaped, while in old trees it is most often cylindrical. The bark is scaly, light brown in color.
The needles are 15–20 mm long; they have a rhombic shape in cross section and a blue-green color. Fruits, which are small green, with a reddish tint, cones appear in September. Canadian gray-gray spruce begins to bear fruit at the age of 7 years or a little later.
Popular varieties
There are several varietal forms of this tree, which serve as decoration of many garden plots. They differ in the shape of the crown, the height and shades of needles. The most popular varieties are:
- Konika. This is a dwarf spruce, which rarely reaches a height of 3 m, and most often it is not higher than one meter. The conical crown ends with a sharp tip. Gardeners are attracted by the small size of the tree and the very soft needles of a beautiful light green color.
- Alberta Glob. It differs in even smaller sizes in comparison with Konika (height not more than a meter) and a spherical crown. Spruce Alberta Globe is undemanding to care, frost-resistant, hardy and can grow even in gassed areas.
- Laurin. This is a very tiny variety of spruce - up to 40 cm, with hard thin shoots and delicate green needles. Among all varieties of bluish spruce, this is the slowest growing tree.
Growing Features
The place for planting the Christmas tree is chosen shaded, near the wall or fence. Direct sunlight, especially during the active sun, can lead to burns of needles. Prickly spruce gray-gray does not need special care. Loose soil and timely watering are the main things that this plant needs. Certain activities are required only to improve the decorative properties of the plant.
In hot, dry summers, it is recommended to irrigate the tree’s crown with water, and 2 days after this procedure, loosen the soil around the tree well. The Christmas tree needs to be protected from bright sunshine. To this end, it is covered with breathable material.
In autumn, a tree is prepared for wintering. For this, the soil is thoroughly mulched with the addition of peat compost with a layer of about 45 mm. Very often in the spring, when solar activity begins to increase, and the soil has not yet warmed up enough, the plant reacts to this situation with a loss of color. Spruce gray-gray (the description of which is given above), famous for its beautiful green needles, partially acquires a brown color. This is a normal phenomenon, which with the beginning of the movement of the juice passes, and the color is restored.
Breeding
The best time to plant Canadian spruce is spring or early summer. The plant propagates using seeds or cuttings. The first option is very long, and planting with cuttings is a rather complicated process. For the reason that the gray spruce spruce grows very, very slowly, it will take a very long time to root it. The stem is selected from the lower ripened branches, its length should be from 10 to 12 cm. In order for the seedling to take root, a piece of bark from the uterine tree, the so-called heel, should remain on the branch.
The lower end of the handle is treated with a growth stimulant, after which it is planted in the prepared soil to a depth of 2 cm. After that, it remains only to periodically water it, maintaining a certain soil moisture.
Transfer
The soil for planting spruce should be slightly acidic and sufficiently loose. The excess of moisture in it spruce gray-hawks does not tolerate well, so good drainage should be provided before planting. Excessively fertile soils are not quite suitable for planting these plants. In this case, the seedlings are too extended, and aging is worsening.
Canadian spruce can be transplanted at any stage of growth, provided that certain conditions are met. Best of all, this procedure will transfer the tree at an early age. If in autumn and spring a plant can be planted with an open root system, then in summer it needs to be done in cloudy weather and without separating the soil lump. After planting, a certain level of soil moisture is maintained for two weeks, providing protection from direct sunlight.
Diseases and Pests
Like all coniferous trees, gray spruce is also susceptible to various diseases. Of these, tracheomecosis, which is not amenable to any treatment, is especially dangerous. It affects the root system of the tree, as a result of which the amount of nutrients entering the plant decreases. The presence of this fungal disease can be found by redness of the needles. Sick trees must be dug up and burned to prevent all plants from becoming infected. The place where they grew is cultivated with copper sulfate.
Often there is a disease such as rust. In this case, the needles fall off, and yellow or orange growths appear on the branches of various sizes.
Miniature Christmas trees and insect pests do not bypass. Most often, these are bark beetles that gnaw numerous passages under the bark of a tree. From the eggs laid right there, larvae come into the world, which immediately begin to eat wood. Sometimes treatment with the BI-58 preparation helps against the bark beetle, but most often the plants cannot be saved.
Use in landscape design
Sizaya spruce looks great on the garden plot. Planting and care, performed in compliance with all recommendations, provide a surprisingly beautiful appearance of this plant. Gardeners are attracted by decorative crown, drought tolerance and unpretentiousness to the composition of the soil. Blue spruce can be planted both singly and in group planting - in any case, it will give a zest to the garden landscape. In addition, the tree will become a real Christmas tree if it is decorated on the eve of December 31.