All gardeners tend to plant various fruit trees on their plot. Of particular interest are their new varieties, in particular, dwarf colon-shaped fruit trees. This is an amazingly beautiful plant, care for them is not complicated, and their yield is three to four times higher than the number of fruits in ordinary pears, apples, plums.
What are the colonial trees?
Most often you can find a column-shaped apple tree and a pear, although such a variety also occurs in some other fruit and fruit trees: plums, cherries, etc. The main difference between the colonial trees and the ordinary ones is in the form of a crown: it looks like a real column. The trunk of the columnar tree is straight. Short frequent branches with fruits are located directly on the trunk and grow only upwards, not giving lateral branches.
Colon-shaped trees, in addition to their decorativeness, help significantly save free space on the site. Since they do not expand to the sides, more plants can be planted on the site, and, therefore, their overall yield will be greater.
The height of the columnar fruit trees does not exceed 2.5 meters. Therefore, harvesting from it is very convenient. Also, you do not have to spend the energy and time to prune such trees. All the colonial trees are distinguished by their early fertility, that is, the seedling, which was planted in early spring, can blossom this year. Many gardeners recommend removing these flowers so that the tree has more strength for rooting. But basically the colon-shaped pears , apples and other trees begin to bear fruit for the second year. The garden of dwarf trees does not last long: in 10-15 years the yield will decrease sharply, and the planting of colonial fruit trees will have to be changed.
Colon-shaped fruit trees - care
In principle, caring for a column-shaped apple or pear almost does not differ from the cultivation of ordinary fruit trees. But still some features exist. In order to grow a colon-shaped fruit tree and get a good harvest from it, it is necessary to observe the following conditions for its cultivation:
- The best time for planting colonial fruit trees is in autumn;
- the distance between trees planted should be 90-100 cm;
- Ideally, the roots of the tree freely, without bending, are located in the landing pit, and the place of grafting must necessarily be above the surface of the soil;
- When planting a column-shaped tree, potassium fertilizers and superphosphate must be introduced; if the pit is prepared from autumn, then compost or manure is added to it and mixed with the ground;
- in early summer, you can feed the seedling with chicken litter or slurry;
- since the roots of the colonial trees are not deep, then the soil around the trees must be mulched or applied tinning, that is, planting around the trees cereal plants, which will periodically be scraped;
- in August, in order to accelerate the maturation of the apical bud, it is necessary to remove the half of the leaf blade from the four upper leaves;
- to obtain a high yield, the colonial trees should be watered regularly, fed with mineral fertilizers, and also protected from diseases and pests;
- in winter, it is necessary to protect trunks of trees from hares and mice, and one-two-year-old trees - also shelter from freezing with the help of straw, shavings, coniferous lapnik or simply snow.
The most popular varieties of colonial apple trees are such as "Currency", "President", "Arbat". Among the column-shaped pears gardeners liked the varieties "Decor", "Sapphire".