Simple Tips on How to Look After a Garden

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Contents:

Fractures of the trunk and large branches;
Damage from frost;
The threat of fault from gravity;

In our garden are still alive a few Apple trees planted in the distant 1930s. They’ve been through some harsh winters, not sparing almost all of a large Apple orchard since. So perishing broke a, that precisely in this time I, as the head of the young family in age 22 years, took on themselves responsibility for this garden, for his recovery and prosperity. In the spring of 1979, many of our neighbors already roamed frozen Apple orchards, and we were slow, although immediately began to plant new trees, and did the right thing.

Through the year some of the Apple trees began to come to life, others need repair. But most importantly, I really wanted to keep my children’s favorite varieties of apples. So life itself has led me to passion vaccine, and the first grafted my Apple trees now for over 30 years.

In those years, to buy seedlings of fruit trees of the desired varieties was not easy. New varieties have not yet passed the test of time. Some old and rare varieties managed to be saved, using literally the last twigs of dying trees. At the edge of the forest I found a plantation of Apple trees. Carefully transplanted small trees, and the next year vaccinated. The cuttings for grafting were extracted from the neighbors, in Botanical gardens, in nurseries. How many trials and mistakes were made on this path, because everything was recognized for the first time.

Over the years I accumulated a lot of experience to grow new and maintain old trees. Apple tree is certainly the main tree of a beautiful garden. Even now, when all year round selling any apples, it remained the first thanks to the extraordinarily beautiful structure of the trunk and crown, abundant flowering and unsurpassed taste and aroma of their apples.

So today, we will talk about the old-timers of the garden, about how to prolong their life. And they just respond to our care, will reward generously for your trouble. I know that for sure.

Old fruit trees. Their age is coming to an end. We look at the trunks of giants, as if the feet of ancient animals come from the depths of time. How many of their vessels flowed nutritious juices to pour the perfect apples! Here and there traces of natural disasters, negligent management and different emergencies: a bleeding wound to the ground, then cut many years ago the stump of a tree or splitting a rotter inside, and then just an old stump, and from it grows a good top diameter with full-fledged Apple tree.

What to do with all this, how to restore the health of the tree or at least prolong his life? After all, what were the early varieties! Selected by age – old variety testing, reliable and beloved: some for food, others for jam, the third-for the winter. Buy old varieties of Apple trees, remembered from childhood, is not easy now. Not all gardeners know how to plant trees, and wait 10-20 years for a full harvest of apples. And the old cured Apple — do not understand what the soul is wooden and keeps — giving tens or even hundreds of kilograms of excellent fruit.

Extend the life of such trees can be through some techniques and technologies. Consider the order of possible situations, methods of treatment and maintenance of old Apple trees. Old conventionally we assume the Apple tree, his grandson inherited from his grandfather, that is, 25-30 years of age and older. As a rule, during these years, there are one or more hurricanes, catastrophic snowfall on foliage in the fall, over-crops, icy rains, etc. All this leads to:

fractures of large branches
fractures and splits of the trunk
to fill up the whole tree with a partial pull-out of the root system from the ground

Naturally, the correct care and formation of the crown, timely backup branches reduce, but do not exclude all these risks. And here is a gust of wind, rain, thunder and a terrible crash in the garden – half-Apple on the ground.

Fractures of the trunk and large branches

If there was a complete separation, the wood fibers are torn and the bark is separated from the trunk, then the broken part I completely saw off with a smooth cut obliquely, leaving no hemp, so that everything that falls on the tree from the outside (rain, snow, fallen leaves, etc.), rolled and fell down
Splintered wood fiber, cracks, cracks I putty various construction water-resistant compositions, namely, acrylic and other fillers, gypsum cement gypsum mixtures thickened oil residues and other colors, glues for tiles are all suitable for this purpose
Then I align the edge of the wound (saw, chip, break) sharpened tool (knife, chisel) so that the entire perimeter of the wound is a strip of bright green bark, tightly pressed against the wood. The width of this strip is from 1 to 10 mV depending on the thickness of the crust and the nature of the wound. It is not necessary to align the surface of the wound, as this may lead to a reduction in the thickness of the barrel
The entire wound thoroughly, especially around the edges, I paint over several layers of waterproof paint. Very important brush movements do not peel off the edges of the bark of wood. The paint can go on a healthy crust. Ideally, the shaded surface of the wound should not be any holes for moisture. All these measures are necessary for the successful scarring of the wound or at least to cover the entire edge of the scar
Once a year, on a dry warm spring day, I check the state of the scarring layer, tinted and, if scarring around the perimeter did not happen, again clean up to bright green bark, removing dead areas. If the scar grows well, it is useful to carry out furrowing-the application of thin hair wounds along the fibers of the crust to enhance scarring where necessary. This operation I’m doing with steel brush or small end of the teeth of a handsaw with great care, so that the bark separates from the trunk. Simultaneously with furrowing it is possible to scrape off some layers of the old dead bark on all perimeter of a trunk on height of 1-2 m from the earth that will lead to essential rejuvenation of a trunk for a season. The main thing is not to cut the layers of bark across the trunk of the tree. For the prevention of fungal diseases, it is useful to wash the surface of the furrow with a solution of copper sulfate

Another case is the part of the tree lying on the ground, but not broken through. A necessary condition for the viability of such a fault is to maintain its relationship with the tree. Known old Apple-tree, branches of which live for many years due to the preserved strips of wood with the bark just a few centimetres thick.

Carefully begin to lift the branch (this work should be carried out together), making sure the integrity of the wood and bark, not bending and not twisting it
When the branch took its position, determine the place of imposition of the bandage. Bandage in this case-a few strong planks around or rather in a semicircle, placed under the iron wire (5-6 mm), which pulled together the collapsed parts of the tree. Wire is not necessary to abbruciati around the trunk or branch, enough of the semicircle of one outer side, in order to have space for tree growth in thickness
The trunk and branch wrap one or two loops of wire and, inserting an iron rod (tube), begin to twist to the proper tension the loops of wire
Not until the end of the connected cleft seal, as it was written above, or seal the construction foam, which is very effective
After drying, the foam painted to prevent deterioration from sunlight

Damage from frost

Another trouble Apple trees-severe frosts below 30 °C, with different varieties have a threshold of freezing.

The effect of frost on the tree is different. If the winter is snowless, the roots suffer. In this case, the leaves bloom poorly in the spring, they are small and twisted, the foliage color is grayish, floral buds do not open. With deeper damage to the root system in may-June leaves begin to turn yellow and dry. This means that the tree has stopped sucking water. It all depends on how serious the damage is. Sometimes this is an irreversible process of death of the tree, but in a partial defeat of the roots of the managed tree “hotpot”. “Soldering” or, as gardeners say, to “cast” wood to within 1-2 seasons, and avoiding drying. Water large volumes of water if it is possible, put for the night under a tree a hose, having left a small stream.

The root system of the Apple tree belongs to the stock, and the crown — to the halt, which is often less frost and suffers first. The defeat of the crown is manifested in the suppressed vegetation in the next growing season and the cut branches can be used to detect a red-brown ring. To make the tree easier to recover, it must be watered and cut off, as far as possible, the fruits, which it spends its forces. Good help to trees with oppressed foliage is evening watering right on the crown, so that after hot and dry summer days in the night the tree went wet. Sometimes I also use foliar feeding-evening spraying of the entire crown with a weak solution of urea

Frost crack on old trees are identified immediately, sometimes only after a few years the crust moves away, exposing dead tissue. If you have rotting wood, that is, it was rotten, I:

make sure to remove it to a dense layer
the edges of the crust to cut strips of bright green color around the perimeter
and I wash everything with a solution of vitriol

The cavity for some time, I began to fill the building with foam. Previously used for this purpose, sand cement (concrete). Foam fills the internal cavity, gradually increasing in volume. After a few days, when the foam is completely hardened, “grab”, its excess can be cut with a sharp knife and be sure to paint, because it is destroyed by direct sunlight. This year, we managed to cure the old Apple tree of our friends. The tree was barely alive — instead of a solid stem hollow throughout its length.

In General, if there is at least a small hollow, it is very useful to make a visor of tin from a tin can, inserting it into the top of the hollow, so that the water does not get inside. The visor can also be gently pinned or screwed with two screws inside the hollow.

The threat of fault from gravity

The following case – Apple-tree bent over and look to fall under the weight of the harvest or snow. Usually I make a support trapezoidal or triangular shape of good boards or weld it from iron pipes and paint, knowing that it will have to serve for many years.

When installing the barrel must be strained upwards to support “took” the load between it and the barrel is placed plank or other lining. Additionally, it can be used as a stand for small climbing plants, such as clematis.

But it so happened that in spite of all efforts, the crown of the tree died, and the bottom of the barrel went to grow vertical shoots – the so-called spinning tops. Here, too, are possible two case. The top grows higher vaccination, i.e. cultural. This can be seen on a number of signs: large rare leaves, few lateral rigid branches and their ends are not prickly. Such a top can be to leave and try to restore former variety Apple trees:

I cut the dead crown on a stump with a slanting cut directed from a top so that the water falling on it did not flow down on it.
Good to stain the tree stump, nailed a tin lid so it does not rot, and connected to the gyroscope in a vertical position.

The top is very quickly increase in thickness, and a few years under favorable circumstances it will be possible to cut the stump at an oblique ring at the top, to clean up the perimeter to bright green bark and paint. So you can get a new Apple of the old variety on the old roots, which can immediately give large yields. For it, of course, will have to watch, because there is a danger of breaking the new trunk of the old, especially under the weight of apples.

If the top is gone to grow below the grafting or directly from the earth, that is savage, I plant on it some interesting variety. With the dead barrel do the same as in the first case. Thus get a new Apple tree with a well-developed root system. It’s worth fighting for. When choosing a new variety for vaccination, be guided by their preferences and resistance to natural phenomena varieties.

Completely dead trees is not necessary to uproot. Enough to cut very low to the ground to the stump did not interfere with the mowing of grass, and nearby you can dig a hole and plant a young Apple tree.

Apple trees, like elderly people who love to take care of them and not forget them. There are other familiar ways to rejuvenate old trees:

crown thinning, reducing its density
cleaning of trunks
formation of the equilibrium structure of the barrel crown
removing wolf, etc

Under the canopy of the old Apple trees in our garden we cultivate shade-loving plants, replacing this grueling procedure for digging tree trunks. Properly formed and well-groomed old Apple tree becomes a true decoration of the garden, and at any time of the year. And let the trunk of her old, healed and tied up, flowers and its fruits are always fresh and new, as grandchildren and great-grandchildren grandfather planted the garden.