Caring for apple trees in autumn: important points

Apple trees perfectly feel on a larger territory of our country and do not need to create special conditions of detention. But they also need care and attention. It is especially important to properly prepare a fruit garden for winter.

Caring for apple trees in autumn includes:

• harvesting;
• Watering and top dressing;
• Preparing the soil for winter;
• Cleaning and whitewashing of trees;
• Protection of the trunks against rodents and severe frosts.

Pleasant troubles: harvesting

In September, the fruit of most of the apple trees ripens. They carefully collect their hands, after putting on cloth gloves. In order to keep the apples long, it is important to preserve the integrity of the skin and a protective matt coating.

Immediately after the collection of fruits, you need to treat the crowns of trees with a solution of urea. This is a good prevention of scab.

Top dressing and watering

In early September, continued full-fledged care of apple trees. In the autumn it is necessary to saturate the tissues of trees with water - this will increase their frost resistance. For one apple tree, depending on the weather conditions and the size of the crown, it takes 5 to 20 buckets of liquid. The earth should be moistened to a depth of 1-1.5 m.

Watering is desirable to combine with fertilizing, so that fertilizers are better assimilated by roots. Nitrogen is not used in autumn: now trees need phosphorus and potassium. You can buy ready-made autumn fertilizers for an orchard, or make a solution yourself. A bucket of water is taken 1 tbsp. L. Potassium and 2 spoons of double superphosphate. This is the norm of 1 m ² .

Preparing the land for cold weather

Caring for apple trees in the fall primarily begins with the cultivation of the soil. Its pH should be 6.0-6.5. Vegetable remains and foliage, in which pests may winter, must be removed.

Around the trunks the ground is dug with pitchforks to a depth of 10-15 cm, in the aisles - by 20 cm. You do not need to break the combs. This will allow the earth to absorb more moisture and destroy the parasites living in the upper soil layers.

Care for young apples should necessarily include hilling of the trunks and mulching of the trunks with compost, peat or the manure. Fresh organic can not be used.

Cleaning of trunks and sanitary pruning

Before winter, apple trees are carefully inspected, moss and lichens are carefully cleaned with a wooden scraper. Affected areas are treated with copper sulfate and garden var. Also need to remove the old bark - under it like to hide harmful insects. All the garbage after this procedure must be burned.

Apple pruning is carried out at a temperature of at least +5 ⁰ C. First cut out the dry and broken branches. Then weak, closely spaced shoots are removed, and branches growing at an acute angle.

Young apple-trees undergo a weak pruning. Caring for old apple trees includes medium or strong pruning to increase the number of harvesting branches and to rejuvenate the crown. All sections are treated with garden vine.

Whitewashing of trees

Apple trees before the onset of winter colds are treated with copper sulfate or urea, then trunks and skeletal branches should be whitened.

Processing is carried out in dry weather. Young trees are covered with a solution of chalk. More adult apple trees - a mixture of 3 kg of slaked lime, 1 kg of mullein and 1 kg of clay per bucket of water. Branches should be coated as high as possible, where the hand will reach. This reduces the risk of getting frostbites and provides more complete care for apple trees.

In autumn, it is necessary to close the trunks from mice and hares with lapnik, burlap or thick paper.