Dwarf trees: advantages and disadvantages

To date, a low-growing garden is not a fantasy, but quite ordinary reality. The growing popularity of dwarf trees is explained by a number of advantages, among which is an aesthetic and decorative garden, yielding abundant harvests.

Which fruit trees are called dwarfish

Trees obtained by grafting the desired variety on a special rootstock are called dwarf ones, but it is more correct to say this: trees on a dwarfish rootstock.

The selected stock should be one or two years old. Vaccination is carried out by budding with a sleeping or germinating eye. Some gardeners in the spring prefer to make a lateral inoculation of the cuttings behind the bark.

Dwarf trees can also come from tall trees when the plants are still young. American authors Hertman and Koestler in their book tell us that such an operation is possible if a young tree cuts a strip of bark and turns it backwards. But in our country, such experiments have not yet been done, therefore, it is not necessary to speak about the reliability of the information.

Main advantages

Dwarf garden in our latitudes is not yet universal, but the benefits of such options many gardeners in the world have already been able to appreciate. It is noted:

• The shortened period of the beginning of fruiting. Everyone knows the fact that traditional tall trees begin to bear fruit only 5-7 years after planting. And they need 7-10 years to stabilize the harvest. Dwarf fruit trees enter the fertile age for 3-4 years after planting. A full-fledged harvest can be rejoiced for an average of 7 years. Saving time is essential, is not it?
• Ease of care. Dwarf trees do not grow above two meters. Strong growth of the crown is not peculiar to them. All the necessary procedures for the care can be done right from the ground.
• Relatively small area of food. Where one tree grows in a traditional garden (the area of feeding is up to 45 m²), you can plant 5 dwarf plants with a feeding area of 8 m².
• High yield. Breeders around the world, as well as gardeners and agronomists, note higher yields for dwarf fruit trees, rather than for their traditional counterparts.

Imperfections of dwarf plantations

Despite a significant list of advantages, dwarf fruit trees and gardens have a number of minuses that need to be taken into account. Namely:

• The considerable initial costs required to create a dwarf plantation can stop some gardeners.
• Some varieties are adapted exclusively to warm climatic conditions, so they will not be able to survive our winters.
• Short life.
• Dwarf fruit trees because of illiterate planting are prone to change the quality of the variety.
• Additional costs associated with the installation of poles. This is in some cases just a necessity, since in dwarf plants the root system is shallow. A support allows you to avoid damage to the tree, breaking off the branches under the weight of the crop, washing the soil.
• Frequent and careful pruning of these trees is simply necessary. Otherwise, there will immediately be a noticeable deterioration in the quality, size and presentation of the fruit.
• Despite the fact that caring for a dwarf garden is simple, it should be done often. Otherwise, nature will make its own negative amendments.

Main varieties for a small garden

Despite the comparative simplicity of the creation, it is not possible to obtain a dwarf analogue from each sort of fruit tree.

Good dwarf fruit trees are obtained from peaches, nectarines, apple trees, pears, plums, because they can be grown even in pots. But when buying a stock, do not forget about the compatibility of the plant and the culture to which you will plant.

The most popular dwarf trees are:

- Apple tree, to which the easiest to make a rootstock. To date, thanks to the persistent and painstaking work of breeders, there are many dwarf apple trees that are pleasing with abundant harvests and resistance to diseases.

- Pears, which are durable in a dwarfish kind, are resistant to changeable weather conditions and are yielding.

- A fig-like peach of the Sweet Cap brand, which at a mature age has a height of 1.8 meters. Dwarf trees on this root are prolific. They have a sweet white flesh with barely perceptible sourness. Among the advantages is the frost resistance, resistance to drought.

- A fig-like peach of the UFO variety, which will please with fleshy fruits with yellowish flesh and sugar-sweet taste.

- Dwarf plum Blue Blue, which is resistant to diseases, drought, frost.

- Plum President on a dwarfish rootstock. This is one of the most winter hardy varieties, yielding abundant harvests and quickly filling the garden area.

- Late Czachak plum with a harvest at the end of September. Dwarf plants on this rootstock are resistant to chlorosis, cancer of the root system. Saplings of dwarf trees of Cachaksky variety are resistant to both frost and summer drought.

Growing of dwarf seedlings

Cultivation of dwarf seedlings of fruit trees occurs mainly through winter grafting. When choosing the variety to which the stem of the clonal stock will graft, it should be remembered that the grafted stalk significantly reduces the winter hardiness of the first plant. Therefore, the best scion will be a zoned winterized variety. Clone insertion can only be a stalk of a dwarf winter hardy rootstock.

The insert should be no more than 18 centimeters long. The smaller length will not give the necessary weakening of the growth of the grafted variety. Saplings of fruit dwarf trees, or rather, their inserts with a long length severely inhibit growth when planted in the garden, which inhibits yield and spoils the quality of the fruit.

Rules for the planting of dwarf trees

Beautiful from an aesthetic point of view and fruitful garden of dwarf trees can be formed, if you follow a number of rules, put forward to plant trees on a dwarfish rootstock.

1. Planting should be in early spring in a wide deep pit, where the roots of the plant can be placed freely.
2. Earth from the pit must be mixed with green compost.
3. When examining the roots of the seedling, it is necessary to remove the damaged or diseased tips, and the roots before planting should be dipped into the root mixture.
4. To raise the tree, the bottom of the pit should be lined with a small amount of compost fertilizer.
5. We lower the seedling into the pit, sprinkle it with earth, and distribute the soil among the roots between the roots.
6. Then the pit is half asleep, the ground is well packed.
7. The rest of the earth is also covered and condensed.

Too much wood is not worth planting. This can lead to its spoilage, deterioration of yield and quality of the variety. Do not forget about the tethered plant to the support, which dwarf trees are needed. To do this, you can use a strip of rubber, which, supporting the tree, will not injure its thin bark.

How to properly cultivate such plants

Proper cultivation is a pledge of abundant harvest in a healthy and strong tree. How to properly care for dwarf fruit trees?

• The area around the trunk of the tree should be kept clean, that is, all weeds should be removed.
• Do not allow the formation of crust on the ground. To avoid this, the soil must be loosened and nutrient mulching used. The best mulch for dwarf plants is a half-decomposed compost.
• Mulch should not be near the tree trunk. The optimal distance is half a meter or more. The outer boundary must coincide with the circumference of the crown of the plant.
• From mulching should be abandoned in the wet season and with very heavy soil.
• Hanging from the hay is simply necessary in arid regions with rapidly drying ground.

Top dressing of dwarf trees

New shoots and branches on the tree are formed in parallel with the new root shoots, leaving into the soil. To stimulate growth, experienced gardeners use compost manure, decomposed composting mixtures and their combinations.

Top dressing is laid in a ring in the soil. It should not touch the trunk of the tree, as this can damage the feeding roots of the plant. Composting is allowed in the same way as mulching.

Winter Care

As already mentioned, the root system of dwarf plants is shallow, so they need a winter shelter. For protection for the winter, the soil of the stump circle is mulched. For this you can take sawdust, peat, multi-paper in several layers. 8-10-centimeter layer is quite capable of protecting the roots in snowless winter.

It is better to mulch after the first frosts, so as not to prevent the soil from wetting with autumn rains.

If snow fell, then you can refuse mulching. During the winter, it is desirable to pour snow on trees, but from those places that will not expose the soil on the near-trunk circles.

Dwarf trees, whose photos are often adorned with garden editions, are able to outperform any traditional high-growth tree with proper care for yields.