A lovely plant - cherry plum. Cherry plum Garden encyclopedia. Cherry plum: cultivation and care When the rooted cherry plum begins to bear fruit

For good growth and fruiting when planting plums and cherry plums, the main thing is to choose the right place, prepare it and plant the seedlings at the optimal time. And then don’t forget to water, feed, trim off excess branches. As you can see, plums and cherry plums do not require any labor feats from you: a little attention, care - and a rich harvest is guaranteed to you!

Landing dates. You can plant plums and cherry plums in the middle zone both in spring and autumn. It is very important to do this in early dates: in spring - in April (before buds open), in autumn - in mid-September (1.5 months before the soil freezes). When planted in late spring, the plants become very sick and are stunted in the first year; when planted in late autumn, they do not have time to take root (grab the soil) before frost and may freeze out.

Purchase planting material better in autumn, since at this time there is a much larger selection of varieties. If seedlings are purchased later optimal time autumn planting, then they are planted in the spring, and dug in for the winter.

To do this, choose a slightly elevated place protected from the winds. Dig a trench 35-40 cm deep, lay the seedlings obliquely (preferably with the top to the south, so that the plants do not suffer from sunburn) and cover the roots with earth up to half the trunk (we remind you that the trunk is the section of the trunk from root collar to the first branch). Then the soil is trampled down, watered abundantly and the soil is poured over the same place in a mound to protect the roots from winter frosts. If there are a lot of mice on the site, cover the top of the dig with spruce branches and in winter periodically trample the snow around it.

We selectplaceresidence. Plum and cherry plum are heat-loving plants, so in the northern regions of the middle zone they may freeze slightly, and they may not have enough warm days to ripen the crop. For normal height For fruiting, plums and cherry plums require an average daily air temperature in June, July and August above 15°C. Reducing it impairs plant growth, ripening of shoots and buds, reduces winter hardiness and productivity.

But in the south and central regions of the middle zone, plums and cherry plums are grown quite successfully. The varieties we recommend are capable of withstanding frosts down to minus 35°C with a gradual decrease in temperature. We experience such severe winters once every 10 years. But even after freezing, the trees recover well and bear fruit. Their flower buds are severely damaged by frost, usually after prolonged thaws.

Plum and cherry plum do not tolerate over-moistening of the soil. Due to the close location of groundwater (less than 1.5 m) or even temporary flooding during the spring melting of snow, the roots are suffocated. This leads to weakened growth, non-ripening of annual shoots, dry tops, and freezing of trees in winter. Such plants give low harvest and stop bearing fruit early.

With a lack of light due to shading or thickening, the leaves of plums and cherry plums become light green, the fruits are poorly colored, are poor in sugar, the shoots are elongated and are often damaged by winter frosts.

Therefore, plums and cherry plums should be planted in an elevated, well-lit place. When planting several trees, the distance between them should be 2.5-3.5 m (depending on the growth vigor of the variety).

We purchaseseedlings. Planting material for plums and cherry plums can be grafted or self-rooted. The first plants begin to bear fruit earlier, the second ones recover better after freezing. Both annual and biennial seedlings are suitable for planting. The main thing is that they have a strong root system with 3-5 main roots 25-30 cm long.

SoilkitchenAndlanding. Plums and cherry plums develop well and bear fruit on various types soils: sod-podzolic, gray forest, chernozem. It is more important that the soil is loose and fertile. Since in the middle zone they dominate acidic soils(pH less than 5.5), before planting it is advisable to carry out liming by adding 0.4-0.8 kg of lime per 1 m2 for digging.

For planting, holes are dug 70-80 cm wide and 50-60 cm deep. The top fertile layer of soil is thrown in one direction, the bottom in the other. Place a planting stake in the center of the hole and fill it 2/3 with the filling mixture. It consists of the top fertile layer of soil mixed with organic and mineral fertilizers (15 kg of rotted manure or compost, 1 kg of simple or 0.5 kg of double superphosphate, 0.1 kg of potassium sulfate or 0.5 kg wood ash). The dressing mixture is poured around the stake in a mound. To avoid burning the roots, lime is not added to the planting hole.

Planting is carried out by two people: one installs the seedling on the north side of the stake, spreads the roots over the mound, and the other fills them with fertile soil. The gaps between the roots must be filled with soil, for which the tree is slightly shaken when backfilling and the soil is carefully trampled down. When seated correctly root collar should be 3-5 cm above the soil level.

After the tree is planted, a hole is made around it and watered. At the same time, at least 1 bucket of water is poured out. When it is absorbed into the soil, the hole is sprinkled (mulched) with peat or humus to retain moisture. Finally, the seedlings are tied to a stake with twine in the shape of a figure eight.

Additionalnutrition. For good growth and fruiting, plums and cherry plums require organic and mineral fertilizers. IN first year after landings their bring in no need . The seedlings have enough nutrients that were in the planting mixture. IN subsequent three year In the spring, 20 g/m2 of urea is added to the tree trunk circle for digging.

At introduction trees V fruiting the need for nutrients increases sharply. Therefore, annually 10 kg of manure or compost, 25 g of urea, 60 g of simple or 30 g of urea are added per 1 m 2 of tree trunk circle. double superphosphate, 20 g of potassium sulfate or 200 g of wood ash.

IN period full fruiting the amount of mineral fertilizers remains unchanged. But the need for organic matter is increasing; now 15-20 kg/m2 of manure or compost are added under the tree trunk.

In this case, urea is used in the spring, phosphorus and potassium fertilizers - in the fall, organic - in the spring or autumn. Immediately after applying fertilizers, the tree trunk circles are dug to a depth of 15-20 cm. Closer to the trunks, the digging depth is reduced so as not to damage the roots.

As we have already mentioned, acidic soils predominate in the middle zone, and plum trees develop better on neutral soils. That's why through every 4-5 years need to conduct lime forging . Depending on the acidity of the soil, 400-800 g/m2 of slaked lime is added. On light soils its amount is reduced, on heavy soils it is increased. Lime along with phosphorus and potash fertilizers scattered in the fall on the surface of the soil and then dug it up.

Plum reacts very painfully to a lack of nitrogen, potassium and magnesium. At disadvantage V soil nitrogen fox They become light green and chlorotic. In this case, foliar feeding is effective, for which the leaves are sprayed with a urea solution (40-50 g per 10 liters of water) or ammonium nitrate(20 g per 10 liters of water).

At potassium fasting The edges of the leaves turn brown and curl. If deficit magnesium , browning appears along the veins and edge of the leaf blade. Moreover, the plant often lacks potassium and magnesium at the same time. Then 30-40 g/m2 of granulated feces and maga are added to the soil.

Whenwater? For normal growth and development of plums and cherry plums, uniform and sufficient soil moisture is required throughout the entire season. We must not forget that the root system of these plants lies close to the surface and is unable to extract moisture from the deep layers of the soil.

in spring And V first half let-ta plum and cherry plum trees need large number water. Drought during this period weakens the growth of shoots and causes the ovaries to shed. With prolonged drought, the fruits become smaller, shrivel and, not reaching the required size, fall prematurely. In addition, dry, hot weather during flowering causes the anthers and pistils of flowers to dry out, which leads to a decrease in yield. Therefore, in dry summers, especially before the harvest ripens, plums and cherry plums are watered.

Non-fertile young trees water in the first half of summer and autumn for better wintering. In this case, 3-4 buckets of water are poured onto 1 m 2 of the tree trunk circle. Fruit bearing trees watered 3-4 times per season: during active growth shoots, flowering, fruit set and growth.

However, you should not get too carried away with watering. The abundance of moisture during the period of fruit ripening causes cracking and the spread of fungal diseases (gray rot). Late flier- watering, and also rains can cause secondary growth of shoots and even secondary flowering after a long summer drought. Such plants weaken, do not have time to harden before frost and freeze slightly in winter. Most often, secondary growth and flowering are observed in the Chinese plum, which has a very short dormant period.

Sadovayasalon. Like most fruit trees, plum and cherry plum require formative pruning. Otherwise, thickening of the crown is inevitable, which leads to a decrease in yield and deterioration in the quality of the fruit.

At autumn or spring by boarding first pruning spend early in the spring ( to blossoming by check ). If this was not possible, then it is better to wait until next spring. The seedlings are left with a trunk 25-40 cm high, and the crown is formed from 5-7 well-developed and well-placed branches. That is, it is advisable to leave branches spaced 15-20 cm from one another, and not growing from adjacent buds. Shortening branches during the formation of the crown is used to subordinate, prevent the formation of forks, and change the direction of growth.

IN subsequent years at varieties, fruitful on annual branches, pruning should be minimal. Since after this the growth of branches sharply increases, which leads to a thickening of the crown. U varieties, fruit-bearing for two-year-olds branches (bouquet twigs and spurs), annual growths shorten more. Well-developed branches (more than 40 cm) are cut to 1/4-1/2 of their length to enhance the formation of shoots and the development of spurs.

When tree enters V period of full fruiting , Pruning is necessary to maintain shoot vigor. If the crown is formed correctly and there is strong annual growth (at least 40 cm), there is no need to shorten the branches. In this case, you can limit yourself to thinning the crown from thickening, dry, incorrectly located branches. With weak growth (less than 25 cm), without shortening annual branches, cut the wood above the nearest lateral branch. In addition, they are removed annually root shoots, cutting to the base near the root of the mother plant.

IN period aging And drying out (by 17-20 years) dryness and complete cessation of shoot growth occur. But don’t rush to uproot old trees; you can prolong and enhance fruiting with the help of rejuvenating pruning. To do this, 5-6-year-old branches must be cut above the nearest lateral branch or above a well-developed bouquet branch. Moreover, the closer to the trunk they are cut, the stronger the rejuvenation occurs. After such pruning, strong growths appear, from which a new crown can be formed and fruiting can be completely restored after 3-4 years.

Collectionharvest. The period for harvesting fruits is determined by their purpose. For consumption V fresh vi-de , drying , cooking jam and jam plums and cherry plums are removed when fully ripe. It is considered that the fruits have reached pickling maturity if they have reached the size characteristic of the variety, have become sufficiently colored and the softening of the pulp has begun.

For jam And compotes plums and cherry plums are removed before the pulp is completely softened, otherwise they will become soft during processing. Fruit , intended for transportation , Harvest 3-5 days before harvesting maturity.

The plum and cherry plum harvest ripens gradually, so the fruits are harvested in 2-3 terms, trying not to crush and preserve the waxy coating. It is advisable to collect in the morning in dry, cool weather, which promotes longer storage and better transportation.

Be especially careful when removing plums and cherry plums intended for transportation. Fruits must retain the stalk, otherwise they will spoil faster. When picking, use your thumb and forefinger to grab the stem and separate it from the branch, slightly tilting it to the side. Hold the twig with your other hand so that it does not break off.

AnatolyMikheev,

Candidate of Agricultural Sciences

Cherry plum is a low tree, or even a shrub,

which pleases us with sour-tasting fruits,

yellow or dark purple in color, small in size.

She always gives very good harvests, and it’s not at all difficult to care for.

In this article we will tell you how best

caring for cherry plums, the intricacies of planting

and protecting the cherry plum tree after planting.

Preparation for planting cherry plum

Preparing the soil for planting

Planting cherry plum begins with choosing a place and preparing the land. Before boarding garden, you need to take into account some points: cherry plum does not tolerate drought, because it is considered a moisture-loving tree, but at the same time it flower buds less resistant to winter cold and sub-zero temperatures.

Cherry plum will grow best in the southwestern part of the garden, on a slope; the western and southeastern parts are also suitable orchard. Must be taken into account so that the area is protected from strong winds, frost, drought, excess moisture and other adverse weather conditions.

Before planting seedlings, brought into the ground organic fertilizers, including manure or humus, add superphosphates and potassium salt, then the area is dug up. On chernozem soils, mineral fertilizers are not applied, since there is no benefit from this.

On soils that are not as fertile as chernozems, the amount of mineral fertilizer applied depends on the degree of their fertility. Soils with increased acidity are limed. All nutrients except manure are added to the planting hole.

Selection of seedlings

Cherry plum trees Both annual and biennial ones are planted in the ground. Before buying them, you need to pay attention to the root system, it must be strong and powerful, and have 5 main roots, the length of which is 25–30 cm.

Grafted trees are also planted; they enter the fruiting period early and recover much faster after frost.

It is better to buy seedlings in fruit nurseries, and not from dubious sellers on the market.

Seedling preparation

Cherry plum root system, before planting in your garden, you need to carefully inspect it. All diseased, damaged, dried and infected roots are removed garden pruning shears. The remaining healthy roots are also slightly trimmed, that is, trimmed.

Cutting off the roots of a seedling, attention should be paid on its color, if it is brown, then you need to remove it so much that it is white, i.e. to the place where a healthy root begins.

The next step is after cutting the roots, they need to be dipped in mash. This will prevent the risk of drying out and restore the balance of lost moisture during transportation or improper storage of seedlings. It is prepared from a mixture of mullein and clay, but you can simply use it from the ground.

It will be useful to soak the root system in the Aktara solution, but it can also be soaked in another soil insecticide, which helps protect plants from pests, including the May beetle and wireworm.

Planting pit

The cherry plum tree will grow best in loamy soils with weak acidity. Level groundwater must be at least 1.5 meters deep from the ground surface.

The planting hole is dug approximately 60 cm wide and up to 80 cm deep. If the soil is poor, the width of the hole increases to 70 cm. Soil preparation depends on the type of soil. If sandy soils – then it is recommended to cover the bottom of the pit with a layer of clay, the thickness of which is 15 cm.

For drainage, on wet soils, the bottom of the pit is lined with crushed stone, broken brick or coarse sand. The drainage layer should be about 15 cm. The holes are dug at a distance of 3 meters from each other.

The dug hole is fertilized. Humus, superphosphate, potassium chloride or wood ash are added to it. On poor soils, the amount of fertilizer is increased by 50%. To reduce soil acidity, one kilogram of lime is poured into each hole.

The cherry plum is planted so that the root collar remains 10 cm higher than the ground level. Be sure to trample down the earth and form a hole for irrigation. After planting the tree, it is pruned.

Landing

Planting scheme

The interval between cherry plum seedlings directly depends on the climate where the trees grow, on the condition of the soil, i.e. fertility. In the southern area on fertile soil, cherry plums are planted at a distance of 4 meters from each other, and between rows 5, in northern regions 3 and 5 meters respectively. It’s very close, so to speak, denser, it’s not worth planting trees.

At first this seems like a bright prospect, it saves space, you can plant more trees different varieties, but when they grow, they have little space and develop poorly.

Depending on the variety of cherry plum and the crown of the tree, its It is customary to plant according to a certain pattern: vigorous trees 7 m between trees and 4 m between rows, in the middle - 5 m at a distance from each other, 3 meters between rows, and low-growing trees - 4 and 1.5 meters, respectively.

Landing dates

Cherry plum planted both in autumn and spring. It is important to have time to plant trees in early spring, before the beginning of April, while the plants are dormant, i.e., before the buds open, and in the fall it is necessary to do so before mid-September, at least a month before the first frost.

If planted late in the spring, the tree will often get sick and be stunted, and late boarding in the fall it can negatively affect the root system; it freezes, since the cherry plum does not have time to take root.

Planting depth

Root collar of a seedling cherry plums, after the soil settles, should always remain at ground level. If you plant not very deep, the roots are exposed and the formation of shoots increases. But if you overdo it and plant too deeply, then there is a risk of oppression of the seedlings, especially on heavy, cold soils.

A slight deepening of the root collar on sandy and pebble soils is allowed; this is where the negative effects of soil overheating and lack of moisture affect cherry plum seedlings.

Care after landing

The cherry plum tree, after planting, needs abundant watering, regardless of whether it rains outside or not. Watering the trees 2-3 times, in spring and summer. 4 buckets of water are poured under one tree. The following waterings are carried out in June, July and September. The soil under the plants is loosened and weeded.

Full and proper care consists of timely application of fertilizers that affect the yield and growth of the tree. But, in the first year of growth, the plant is not fed; the amount of fertilizer that was applied at the time of planting is quite sufficient.

Under cherry plum, three times, throughout the growing season apply fertilizers: with the arrival of spring in March, at the end of May - at the beginning of June, during the period of ovary growth, and the third - in July or August, when setting buds for a new harvest. Gardeners advise using nitrogen fertilizers.

In the second year During growth, the cherry plum is fed with nitrogen-containing fertilizer. In the fourth year, they are fed with organic and phosphorus-potassium salts; they are added in the fall when digging up the garden.

To the very basic care items cherry plum can include:

Weed control.

Loosening the soil around the hole.

Mulching the soil. Use peat, compost or humus mixed with chalk or dolomite flour.

Crown formation.

Disease and pest control.

When growing cherry plum, you should remember that you cannot spray it in the summer, as this can burn the leaves. To begin with, it is better to try to treat one branch, then all the others.

Care

Protection from pests and diseases

Cherry plum suffers from such diseases, How gray mold(monoliosis), brown spot, smallpox, rust, gum disease.

Brown spot appears on the leaves in the form of spots, the leaves gradually dry out and fall off. Gum discharge appears on already diseased plants. Gray rot affects shoots, which fade over time, the fruits of the tree rot, and in their place a gray growth forms.

With smallpox, various spots appear on the leaves, the color fades instead of green - marbled, the fruits take on a completely different unnatural shape, and ripen ahead of time. A disease such as rust appears on the veins of a leaf in the form dark spots, then they fall off, and the tree can die even from a slight frost.

Cherry plum such insects attack such as sapwood, western gypsy bark beetle, downy silkworm, codling moth.

Although cherry plum is considered resistant to various diseases, it is also negatively affected by fungal diseases. This powdery mildew, monilial burn. To protect the plant, you need to carry out sanitary prevention, i.e. burn and remove infected branches and shoots, keep the trunks clean, remove old bark and infected fruit, rake fallen leaves and get rid of weeds. Wounds on a tree trunk are cleaned and disinfected with a solution copper sulfate.

Formation of trees

In the first year, after planting, the cherry plum crown is formed. It includes a certain amount skeletal branches, their density, the formation of branches of the second and third order and trees that bear fruit. When forming the crown of the plant, cuttings are cut, shortened and thinned.

At the cherry plum form four types of crowns– without tiered, sparsely tiered, semi-flat and flat. But other types of crowns are also used - hedge and palmette. Trees are generally pruned without a tiered crown or a cup-shaped crown.

Cherry plum trimmed in spring, summer, and autumn. But, it is correct and better to prune trees in the spring, before the buds begin to bloom, somewhere in March or April. Removing branches during this period is almost painless. And the sap does not flow from the pruned branches, and they heal faster.

Summer pruning carried out only when a minor correction is necessary, or for sanitary purposes. Trim dry and unnecessary branches, and those that grow inside the crown.

Cherry plum is often also called spreading plum, cherry plum, and in the Caucasus - tkemali. After all, the traditional Georgian sauce with the same name is made from cherry plums, and lavash is made from sun-dried mashed fruits. And most importantly, this fruit tree more resistant to disease, frost, drought and less demanding on the soil than the usual plum. So there is no reason not to take advantage of all the benefits of this crop and start growing it at home. Cherry plum (Prunus cerasifera) grows naturally mainly in mountainous areas in the Balkans, Iran, the Caucasus and Transcaucasia, as well as on the plains in Moldova and southern Ukraine. It looks like a branching multi-stemmed tree up to 10 m high or a low, up to 1.5 m, bush with a large number thorns The crown of the cherry plum is pyramidal or round. The branches are thin, straight or drooping, the leaves are of various shapes, often oval-ovate. Single white, sometimes pink flowers appear shortly after the leaves open. And the cherry plum begins to bear fruit from the first years after planting and for many years afterwards. The fruits are elongated, round, flattened, often yellow, but varieties have also been developed in other shades - from red and purple to black.

cherry plum tree in nature

How to choose a variety

Cherry plum is propagated by seeds, cuttings and grafting, but the easiest way is to buy it from a reliable manufacturer. It is advisable to grow different varieties of cherry plum on the site. On the one side, cross pollination promotes better fruiting, and on the other hand, the period for collecting fresh berries increases. Early, middle and late varieties bear fruit, respectively, at the end of June, in July-August and in September. When choosing a variety, also consider whether you can come to the site and harvest on time. The variety must be zoned, that is, most suitable for climatic conditions region. Cherry plum can develop in the form of a tree or shrub. Therefore, when choosing a variety, look at the photographs to know how the tree will look on the site and whether it will look harmonious in the landscape of your garden.

Cherry plum can develop in the form of a tree or shrub.

cherry plum fruits do not ripen at the same time

you can harvest up to 40 kg

How to harvest and store crops

From young cherry plum plants you can collect up to 40 kg of fruit, and mature tree with good care it will produce more than 200 kg of fruit.

The cherry plum does not ripen at the same time, which allows you to eat fresh fruit for several weeks. It is advisable to harvest the crop in dry weather, immediately sort it out and keep it in a ventilated container in the cellar or refrigerator; at a temperature of +5 ° C, the fruits will be preserved in fresh at least two weeks.

Use in cooking and medicine

Delicious wine, compote, jam, jam, marmalade are prepared from cherry plum, and many beneficial properties fruits are preserved even after heat treatment. At the same time, cherry plum seeds cannot be removed by breaking the fruit, like from a plum, or squeezed out with a special device, like from a cherry. You have to cut the fruits with a knife or wipe them after cooking or stewing. The composition of cherry plum fruits includes vitamins, microelements, carotene, fiber and pectins. Fruits, leaves, bark and roots are used in folk medicine, non-drying cherry plum seed oil - in perfumery. However, it is necessary to limit the use of cherry plum when increased acidity gastric juice, gastritis and stomach ulcers, a tendency to allergies, and also reduce the consumption of dried fruits.

famous tkemali sauce

How to grow cherry plum

Where to place it? The best place is where the cherry plum will be protected from the cold wind. If groundwater on the site are located closer than at a depth of 1 m, the seedling must be grown on bulk soil. When to plant? Saplings with an open root system should be planted in early spring before buds open. If the seedlings come to you in the fall, they can be buried or planted, in the latter case, covered with a layer of up to 30 cm to protect the roots from freezing. Just don’t forget in early spring, when the soil dries out, to rake the soil away from the trunk. How to plant? It is better to prepare the planting hole in the fall. If the desire and opportunity to plant cherry plum appeared in the spring, it is still better to prepare the hole at least 2 weeks before planting.

It is better to prepare the planting hole in the fall.

The size of the pits is 60x60x60 cm. The distance between plants should be at least 3 m, and for tall varieties even 6 m.
Loose soil, humus (15 kg), fertilizers (superphosphate - 40-60 g, potassium salt - 60 g) are poured into each hole, and if the soil is acidic, lime or chalk is added.
The hole is filled to two-thirds of the depth, and the rest of the earth is left nearby.
In the spring, when starting to plant cherry plums, a mound is formed in the center of the planting hole from the substrate located in it. To stimulate the development of the root system of the seedling, before planting it is immersed in an aqueous 0.001% solution of heteroauxin.
Place the roots of the seedling evenly on the mound. Add the remaining soil, positioning the seedling so that its root collar is flush with the soil, and form a hole around the periphery for watering.
You need to pour 1-2 buckets of water onto the planted plant, and then mulch the circle around the trunk.

How to care? Caring for cherry plum plants includes weeding, watering as needed, fertilizing, protection from pests and diseases, including protecting the trunks from mice in the winter. You need to water the cherry plum only in dry weather, about 2 weeks after the start of flowering and immediately after harvesting, spending 5-6 buckets of water on one tree. Fertilizers. Remember that over-fertilization will cause shoot growth at the expense of yield.

It is recommended to apply humus in the fall no more than once every 2–3 years (up to 10 kg/m2).
Mineral fertilizers– annually, in the spring before flowering (nitrogen) and in June (potassium and phosphorus).

mulching the tree trunk circle

Trimming. The cherry plum plant can be shaped as a bush or tree, or as a bowl or palmette. 1. After spring planting, the branches of the seedling are shortened by about half immediately, and after autumn planting - next spring. The height of the seedling should be 70–80 cm, and the central shoot should be 20–25 cm longer than the side branch of the upper tier. If annual shoots of seedlings grow intensively, they are pinched at the beginning of summer. 2. If the plant is intended to be grown in the form of a tree, then pruning should be carried out so that after 3–4 years, at a height of 70–80 cm from the ground, no more than 4–6 branches extend from the trunk. A correctly formed crown should consist of a central leader shoot and several tiers of skeletal branches with a distance between tiers of 30–40 cm. Excess branches are cut out “into a ring.” In the lower tier, 3–4 most developed skeletal branches are left, directed in different directions, in the upper tiers - 2 branches, but their direction should not coincide with the direction of the branches of the lower tier. The lateral branches should extend from the leader shoot at an angle of at least 45°. 3. If the plant is supposed to be formed in the form of a bush, you only need to periodically thin out the crown, slightly shorten the rapidly growing shoots so that they do not break under the weight of the fruit, and remove rubbing, dry and diseased branches. Compared to others fruit trees cherry plum is less damaged by insects and affected by diseases. But still, I will talk about measures to prevent diseases and pests in a separate article. Methods for protecting cherry plum from mice for the winter are the same as we indicated earlier for felt cherry. Cherry plum is unpretentious to growing conditions, durable and productive, and its fruits are tasty and healthy. In addition, it is very beautiful and can decorate your garden just as well ornamental trees, only in this case it is guaranteed to provide you and your family with delicious fruits.

Cherry plum (lat. Prunus cerasifera), or spread plum, or cherry plum– species of the genus Plum of the Rosaceae family, woody fruit plant, which is one of the original forms of the domestic plum. The word cherry plum comes from the Azerbaijani language and means “small plum”. The plant itself is native to Western Asia and Transcaucasia; cherry plum can also be found in the wild in the south of Ukraine, Moldova, the Tien Shan, the Balkans, Iran and the North Caucasus. It is cultivated in Russia, Ukraine, Western Europe and Asia.

Planting and caring for cherry plum (in brief)

Landing: in cold areas - in spring, in warm areas it is better to plant in autumn.
Bloom: at the beginning of May.
Lighting: bright sunlight.
Soil: fertile loam.
Watering: on average - three times per season: after flowering, after shoot growth stops and after the fruits acquire the required color. Water consumption is 1.5-2 buckets for each year of the tree’s life. Young plants are watered 4-5 times per season. In October, if the autumn is dry, water-recharging irrigation is carried out.
Feeding: once every 2-3 years, add 10 kg of organic matter per 1 m2 ² trunk circle. Mineral supplements needed annually: before flowering, apply nitrogen fertilizing, and in June - phosphorus and potassium. Conducted twice a season foliar feeding: in May - with a solution of microelements, in June - with the same solution, but with the addition of potassium and phosphorus fertilizer.
Trimming: sanitary and formative is carried out in the spring, before the buds open. If absolutely necessary, corrective pruning can be done in the summer.
Reproduction: root suckers, grafting, cuttings, and sometimes seeds.
Pests: brown fruit mites, slimy and yellow plum sawflies, oriental and plum moths, aphids, subbark budworms.
Diseases: Hole spot (clasterosporiasis), milky sheen and false milky sheen, moniliosis (gray rot), marsupial disease (plum pockets), coccomycosis.

Read more about growing cherry plum below.

Cherry plum tree - description

Cherry plum is a branched multi-stemmed tree or shrub from 1.5 to 10 m high with powerful roots and thin brownish-green shoots. The leaves of cherry plum are elliptical in shape, pointed towards the top. Single flowers with a diameter of 20-40 cm, white or pink, bloom in early May - blooming cherry plum outwardly practically indistinguishable from a blooming plum. The fruit of the cherry plum is juicy, round, sometimes flattened, sometimes elongated drupes up to 3 cm in diameter, yellow, green, red, pink, purple or almost black, covered with a light waxy coating. The stone is elongated or round, convex or flat, and is often difficult to separate from the pulp. Its core contains oil that is not inferior in quality to almond oil. The fruits ripen, depending on the variety, from July to September. The lifespan of cherry plum is 30-50 years.

Most of the varieties and hybrids of cherry plum are self-sterile, that is, in order for the cherry plum to bear fruit, you need to have not one, but at least two trees on the plot, blooming at approximately the same time. And even if you have a self-fertile cherry plum variety, if there is another cherry plum tree nearby, the fruiting will be both more stable and more abundant.

Cherry plum is a relative of such crops as plum, apricot, peach, almond, apple, pear, rose hip, hawthorn, medlar, serviceberry, cotoneaster, quince, rowan and chokeberry. Cherry plum is a flexible, unpretentious crop, and yet it is not as popular among amateur gardeners as many of its relatives. Previously, cherry plum was grown only in warm areas, but thanks to the work of breeders who crossed cherry plum with Chinese plum, a hybrid appeared, endowed with higher winter hardiness - Russian plum, or hybrid cherry plum. This hybrid is consistently productive, it begins to bear fruit 2-3 years earlier than cherry plum, is resistant to diseases and pests and is drought-resistant.

We will tell you how to grow cherry plum in your garden, how to feed the cherry plum in order to stimulate its abundant fruiting, how to treat cherry plum from diseases and pests, how to graft cherry plum onto a plum rootstock and give a lot of other information that will help you navigate this issue well, like planting and caring for cherry plum.

Planting cherry plum

When to plant cherry plum

In areas with a warm climate, cherry plum takes root better in the fall than in the spring, and in areas with cold winters, spring planting is more reliable. Buy annual cherry plum seedlings for planting that were grown in your region. Seedlings with an open root system should be planted immediately, but those with roots in a container can wait.

Choose open cherry plum sunny plot, protected from cold winds, best on a sloping slope with northern, western or northwestern exposure. In trees growing from south side buildings that protect them from the winds, the yield is higher, and the fruits are larger and sweeter. The best soil for cherry plum is fertile loam. Since the root system of cherry plum is located mainly at a depth of 30-40 cm, it can be planted in areas where groundwater lies at a depth of at least 1 m.

Planting cherry plum in autumn

At the end of September, a week or two before planting, dig a hole 40-60 cm deep and 60 to 100 cm in diameter and fill it 2/3 full with a thoroughly mixed mixture of soil, 15-20 kg of humus and 1 kg of nitrophoska. If the soil on the site is acidic, add dolomite flour, chalk or lime to the soil mixture, and if it is alkaline, then you need to add gypsum to it. In addition, in clay soil you should add a little peat and sand, and a little turf soil to the sandy soil. If you are planting several trees, keep a distance of 2-4 m between the holes, depending on the crown of the adult cherry plum variety you are planting.

On the day of planting, form a mound at the bottom of the hole from the remains of the soil mixture, place a seedling on it, the roots of which are first lowered into a clay mash with the addition of Heteroauxin, which stimulates root formation, and then fill the hole with soil so that the root collar of the grafted seedling is at surface level. Self-rooted seedlings can also be planted with the root collar deepened.

After planting, the cherry plum is watered, and when the water is absorbed, the tree trunk circles should be mulched.

How to plant cherry plum in spring

Cherry plums are planted in the ground in the spring before sap flow begins, so it is better to prepare holes for seedlings and fill them with a nutritious soil mixture in the fall.

Pre-planting preparation of seedlings is very important: those whose root system is in a container must be watered abundantly before freeing them from it. For seedlings with an open root system, you need to remove all rotten and dried roots and place them in a bucket of water for a day to swell the roots. Before planting, exposed roots are dipped into a clay mash with root former.

Spring planting of cherry plum is carried out in the same order as autumn.

Cherry plum care

Caring for cherry plum in spring

At the end of March or beginning of April, in case of heavy snowfall in winter, you need to dig grooves in the soil to drain excess melt water. The cherry plum trunk and skeletal branches are cleaned of dead bark and washed with a three percent solution of copper sulfate. In April, sanitary and formative pruning of cherry plums is carried out, digging up the area around it, planting seedlings, applying nitrogen fertilizers, preventive treatment against pests and diseases, removing root shoots and grafting cuttings.

If the winter was without snow and the spring without rain, spring moisture-recharging watering of the trees is carried out. A little later, the cherry plum buds are sprayed with a solution of microelements.

In May, you may have to take measures to protect trees from returning spring frosts. At the same time, the cherry plum is fed with complex mineral fertilizers.

Caring for cherry plum in summer

Cherry plum needs in summer regular watering, after which the soil in tree trunk circles is loosened to a depth of 8-12 cm, while simultaneously destroying weeds. Keep in mind that young trees require more moisture than mature trees.

Conduct a merciless fight against harmful insects and fungi, pinch the ends of shoots that may not ripen until the end of the growing season.

If expected big harvest, take care to install supports in advance. A month after the first foliar feeding, apply a second one, which, in addition to microelements, should contain phosphorus and potassium.

Fruiting cherry plum feeds its fruits in August and lays generative buds for the next year, so it needs your care more than in other summer months. Remove weeds, loosen the soil in tree trunk circles, moisten the soil to the depth of the roots, feed the cherry plum with organic fertilizers - a solution of a bucket of mullein in 7-8 buckets of water or bird droppings in a ratio of 1:20. If there are no organic fertilizers, apply phosphorus-potassium mineral fertilizers.

Caring for cherry plum in autumn

After picking the berries, at the end of September, when the leaves begin to turn yellow, add organic and mineral fertilizers to the soil for digging. Before the massive leaf fall, carry out pre-winter moisture-recharging watering of the cherry plum to a depth of 40-60 cm. If you plan to plant seedlings, try to do this in the first ten days of October, while the top layer of soil is not yet frozen.

After planting work Preparation of trees for wintering begins: the cherry plum bark is cleared of dead particles, after which you can begin to whitewash the trunks and bases of skeletal branches with lime. If there are hollows on the trees, they are closed up and the root shoots are removed. Fallen leaves, bark scrapings and other plant debris should be collected and burned.

Cherry plum processing

As a preventative measure, in April the cherry plum is sprayed against pests, fungal, viral and bacterial diseases with a one percent copper solution or a two percent solution iron sulfate. However, before processing the cherry plum, make sure that the sap flow has not yet begun, otherwise you may burn the opening buds. The same prevention should be carried out in the fall, after leaf fall, in order to destroy pathogenic microorganisms and insect pests that have settled for the winter in cracks in the bark or in the soil of the tree trunk.

Watering cherry plum

Cherry plum is a drought-resistant plant, but it also needs moisture. On average, in the absence of natural precipitation, adult cherry plum is watered three times during the summer - after flowering, after shoot growth stops and after the fruits acquire the color required for the variety. In October, moisture-recharging watering of cherry plums is carried out before winter. If a dry spring comes after a snowless winter, then you need to water the cherry plum in May. For each mature plant In one watering session, 1.5-2 buckets of water are consumed for each year of life. Young trees are watered more often - 4-5 times per season.

Feeding cherry plum

When and how to fertilize cherry plum? Organic matter is added to the cherry tree tree trunk in the fall at the rate of 10 kg per m², but this is done no more than once every 2-3 years. The plant requires mineral fertilizers annually: in the spring, before flowering, nitrogen fertilizers are applied to the tree trunk circle, and in the summer, in June, potassium and phosphorus fertilizers are applied. The approximate consumption rate of nitrogen fertilizers (urea, for example) is 15-20 g per m², potash (potassium sulfate) is 15-25 g/m², and phosphorus (superphosphate) is 40-50 g/m². In addition to root fertilizing, foliar fertilizing is carried out twice per season: the first, consisting of a solution of microelements, is carried out in May, the second, of the same composition, in June, but phosphorus and potassium fertilizers are added to it.

Wintering cherry plum

Adult cherry plum overwinters without shelter; young seedlings only need high hilling of the trunk and obligatory mulching of the tree trunk circle with a thick layer of peat, humus or compost. Mulch can also be useful for mature trees. When the snow falls, do not be lazy to cover the tree trunks with snow and throw it in a snowdrift in the circle around the tree trunk - under such cover the cherry plum is not afraid of any frost.

Pruning cherry plum

When to prune cherry plum

Professionals and experienced amateurs believe that the best time for pruning cherry plum is spring. Before the buds begin to swell, in March-April, sanitary pruning and formation of cherry plums can be carried out, since at this time there is still no strong sap flow. If you did not have time to do this, and the buds have already begun to open, it is better to postpone the pruning until next spring.

Sometimes cherry plums are pruned in the summer, but this pruning should be minor and corrective.

How to trim cherry plum

What types of pruning are there? Sanitary, thinning, shaping and rejuvenating. Sanitary pruning carried out in order to free the tree from unnecessary branches. If necessary, it can be carried out at any time of the year, except winter. Thinning pruning is usually done in spring or summer to rid the crown of branches and shoots that thicken it and do not allow sun rays penetrate to the ripening fruits located in the thicket. Formative pruning of the crown promotes good education and fruit ripening; in addition, a tree with a properly formed crown is easier to care for, it lives longer and gets sick less often. Rejuvenating pruning of cherry plum will help in time to replace old branches with new ones and thereby prolong the life of the plant.

Pruning cherry plum in spring

Cherry plum can be formed in the form of a tree with a cup-shaped crown and in the form of a bush. It is better to grow cherry plum varieties that are not winter-hardy enough as a bush: the seedling is cut at a height of 15-30 cm from the surface of the site. The 5-6 branches located on the remaining section are shortened to half a meter and, with the help of guy ropes, are moved to a position as close to horizontal as possible - in this position it is easier to keep them under the snow in winter, and, therefore, they are not at risk of frostbite and long and painful recovery after winter , so you can count on a good harvest.

The height of the cherry plum trunk can be 40-50 cm - at this height, the lower skeletal branches of the cherry plum are protected by snow in winter. But some gardeners prefer to form a trunk with a height of 80-120 cm, citing the fact that in trees with a low trunk, during the settling of snowdrifts and melting of snow, small branches are deformed and broken, and wounds remain on the tree. That is, you will have to decide for yourself what height of bole it is more appropriate to form for the cherry plum in your climate.

The best crown shape for cherry plum grown as a tree is sparsely layered. The crown of the cherry plum is formed in the shape of a bowl, like the crown of a plum, leaving 5-7 main branches and cutting the rest into a ring. In the first year, only 3 branches are left above the trunk, located along the trunk at a distance of 15-20 cm from one another, and those that extend from the trunk at an angle of 45-60 º, and form an angle of approximately 120 º between themselves. Over the next couple of years, add new branches with the same characteristics to the existing ones. After 2-3 years, the formation of the crown is completed, and the top of the conductor is cut off flush with the third skeletal branch.

In the spring, at the end of March or beginning of April, in addition to the formation of the crown of young trees, sanitary and thinning pruning of adult plants is carried out - annual branches that thicken the crown are cut into rings, dry and broken shoots and branches are removed. As the cherry plum begins to bear fruit, the growth of its shoots slows down significantly, and you will have less pruning work.

Pruning cherry plum in summer

During the first two years, cherry plum branches grow up to one and a half, or even two meters, so they will have to be shortened to 60-80 cm, but this is best done in the summer, since increased growth of branches begins at the cutting sites. After summer pruning new fruitful branches will begin to develop from the lateral buds.

Pruning cherry plum in autumn

In autumn, cherry plums are not pruned, as this greatly weakens the plant before winter. If necessary, you can remove dry and broken shoots after the leaves fall and the tree enters a dormant period. Do not forget to treat cuts of large branches with garden varnish.

Reproduction of cherry plum

How to propagate cherry plum

Some forms of cherry plum are propagated by seeds, but more often they are used vegetative methods– propagation by root suckers, cuttings and grafting. Multiply rooted seedlings You can use shoots, root or green cuttings, but green cuttings require a special installation that produces fog, so we will not dwell on it, as well as on the seed method. With the seed propagation method of cherry plum, the varietal characteristics of the parent plant are not preserved in the seedlings. The seed method is also not used for growing rootstocks, since when propagating cherry plums by grafting, it is better to take plum seedlings of varieties such as Renklod Kolkhozny, Volzhskaya Krasavitsa, Eurasia 21, Vengerka Moskovskaya, as well as seedlings of damson, apricot, felt cherry and sloe as winter-hardy rootstocks.

Reproduction of cherry plum by shoots

This method is the easiest to implement. Best material- shoots located at a distance from the mother plant, since such offspring have a well-developed root system, unlike those that grow close to a tree or bush. In early spring, dig up the place where the offspring leaves the root of the tree, and cut off the mother root, retreating 15-20 cm along it towards the tree. The cut place on the tree root should be even, and do not forget to treat it with garden varnish before burying .

The dug out shoots, if they are developed, are planted on permanent place. If the shoot is small and weak, plant it in well-fertilized loose soil for growing, and when it gets stronger and grows, transplant it to the planned place.

Propagation of cherry plum by root cuttings

Root cuttings are harvested in early spring or autumn from the most productive trees. The roots of young trees are dug up at a distance of 70-100 cm from the trunk, for adults - at a distance of 1-1.5 m. Roots 5-15 mm thick are dug up and cuttings about 15 cm long are cut from them. If you are preparing root cuttings in the fall, fold them in a box with sawdust and store until spring at a temperature of 0-2 ºC. In the spring, at the beginning of May, the cuttings are planted in loose soil so that the upper end is buried 3 cm, and the lower end even deeper. The distance between root segments in a row is kept within 8-10 cm. The planted area is covered with film, and sunny days also burlap. The soil is kept slightly moist. After a month, the film can be removed. Seedlings are grown from root cuttings for one to two years before planting in a permanent place.

Reproduction of cherry plum by grafting

To reproduce using this method, you must have varietal cuttings as a scion and rootstock - the plant on which the grafting will be carried out. Rootstocks can be grown from shoots or from seeds. You already know how to grow seedlings from shoots. You can grow a rootstock from plum or sloe pits by planting them in moist and loose soil at the end of September. In the spring, the area with the crops is lightly harrowed, and in May seedlings appear, which are watered all summer, and the soil around them is loosened and weeded. The rootstocks from the seed will be ready for grafting in the summer, in July or August next year when sap flow is active in the trees.

Scions are cut on the day of grafting from branches 30-40 cm long, not shorter. Grafting is carried out in several ways: in a T-shaped incision, in the butt, using the method of improved copulation, behind the bark and rotor.

Before budding, the rootstocks are watered to stimulate sap flow, and the trunk is wiped from dust with a damp sponge. All leaves are removed from the scions, leaving only pieces of petioles 5 mm long, after which the bud with such a petiole is cut off with a sharp knife along with a strip of bark about 3 cm long and at least 5 mm wide. On the rootstock, 3-4 cm above the ground level, make a T-shaped cut, carefully bend the bark at the intersection of the short and long cuts and insert a shield (a bud with a strip of bark) under it, after which the bark is pressed tightly to the wood and the grafting site is tied tape or tape so that the bud itself with the remainder of the petiole is not covered.

Most often, budding is used in the butt, since it is easier to perform and invariably gives good result. The method of improved copulation is good when the cutting and rootstock are of the same thickness. If the rootstock is thicker than the scion, the methods of grafting the wood and the bark are recommended.

Cherry plum diseases

The diseases and pests of the cherry plum are the same as those of the plum, its closest relative, and in order to recognize and deal with them in time, you need to know the descriptions of all harmful insects and symptoms of each disease.

Hole spot, or kleasterosporiosis, appears on the leaves of the plant brown spots with a dark border. The affected tissues fall out, forming holes in the leaves. Small dirty red spots appear on the fruits and deform them. The branches also become covered with reddish spots, under which the bark cracks, and gum begins to emerge from the cracks.

Control measures. Destroy all plant debris and do not leave it under trees for the winter. Treatment of cherry plum: during the phase of coloring the buds, after the end of flowering and again two weeks later, treat the cherry plum with one percent Bordeaux mixture or the drug Hom in accordance with the instructions. If you are dealing with a severe infestation, apply another application three weeks before harvest. As a preventive measure against the disease in the spring, before the buds open, cherry plums are sprayed with a three percent solution of ferrous sulfate. Do not allow the crown to thicken; carry out thinning pruning in a timely manner.

milky shine And false milky sheen look like a silvery coating on cherry plum leaves. The false form of the disease and the real milky sheen have different nature: the first disease is a consequence of the cherry plum freezing in winter, and with good care, watering and fertilization, the tree will recover within a year or three. True milky sheen is a fungal disease that penetrates deep into cherry plum wood and causes stem rot. By mid-summer the leaves turn brown and the cherry plum dries out.

Control measures. In the fight against a fungal disease, the affected cherry plum branch must be immediately removed and destroyed, the cut is treated with a one percent solution of copper sulfate, and then with garden varnish. For preventive purposes, spring and autumn spraying of cherry plums with copper-containing preparations is carried out, all cuts and cuts are treated with garden varnish, and the tree trunk and skeletal branches are treated with lime.

Moniliosis, or gray rot, covers the surface of the fruit with gray pads containing fungal spores. Shoots and branches turn brown and wither, as if they were burned by something, and growths form on the bark.

Control measures. Healthy fruits become infected with moniliosis from sick fruits hanging on the same branch, so diseased fruits must be immediately picked off and burned, as well as shoots affected by gray rot. Before the buds begin to open, treat the cherry plums with a three percent Bordeaux mixture, and before the flowers open and immediately after flowering, treat them with Bordeaux mixture substitutes of the same effect.

marsupial disease, or drain pockets– a fungal disease in which the seeds in the fruits do not form, and the fruits themselves grow, become deformed and become covered with a powdery coating. The flesh of diseased fruits is wrinkled and greenish. Affected shoots become twisted and swollen.

Control measures. Diseased cherry plum shoots and fruits are removed and burned. For preventive purposes, cherry plum is treated as against moniliosis.

Coccomycosis appears in early summer as small reddish-brown spots on the upper side of the leaves, which merge with each other as the disease progresses. A powdery pinkish coating appears on the underside of the leaves. The leaves turn yellow and fall off prematurely, the fruits stop developing and dry out.

Control measures. Collect and destroy fallen leaves and fruits. Early spring, before the sap begins to flow, and in the fall after the leaves fall, treat the cherry plum and the trunk circle with Hom or one percent Bordeaux mixture.

Pests of cherry plum

Most often, cherry plums are affected by the following pests from the insect world:

Brown fruit mite – due to its activity, cherry plum leaves turn brown and fall off, and the process of bud formation for the future harvest slows down.

Control measures. Clean the cherry plum trunk from dead bark before the buds swell; during swelling and during budding, treat the tree with Karate or Fufanon.

Slimy sawfly eats leaves, leaving only veins.

Control measures. Collect cherry plums from the site in the fall and destroy plant remains. In July or early August, when the sawfly larvae hatch, treat the cherry plum with Fufanon or Novaktion.

Yellow plum sawfly – the caterpillars of this pest devour the pulp of the fruit and eat away the seed. Young larvae damage the ovaries.

Control measures. Adult sawflies need to be collected by hand or shaken off the tree onto a liner. Before and after flowering, spray the tree with Fufanon or Novaktion.

Eastern moth gnaws passages in a young shoot, and when it reaches woody areas, it moves to another shoot. Damaged shoots dry out and break. The caterpillars also damage the pulp of the fruit.

Control measures. Trees immediately after flowering and after harvesting are treated with a solution of 500-700 g table salt in 10 liters of water. To process an adult tree you will need approximately 7 liters of brine, to process a young tree - 1.5-2 liters.

Plum moth penetrates the fruit, covering the entrance hole with a web containing pieces of pulp. The caterpillar eats the pulp of young fruits and the soft stone; in mature fruits, it does not damage the stone, limiting itself to eating the pulp and filling its passages with excrement. The fruits in which the plum moth caterpillar lives turn purple and quickly fall off.

Control measures. Destroy fallen leaves and fruits, clean the cherry plum from dead bark, and treat the cherry plum with insecticides.

Plum aphid feeds on the cellular sap of leaves and young shoots of cherry plum, as a result the leaves curl, turn yellow and fall off. The tops of the shoots also dry out.

Control measures. At the stage of exposing the buds, the trees are sprayed with insecticides - Karbofos or Sumition, for example. When processing, the composition must be applied to the underside of the leaves.

Subcortical leaf roller gnaws holes in the wood, and this can kill not only individual branches, but the entire tree.

Control measures. Damaged shoots are cut and burned, the sections are treated with garden varnish.

How to deal with cherry plum

Plum, cherry and cherry plum very often produce root shoots that must be dealt with, otherwise they will take over the entire garden. How to do this? If you do not need a tree that produces shoots, cut it down, drill several holes in the stump as close as possible to the sap-conducting layer and pour Tornado solution or potassium ammonium nitrate into the holes. Cover the top of the cut with a piece of plastic or film. After 5-7 days, lightly drill out the same holes and fill in the next dose of the drug and repeat the same procedure in another week. When the growth dies, do not rush to uproot the stump; make sure that there are no roots left that the drug that destroys them did not have time to reach.

If you do not want to destroy the tree, you will have to fight the growth. Some gardeners recommend digging up shoots and cutting them off at the point where they depart from the root of the mother plant, but experience suggests that it is better not to do this, because in the place of one shoot cut at a depth, two or three grow. Cut off the growth at the surface level of the area, and if in tree trunk circle grass grows, mow the growth along with the grass. Or grow cherry plum varieties that do not produce shoots.

Cherry plum varieties

Cherry plum varieties differ in terms of ripening: early varieties ripen at the end of July or early August, medium-ripening varieties - in mid-August, and late varieties ripen by the end of August or in September. According to the size of trees, varieties are tall, medium-sized and low-growing. According to the method of pollination - self-fertile and self-sterile.

Cherry plum varieties for the Moscow region

Thanks to interspecific hybridization, heat-loving cherry plum is now successfully grown not only in the Moscow region, but also in cooler areas. The best varieties for the Moscow region are:

Nesmeyana– a new early frost-resistant self-fertile variety with an easily separated seed. The plant is tall and spreading. Fruits are light red in color with dense fibrous pulp pink color and sweet and sour taste;
Scythian gold– medium-yielding, self-sterile, very early variety high winter hardiness. The tree is of medium height, the crown is sparse but spreading. Fruits weighing up to 35 g yellow with juicy tasty pulp;
Traveler– an early self-sterile frost-resistant variety with medium-sized fruits weighing up to 27 g, yellow with a red-violet bloom, with orange fine-fibrous sweet pulp with delicate aroma. The advantage of the variety is its stable yield, but the disadvantage is that the seed is poorly separated from the pulp;
Cleopatra– self-sterile, frost-resistant late variety medium height with a wide conical crown. The fruits are large - weighing up to 37 g, dark purple with a bluish bloom. The flesh is red, gristly, dense, tasty. The bone is separated in half;
Mara– medium-sized, mid-season, disease-resistant winter-hardy variety Belarusian selection with yellow fruits weighing up to 23 g. The fruit pulp is juicy and sweet.

Early varieties of cherry plum

To the most popular varieties of cherry plum early maturation include:

Found– a productive and stable self-sterile variety of high winter hardiness, resistant to diseases, with red-violet fruits, large or medium in size, weighing 31 g, with orange fibrous low-juicy pulp;
Flint– a self-fertile, drought-resistant variety, almost not affected by diseases, with fruits weighing up to 29 g of dark purple color with a waxy coating and red color with dense, low-juicy pulp with a hard-to-separate stone;
Gift to St. Petersburg– self-sterile, consistently productive, winter-hardy variety, characterized by the ability to quickly recover from mechanical damage. The fruits of plants of this variety are very small, weighing up to 12 g, yellow-orange in color with a faint waxy coating and bright yellow, juicy, fine-fibered pulp with a sweet and sour taste. The pit is difficult to separate from the pulp;
Yarilo– a very early variety with round, shiny red fruits, medium size, weighing up to 35 g and juicy, dense, yellow pulp of excellent sweet and sour taste with a half-separable stone;
Monomakh– a productive early-fruiting variety with purple fruits weighing up to 25 g with sweet, juicy, fibrous red pulp and a well-separable stone.

Medium varieties of cherry plum

TO the best varieties The average ripening period includes the following:

Huck– winter-hardy, consistently productive, self-fertile, medium-sized variety with a thick, flat-rounded crown and large yellow fruits weighing up to 35 g with yellow and dense pulp of a sweet and sour taste. The pit is difficult to separate;
Sarmatka– winter-hardy, disease-resistant, self-sterile variety with ovoid, medium-sized purple-red fruits with yellow flesh medium density and sweet and sour taste. The pit is difficult to separate from the pulp;
Sigma– a highly productive and winter-hardy variety with large yellow fruits weighing up to 35 g. The pulp is yellow, dense, sweet and sour;
Abundant– a highly productive self-sterile variety with fruits weighing up to 40 g of red-violet color with a waxy coating and orange dense medium-fibrous pulp of medium juiciness;
Lama- a tree with red leaves and large dark crimson fruits weighing up to 40 g with juicy, aromatic dark red pulp with a sweet and sour taste. The stone comes away from the pulp well. The variety is self-sterile, but high-yielding and winter-hardy;

Late varieties of cherry plum

Popular cherry plum varieties that ripen closer to autumn and in September include the following:

Comet late– very winter-hardy and productive variety with dark red fruits weighing up to 30 g with aromatic red pulp with a sweet and sour taste;
Chuk- a low-growing, self-fertile tree with a compact crown, producing dark burgundy fruits weighing up to 28 g with orange dense, aromatic and juicy pulp with a sweet and sour taste. The bone is difficult to separate from the pulp. The variety is productive and disease resistant;
Columnar is a winter-hardy hybrid between large-fruited cherry plum and Hiawatha cherry plum, differing tall and compact crown. The fruits of this hybrid are very large - weighing up to 40 g, dark red with a waxy coating and aromatic, juicy pink pulp of medium density and pleasant taste;
Melon– a medium-sized self-fertile variety, resistant to diseases and pests, with very large fruits weighing up to 45 g, dark red in color with a waxy coating and yellow, medium-dense sugary pulp of excellent taste with a delicate aroma;
Golden autumn- a medium-sized, winter-hardy variety with a spindle-shaped crown and small golden fruits weighing up to 20 g, which do not fall off even after leaf fall. The fruit pulp is yellow, has a pleasant taste with an almond tint.

The following varieties and hybrids of cherry plum have proven themselves well: Apricot, Skoroplodnaya, Peach, Kuban Comet, Globus, Amers, Zhemchuzhina, Stanley, Olenka, Purpurovaya, Violet Dessert, Anastasia, Alyonushka, Lykhny, President, Vision, Lyubimaya Mlieva, Shater, Karminnaya, Vetraz, Nasaloda, Pchelnikovskaya, Seedling Rocket, Krasa Orlovschina, Timiryazevskaya, General, Ariadna, Karminnaya Zhukova, Rubinovaya and others.

The eternal question: why don’t trees bear fruit...? When do trees begin to bear fruit?
Fri, 06/15/2012 - 17:00 - Olga1981
1. The tree has not bloomed or bear fruit for ten years. Most likely it's a wild animal. Can be deleted. If the tree is less than 10 years old, you can first try to “horizontally” the branches. That is, we move them to a more horizontal position. We tie it to the peg with a rope after a year or two, when the branch “gets used” to the new position, we release it. If it doesn't help, then under the ax.

In some crops, thorniness may be the reason why you might suspect game - Plum, cherry plum, pear...

Why doesn’t apricot bloom or bear fruit? Second possible reason– the tree fattens if there is a lot of fertilizer containing nitrogen. It doesn’t matter whether the fertilizers are mineral or organic. Nitrogen is also nitrogen in Africa.

2. The tree blooms, but does not bear fruit. 2.1Because the ovary does not form. 2.2 The ovary forms, but falls off. Reasons:

2.1. The ovary does not form. No pollinator tree. You need a tree of the same crop, but of a different variety. At the very least, the same type. Well, of course, when a culture is bisexual (dioecious), then a “man” and a “woman” are needed. This is in sea buckthorn, actinidia... The radius of location is up to 100 m. But the closer, the better.

If it is not possible to solve the problem in a normal way, you can break off a flowering branch of the desired plant and attach it to the crown of our ward. It happens that your tree bears fruit for more than one year, and then stops. No matter how much you feed her, cast spells, or threaten her, nothing helps. And it turns out there was a tree blooming nearby that pollinated it. And then the owner decided that the variety did not suit him and he removed it. As a result, the pollinator disappeared and the good tree stopped bearing fruit.

There are also exotic reasons - viral diseases, due to which the pollen becomes sterile. But this is very rare. If nothing helps your pet, then this is exactly the case. Such a tree must be removed quickly.

Also, pay attention to whether this problem occurs every year. If this happens sometimes, then most likely it is unfavorable weather conditions during the flowering period they interfere with the pollination of the tree. When it rains strong wind, the cold, hard working bees sit at home and as a result the tree does not produce a harvest.

2.2 The ovary forms, but falls off. In this case, everything previous disappears. Here either soil acidification or boron deficiency occurs. These are the most common reasons. In central Russia, the soil is acidified and there is a boron deficiency.

I know many of you deify manure, based on the fact that it has been placed under plants for a thousand years. But the fact is that for certain reasons in our area

There is also little boron in manure. Therefore, it is more effective to rely not on manure, but to do what I suggest to you. First, we prepare a mixture that deoxidizes and saturates with boron.

You need to take 23 kg of lime or dolomite flour and mix it with 200 g of boric acid. First mix boric acid with a small amount of lime or flour (a couple of kg). Then mix this small amount with the rest of the lime or dolomite. This is for more even mixing. Mix thoroughly and for a long time - about five minutes, turning in a barrel like in a concrete mixer, or in a bag.

When the mixture is ready, add 200g evenly into the glass. per sq. meter. This is the minimum. The first time you can even take a double dose. The rest of the years a glass is enough. Make sure the fertilizer is free of lumps. To do this, if necessary, wipe through a sieve or mesh. Apply along the entire projection of the crown.

After application, seal with a rake. Other activities and feeding as usual.

You can replace lime and dolomite wood ash, but if the ash is from firewood from central Russia, most likely there will still be little boron in it. Therefore, I would add at least half the dosage of boron. It is the lack of this element that causes fruit drop. And the dosage per sq. m would increase the percentage of ash by 25% compared to the above mixture of dolomite and boron.