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Most fans of decorative gardening strive to decorate their summer cottage with beautiful evergreen trees. This is understandable, since such plantings have an excellent appearance and decorate the garden territory throughout the entire calendar year. And as a leader, many prefer to plant fir - an incredibly beautiful coniferous tree with soft fluffy needles.
Is it possible to plant fir on the site
Fir belongs to the pine family and unites more than 80 species, which are both tall trees and small shrubs. This plant is quite often found in the wild. It can be found in coniferous and mixed forests, it can grow as separate trees among spruces and pines, and in small groups. Fir planting in the country is quite common. These trees feel good in many climatic zones, they are durable and unpretentious. The technology for growing fir on a personal plot is simple and does not require special knowledge.
Fir in landscape design
The tradition of planting fir trees in private plots has existed for a long time. In Soviet times, numerous plantings of these trees adorned the territories of sanatoriums, rest homes, scientific institutions, school yards. This is due not only to the decorative component. Fir emits a magnificent coniferous aroma, and its needles emit a large amount of phytoncides - volatile compounds that disinfect the air. These trees are planted both in single and in group plantings, using them as architectural elements, pillars or rows of columns when decorating alleys.
What kind of fir to plant in the country in the suburbs
The climate of the Moscow region is quite suitable for fir planting. Severe frosts are now very rare, so the probability of tree death in winter is low. For landing in the suburbs, you can use the following types:
- Balsam fir. In natural conditions, it lives up to 300 years, while growing up to 15 m. There are dwarf species (Nano and Piccolo). The needles are up to 2.5 cm long, soft, even. Differs in a dense specific coniferous smell.
- Korean fir. An evergreen coniferous plant with a wide pyramidal crown. Reaches 15 m in height and 2.5 m in diameter. Needles up to 2 cm, dull, saturated bright green. It has quite a few varieties (Silberlock, Molly, Tundra, Oberon, Green Carpet, etc.), is widely used in ornamental gardening.
- Siberian fir. Under natural conditions, it lives up to 200 years, while reaching a height of 50-60, and in some cases 100 m, the trunk diameter can reach 2.5 m. The crown is conical, narrow. The needles are up to 3 cm long, soft, with blunt tips. Has a delicate pine aroma.
- The fir is great. In the wild, it is found in North America. The tree grows up to 35-50 m, sometimes up to 70 m, trunk diameter up to 1.5 m.The crown is pyramidal, in an adult tree it becomes rounded. The needles are soft, up to 5.5 cm long, bright green with a white stripe below. Lives up to 200-250 years.
- Whole-leaved fir. It grows up to 30 m by the age of 100, and at a more mature age - up to 55 m. The crown is wide, conical. The needles are up to 4 cm long, light green, flat.
Growing and caring for fir in the gardens of the Moscow region is no more difficult than in other regions. The above species have long and successfully grown not only in this area, but also much further north.
How to plant a fir on the site
Planting a fir is no more difficult than any other tree. For planting, seedlings are used that have reached the age of 4 years. They can be purchased at specialty stores or nurseries. Photos of fir seedlings below:
Landing dates
The best time to plant fir in a permanent place in the garden is April. If the deadline is missed, do not rush. Fir can also be planted in late August or early September. The technology of planting fir in autumn does not differ from that in spring. However, later dates are undesirable, since the seedlings may not have time to acclimatize in a new place and will die from frost. Fir planting in winter in open ground is possible only in the southern regions, where there are no freezing temperatures.
Where to plant fir on the site
Shady or semi-shady areas are suitable for planting fir. The soil is preferable loamy, loose and fertile, moderately moist. It is recommended to plant these trees at a short distance from natural bodies of water. Fir can also be planted near the house, however, it is also necessary to take into account the dimensions of the future tree, as well as the fact that it will give significant shade.
Landing site preparation
To plant the fir correctly, holes for future trees must be prepared in advance, preferably 2-4 weeks before the expected landing date. Their value depends on the size of the container in which the seedling grows, since the planting is carried out together with a lump of earth on the roots. Usually a hole 0.6 m in diameter and the same depth is quite enough. Drainage from large rubble, expanded clay or broken brick should be laid at the bottom. Then the hole is half filled with a soil mixture consisting of river sand, peat, humus and sod land, taken in a ratio of 1: 1: 2: 2. Additionally, you can acidify the soil with clay or sawdust.
After preparing the soil, the fir planting pit is spilled with 2-3 buckets of water and left for 10-14 days. During this time, the soil will have time to settle and be saturated with nutrients.
Fir seedling planting technology
Before planting, the container with the seedling must be spilled abundantly with water. This will allow you to easily extract the plant along with a clod of earth. After that, it is installed in the planting pit strictly vertically and covered with nutritious soil, slightly tamping it. In this case, the root collar should be slightly above ground level. The planted plants are watered abundantly with water, after which the soil is mulched with humus.
When planting fir in the ground in a permanent place, it is necessary to take into account the dimensions of the future trees. So that they do not compete with each other, it is necessary to observe certain intervals when landing. When decorating alleys, the distance between neighboring seedlings is made 4-5 m, for group plantings - from 2 to 4.5 m, depending on the desired density.
How to transplant fir
Fir, especially at a young age, tolerates transplantation calmly, if all necessary measures are followed. The tree is transplanted at the same time, in April or early September. Fir can only be transplanted with a closed root system. To prepare the plant for transplanting, a year before the planned event, the ground around the trunk is bayonetted with a shovel at a distance of 25-30 cm from the trunk, for older trees this distance must be increased to 50-60 cm.Within a year, the tree will grow a large volume of adventitious roots instead of the chopped ones and will undergo transplantation calmly. After a year, the tree is dug in and removed along with a lump of earth.
You can transfer it to a new location on a piece of tarpaulin or other thick fabric. It is advisable to do this not alone, since a tree with a clod of earth can have significant weight.
The preparation of the planting pit and planting are carried out in the same sequence as for a young seedling.
Is it possible to plant a felled fir
Felled conifers can stand in water or wet sand for quite a long time. At the same time, the plant often begins to release fresh needles, young cones appear on it. This behavior of the tree is considered by many to be proof that, under certain conditions, a full-fledged root system can be grown on a felled fir and then planted in open ground.
However, it is not. Still, it will not work to bring the felled fir back to life. Conifers are cut rather poorly, and even small twigs with a heel can not always be rooted. An adult fir tree, after cutting, is guaranteed to die, which can only be delayed by constantly feeding it with water.
How to care for a fir
Fir care is not particularly difficult. The tree is quite unpretentious and, as a rule, does not cause trouble for the gardener. The only exceptions are decorative species, which must be constantly looked after.
How to water a fir
Fir does not require watering. For most species of this tree, artificial irrigation is not only not required, but also contraindicated, since excess moisture has an extremely negative effect on it. The only exception is moisture-loving species, such as, for example, balsam fir, which should be moderately watered several times during the summer and only during prolonged drought. For the rest of the species, precipitation is sufficient.
How to feed
Planting nutrients are usually sufficient for the first few years of the fir's life. Further feeding is done once a year, in spring. 0.1-0.15 g of complex fertilizer Kemira-Universal is usually applied to the tree trunk circle, combining this procedure with cleaning and loosening the soil.
Loosening and mulching
Caring for the root zone of the fir after planting is one of the mandatory procedures that must be carried out constantly. It is very important to keep the tree trunks clean, this significantly reduces the likelihood of diseases and pests on the plants. Loosening should be carried out after each rain or watering, while removing weeds... Peat, humus, tree bark or wood chips can be used as mulch, laying it out in a layer of 8-10 cm.
Trunk circles are usually mulched within a radius of 0.5 m around the tree trunk, without covering the root collar.
Fir pruning
Most of the fir species have a neat, beautiful appearance and without any interference. An exception can only be decorative species, which must be maintained in the given dimensions of the crown. Pruning of these trees can be done in early spring, before the start of the growing season. In addition to such pruning, sanitary cleaning is carried out in the spring, during which branches that are broken, dried up and frozen over the winter are removed.
Preparing for winter
Mature trees can handle the winter cold quite well without any preparation. It is advisable to cover young plants for the winter. It is best to use spruce branches for this or build a special shelter in the form of a frame made of slats covered with burlap. The inner space of such a shelter is filled with straw, fallen leaves or wood shavings. This method is guaranteed to protect newly planted young trees not only from winter frosts, but also from damage to the crown by the bright spring sun.
Fir propagation
You can grow a fir yourself from seeds or by propagating it by cuttings. This is a rather lengthy process, so a gardener who decides to take such a step should be patient for several years in advance.
How to grow fir from seeds
Growing fir from seeds at home is a rather long and laborious process. Difficulties arise already at the stage of harvesting seeds, since ripe cones are located on the top of the tree. In addition, fir seeds are light and volatile, they quickly spill out and are carried by the wind. Therefore, they are procured as follows. Unripe cones with closed scales are plucked from the tree and placed in heat. After the cones ripen and open, seeds are poured out of them.
After collecting a sufficient number of seeds, they are subjected to stratification. It can be carried out both at home, by placing the planting material in the refrigerator, and on the street, simply by burying a container with seeds in the snow. They need to stay in such conditions for about 120 days. Stratified fir seeds are planted in April in special containers filled with a mixture of sand, peat and turf. Planting depth should not exceed 1-2 cm. Containers are covered with plastic wrap, simulating greenhouse conditions.
Periodically, the containers are ventilated, and the soil is moistened and gently loosened. The first shoots should appear in 3-4 weeks. A year later, they are dived into separate containers and kept growing until the age of 4 years. Only after that young fir trees are planted in the spring in permanent places.
How to propagate by cuttings
Fir can also be propagated vegetatively. Annual shoots 5-8 cm long with one apical bud are used as cuttings. Often they are not cut, but plucked, while a heel remains on the handle - part of an old lignified shoot. Cuttings are harvested in the spring using shoots growing on the north side of the tree in the middle of it. It is advisable to do this in cloudy weather. Prepared cuttings are disinfected before planting, keeping for 5-6 hours in a weak solution of potassium permanganate. Then they are planted in containers with nutrient soil, consisting of humus, sand and turf soil, taken in equal proportions.
The planted cuttings are placed under film or glass. It is necessary to regularly ventilate them, as well as moisten the soil substrate. Rooting of fir cuttings is a rather lengthy process. It takes about a year for the cutting to develop its own roots. A full-fledged root system will be formed only for 2 years.
Some of the nuances of the breeding of fir - in the video:
Diseases and pests
Subject to all the rules for caring for fir, diseases and pests appear on it quite rarely. Problems are possible only under adverse weather conditions, as well as violation of planting rules or poor ecology. The most common diseases affecting these trees are as follows.
- Booswarm fir trees. A fungal disease manifests itself in the yellowing of the needles, which subsequently turns black. The needles stick together, but do not crumble for a long time. In autumn, rounded black fruiting bodies of the fungus are clearly visible on them. As a preventive measure, it is recommended not to allow thickening of the plantings and waterlogging, you should also pay attention to the quality of the planting material. When a disease appears, it is necessary to cull, and treat neighboring plantings with biological products or fungicides.
- Fusarium. Caused by soil fungi.It occurs with excessive moisture and tree planting on heavy, poorly drained and clayey soils. The disease begins with damage to the roots and then penetrates into all tissues of the tree, which gradually turns yellow from below. When a disease occurs, the infected tree is destroyed, and the soil and neighboring plantings are treated with fungicides.
- Rust. Fungal disease, which especially often affects the planting of young plants. It manifests itself in the summer in the form of a yellow or orange bloom on the branches, strongly weakens the trees. To prevent the appearance, young plantings should be treated with copper sulfate or Bordeaux liquid, and also to prevent thickening of the plantings.
Among insect pests, several groups are traditionally distinguished:
- Sucking (Hermes aphids, false shield, spider mite).
- Needle-gnawing (fir moth, pine moth, fir leafworm).
- Damaging bumps (pine cone moth).
- Root pests (wireworms, beetles).
- Stem pests (black fir barbel, typographer bark beetle).
Insect pests are fought by treating plantings with biological products, as well as various insecticides, acaricides and other means. Spraying of fir trees with various infusions (tobacco, garlic, dandelion) is also widely practiced.
Growing fir as a business
The constant demand for ornamental coniferous trees makes it possible to consider growing fir in the country as a way of earning money. However, fir can be used not only as an element of landscape design. Fir brooms are very much appreciated by lovers of bath procedures. From the needles of this tree, infusions and oil are obtained, which are used in the treatment of many diseases and are an excellent prophylactic agent. Camphor is obtained from fir - a substance widely used to treat infections of the respiratory tract, lymph nodes and other diseases.
Fir wood is not inferior in quality to pine or spruce. Therefore, it can be used in construction, as well as for the manufacture of various wooden fittings, decorative elements, joinery, furniture.
Conclusion
It is possible and necessary to plant fir in a personal plot, if space and conditions permit. It has many benefits and requires little maintenance. Such shade-tolerant evergreen trees not only brilliantly revive the black and white picture of winter, but also significantly heal the general microclimate of the garden.
