Content
Here is autumn ... Experienced gardeners are in a hurry to finish the last preparations of trees and shrubs for the frost. It is necessary to take care of the apple trees during this period. Over the summer, they devoted a lot of energy to the formation and growth of fruits. It is quite natural that caring for an apple tree in autumn is simply necessary so that next year it will also delight you with a bountiful harvest. What kind of work is important to have time to do in the garden before the frost sets in?
Do you need autumn care for apple trees
Most gardeners prefer to postpone all work in the garden to the spring, considering that the autumn care of apple trees is not so important. But this is a common mistake. Apple trees, like many other fruit trees, really need help to fully prepare for the cold.
Purpose of care measures apple trees in autumn is as follows:
- Protect trees from insects and pests;
- Carry out prevention against diseases;
- Protect from small rodents and hares;
- Protect apple bark from sunburn;
- Increase winter hardiness;
- To increase the quantity and quality of the future harvest.
As you can see, there is a lot of work in the garden in autumn and without your help it will be difficult for apple trees to fully prepare for winter and survive severe frosts.
When to start preparing for the winter. Dates of autumn works
Every summer resident has a lot of trouble in the fall. You need to collect bountiful harvests, put fruits and vegetables for long-term storage, process the harvested fruits, so even in the garden you just need to have time to redo things. A natural question arises: when do you need to start caring for apple trees in the fall and how to do it all?
Autumn gardening is cyclical. By planning the time correctly, you can catch everything. It is important to complete and stable frost of the following activities:
- Clearing foliage from the garden;
- Autumn watering and feeding of apple trees;
- Loosening the soil under the trees;
- Barrel cleaning and trimming;
- Disinfection;
- Whitewashing apple trees in autumn;
- Mulching;
- Protection of seedlings and trees from frost and rodents.
Individually, each step does not take much time. How to properly care for an apple tree, and in what order to carry out autumn work, you will learn from this article.
Clearing foliage from the garden
The first stage of caring for apple trees in autumn begins after harvesting with cleaning the garden from fallen leaves and weeds... Recently, it has been widely believed that remove leaves and grass not necessary. Supposedly, it can serve as mulch for apple trees. But this is not so, leaving fallen leaves in the garden, you leave "home and shelter" to numerous insects and pests. Even ticks love to hide in debris, leaves, dry grass.
Therefore, in order to protect the apple trees, it is imperative to remove the foliage from the garden. Do the same with weeds, broken branches and other debris that has accumulated over the summer. All collected garbage must be burned.
Autumn watering and feeding
After harvesting, you can immediately proceed to the next stage of apple tree care. In the first and second decade of September, fruit trees need to be watered abundantly. This is done so that the root system, which is sufficiently weakened by the fall, is saturated with moisture.
To save time and effort, you can combine autumn watering with timely feeding. Pour at least a bucket of water under each tree, and then apply fertilizer. You need to feed apple trees in autumn twice - at the beginning and at the end of September. But they need to be watered at least 2-3 times a week.
With an abundance of autumn rains, watering should be reduced to prevent waterlogging of the soil.
Most of all apple trees, after abundant fruiting, need phosphorus and potash in the fall. fertilizers... Apply fertilizers only in the amount indicated on the package. It is important to follow the sequence when caring for apple trees - first, abundant watering, and then top dressing.
Fertilizing with fresh manure is strictly prohibited, as you can burn the roots.
At any stage of work on caring for apple trees, remember that how well you prepare your garden for the coming winter in the fall depends not only on its safety, but also on the quantity and quality of the harvest next year.
Loosening the soil
An important process for caring for apple trees is loosening the soil under the trees. This is necessary in order to enrich the soil with oxygen and provide full access of fertilizers and moisture to the roots. After all, the root system has to restore balance in just a month and stock up on nutrients for the winter.
This event should be carried out after the second feeding. You need to loosen the soil carefully, trying not to damage the roots. Forks are best suited for this purpose.
Water the apple trees generously a day before loosening. Carefully dig up the soil within a radius of 1-1.5 meters from the trunk with a pitchfork.
Autumn feeding and loosening is a kind of gratitude to your fruit trees for the delicious and fragrant fruits they gave you in the fall.
Barrel cleaning and trimming
The next stage of sanitary work for the care of apple trees is autumn pruning of branches and cleaning of trunks.
You have to well clean the trunks of lichens, moss, growths, old, cracking bark, and also cut off all unnecessary branches, process open cuts and damaged areas.
Prepare the necessary tools and materials. To clean the trunks of apple trees, you will need: a large piece of film or rags and a plastic spatula. Do not forget about personal protective measures: be sure to wear plastic glasses and cloth gloves.
If you have installed "trapping belts" in the garden, they must be removed before starting work, taken out of the garden and burned.
Before you start cleaning the apple trees, you should make sure that the stems are moist. It is advisable to clean them immediately after rain. But if autumn is stingy for precipitation, then the trunks need to be well moistened so that the bark becomes soft and pliable.
Spread oilcloth around the apple tree. With a plastic spatula, very carefully remove all unnecessary things: pieces of moss, lichen, old, cracked bark. This procedure is very important for trees. Thus, you block access to numerous insects and pests that like to settle for the winter in hard-to-reach places. And the apple bark for them is an ideal place for wintering and breeding.
Now you can start pruning the apple trees.
Young apple trees undergo "weak" pruning in autumn. That is, only damaged, dry and diseased branches are cut out. Also, gardeners are advised to take a closer look at how smoothly young shoots grow. Strongly curved should be cut mercilessly. In addition to sanitizing, you can form the crown of young apple trees. Such pruning should be carried out with annual autumn care for seedlings up to 4-5 years of age.
Adult apple trees are pruned deeper.In the fall, fruit trees need to be rejuvenated to increase yields. In addition to defective branches, you need to cut out a third of the crown. In addition, be sure to thin out the top of the apple trees so that each branch is sufficiently illuminated by the sun's rays.
Immediately after cleaning and pruning, all scraped off debris and cut branches must be immediately removed and burned to prevent the spread of disease and spores.
Open sections, cracks, wounds must be treated immediately to prevent the possibility of infection. As an antiseptic, you can apply:
- Clay talker;
- Garden var;
- "RanNet" and other means for processing sections.
It is very important to complete these activities at least 3-4 weeks before the expected frost. It is best if you finish cleaning the trunks and pruning before the end of September so that you can finish the rest of the apple tree care in October. All slices should dry up and tighten until the first frost.
Pruning apple trees in the fall is a very important step in the maintenance of the garden. Thanks to this event, the immunity of your fruit trees will grow, they will become more resistant to various diseases and pests.
Spraying trees
Novice gardeners carry out disinfection measures mainly in the spring, bypassing the autumn processing. But spraying apple trees in the fall is an equally important procedure.
Many insects and pests lay their larvae and eggs under the bark of trees or in small cracks, or find a reliable shelter there for the winter. In order to destroy insects and their numerous offspring, as well as to protect the apple trees from possible infection with various diseases, spraying should not be postponed until the spring.
Spraying can be carried out 5-7 days after pruning the apple trees. Now that the harvest is harvested and the sap flow slows down in the apple trees, you can safely use concentrated and enhanced disinfection preparations.
Most often, apple trees are sprayed with urea or copper sulfate. Preparations must be diluted in accordance with the instructions on the package. Before starting work, do not forget about personal protection methods when working with chemicals.
Specialized shops offer a wide range of garden care products for treating and spraying fruit trees. But it's worth noting that many of them are highly toxic and can cause irreparable damage to your trees. Therefore, before purchasing, familiarize yourself with its composition and environmental impact.
Be sure to check the weather forecast before spraying the apple trees. On the day of processing and the next 2-3 days, the weather should be dry, calm so that all your work is not washed away by the rain.
After processing, at least 7-10 days must pass before you can proceed to the next stage - whitewashing the apple trees in the fall.
Autumn whitewash
Contrary to popular belief, apple trees need to be whitened not only in spring, but also in autumn. The main function of the autumn whitewash - not only to destroy hordes of insects, but also to protect fruit trees from sunburn, which they most often undergo in winter. The dark brown and black areas of the bark attract the sun's rays. And the bright, blinding reflection from the white snow causes damage to the trunks.
Try not to skip this point when caring for apple trees in autumn, because the results will not appear immediately, but after a rather long period of time.
At first, these small burnt areas are almost invisible, but over time they become more and more, causing irreversible processes: gradually the yield decreases, the tree becomes increasingly weak and soon dies completely. To prevent this from happening, apple trees simply need to be whitened in the fall.
You can prepare the whitening composition yourself.Or you can use solutions for whitewashing trees, in a wide range presented on store shelves.
Whichever composition you use, take note of a few tips:
- Apple trees should be whitened in autumn in dry weather. And it is desirable that the forecast is favorable for the next few days.
- For whitening adult apple trees, lime-based whitening compositions are well suited. But when caring for young apple trees, it is better to use chalk-based whitewashing solutions so as not to burn the young bark.
- When preparing a solution for whitewashing, keep in mind that the thicker its consistency, the better for the trees.
- Choose the right brush before whitewashing. Its width should be equal to the width of the trunk.
- When whitewashing apple trees, it is important to process not only stems, but also skeletal branches to a height of 25-30 cm from the base.
- By adding "Creolin" or "Knockdown" to the whitening composition, you will protect apple trees from the raids of rodents and hares.
A few days after whitewashing, you can start mulching.
Mulching
Not every gardener pays due attention to this stage of caring for apple trees, believing that they will quite safely endure the winter frosts without it. But the fact is that mulching helps to retain moisture, protects the trunks and the root system from freezing. It is especially important to mulch young seedlings that are not even five years old.
Peat or spruce branches can be used as a mulching material. It is undesirable to apply when mulching:
- Mullein or fresh dung - these will burn the underside of the trunk and roots.
- Leaves. Wet or decayed foliage is the best wintering and breeding ground for insects, and is also a likely source of infestation.
- Hay or straw - they will become a haven for mice and other small rodents who will not hesitate to settle in mulch and spoil the bark and roots of trees.
The height of the mulch layer for adult trees should be at least 10-15 cm, for young apple trees - 20-25 cm. In the northern regions, with regular drops in temperature below - 35˚С - 40˚С, the height of mulch can be increased to 30-35 cm.
Frost and rodent protection
At this stage of caring for apple trees, it is important in the fall to provide adequate protection from low temperatures, as well as to take measures so that in winter your trees are not exposed to raids by hungry rodents and hares.
Experienced gardeners use spruce branches or sawdust as an excellent insulating material. Pine and spruce branches can be laid around the trunk, or they can be tied so that they are not scattered by gusts of wind.
To protect against small rodents and hares, the netting is a good help. She needs to wrap apple trees up to a meter high, and fill the empty space with sawdust or spruce branches.
Many gardeners wrap young apple seedlings with rags or insulation to help them adapt to climatic conditions and protect them from freezing. The wrapping height depends on the region. In the central regions, a height of 40-50 cm will be enough. But in the northern regions, it is advisable to wrap up young apple trees at a height of at least a meter.
For information on how to care for an apple tree in autumn, see the following video:
Conclusion
As you can see, in the preparation of fruit trees for winter nothing is difficult. It is important to follow the order of work for caring for apple trees and adhere to an approximate schedule of events. The health and productivity of your apple orchard depends on how scrupulously and efficiently you approach this matter. The more attention and care you give to apple trees, the more generously they will thank you with a bountiful harvest of aromatic, ripe apples.
