How to plant quince correctly: tips for beginners
Content
Soil preparation for quince
How to plant a quince in our difficult climatic conditions, if it is a southern heat-loving culture? There is undoubtedly a certain risk, because it comes from Transcaucasia, southern Asia, it is good to grow it in southern Europe, where the winter temperature practically does not drop below -8 degrees. But today there are varieties that can survive -37 degrees, in the middle lane and even further north it is not difficult to grow early ripening frost-resistant varieties, whose fruits ripen in September.
Quince, planting and caring for which requires knowledge of its preferences, is distinguished by a tolerant attitude to heat and drought, it can withstand a thirty-day flood, even recover from freezing of some of the shoots. It can grow on any soil - red soil, black soil, sandy loam and loam can stand it. On light sandy loam soils, it will enter the fruiting period earlier, but the fruits will not reach their maximum, they will be very hard, the tree will live less than on heavier soils. The longest life span of a tree, up to 60 years, is observed if the quince grows on fertile loam, it begins to bear fruit in the third, more often fourth year of life, by the eighth to tenth the yield will reach a maximum.
Every year, without any periodicity (under good conditions), a tree can produce a crop for 30-50 years. At first, it grows quickly enough, and reaching an adult state, it slows down growth, and can bear from 40 to 100 kg of fruits annually. For this, it is worth setting the stage just the way this culture loves.
If the soil on the site is light, then it is worth adding clay, humus, peat. Peat gradually oxidizes the soil, the quince does not like this, but peat perfectly retains moisture and enriches the soil, so it is worth periodically adding wood ash - this will keep the acidity at the desired level and fertilize at the same time.
Before planting a quince, you need to dig an area of at least 10 square meters to the depth of a shovel bayonet, at the same time adjust the soil structure and add humus or compost, superphosphate and potassium salt. After that, the land in the prepared area is watered and left to settle.
Video "How to plant a quince correctly"
From the video you will learn how to properly plant this fruit tree.
When to plant
Like all large trees, quince is planted in spring or autumn. In the fall, you need to have time to do so that before the frost the seedling gets used to it in a new place and forms, if new roots, then at least a callus. This usually takes at least two weeks, which means that you need to correctly determine the time so that the tree has these two weeks before the arrival of real frosts.
In the spring, the tree is planted while it is dormant, and the buds have not yet fully awakened. But the weather should already be warm, return frosts can cause serious harm to the new settler.Most gardeners do this in April, the weather will tell you exactly when to start planting. A seedling should not wait too long for planting, especially with an open root system.
It is advisable to buy a one-year-old seedling with an open root system for planting, then when choosing, you can carefully study not only the aerial part of the plant, but also the roots.
You need to pay attention to the buds, even before they wake up, it is quite possible to see dead or damaged ones, you can assume the presence of such at the ends of the shoots, which will then be cut off, but at the base of each shoot there should be at least 3 - 4 healthy, fully formed buds. The roots must be healthy and well developed, free from damage or dried out parts. On a cut, a healthy root is always light. Seedlings older than one year are usually sold with a closed root system, it will not be possible to consider it, but if they are in an earthen coma in which they grew, then such a seedling should take root well in a new place.
Planting in autumn
If quince is supposed to be planted in the fall, and this will be September - October, then it is advisable to prepare the site in the spring, but it is permissible to dig it up, clean it of grass and roots, apply fertilizer, and water it in July - August. The land should stand for at least a month, especially if not only fertilizers were applied, but the structure of the soil was corrected.
Immediately before planting, a hole is dug with a depth of 40-50 cm and a diameter of 60-100 cm.The root system of quince develops in width, the roots do not grow deeper than one meter, but their diameter can be several times greater than the width of the crown, therefore such a large place is being prepared. The diameter of the seedling hole should be 10 to 20 cm larger than the existing root system.
Clay is laid out at the bottom of the pit, then earth mixed with humus (or compost), superphosphate and wood ash. Such a composition should occupy at least one third of the pit; ordinary garden soil is poured on top. The roots of the seedling are set on the ground and carefully covered with light tamping, trying to ensure the greatest adherence of the earth to the roots, but not damage them. The vaccination site should be three centimeters underground. Having completely covered the hole, they tamp the earth around the trunk, water it, mulch. For watering, you need at least two buckets of water. Since it happens in the fall, a gradual cooling awaits ahead, you can immediately put a thick layer of mulch - at least 10 cm. Peat or compost is taken for mulch. Mulch the entire area of the earth above the roots and a little more to protect them from future frost, and not only to retain moisture.
After the autumn planting, the branches are pruned only if there are broken ones, the main pruning will be done later, when the tree survives its first winter.
Planting in spring
For spring planting, the site is prepared in the fall. After harvesting the crumbling leaves, the intended area is dug up, freed from the roots of perennial grasses, fertilizers are applied, the acidity and structure are corrected, if necessary, they are watered, and in winter they try to warm up snow there. In the spring, when the ground has already warmed up enough, the site can be, if not dug up, then at least loosened up. And just before planting, they dig a hole, fill it with fertilizers and plant a tree.
The area around and the pit itself should receive a lot of natural nitrogen fertilizers, the next introduction of organic matter will be in a few years, and the first years of the quince's life are characterized by very rapid growth. Mineral fertilizers (a reasonable amount) are applied several times annually, but the tree is fed with organic matter after 2 - 3 years. Therefore, it is so important to prepare the soil and apply the right amount of fertilizer when planting.
The main pruning of quince is done in the spring. Immediately after planting, you need to shorten the shoots and outline the skeletal branches, the formation of which will occur during the first years of the tree's growth.
The best neighbors of the tree
Quince in the garden takes a special place, if only because it needs a lot of free space around. A not too large tree with a crown about two meters in diameter grows roots that cover an area with a diameter of 6 - 8 meters. Any plants planted nearby will take nutrients from the quince, which will immediately affect the quality and size of the crop. Therefore, it is planted no closer than 5 meters to other trees, and empty land remains under it so that other plants, even if they are not afraid to grow in the shade, do not disturb the roots of the quince located close to the surface.
A heat-loving culture needs a lot of sunlight, so there should not be buildings or tall trees nearby that would shade it. They find an open place for quince, a southern slope is suitable, but if there were still some protection from the cold north wind, this would be an ideal place. In winter, you need to install shields to trap snow, the more snowdrift around the tree, the better it will endure frost.
Sometimes a hedge is made from quince, planting plants at a distance of one and a half meters from each other. Such overcrowding creates not very comfortable conditions, but there is an opinion that it is in such dense plantings that trees give the most useful fruits, although they will not be too large.
Quince belongs to non-self-fertile crops, which means that in order to obtain a harvest, it needs cross-pollination of flowers of different varieties. Modern varieties are distinguished not only by resistance to frost and diseases, they are also declared by breeders as self-fertile. But the harvest will undoubtedly be better if quince of a different variety grows on the same site (or on a neighboring one), such a neighbor will be the most desirable. If this does not work out, then you need to graft a twig of a different variety on the tree. You can graft not on a quince, but on a pear, these related cultures become an excellent stock for each other. The proximity of pears and apples, contrary to the wishes of many gardeners, is not a salvation for non-self-fertile quince varieties.
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