In autumn, it's time to take care of the condition of the garden and the garden. Creating comfortable conditions for wintering for fruit trees is a priority for gardeners. What does garden care include in the fall? In anticipation of winter colds, after the leaves fall completely, you can begin sanitary pruning, thinning, lowering the crowns of perennial trees to 4-4.5 m. It is better to postpone a detailed anti-aging pruning until spring. Why? Firstly, there are concerns about the possibility of freezing trees. Secondly, places of cuts of perennial branches of large diameter can become a source of frost damage even when they are treated with garden varnish or oil paint.
In the fall, a thorough inspection of fruit trees is carried out, dry, damaged branches are removed. Together with the removal of diseased, dry branches, the trees are cleaned of dried fruit on the branches, nests, ovipositors of pests are burned, growths are cut out, leaf litter, root growth, where many species of aphids have accumulated, are removed.
Protecting fruit trees from rodents
All this must be destroyed immediately. When sections are formed with a diameter of more than 2 cm, they are covered with garden var. The stems of young trees are tied along the entire length with a special non-woven material or other improvised means to protect against damage by mouse-like rodents with a 3-5 cm deepening of the binding material into the soil.
For example, I do so. I wrap young trees in narrow bandages cut from spunbond or lutrasil. And then I start digging in - the ends of the bandage are dug up with earth, as if buried.
So that the bark does not crack
To prevent the appearance of cracks in the bark, frost holes on the stems of fruit-bearing trees carry out their whitewashing, after trimming the trunk.
Processing of trees, shrubs, grapes
On bone stones from diseases in the fall, treatment with copper preparations, for example, Bordeaux liquid, can be carried out, and on seed seeds with Preparation 30. Treatment with Preparation 30 can be transferred to spring. Run it through swollen kidneys.
In the vineyard, too, carefully inspect the plants after harvesting. Before shelter for the winter, be sure to take care of the plants in a healthy state. If the presence of the leafy form of phylloxera was noticed, it is necessary in early spring to treat the swollen kidneys with the Preparation 30. Unripe shoots in autumn should be cut. If shoots affected by anthracnose are noticed, from autumn or early spring the bushes are treated with 3% Bordeaux liquid - this is one of the universal fungicides with the longest duration of the protective effect.
Fertilizing fruit trees
In late autumn, organic, organic-mineral or mineral phosphorus-potassium fertilizers are applied - superphosphate, potassium sulfuric acid, others 6-9 g of active substance per 1 m2. Fertilizers are applied to wells or wells with a depth of 20-30 cm in the area of tree trunks at a distance of 0.5-1 m outside the crown projection or under digging. One or two holes or wells are made on each square meter.
For the orchard, fertilizers of prolonged action are most important. The main ones are organic and organic-mineral fertilizers. Nutrients from them are released slowly, as they decompose by microorganisms. The composition of organic fertilizers (manure, composts, etc.) includes the entire set of nutrients necessary for perennial fruit and berry plants, as well as hormones, vitamins, etc. Their application affects the growth, yield of trees for 3-5 years, while yield increases to 25 and even 50 percent.
Organic and mineral fertilizers include both organic (peat, humates, etc.) and mineral fertilizers.
According to the Institute of Horticulture and Viticulture, in the fourth year after applying mixed fertilizers (organic and mineral) under the fruiting apple tree (to a depth of 15-18 cm), the content in the soil of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium available to the plant at a depth of 60 cm is several times higher their maintenance in non-fertilized garden areas. This is due to the fact that fertilizer shovels applied locally during the autumn digging of the garden for 2/3 bayonet bayons are localized in the spreading zone, creating foci of nutrition within the boundaries of the main distribution of the root system of perennial plants.
In addition, in areas of the garden or garden where organo-mineral fertilizers were used when digging the soil, you can also notice that the soil has become looser and crumbles well. This means an improvement in its agrophysical properties.
When using fertilizers in the fall, it must be remembered that the introduction of fast-acting species can lead to the activation of growth processes in trees against the background of warm weather and sufficient moisture in the soil, which will cause serious damage in winter to low negative air temperatures.
For autumn refueling of garden soil in late autumn (November), as a rule, phosphorus-potassium fertilizers (nitrophoska, nitroammophoska) are used, and at earlier dates (October), ammonium forms of nitrogenous fertilizers (ammonium sulfate, ammonium nitrate) can be added. At the same time, the dose of nitrogen fertilizers is crushed: in the fall, 1 / 3-1 / 2 doses are applied; in the early spring, 2-3 weeks before the flowering of trees, intra-soil top dressing with high-speed nitrogen fertilizers is used (1 / 2-1 / 3 of the main dose); in summer, the remaining dose of nitrogen is added with irrigation water.
Autumn soil filling with fertilizers contributes to the formation of resistance of fruit plants to adverse environmental conditions, since the winter hardiness of trees is determined to a large extent by how much nutrients they accumulate in preparation for winter and to what extent these substances turn into protective ones. A prerequisite for sufficient accumulation of reserve nutrients is the optimization of the nutritional regime of fruit plants, which allows for the dynamic growth of all organs, withstand spring temperature changes, bloom profusely in winter and form a full-fledged crop.
Watering the garden
In connection with the upcoming winter cold, you need to give plenty of water to the trees, shrubs with water - to carry out water-charging irrigation, so that the plants are easier to winter.
Do I need to dig trees in the fall?
After the leaves fall, that is, when the fruit trees and shrubs “sleep”, their active life activity is stopped, they begin the main cultivation of the soil in the garden - digging. Digging the soil in the garden is necessary to maintain an optimal finely lumpy structure by mixing - the top layer of soil (with a destroyed structure) moves down. At the same time, the lower layer moves to the surface.
Deep digging of the soil in autumn creates the conditions for the formation of the root system, which lies deep. This helps to increase its resistance to sharp temperature drops in winter and significant increases in summer. The approximate depth of digging the soil in the fall, especially in the young garden, should be up to 30 cm - per bayonet shovel, and closer to the stem - 10-15 cm.
The increase in the number of warm winters (especially the last two years) is felt by the residents of the Kuban. Despite belonging to the southern latitudes, the Kuban were previously familiar with snowy frosty winters with plenty of snow and frosts down to -15 and -25 ° С. With the onset of cold weather, garden plants together entered into a state of deep dormancy for the entire winter period. The early February thaws affected mainly stone fruit species (apricot, cherry plum, cherry, peach). Currently, warm winters contribute to a decrease in winter hardiness of fruit crops in general. For the most common and sustainable culture in the Kuban, the apple tree, the onset of stressful situations contributing to a decrease in productivity has become more frequent. Stabilization of the situation provides for the hard work of gardeners in several stages.
First of all, it is important to timely undertake a complex of agrotechnical measures available to every amateur gardener on the garden plot in order to minimize the possible negative consequences of warm winters. To do this, in the fall, with the beginning of leaf fall, dig or deep loosen it (to a depth of at least 12-15 cm), which will ensure that not only the upper soil layer is saturated with moisture, but also deeper horizons, and will improve the structure and aeration of the root layer.
When writing used the materials of the newspaper "Niva Kuban" - 2014 - No. 39.