Hello guys!
And again it's January. I have another theoretical self-educational course.
TOPIC of the course; Methods of current smart farmers in Russia (permaculture farming in Russian).
I ordered and bought books:
1) A.Yu. Sapelin. 10 stages of designing a small garden. (Moscow, middle zone).
2) Pavel Trannoy. Triangular miracle beds. (Moscow, middle zone).
3) N.I. Kurdyumov. Shaping instead of pruning (Krasnodar region).
4) A.A. Kazarin, N.I. Kurdyumov. Diaries of a smart summer resident. (Pskov, north-west).
5) N.I. Kurdyumov, V.K. Zhelezov. Smart garden. How to outsmart the climate. (Sayanogorsk on the Yenisei).
6)B.A. Bagel. Vegetable garden in a new way. The revolutionary "do-nothing" method. (Ukraine).
7) N.I. Kurdyumov. Fertility Mastery.
I read these exciting “garden novels” with pen in hand. So many different methods! New information!
I read with great interest: I accept some things, reject others, some methods require verification, and some have been worked out better in our country.
At the same time, I imagine with horror how novice farmers will read these same books... What kind of porridge will fill their heads? Masters of agriculture describe methods for the smart and the lazy, exactly the opposite. Moreover, affirming! And how many other amateur authors with beautiful pictures entice naive beginners?... Horrible!
The fact is that all these authors are powerful professional practitioners who live and work in different climatic regions and have developed methods for specific climatic conditions.
Each of them has different tasks when growing the same crops.
Southern Bagel needs to retain moisture and cover the soil from overheating --- otherwise everything will “burn.” Trannois, on the contrary, is to dry and warm the soil as quickly as possible in order to have time to get a harvest in the short and cool summer. That’s why Bublik suggests planting under a peg (under the heel) as we and our ancestors planted in the south. And Trannois - into triangular ridges; Kazarin - into the ridges.
Both tomatoes and potatoes have to be grown in different ways...
My impressions:
I really liked the “EM-silo” at Bublik. Cool!
Books and articles by Pavel Trannois are always “balm for the soul” for me. He writes simply and competently. Just for our middle zone.
N.I. I have been reading Kurdyumov for a long time, but I would not advise beginners to read it until they have acquired at least basic experience.
But the co-authorship of N.I. Kurdyumova with A.A. Kazarin and, especially, with Zhelezov V.K. pleased. I really hope that the experience of northern practitioners will make a tangible contribution to popular literature for farmers, and the “postulates” of northerners will not anger people...
Now, at the stage of site development, literature on design is important to us. I choose A.Yu. Sapelina, I advise you to read about this from Mollison (Introduction to Permaculture)
We are starting to plant orchards, which means we need to form fruit trees in the first years of their life. This is well described by N.I. Kurdyumova (Shaping instead of trimming)
All. I went to read “The Mastery of Fertility” by Kurdyumov.
Goodbye.
Elena Vladimirovna.
Beautiful, abundantly fruiting Orchard can be grown in almost any region of our country. VC. Zhelezov proves in practice the possibility of this in the north of Siberia, where, in general, the conditions are very harsh. But even especially winter-hardy varieties that are grown using special “northern” agricultural techniques will feel much better if, even at the stage of acquiring a plot for a garden, you make sure that this plot is located in a location FAVORABLE for the garden - the best of those what you can choose.
VC. Zhelezov writes: “I would say simply: all favorable places for gardens are around large masses water, either on the southern slopes and in amphitheaters, or in windless places protected by hills and rocks.”
In addition to the obvious disadvantages in the form of air, water and soil pollution by toxic waste, it also has one advantage.
From the point of view of a heating engineer, the city is a huge stone fire that burns all winter. Houses are heated in any climate, even in Sochi. And every day EVERYTHING is warm heating devices radiates and flies into the air! Introduced? Plus the heat of the sun accumulated during the day by the walls of houses. Plus the greenhouse effect from smog and carbon dioxide. And all this warm air mass with the prevailing wind creeps onto the suburbs of a city with a population of 200,000, warming 8-10 km of suburbs, a million-plus city - 30-40 km. This means that it is warmest in the private sector of the city itself. Especially between a city and a large body of water. The leeward suburbs are unlucky - it is 4-7° colder here than in the city. For us gardeners, this is a lot!
7. Good soil drainage.
Where water stagnates and stays close to the soil surface for a long time, the garden has almost no chance. Even in the south, in flooded places, only pome fruits grow; stone fruits simply get wet. Instead of subsoil, such a “wet” often forms something like black silt - gley. It is poisonous to the roots - there is no air in it. But even without gley, such soil has too little oxygen.
In harsh areas, standing close to groundwater is also dangerous. In spring this is flooding, and in the second half of summer excess moisture delays the ripening of wood.
How to determine all this?
All of the above are just the main signs of favorable climatic microzones. In theory, the more you collect on your site, the better. It’s just not easy to take them into account. Even to determine - you already have to be a specialist! Eyes alone are not enough here. What to do?
Many people advise asking experienced gardeners. Ask. But know this: experienced gardeners- special people. No one will tell you that he lives in a particularly soft microzone. If you tell him, he will be offended for life! Everyone is sure that they live in the most ordinary, that is, terribly harsh climate. And the fact that the garden grew like this is the result of many years of experience, an inquisitive mind and hard work.
But asking around about the timing of planting and ripening of different crops is a matter of business. When do the first cucumbers, tomatoes, and zucchini ripen? Where before? There are also fruit crops, indicating a special microclimate. For example, Vladimir cherry is tree-like. It is found almost everywhere, but it bears fruit consistently only in microzones.
Well, the obvious “heavenly place” can be seen from afar: mulberries, vines, many different pears and cherries, and even a walnut sticking out, and not even very frozen...
If you liked this material, then we offer you a selection of the best materials on our site according to our readers. You can find a selection - TOP about existing eco-villages, family estates, their history of creation and everything about eco-houses where it is most convenient for youCurrent page: 5 (book has 11 pages total) [available reading passage: 8 pages]
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Feed or water?
Let's go back to our dachas. What is the best way to feed the garden? The best thing is to feed and drink. In nature, the plant always eats, pia. Both in the north and in the south.
I apologize for the short treatise. What is the basis of plant nutrition? And all in unison: nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus! Anyone who has read “Peace Instead of Defense” will smile slyly: carbon, organics! Great. And here I recently observed waste heaps - dumps of Donetsk mines, and then quarry dumps of granite and marble. In both places, trees grow like a carpet - powerfully, and without a crumb of humus! We have to dig deeper. And it turns out that main basis food – water. Whether it is a “broth” of organic decay or minerals, these are all aqueous solutions. It is with water that carbon dioxide enters the roots - the source of carbon from which the plant builds itself. Water is the basis of nutrition, and the substances dissolved in it are only an addition. No water - no food. This is just natural: Earth is a planet of water.
And here’s a fact: only natural soil – densely capillary, but permeated with channels and passages, and covered with a layer of litter on top – can accumulate the required amount of water. Every day it deposits underground dew, for a total of two doses of annual precipitation. Even more dew falls in the masses of stone. Streams start where? In forests and in the depths of mountains. You climb a small, seemingly dry hill, and near the top there is a spring! Where?! And this is underground dew. This water gives the roots the opportunity to feed and cooperate with the symbionts.
Rice. 40
Rice. 41
Drive the plow, walk with a shovel - and there is no mulch, no channels, no underground dew. AND NO WATER, no matter how much you water. What power is there? There is nothing to live here. Let's go to the other extreme: we cast it, we fatten it up with mineral water. Fat shoots are raging! But they get sick an order of magnitude more: they are loose, pampered, and have zero immunity.
The smartest thing to do is to imitate natural feeding.
Young seedlings and berry bushes It is best to feed and water, covering the trunk circles with a layer of humus, and on top with leaves, straw, grass or living plants. If the soil is poor, for example in the Non-Black Earth Region, then two or three buckets of organic matter should be added to the hole.
It is best to water and feed mature trees with mulch and pits.
The ideal mulch for the soil is a carpet of the aforementioned bentgrass (Fig. 40). This grass forms a mulching carpet of such softness and thickness that even loam remains moist and pliable.
And for the reward for the harvest - pits, stationary “feeders” (Fig. 41). Along the perimeter of the crown there are about six to eight holes, bayonet deep. The value is arbitrary; a short groove is also suitable. Throw in branch cuttings, rotten wood, grass and kitchen waste, and in the years of a landslide harvest, carrion, manure, droppings and feces. Cover the top with a shield-type lid made of boards. Water here too if the drought is prolonged. The water goes immediately to the required depth, is not lost, and does not create dirt. And you only need a little of it: 2-3 buckets per pit.
In general, the tree itself does everything to eat to its fullest. No need to overfeed him with anything!
Part 2
Gardens of the North and Siberia
Z Here are a few chapters from the book “Smart Garden: How to Outwit the Climate,” written in collaboration with Sayanogorsk experienced gardener V.K. Zhelezov. In the book he talks about the most important features garden agricultural technology of cold zones - Siberia and Non-Black Earth Region. Northern gardening is completely, often completely different from the gardening of the South and the Black Earth Region.
Chapter 1
What means a good place for garden
A garden can grow almost anywhere. But not everywhere!
Anastasievites often call and write to me - people who, at the call of Nature, create settlements in various sparsely inhabited places. And I see: problems, sometimes insoluble, in most cases they create for themselves. Here are the lines from their letters: “...bare windy steppe, no water, no electricity...”; “I thought we’d plant trees and lie under them, but the midges won’t let us stick our noses out of the sheds - while they were just built...”; “they dug into the ground, and there was water...”; “...a fire broke out due to unmown grass, and more than half of the areas with buildings burned down...” From names settlements, and even in the northern latitudes, the pressure jumps: the Zabolotny farm, the village of Solontsy... What gardens there are here! I say: come to us, to the Shushensky district, to the Minusinsky, to the Sayanogorsk - here you can live and grow gardens. They answer: no, it’s far away. And “the windy steppe, no water, no electricity” is not far away... And they call me and hope that after a five-minute conversation they will be able to grow a garden! As if I could change the climate or make the northern slope southern.
This is how it is here everywhere: mostly unused land is given over to settlements and dachas. On you, God, what is not good for me: bare steppes dried up by dry winds, depleted abandoned fields, rocky soils, heavy loams, sand or gravel, peat bogs, former swamps and salt licks, roadsides with poisonous lead exhausts, off-road... And we are all happy about it Let's grab it: “our own land” is in our genes! And the result is hundreds of letters addressed to me: NOTHING GROWS. Although many years, money, nerves, and labor have been spent.
Even those who could plan their future location in advance focus primarily on the cost of the house, amenities, communications - whatever. They remember about the garden when the house is already being built. And so - “nothing grows.” And my neighbor, where the garden is protected from the wind, grows plums. And at a friend’s place, on the southern slope, apricots are ripening. And the neighboring village is full of its own apples, which are not available anywhere in the area...
The sustainability potential of fruit trees is much higher than we used to think. But still it is specific. I have always written that gardens with large-fruited varieties can be bred throughout Siberia. But I never wrote that they can grow anywhere. Here's the thing: a garden can be grown in any area, but NOT ANYWHERE. Even in the south! But in Siberia and the North - not in any case. But only in a favorable location with a mild climate. But it’s a fact: there are plenty of such places everywhere. And in Siberia too.
Every area has the warmest and mildest areas. During an abnormally severe winter, temperatures in some areas of the Chita region exceeded –50 °C, while in others they did not exceed –37 °C. Within one region, especially the foothills, there is a wide range of climates. I drive to my garden along the Yenisei and always look at the car’s thermometer: in one village, under the rocks, -7 ºС, and three kilometers later, in a valley -13 ºС! This may sound strange to some, but even on the same street the microclimate is different: height difference, slopes, protection from wind, depth of groundwater. The last harsh winters - and here is an oil painting: your garden is almost frozen, but the neighbor across the street is almost not, and even the apples are ripening. It’s a little higher, the drainage is better – that’s the result. Even in different corners of your plot, conditions for fruit trees are different. In front of the house there is a slope, behind there is a river, under the fence there is calm from the wind. Plum trees bear fruit only in quiet areas; apple trees grow best near the river.
If you want to get serious about gardening, start with the main thing: find the most favorable place of all possible. Otherwise, years and energy will be wasted!
Apple trees won't bloom on Mars!
I would say simply: all favorable places for gardens are around large bodies of water, either on southern slopes and in “amphitheatres”, or in windless places protected by hills and rocks. Nikolai Ivanovich decided that this needed to be looked into in more detail - to describe all such places. And not just name them, but also understand WHY the climate there is milder. Here is the data sent by the co-author.
1. Large water surfaces: lakes, large rivers, reservoirs. Water is the main climate buffer. It accumulates a huge supply of heat. In summer, the reservoir cools the air, and before winter, on the contrary, it releases heat for a long time. Around Lake Baikal on the climate map there is a “marine climate” zone. Around large lakes around the world there is a “protected gardening” zone of 3 to 30 km. Where are our most prosperous dacha areas? Mostly around rivers and reservoirs.
But the most successful thing is non-freezing reservoirs. For example, rivers below hydroelectric power stations. They humidify the air. And humid air is almost like a “greenhouse”. In summer, it reduces leaf evaporation - heat and drought are tolerated more easily, shoots ripen better, and as a result, tissues are better prepared for winter. And in winter, air moisture greatly reduces the main cause of “freezing” - winter drying out of branches. Including covering it with frost - a kind of “fur coat”. This adds several degrees of tolerable frost. Moist air is especially important when there is wind.
The influence of water is so noticeable that everything big rivers(Volga, Don, Dnieper) have long been responsible for the main gardening on the windward shores. Passing over the river, the air becomes humid, and here the gardens feel safer and better than on the leeward bank with dry air. The same can be safely said about the Yenisei. Don’t we have enough rivers and lakes in Siberia?
2. Southern and southeastern slopes. The sun falls more perpendicularly - the soil warms up more. Spring is earlier, autumn is later, the overall heat is much greater. Every degree of slope to the south is like moving 50–100 km south. Or go down from the mountains 100 m lower. Collective farm gardens are still alive on the southern slopes of Altai and in the highlands of the Caucasus.
“Amphitheaters” opened to the south or southeast warm up even better. These are traps for solar heat. In addition, they are often protected from the wind. In the North and Siberia, such “bowls” are populated primarily by gardeners. There are more possibilities here: the eastern and western slopes heat up differently. There are valleys with rocky slopes that warm up well - it’s even warmer there.
In the dry south and hot steppes, gardens, on the contrary, are hidden on the western and northern slopes - they are wetter and cooler there. The southern slopes on Taman or, for example, near Volgograd are just “frying pans”.
3. Place on a slope. Even pre-war research by one of the luminaries of our gardening, P.G. Schitt showed: on the slopes of hills and mountains with a steepness of 5–10 ºС, gardens generally grow better and live longer than on the plains. Even in Europe. Here are the data from “Fruit Growing” in 1946: a slope means not only warmth, but also good drainage and better ventilation. And most importantly - different soil moisture. Soil moisture flows from top to bottom. The closer to the top, the drier. The lower, the moister the soil and the longer it does not dry out. Water accumulates at the foot, and there are ponds and swamps.
In the south, in the dry steppes, gardens in the upper part of the slope have been suffering from drought and heat since June. The best place here is the lower half of the hill and the foot. In damp northern zones, on the contrary, the upper half of the hill is better. In the middle zone, gardens grow well both on different slopes and on plains - everywhere except windy peaks and sunken lowlands.
4. Hills. Cold air masses roll off them into the lowlands. How important this is is shown by an example from the same “Fruit Growing”. Two villages were compared Samara region- in the lowlands and on the adjacent hill, 77 meters higher. The absolute minimum frost at the top is –36 ºС, and at the bottom –49 ºС. And the frost-free period in the lowlands is on average 30–40 days shorter (!) than in the upper villages. And all the frosts are below. Is it clear who goes to whom to buy fruit?
5. Protection from winds. Wind is the main problem of all gardens, both in the steppe south and in Siberia. In hot weather, strong winds increase the evaporation of water from leaves and soil significantly. A frosty wind dries out branches many times faster than just frost. Actually, in windy areas, trees do not “freeze out”, but dry out from the frosty wind.
In our region, the border is clear: near the foothills there are gardens, but if you go out into the steppe even ten kilometers, there is almost no chance. Well, perhaps planting windbreaks (try growing them there quickly!) or hiding trees under the walls of houses. A high fence for southern peaches near Rostov is like snow for pears in Novosibirsk. Everything that stuck out above the fence was frozen, and everything below was in fruit. And so it was for three years out of four. In general, I found a windless place - consider that I moved three to five hundred kilometers to the south!
We have a place that brings together all the above advantages: the village of Cheryomushki on the way to the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station. The microclimate there is such that cherries grow, and even walnuts They don’t freeze slightly every year (Fig. 42).
Rice. 42
But there are very few such places. Therefore, simultaneously with the garden, or even better - in advance, plant protective forest belts - windbreaks in 3-4 rows. More precisely, sow. Seedlings of Manchurian walnut, Manchurian apricot grow very quickly, and in the lower tier - Ussuri plum and steppe cherry. But there should be no less conifers: pines and cedars. Only they cut off the wind in winter.
My personal experience from the island: pine trees, planted in three rows one meter apart, competing for light, quickly rushed towards the sun and, without any care, in ten years created an almost impenetrable hedge 7–8 m high with mushrooms and birds. The result is an excellent windbreak that works in all seasons.
6. Proximity of the city. From the point of view of a heating engineer, the city is a huge stone fire that burns all winter. Houses are heated in any climate, even in Sochi. And every day ALL the heat from heating devices radiates and flies into the air! Introduced? Plus the heat of the sun accumulated during the day by the walls of houses. Plus the greenhouse effect from smog and carbon dioxide. And all this warm air mass with the prevailing wind is creeping towards the suburbs. A city of 200,000 people warms 8–10 km of suburbs, a million-plus city warms up to 30–40 km. This means that it is warmest in the private sector of the city itself. Especially between a city and a large body of water. In Krasnodar, between the city and the Kuban Reservoir, Virginia persimmons and even kiwis with frost resistance of –16–18 ºС are quietly ripening! And in the neighboring villages - don’t even hope, just with shelter. The downwind suburbs are unlucky: they are 4–7 ºС colder than in the city. For us gardeners, this is a lot!
7. Good soil drainage. Where water stagnates and stays close to the soil surface for a long time, the garden has almost no chance. Even in the south, in such flooded places, only pome trees grow, and even then with difficulty. Stone fruits just get wet. On such a “basket” e“Instead of subsoil, a kind of dense black silt – gley – is often formed. It is poisonous to the roots: there is no air in it. But even without gley, such soil has too little oxygen.
In harsh areas, standing close to groundwater is also dangerous. In spring this is flooding, and in the second half of summer excess moisture delays the ripening of wood.
That is why the slopes of the foothills are so densely covered with thick forest. And even wild Manchurian apricot grows on steep slopes. Drought is not scary for him, but stagnation of water is fatal.
...These are only the main signs of favorable microzones. In theory, the more of them you collect on your site, the better. It’s just not easy to take them into account. Even to determine - you already have to be a specialist! Eyes alone are not enough here. What to do?
Many people advise asking experienced gardeners. Ask. But know this: experienced gardeners are a special people. Especially Siberians. No one will tell you that he lives in a particularly soft microzone. If you tell him, he will be offended for life! Everyone is sure that they live in the most ordinary, that is, terribly harsh climate. And the fact that the garden grew like this is the result of many years of experience, an inquisitive mind and hard work. The neighbors didn't raise me! I know it from myself... It’s still unpleasant when I read: “all of Zhelezov’s success is in his microzone.”
But asking around about the timing of planting and ripening of different crops is a matter of business. When do the first cucumbers, tomatoes, and zucchini ripen? Where before? There are also fruit crops that indicate a special microclimate. For example, Vladimir cherry is tree-like. It is found almost everywhere, and produces crops, but it bears fruit consistently only in microzones. Well, the obvious “heavenly place” can be seen from afar: mulberries, vines, many different pears and cherries, and even a walnut sticking out, and not even very frozen.
...There is another phenomenon in the mountains that is priceless for gardeners - hair dryers. Warm dry winds blowing from passes along river valleys. The hair dryer used to dry hair comes from the same root. They are formed due to the influx of air masses “from the mainland”, in Siberia - mainly from the west. The mass rests on the ridge, goes over it and, as it were, is sucked down the valley. And the lower, the greater the atmospheric pressure. The air flow becomes more and more dense, compressed - and heated. There are a lot of hair dryers in the Caucasus. But even more - in Altai. Altai is called “a warm island in the middle of a cold mainland.” And also – the “Siberian Caucasus”.
Look at the map of Altai. The Chulyshm River flows into Lake Teletskoye A n. Her valley blows out hairdryers four months a year! There are terraces on the shores of the lake where a typical winter is no higher than -20 ºС. Even walnuts grow there! The industrial plant is still alive at the Bele cordon Apple orchard Soviet times (Fig. 43 and 44). And next to the lake, on Biya, there are ordinary forty-degree winters. Not so many, but there are hair dryers along the Katun valley and many of its tributaries. We also have them in Khakassia - on the eastern slopes of the Kuznetsk Alatau, in the upper reaches of the Chulym. But they no longer reach the Yenisei.
Rice. 43
Rice. 44
You say: what are you talking about? snow didn't mention? Snow is, of course, good. This means there is a lot of precipitation and moisture, like in Tomsk or Mezhdurechensk. It is also convenient to hide trees under the snow for the winter. But this is a double-edged sword. Stone fruits rot in the snow, especially apricots. But here, in the area with little snow, they do well. On good rootstocks they will find moisture everywhere. And there is no too much temptation to relax. You count on snow - what if it doesn’t fall on time?.. Sayanogorsk is an almost snowless place. Maybe this was our main trump card? If we had one and a half meters of snow, would we be able to tame apricots and plums? And most importantly, would you want to?..
Well, what should those who already have land do, and the location is far from the most favorable? There are three ways out. If gardening really means a lot to you, you will still change the place - you will find a better one. If not, just limit yourself to flowers, bird cherry and reliable half-crops. The third way is to try to improve the place as much as possible. Drain excess water and create protection from the wind. Maybe add a few more chances. But whether it's worth your effort is up to you to decide.
“All of Zhelezov’s success lies in his microzone”What is a bathhouse for a Siberian, is death for a European!
How many feathers, including mine, have been broken in disputes about the climate of the Minusinsk Basin, Sayanogorsk and specifically my garden in Krasny Khutor! Why? Yes, because we look differently. My Trans-Ural opponents know for sure: “The Minusinsk Basin is a particularly favorable region
Siberia." What this means in reality, no one is trying to clarify, although my gates are open to everyone. Sayanogorsk is almost Ukraine for them. Accordingly, the publications of my many guests there, on the other side of the Urals, are perceived with distrust. I also know very well: it’s warmer here than in Tomsk or even Krasnoyarsk. But something else is important to me: no one here has grown real ones before us fruit trees . We, amateurs, were able to do what metropolitan science does not consider possible - we created an entire area of thriving gardens with a variety of dessert fruits.
What kind of climate do we have? How “particularly favorable” is it? My co-author forced me to conduct a whole investigation, even connected our weather stations. So I'll be as objective as I can.
He never denied it, and on the contrary, he emphasized: the Sayanogorsk and Shushensky districts - a narrow strip along the ice-free Yenisei - are a very fertile place. From my village to Shushenskoye there are thousands of hectares of coastal forest-steppes protected by mountains. Here you can work not only on country gardens, but also on industrial gardens, and feed the whole of Siberia. Our famous Subbotinsky garden (Shushensky state variety testing site) is in more stringent climatic conditions, 18 km from the Yenisei. But during its heyday, the Baykovs grew excellent harvests of Russian apples, Chinese plums and Siberian varieties pears It was they who made me believe in miracles and take five hectares of land for a garden.
Nevertheless, we are far from Ukraine! There we planted potatoes in March, and here in May. There the critical winters are a little over thirty, and here - over forty. There is the Atlantic breath of the Gulf Stream, and here the center of Eurasia is nearby - the climate is the most extreme continental.
Most of the myths about the “excessively mild” climate of the area are associated with the village of Cheryomushki and the local cherry orchard B.I. Bodnar. They read about it and rejoice: this is what the “Minusinsk Basin” is like! Yes, Cheryomushki is an amazing place. On the southern coastal slope between the mountains, highest along the Yenisei, closest to the hydroelectric power station. Until recently, frosts there did not exceed –30 ºС, and in normal winters – –20–25 ºС. It regularly rains in summer and snows in winter. There are almost no strong winds there. There, in the only place in Russia, apricots did not bear fruit for the first time in thirty years in the most anomalous year of 2011.
But We don't have places like this anymore. 15 km below, in Maina, there are already forty-degree frosts, although the Yenisei here is backed by the dam of the Mainskaya hydroelectric station and becomes twice as wide. My village, Krasny Khutor, is another 8 km lower, almost opposite Sayanogorsk. It's even colder here.
Giant Reservoir Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP It freezes only after the New Year. In the meantime, while it is open, a small warm cyclone regularly forms above it. It creeps towards Sayanogorsk, pours rain in the summer and piles up snow in the winter. But to my chagrin, which has been going on for a quarter of a century, it almost always stops somewhere in Main, not reaching my village.
And the western Atlantic cyclones do not allow the Kuznetsk Alatau mountains to reach us. All the moisture of the western winds falls on their western slopes, in the southeast Kemerovo region– more than 1000 mm of precipitation. The Minusinsk steppe gets their “dry residue” – around 300 mm. In summer it is extremely hot and it is impossible to walk barefoot. My trees are roasting along with me: I don’t water them for breeding purposes. And this happens three out of four years. In October, and sometimes later - from November, a snowless winter with winds comes. The branches dry out so that it is noticeable without glasses. It is rare that more than 10–20 cm of snow falls in a year, and sometimes there is almost none. And again I don’t do pre-winter watering. I’m amazed at how the trees tolerate these wild conditions!
I see only one answer: the natural root system of seedlings helps. And also the humid air of the Yenisei. That is why my failed farm garden on the island, until it burned down, was reliably alive and bearing fruit. And then the surviving trees produced excellent harvests. Thanks to the evaporation, the branches were covered with a coat of frost in severe frosts, and this is a huge plus. It is this area of nature that is meant when they write that “Zhelezov’s garden is located on a peninsula and is protected from almost all sides by the warm waters of the Yenisei.” Correctly written, great place! Look at fig. 45. Before the fire, there were more than a thousand such apple trees on the island.
But my selection garden is not even on the peninsula. Krasny Khutor is an ordinary village between the highway and the river, and on the shady, cold shore rivers, unlike Sayanogorsk and Maina. There are two hundred meters to the Yenisei, across the highway there are the northern slopes of high hills. The cold often drips off them.
Rice. 45
There are strong frosty winds along the river. So in our favorable zone, I’m not in the warmest place. Here is the entry from December 14, 2010: “In Cheryomushki –28 ºС. In the center of Sayanogrsk –31 ºС, on the outskirts –35 ºС. In the Ai-Dai mountains (the main dacha area) –41 ºС. In my village it’s –37 ºС. True, there is already 20 cm of snow. For the first time in many years, it fell on time.”
But the river air helps here too. Not so often, but there is frost on the branches. I think this allows my trees to withstand frosts 2-4ºC lower than they would withstand in dry air. This is probably why G.N. Baykova considers Krasny Khutor and Maina a common microzone where industrial orchards of pears and apple trees are possible.
True, in recent years our climate seems to be testing our resilience. Until 2000, the Sayanogorsk region did not know winters colder than –38–39 ºС. And in ten years there are four critical winters, when –36–38 ºС lasts for a month and a half, and the minimum reaches –42 ºС in the city and –45 ºС in the countryside.
Two winters in a row - 2010 and 2011 - are exactly like this, and even a cold summer between them. This year, after the second critical winter, even wild plants are having trouble! Fruits on Siberian apple trees are rare. Recently, Leonid Chernobaev collected Ussuri pear fruits from old trees of the abandoned Ochursky garden. The harvest is weak - it was a landslide last year. The fruits are only on the eastern, leeward side and on the trees closest to the river.
And the other day our researcher of sustainable assortment, scientist from Abakan Tursunpulot Duskabilov called. He said terrible things. I was in Altai and Novosibirsk - I studied the state of the gardens. And I discovered: the gardens are empty, there are only a few fruit trees, and this despite the abundance of scientific organizations. This confirmed my assumption: gardening “by the books” is not for Siberia.
Many people say: the end of gardening. I say: on the contrary, it’s just the beginning! After such “exams”, sobering and understanding sets in. What remains are clones and varieties that are no longer afraid of any frost - invaluable material for breeding work. I agree one hundred percent with L.I. Taranenko, the oldest breeder of Ukraine: “harsh winter is a breeder’s dream.”
In addition, there is evidence: these harsh winters are simply a transition period. In the next hundred to two hundred years, it is Siberia and Canada that will warm up and become the most favorable areas for life. And the point here is not “global warming”, but a shift in “climate scales”. It turns out that the climate on the planet has always changed and changes noticeably every 150–200 years. But not globally, but in equilibrium: if somewhere it gets better, then somewhere it gets worse. If you are interested in the details, look for lectures on the Internet by our famous climatologist Vladimir Klimenko, the author of the most reliable model of climate change on earth.
And now the main thing: why is everyone arguing with me so much about our climate? Yes, because I am busy with selective cloning - raising and selecting clones that are especially resistant in our conditions. Are they really more sustainable? Does my selection work, or am I making it up – that is the question. Selection is its own part of the book, but now I’ll say that there is.
Michurin rightly wrote: “...The farther the places are from the marked (initial) area, the gradually the quality of the varieties and the productivity of their plantings will decrease. Perennial varieties universal in suitability in all areas fruit plants“Of course it can’t be.” I don’t know whether or to what extent the increased frost resistance will remain in my clones exposed to different conditions and on a different rootstock. There is no certainty here, there is only hope, confirmed by letters. But there is a FACT: now my selected baby seedlings do not freeze in any prolonged frosts in an unprotected nursery exactly in Krasny Khutor. Seedlings of the same European varieties brought from other places, and even more so taken from nurseries in Moscow or Orel, freeze here with almost one hundred percent probability.
From the book “Smart Garden. How to outsmart the climate." N. I. Kurdyumov, V. K. Zhelezov:
«…
Chapter 5
Do not kill seedlings by planting
“Eh, garden head!” - this is about the erudition of our summer residents.
Many people understand the word “plant” literally: to poke, to bury, to place in place. As a last resort, do everything according to the instructions in the gardening textbook. I offer the real, true meaning of this word: to plant means to ensure the longevity and health of the tree at the time of planting. Otherwise, it’s unclear why we’re poking and burying. Hence the result.
HOW TO DESTROY A SEEDLING BY PLANTING “ACCORDING SCIENCE”
Look at Figure 1. In similar versions, it has been wandering around hundreds of gardening publications for more than a century. This is a classic “book” planting, consecrated by the authority of many famous gardeners. And so I take the liberty of asserting: it is this method of planting - “in a depression” - that is destructive for the North and Siberia. And for many places in the south too.
I read the latest literature, receive hundreds of letters from all over Russia.
It’s amazing: gardeners seem to know everything. But they can’t grow the same apricot! Why? It seems that I have found the reason for many failures. But first, I’ll remember A. I. Sychev’s article “Apricot Paradoxes.” It shows that north of Voronezh and Kursk, apricots can, as they say, be counted on one hand; that the most terrible enemy of apricots in the middle zone is snow, and that snow accumulation is the main reason for failures in growing apricots. Paradox: in the south apricots do not grow because it is warm - there are many diseases, but in the north - because it is cold and there is a lot of snow!
M. G. Maksimenko’s article, reflecting the classic view of a European fruit growing scientist, does not add optimism: “The main factor hindering the spread of this crop in northern latitudes is cold winters. Frosts down to -25°C apricot trees can withstand for 3-4 days, up to -32°C - no more than a day, -35 ... -38°C - only a few hours. All this refers to a period of deep rest (late December - early January). In February and early March, the critical temperature for apricot is -20°C...”
Yes!.. A real death sentence for apricots. It turns out that throughout the entire territory of central Russia there is no place where the apricot would survive. And even more so in Siberia! It's good that we didn't know anything about it. So they planted half of the Minusinsk basin with apricots - out of ignorance. The apricots of T.V. Eremeeva bear fruit near Irkutsk, the varieties of M.V. Makarov in Krasnoyarsk, and the varieties of I.L. Baikalov in Abakan. And the varieties of P.S. Sharkov near Nizhny Novgorod bore fruit after the critical winter of 2010/2011 - apparently also from ignorance...
But maybe there is another reason for the death of apricots? I'm sure there is.
In the same article, M. G. Maksimenko teaches us how to plant apricots correctly. Of course, according to the classics - into the recesses. And then the author complains that apricots have a weak root collar!
“... Having filled the hole, they form a roll of earth 12-15 cm high around it so that the water is retained during irrigation.” Of course, the water will linger. And not only after the rains, but also in the spring, when the snow melts, the hole will be filled for weeks: the frozen ground does not absorb water at this time. During the day, the root collar suffocates in water - it rots away, and at night, ice, tearing the bark, completes its destruction. The funny thing is that after a couple of years the roots leave the planting hole to the periphery, and the depression around the trunk remains long years. Moreover, the pit itself will settle - it turns out to be a “funnel”. I call this planting “death to the tree.” If the soil is clay, “death is guaranteed.” In the Kuban, in the loamy foothills, in some snowy winters, when water stagnates in such “puddles” in the spring, not only stone fruits - even apple trees - are dampened. And the snow-covered areas of Siberia are simply groaning from the damping off of stone fruits!
You can go crazy: first we plant trees in holes, and then we complain that their root collars are rotting away! Look at photo 28, right: the last dying harvest of a beautiful young apricot. Sits in a recess - the root collar is almost gone. That’s the reason why there are almost no apricots anywhere! Few plums - rotting root collar, few pears - rotting root collar (same photo, left). The wonderful felt cherry has almost disappeared: its root collar is even weaker. But there are probably millions of such “deadly” landings throughout Russia. Apple trees have the “strongest” root collar. But even they, planted in depressions, do not live in Siberia for more than 15-20 years. If they had been planted in the hills, they would have been alive. I am not saying this out of nowhere - I learned from bitter experience. Over the past twenty years, not a single tree has died in my garden. And I can’t count how many rotten root collars I’ve seen in other gardens!
You say: why complicate things? Okay, the holes are dangerous, but you can plant on level ground! I will answer: no matter how it is. I have a flat place - a school of apricots. Usually there is little snow, it is dry, and the soil underneath is frozen. The usual marriage after winter is several pieces. But then a mild winter happened - half a meter of snow fell before the frost. Every fifth seedling had to be rejected due to damping off! And there will be more and more such winters.
Here are my conclusions.
In areas where such snowy winters are common, a significant portion of stone fruits will still be damped off. After all, you can’t force everyone to go to the hills.
This is where it is necessary to carry out mass selection for the resistance of the root collar and bark to damping off - sowing thousands of seeds and selecting the most resistant trees to receive rootstocks from them.
The most preferable planting of stone fruits in these areas is not even just in the hills, but preferably on the natural southern slopes of hills and foothills.
Recently, advice has appeared in our press to plant apricots in very high hills - up to a meter, even up to one and a half meters. I'm sure this is another extreme. In places with particularly severe frosts this is just as dangerous. And in Novosibirsk there is sometimes no snow. We'll save the bark and freeze the roots.
DON'T DIGG A HOLE - YOU WILL FALL INTO IT YOURSELF
Photo 29 shows some of my apricots. Spring flood. The trees are planted in the hill (Fig. 2). Please note: the snow level near the tree trunk is less than around it. And there is no water at the base of the trunk. It's enough! And we are taught to shovel wet snow from the tree trunk, freeze the damp soil in a hole, then shovel the snow again - in order to “delay the flowering.” And no one asked the apricot roots, and especially the root collar: how tolerable are these manipulations for them? It turns out, not by much. Our Manchus grow naturally on dry mountain slopes, while Asians grow in dry, snowless valleys, also preferring slopes. Nowhere in nature do apricots grow in “puddles”!
A century and a half ago, the garden genius Nikolai Gaucher recommended planting in a hill: the width of the hill is 2-2.5 m, the height in the center is 30-40 cm. At the top of the hill a hole is made according to the size of the roots, the tree is planted taking into account the fact that after trampling pits, the root collar is slightly raised above the surface (Fig. 3). I wonder why THIS classic didn’t catch on? Thank God, it has been revived lately. Planting in the hills has been warmly and long recommended by the former director of the Michurinsky Garden of the Timiryazev Academy V. I. Susov. N.I. Kurdyumov has been writing about it for a long time, in relation to damp places.
I am sure that in a harsh climate it is simply impossible to plant differently.
It turns out that the wonderful gardener of Smolensk, the head of large farm“Nurse” Yu. M. Chuguev. He grows seedlings in containers. I admire the simplicity and intelligence of his planting method!
Look at photo 30, compiled from a report from the site chuguev.ru. On level ground, we weed and loosen the soil with a hoe, and place a bag with a seedling (or just a lump taken out of the pot) in the center (Fig. 4). We drive a stake and tie a seedling to it. Cut the container and remove the fabric. Slowly pour a bucket of water over it. And then we simply cover it with earth - we create a gentle mound, picking up soil from the sides (photo 30 below). We pour another bucket of water on it, and mulch it with organic matter on top - grass, straw. All! The trees develop quickly, begin to bear fruit early and, most importantly, never wither away! Yuri Mikhailovich believes that the reason for success is the blowing away of snow and the outflow of water from the trunk, the rapid heating of the hill and the high activity of microflora.
I do the opposite, but with the same result: I plant it in a hill prepared in advance. In Siberia, it is better to prepare hills in the fall: you can plant in them when the ground has just begun to thaw from the surface. This means extending the tree’s short summer by one to two weeks.
Many are already familiar with the high ridges of Sepp Holzer. Yu. M. Chuguev has long been using this truly breakthrough method of planting. Grapes planted on high ridges separated by ditches (photo 31) consistently produce industrial yields in Smolensk! In the same way, but without ditches, Chuguev plants all stone fruit varieties, even frost-resistant varieties of cherries. The result is very stable yields and excellent tree health.
Finally, I can’t help but mention a strange, to put it mildly, method of planting: “on a substrate.” They also often say “for drainage”. In the south, this is how vigorous walnuts are planted: they place bricks or a piece of iron under the chopped taproot. After suffering from this obstacle for two years, the seedling tree grows weaker and begins to bear fruit earlier. Although this is barbaric, it is still understandable for the south. But when the substrate is recommended in places with close groundwater, so that “the roots do not go deep,” and I hear this in Siberia - here I just throw up my hands.
Apparently, the authors of the technique somehow “humanize” the tree: they say, the roots will collide with an obstacle and obediently begin to grow to the sides - like a stupid subordinate. No matter how it is! No matter what you put under the roots, they will still recover, find their way down and develop all the available soil. And they were cut anyway. So why disfigure them with this?!
They also often write about “drainage” - they advise putting a layer of broken brick, expanded clay or stone at the bottom of the hole. And it’s unclear to me why. It does not save you from flooding - the water in the hole is higher than any bricks. If it is sand or sandy loam, it is better to spread clay soil under the seedling - it will retain more moisture and release more nutrition. And if the soil is not flooded, such drainage is simply not needed. It seems that here we are just trying to turn the hole into " flower pot", without thinking about the meaning of their actions.
In general, hasty gardeners strive with all their might to quickly squeeze the first harvest out of the trees. Truly, greed is stronger than reason.
They don’t even think: the more interference a tree has, the less its overall harvest. There is even such a myth as to replant a tree several times. Well, no matter how many times you replant, the harvest is smaller.
TRANSPLANT TWICE - IT WILL GET FERTILIZED FASTER!
What's true is true! A crippled tree begins to bear fruit faster. Such gardeners, or rather “sadists,” do not have the patience to wait for a harvest from a healthy, developed tree. Their goal is a quick harvest at any cost. The goal of a tree is to have time to prolong its lineage. And a transplant is a terrible ordeal. And he has no time for growth: in a panic, he adapts to the fruits. But ATTENTION! - it will never bear as many fruits as are included in its development program for the rest of its life.
For a long time I could not understand why this evidence was beyond the understanding of the “sadists.” And, it seems, I found it. In the book of the outstanding gardener R.I. Schroeder “Russian vegetable garden, nursery and orchard» repeated replanting of trees is described. But - not grafted seedlings, and for selection purposes! And this is just understandable. A seedling apple tree can bloom for the first time in the 10-15th, even 20th year! To speed up flowering, you have to replant. And well-read summer residents, “hearing the ringing” and without thinking, transplant grafted seedlings, turning them into disabled people.
There are also just habits. Trees are often replanted because “the place is probably bad.” Moreover, they write about it, and Zhelezov too. But I know for sure - the place is to blame! And here it’s just instinct: if it doesn’t work out here, maybe it will work out there.
And what’s even worse is that almost none of the summer residents simply have the goal of growing good tree. It should grow on its own, the seller should be responsible for it - and I have nothing to do with it. Not growing, dead? I'll go buy a new one. Maybe this will grow better - I wonder... What, will this die too? Come on, vile traders! I’ll go and buy three more pieces: well, not everyone is such a liar!..
AND PLANTING TIME CAN BE DISASTROUS!
When is the best time to plant - that is, replant young trees? Imagine a question so complex and confusing that it requires clarification. Open books, newspapers, gardening magazines. You will find five options:
It is necessary to replant only in the fall.
Only in the spring.
It is better to plant seed crops in the fall, and stone fruits in the spring.
Trees should be planted in the spring, and shrubs in the fall.
In the southern regions, all species should be planted in the fall, and in the northern regions - only in the spring.
The most common opinion: in the North and Siberia autumn planting destructive. I’ll object: it depends on what moment and what kind of seedlings!
First of all: planting “disabled children” with their roots cut off is destructive at any time. And with an intact root system, you can plant it either in the fall or in the spring. You need to replant the tree with a large lump of earth - so that the leaves do not wilt even in June!
But even if the com is good, optimal time there are transfers. Communicating with hundreds of beginning gardeners, I became convinced: yes, many of them ruined their favorites simply by planting them in the fall. But - exactly late autumn! This is the main mistake. When replanting, no matter how hard you try, the roots are still damaged, the leaves wither and fall off. The tree does not have time to take root, which means to prepare for winter. If you are lucky, it will immediately be covered with snow, and even if it has not taken root, it will sit comfortably until spring. If you're unlucky, the frosty wind will dry out the crown, deprived of moisture: the roots haven't had time to grow. And the roots in this form do not resist frost.
In my gardening life, I have transplanted thousands of seedlings in the fall. And failures were very rare. The secret is this: I replant them not in late autumn, but early: late August - early September. The seedlings with leaves and a mass of intact roots were moved to a new location. They continue to grow, and before frost they manage to take root in the ground, grow new roots, shed leaves normally and finish ripening the buds. In winter, the crown receives moisture from the roots, and frost resistance is normal. Such trees overwinter well and wake up on time in the spring - about a month earlier than spring-planted seedlings. They are still coming to their senses and starting to grow - it’s almost July. They probably won't ripen by winter. And these start immediately. And the growth is good, and the growing season is long - they have time to prepare for winter.
You see, there is only a month difference in fit, but there are so many advantages! A common market situation: the seedlings were taken out while they were still green, but there were almost no roots. Here the seller wipes the leaves so that they do not evaporate the moisture and the seedlings do not dry out. It rips off in one motion from top to bottom: don’t waste your time! And this is the most barbaric method: dozens of fresh wounds near the kidneys, and winter is ahead! The most serious gardeners, sparing no labor, cut off each leaf, leaving a petiole. The measure is necessary - for the long-distance transportation of hundreds of seedlings.
I never remove the leaves. Leaf - " solar battery“- must work to the end, give all its substances to the branch and axillary bud. Break off green leaves For me it’s the same as immediately cutting off the umbilical cord of a newborn. I dig it up, keeping a large lump of earth, and carefully place it in cardboard box- the seedling continues to live. And lately I have been growing a lot of seedlings in containers. Almost the entire root system is preserved here, except for the lower part of the tap root, which has grown through the hole (photos 32 and 33).
It's a completely different matter to cut off part of the crown. This is necessary for two reasons. Firstly, some of the roots are still lost. The crown has become too large. In the spring, when it’s warm, all the buds will begin to demand water - but there’s an acute shortage of roots! Instead of growth - numbness, emergency restructuring: growing roots at the expense of a supply of branches. A lost year is the best case scenario. Secondly, it is better to make our trees bushes. And the earlier the first pruning “for the bush” is done, the better: there will be no wounds on the trunk. In photo 32 - son Artyomka demonstrates a strong seedling; The red lines roughly indicate the required trimming. In photo 33 - son Seryozha holds an even more powerful, double seedling: Souvenir of the East is grafted onto the same rootstock with Hungarian pear-shaped. The seedling is trimmed and ready for transplanting.
For transplanting, I choose a cloudy, preferably rainy, day. Any loss of moisture for a transplanted tree is stressful.
Before digging, I take a brush and paint tiny marks on the stamps - with south side at the level of the root collar (we marked it in photo 63). You need to plant so that the mark is again from the south and again strictly at soil level. Why this extra work? The north wind burned the seedling on one side, and the hot sun burned on the opposite side. The root collar was breathing freely. The new place should be the same - this makes it much easier for the tree to adapt.
A seedling transplanted in this way will not only never die, but in most cases it will bloom a year earlier than the “spring” one.
Well, what to do if you are late with planting in early autumn, but there is an opportunity to purchase a good seedling? An inexperienced gardener plants, and you already know the result. The thrifty person digs in an inclined position, as the books teach (Fig. 5). It is important to meet four conditions:
So that the roots and half of the crown are covered with earth.
So that there are no air voids in the ground, otherwise the roots will become moldy.
And if the water doesn't stand, the roots will rot.
So that the mice don't get there. It is necessary to dig in places where there is no grass cover, and therefore no mice. For example, in a potato plot.
Do the digging as close to winter as possible so that the autumn rains do not rot the seedlings.
But the traditional, inclined trench has disadvantages. Usually, even before winter, the seedling manages to get used to the ground a little. And in the spring, before planting, it also grows roots. And then he was unceremoniously pulled - and again to a new place. But most importantly, it is very difficult to comply with all the conditions - there is a risk that the seedlings will ripen. Having rotted my pears in this way after an unexpectedly rainy late autumn, I began to dig in seedlings without risk - I came up with a vertical dig with planting in place (photo 34). The seedling has been sitting on the ground since late autumn permanent place, but the crown is half protected from frost by loose soil. If the top freezes, it’s not a big deal, everything is intact in the earthen cone. It's dry enough for the bark to breathe. And based on the survival of the tops and frost resistance, it is immediately clear. In the spring, the earlier the better, all that remains is to rake off the land.
Well, if you still decide to plant a seedling in the spring, then do it as early as possible: when the ground thaws enough for a shovel or two. And if the holes are prepared in advance, in the fall, you can plant even earlier. A race in time will give the tree at least some chance to finish the growing season by winter. But here I no longer give guarantees.
FERTILIZERS IN THE PLANTING PIT: GOOD OR DEATH?
Hundreds of times he told novice gardeners how to prepare a planting hole, how and where to fertilize. And it never happened again. The quality of the soil varies everywhere - from rich chernozems to gravel and sand. Different terrain, humidity - stagnant water or dry elevation. What general patterns or norms might there be?
But such recommendations are found in the literature. And they make you smile. Especially when applying fertilizers with an accuracy of grams per square meter. In general, for a hundred years now, textbooks have prescribed a standard “planting kit”: at least two or three buckets of humus and a complete set mineral fertilizers per planting hole. Many summer residents are at a loss: where to get so much fertilizer, what kind of fertilizer? Humus, and it is now “biting.” Just for fun, I calculated: a machine of manure costs the same as all the vegetables for the whole year for an average family!
Meanwhile, other well-known experts advise the exact opposite: do not apply any fertilizers to the pits. Examples are given when, due to the abundance of fertilizers, trees became fattened, were used as firewood, did not bear fruit, became very sick, or froze due to the extended growing season. “Dig planting holes so that only the roots enter, and do not add fertilizers to the holes. Otherwise, your tree will die or be sick for a long time,” writes our farmer E.I. Piskunov.
Many experienced gardeners say the same. From the very beginning, the roots of a seedling must actively develop - look for food, go deeper and wider. They do not grow in a fertilized pit, but simply “eat” and “drink”, waiting for handouts. The slightest stress - and the end of the tree.
So who is right? It depends on situation.
First of all, do not take any textbooks, especially European ones, literally. Look with your eyes and start from the condition of the soil and the specific area. There are different extremes here!
Planting an orchard at the Sayanogorsk aluminum smelter - three hundred trees - was not easy. My reputation is at stake. The place is open and windy. And instead of fertile land on the site there is solid gravel and sand: the bottom of an ancient reservoir. We had to create the soil artificially - planting trees in huge “pit pots”. A forced, risky technology, and later I abandoned it. But at that time it was standard. Soil analysis and recommendations were given by Abakan agroecologists.
The holes were dug with an excavator. They filled them with clay, imported black soil and a huge amount humus - up to 200 kg per tree. I strictly ensured that the humus did not come into contact with the roots of the seedlings. The set of nutrients was enhanced by scattering complex mineral fertilizers around the tree trunks. There is little precipitation - it will not be absorbed immediately. But still the leaves on some trees turned black. Looking at the numbers of micronutrient deficiency, I sprayed the leaves of pears, apples and apricots with a solution of chelate ((chelates - organic compounds metals, usually salts of organic acids: acetic, oxalic, citric, etc. More natural for plants, better absorbed, have little conflict in solutions), iron and copper preparations.
Most trees feel satisfactory, bloom and bear fruit. A smaller part died due to frost and steppe winds, or perhaps just because of excess humus. Could these trees grow on sand and gravel without artificial soil? I don’t know for sure, there was no control, but it’s unlikely. I am sure that it was not in vain that I excluded direct contact of roots with fertilizers and humus. Pure humus is dangerous. I specially planted the seedlings in old humus - they barely grow and then die.
The opposite situation: you have fertile soil with good drainage. Look around: the trees grow powerfully, the grass is huge. And without analysis it is clear: any fertilizer here is overfeeding! All the seedling needs is not to dry out. The owners of such gardens should not feed the trees at all before they have given three good harvest. This will be discussed further in the chapter on nutrition.
Kuban and the Rostov region are famous for their fertile black soils. The trees there suffer from “gigantism” - hence, by the way, the constant cruel pruning. But the Soviet bureaucrats believed in their superiors more than in nature: there is a fund of fertilizers - if you please, use it up! And the agronomists poured in. The trees become fattened, they turn into firewood, they get sick, and they don’t produce a harvest for eight years. And then - it’s scary to imagine - under the ax, tens of hectares!
Now let's consider our usual situation: the soil is suitable, but not so hot - there is not enough nutrition. That is, a version of my garden. There are still scientific discussions going on about how best to fertilize. Some argue that mineral water should be poured from above, others - no, only deep into it. Some - that it is necessary to apply evenly, others - that locally, in “clumps” ...
I act simply: I take an example from nature. How does nature feed trees? From above, organic matter of fallen leaves and dead grass, with the help of microbes and fungi. So I do: after planting a seedling, watering and compacting the soil, I simply mulch the tree trunk circle.
The best mulch is humus or compost, but grass and leaves are also suitable. I put a thicker layer, 6-8 cm. In summer, such mulch prevents the tree from suffering from drought. Sometimes I throw a handful of complex fertilizers under the mulch or scatter a scoop of ash, but more often I make do with organic matter alone: it has everything. I plant bent grass in the mulch. Worms, fungi and bacteria will gradually deal with plant residues, and the roots themselves will be able to take what they need. And by autumn the tree trunk circle will be covered with a carpet of bent grass.
CONTAINERS - THE FUTURE NORM FOR NURSERY NORM
There are no ideal seedlings for sale. But the method of growing with a closed root system is an order of magnitude better and more reliable than forcing two-meter seedlings and then selling them with short root cuttings. The majority of the Siberian markets have been undermined so far. But, thank God, advanced nurseries are already switching to container growing. It’s a pity that this applies mainly to ornamental crops.
Why are seedlings in containers still so rare? It's all about the price. A container seedling requires almost three times as much labor, plus the price of the container itself. Why bother when people are chasing cheap prices? But whoever buys a seedling in a container by paying double price will ultimately win. Most novice gardeners plant seedlings carelessly: they don’t straighten the roots, they definitely don’t see the root collar, and they don’t do any pruning. But the main problem with “naked” seedlings is that the roots are mutilated. The container seedling does not have all these problems: I carefully took it out and planted it in a lump. The survival rate is one hundred percent. Of course, you still need to trim it, but not necessarily before replanting.
I have wealthy people visiting me, but I haven’t met real gardeners among them until a large businessman from St. Petersburg arrived. It was a real pleasure to communicate with him. He knowledgeably asked about everything related to my work. I was pleased with the quality of the seedlings, but they were not suitable for long-distance transportation. And he made a special order: to grow seedlings in containers. Now I grow some of the seedlings this way. I share my experience.
A container is any container that is light and strong enough to grow and then transport seedlings to any distance. All Dutch ornamental plants, including conifers and trees, are sold in special technical pots made of thin cheap plastic - in them they were grown to marketable condition. I bought it and transplanted it immediately, without disturbing the root system in any way. For fruit trees in areas with harsh climates, you can’t imagine anything better.
Excellent containers are bags made of polypropylene fabric, like those used for sugar or flour. Many of our nurseries sell seedlings in such bags with a volume of 3-5 liters. True, not all of them grow them there. More often they pack it there, digging it up in the field. But the roots don’t dry out like they do at the market - that’s great. Plastic paint buckets are very good (photos 32 and 33). And large nurseries sell young two-meter trees in huge plastic bags.
For us gardeners, the main values of container growing are a painless move and planting in a new place with absolutely intact roots. Such a seedling can be planted at any time of the year, except winter. Even in summer - if you water it well and shade it in the first weeks. But I still stick to the safest terms. My option is early spring and early autumn.
In containers you can root shrub cuttings and grow tree seedlings. You can first root in beds and grow in containers. You can immediately plant them for rooting.
The “from the garden” option allows you to preserve natural selection. First, we sow as many seeds or seeds as possible. In the fall we select the best of the best. We transplant them, always with a lump, into a container with a capacity of 5-10 liters, according to the size of the roots. Best time for this purpose - cloudy, rainy days of late August or early September: the period of autumn root regrowth. Further, the colder it is, the worse the root growth, which means the weaker the survival rate.
We bury the containers flush with the ground and water them well. Before winter, the plants take root firmly. Winter is the time of selection for frost resistance. In early spring - vaccination. Over the next summer, the seedling will develop, firmly grow into the soil of the container and acquire a marketable appearance. Although even here we partially damage the central root during transplantation - it has grown through the drainage hole, but the lush lateral roots remain completely intact.
Planting such a seedling in place is very easy, as discussed below.
Ideally, sow seeds and pits not in the garden bed, but directly in a container. There is only one problem: not every seed is a future tall and healthy seedling. Half of the containers may be left without plants. Therefore, sow 3-4 seeds in containers. If they sprout, leave the strongest seedling. This is the most established seedling.
I prepare soil for containers without any tricks: I take the top layer of soil. No additives or mineral fertilizers! If you feed it from the belly, the seedling grows disproportionately huge with the same volume of roots. The growing season is prolonged, vitality is clearly reduced. For me, this is no longer a product.
Usually, drainage is placed at the bottom of the pots: a layer of expanded clay, pebbles, or broken bricks. For indoor plants - normal. But I wouldn’t recommend doing this in nurseries: it’s extra work. I tried this and that. In my version, the roots grow through the bottom holes. The seedlings receive additional development and grow more powerful - just like in a garden bed.
Now let's summarize everything that has been said.
REMINDER FOR PLANTING SEEDLINGS IN HARSH CLIMATES
It is best to plant a seedling early in the fall. The time of transplantation is determined as follows: after the end of fruiting, two to four weeks are added. In Siberia this is usually August 25 - September 15. From this time until the cold weather, rapid growth of new roots occurs, the seedling has time to prepare for winter, and in the spring it begins to grow early and powerfully.
The second option is to dig up a seedling after the leaves have fallen and the first frost and bury it. And better - vertically, in place. Otherwise, you take a risk - proven by bitter experience. I wouldn’t have invented the vertical trench if I hadn’t rotted the seedlings in the usual way!
The third method is to dig up the seedling and plant it in early spring, as early as possible, just before the start of sap flow. The deadline is when the soil has thawed 1-2 shovels. That is, when it is already possible to dig up a seedling with a large lump of earth.
At least for all stone fruits, and better yet for all crops in general, prepare gentle mounds 30-40 cm high. And better yet, in advance, in the fall. Always plant in hills, and never in depressions!
If the soil is normal, although not black soil, do not put any fertilizers in the planting holes.
Seedlings without a good coma, with bare roots, are already a big risk. It happens that the earth does not hold together - the lump falls apart. I immediately replant them in a container, immediately dousing the roots with water and pruning them harder than usual.
Before digging, make a mark on the root collar at ground level so that you do not bury the seedling deeper under any circumstances.
In a new location, the seedling should be positioned in the same way relative to the cardinal directions as before transplantation. You can argue with this, but my experience is for it.
Before planting, shorten the crown by about half. If you managed to dig up a large lump - by a third. But no less!
Proper planting of an ordinary bare-root seedling is difficult to do alone. Better together. One holds the seedling strictly at the required level. To do this, you need to press the seedling against a pre-driven stake. Another straightens the roots, covers them with the first layer of soil, waters them so that the soil sinks well, then completely fills them and waters them again. Then both mulch a little and trample the mound. The main thing here is to keep the seedling from settling and sinking. After trampling, the root collar mark should remain at the same height above the soil surface as it was.
Place organic matter on top in the form of mulch. But make sure that the layer of mulch is not piled tightly onto the trunk! This is also fraught with damping off. Step back 15-20 cm from the trunk. If the mulch is dense (humus, compost), be sure to make grooves in it to allow water to drain away from the trunk. Over the years, place the mulch further and further from the trunk - along the external projection of the crown. This is where the feeding roots are concentrated.
Much safer and more efficient landing in cloudy, or better yet, rainy weather.
A seedling planted with leaves must be shaded in hot weather (and this also happens in September!). Arrange sloping canopies to cover the seedling from above and on the south side. After two to three weeks they can be removed.
Hide less winter-hardy varieties from the wind behind the house, barn, or high fence, and form them into a bush from the first year. We'll talk about how in the chapter on pruning.
One-year-old seedlings take root better than two-year-old and especially three-year-old seedlings. The older the seedling, the larger the root ball left when transplanting.
And finally - again and again: a truly resilient and durable tree - a seedling grown from a seed and grafted right here, on the spot, which is never transplanted. It has a full-fledged tap root - main source strength. This root has a special role: to penetrate as deeply as possible into the moist subsoil, saturated with solutions, and supply them to the tree with a guarantee all year round. In harsh climates, no humus or fertilizer can replace this role.
I repeat, and will continue to repeat, my call to all gardeners with serious intentions: grow your own trees! Take every opportunity not to disturb the nature of the tree!
Note from the site author. In principle, this is basically a retelling of planting methods adopted in modern gardening. You can read about this on the page "Planting" garden crops", if you overcome V.K.'s prejudice towards book literature and southern or European technologies. I think you do not have such prejudices and will find much more material there than is presented in this chapter. Only they are written more professionally and competently.