Apple trees are planted from October to the end of November. In nurseries, trees with bare roots are usually offered. This has some advantages: the trees are cheaper and the number of varieties is much greater. Plants sold in containers are more expensive, but after planting into the ground, they take root immediately and bear fruit a year earlier than rooting trees.You should always pay attention to the quality of the substrate in pots with young plants. If the soil is not sufficiently rooted, the root ball may collapse during transplanting.
The trees offered in nurseries have a different form and strength of growth. Low-stem trees develop the weakest, and half-stem forms grow faster than them. The condition for acceptance after planting and subsequent proper growth of fruit trees is the prior preparation of the holes. The planting hole for hot-root plants should be large enough to fit all the roots into it without bending. For one-year-old maiden trees, the dia. 50-60 cm and depth 40-50 cm. When digging a hole, put the humus soil on one side and the deeper layers on the other. At the bottom of the hole, a small mound of humus is built and the roots are covered with evenly arranged roots.
On weak soils, the holes are larger (depth 50-60, diameter 100 cm). You need to put compost soil at the bottom of the hole. Long, thick shoots are shortened by a third of their length. The hole for potted plants should be twice the diameter of the pot.
In both of the above cases, the vaccination site should be approximately 10 cm above the ground. Trees with a weak growth force are usually unstable and resistant to strong gusts of wind, so they need to be supported with poles located on the western side. Newly planted plants should be watered abundantly so that the soil settles and fills the empty air chambers that form in the loosened, uncompressed soil.
A pruning or rejuvenating cut should be carried out in spring, before the trees begin to bloom. As part of the standard care activities, you should, among others: remove shoots growing at too great an angle from side shoots and side shoots growing from the top of the main shoot. Side shoots growing in the lower parts of the tree can be tied up (almost to a horizontal position). In this way, we will slightly reduce the strength of their growth (such shoots bloom and bear fruit earlier). The trees formed in a row look the most attractive, they also give the most fruit.Apple trees can be adapted to cultivation in various soil conditions, although they do best in a light, moist substrate with a high content of nutrients. They require slightly acidic soil with a pH of 6.1-6.7. They do not tolerate cultivation in water-retaining ground, as well as in places where other apple trees previously grew.
