Usually gardeners tend to grow several varieties of apple trees on their land. And often the choice falls on Candy variety, which gives juicy and very sweet fruit. The first fruits appear on the apple tree at the end of July, if, of course, the tree is properly cared for. How to do it and what are the features of the variety, we will tell in this material.
The history of apple tree selection
The variety appeared thanks to the efforts of the breeder S. I. Isaev, who worked in the Institute of Horticulture them. I.V. Michurin. The researcher crossed varieties Korobovka and Papirovka, as a result of which a new one turned out. It is not suitable for industrial production, but it is grown willingly on personal plots.
Fruits ripen early; the end of June is the time when the apple tree gives fruit. The first harvest can be removed only in the fourth year after planting the seedling.
Did you know? For sweet fruits, gardeners are often referred to as a variety of Candy or Candy.
Description of characteristics of apple varieties
In general, the quality of the tree depends on the type of stock. But in any case, the tree is characterized by endurance, high frost resistance and regenerative abilities.
Characteristics of the tree
It is believed that This apple variety is a fast growing tree. In the first three years of its life, it will grow to 3 m, and then it grows more slowly. During the life of an apple, the Candy tree grows low, the tree height usually does not exceed 5 m. The apple tree is characterized by a powerful, but not very lush, spherical crown. The shoots are flexible, but durable and do not bend under the weight of the fruit.
The leaves of the tree are dark green in a rich shade, leathery, dense. On the branches grow abundantly, are quite large. The flowers appear pale pink, small in size.
Fruit Characteristic
Candy Apple is valued for especially sweet fruits, The description of the variety promises unique, excellent in taste characteristics fruits that have an attractive appearance. Their average weight is 85-105 g, but they can be poured up to 150 g.
Ripe fruits have a light yellow skin with red strokes and a blurry pink blush. Smooth skin has small subcutaneous points. The shape of the fruit is round, but not always correct, with some ribbing. The flesh is juicy, white, tender with a high content of iron and vitamin C.
Pros and cons varieties
Like any other variety of apples, Candy has its advantages and disadvantages. Among the advantages are high yields and precociousness. One adult tree can bring up to 100 kg of fruit. The variety is winter hardy because it can be grown even in the northern regions of the country. Even after harsh winters gives abundant flowering and not less abundant fruiting. Fruits are always sweet, and the tree itself resists various infections well.
However, among the characteristics of apple candy are found and disadvantages. So, the tree is easy to scab, and because of the abundant growth of foliage krone quickly thickens what prevents fruit ripening. Themselves apples are difficult to transport and have a short shelf life.
Recommendations for choosing seedlings when buying
It is necessary to acquire apple saplings in the spring, following the basic rules for choosing saplings of fruit trees. Make a purchase is necessary only in special nurseries, where there is confidence in a healthy planting material, which corresponds to the declared grade.
But even there, before buying a sapling, you need to study it well. It should be fresh, with no signs of wilting or dryness. It should not be traces of diseases, pests. He must be clean so that he can be carefully examined. The seedling should be labeled with the breed, variety, producer and growing area.
When choosing a sapling, make sure that so that the root system was branched, the main root was at least 30 cm in length. To transport the roots, sprinkle with water and wrap in a plastic bag. If they still dried up while you brought the plant home, the tree should be left for a day in the water. Saplings with open roots and foliage should not be bought.
It is better to take trees at the age of 1-2 years. As a rule, they do not have crowns, and they take root more easily. Older trees should have evenly distributed shoots.
Planting rules for young apple seedlings
In order for sure to get a bountiful harvest, you need to know what the apple tree requires. Sugar planting and care.
Optimum landing times
The ideal time for disembarking is autumn, more precisely, the beginning of September. In this still warm and sunny time, the seedlings have time to get used to the ground and take root well before wintering. But before the cold they must be carefully covered.
You can also plant them in the spring - approximately from mid-April, when the ground is already warm enough. Then over the summer, the sapling will take root, get stronger and it will easier transfer the first frosts.
Choosing a place to plant: soil and lighting
Apple tree - in principle, light-loving plant, and This grade makes increased demands on lighting. It is better to plant it on the eastern side of the site so that in the morning and before lunch the plant would receive maximum sunshine, but that they would not burn it too much in the summer afternoon. Make sure that the place is not too blown by the winds - the apple tree does not like drafts.
The soil should be fertile, in composition similar to that required for potatoes. That is not too sour with a sufficient level of nitrogen. It is important that in the spring the site did not accumulate water, and the groundwater was far enough away and did not harm the roots of the tree - it does not like excess moisture.
Preparatory work on the site
Before planting, it is necessary to fertilize the soil in order to improve its structure, increase its water-holding capacity and looseness, and neutralize excessive acidity. Five days before planting, they dig it up, weed and water it. During the digging to a depth of half a meter, additives are added depending on the composition of the soil:
- for peat: lime, potassium sulfate, phosphate rock, superphosphate, manure;
- for sandy: potassium, superphosphate, lime, peat, clay;
- for clay: complex mineral fertilizers, lime, humus, sawdust, sand.
Preparation of seedlings for planting
By planting need to prepare and seedlings. Inspect their root system carefully and remove any dried, rotted, damaged, or dead roots with a disinfected pruner or sharp knife. Also from them it is necessary to remove various growths, ragged branches.
Forming the root, it is necessary to remove the branches that grow from the central rod inward. Unnecessarily long branches are also shortened. In this case, the cut must be made strictly perpendicular so that the wound has the smallest possible area. Soft and thin roots should remain, as the plant will take root by them.
Then wipe the base of the trunk well with a damp cloth so that the root neck is clearly visible: a transition from green to light brown.
Important! Do not confuse the graft site and the root neck of the plant!Then the roots of seedlings should be dipped in a solution of clay with manure. For its preparation take part of the clay, two parts of mullein and five parts of water.
Stepwise landing process
When forming the pit for planting, keep in mind that the root system of the plant develops faster than the crown. because seedlings should be planted at a considerable distance from each other - at least one and a half meters. For planting, dig pits with a diameter of 80 cm and a depth of 60 cm. Spread fertilized soil on their bottom. To prepare it, you need to take 4 manure buckets or compost, add two glasses of potassium sulfate, the same amount of superphosphate and four glasses of wood ash. All this is mixed with the ground and laid on the bottom of the pit so that the roots then go deep into this mixture.
During planting, the roots of the plant are evenly distributed along the bottom and covered with earth. Categorically, the root neck of the seedling should not be dug into the soil, otherwise it will rot in this place. The neck should be 5-6 cm above the soil. Having planted a tree, it is necessary to water it abundantly - at least 2.5 buckets under each seedling. In the fall, young plantings should be watered every three days, spending about a bucket on each tree. To preserve moisture, it is advisable to complace the well with compost, and strengthen the tree itself by tying it to a support.
Important! Young trees that have undeveloped weak crown, it is absolutely impossible to whiten.To protect young trees from rodents and natural factors, the trunk is tied with a rag.
Rules for seasonal apple care
If you pick the plant the right conditions, then care for it will have no difficulty.
Pollination
This variety of apple trees is self-infesting, so pollinators should be planted next to it. Pollinator for apple trees Candy - varieties Grushovka Moscow, Golden Chinese, Red early, Orlovim and the like.
Preventive treatment for pests and diseases
It is believed that the variety is resistant to most known diseases of apple trees, but does not have such immunity to scab. Therefore, to protect the plant, as soon as buds bloom on it, It is recommended to spray copper oxychloride or 3% solution of Bordeaux liquid. The procedure is repeated after flowering, but in this case the liquid should be 1%.
If the first signs of scab appear, it is recommended to use the drug. "Raek". 1.5-2 ml of the product are diluted in a bucket of water and sprayed with apples four times per season: before the buds appear, during the opening of the buds, after their flowering and after two weeks. Spend about 10 liters per 100 square meters. m. You can use the drug "Fast", which requires only two treatments per season: before and after flowering, but with an interval of two weeks. The solution is prepared at the rate of 2 ml per bucket of water, using 2-5 liters per tree.
Did you know? Experienced gardeners each year clean the trunk of lichens, dead bark. It helps to get rid of pests hibernating there.
To fight insects in the spring are advised to carry out spraying "Olekupritom", for which 400 g of the drug are dissolved in a bucket of water. He's great at fighting with ticks, shield, sucker, aphids. Trees can be treated from leaf-eating insects "Karbofos".Regularity and abundance of irrigation
Caring for Apple Candy requires proper watering of plants. If we are talking about newly planted trees, then the first two months they must be watered every week, unless there is heavy rain. Then watering is reduced to once every two to three weeks. But if there is a strong heat, watering is done twice a week by several buckets under each tree. But still, we must remember that The plant does not like excessive moisture. In the heat, they can be watered by sprinkling, but it is advisable to carry out the procedure in the evening so that the water on the leaves does not cause burns due to the scorching sun.
Soil loosening
To ensure air access to the roots, the soil around them must be loosened. But this is done at a distance of about 60 cm from the trunk in several places to a depth of 40 cm. In the autumn, hilling should be carried out around the trunk to a depth of 20 cm, mulching the tree trunk with compost, peat or humus. Spread straw or dry grass on top of the organic material about 5 cm in height. In such conditions, earthworms multiply well, which loosen the soil, giving it fertility. In addition, mulching is opposed to weed growth.
It is important to dig up the earth around the tree before the onset of cold weather, because in winter, under the pressure of snow, the ground will become even more compacted.
Fertilization
For normal fruiting apple needs extra food. To do this, it is recommended to water ash (per square meter - 3-5 glasses), humus (5-6 buckets), superphosphate fertilizer (40-60 g). This is usually done before flowering begins.
Feeding is carried out for the winter complex phosphate-potash fertilizers. To do this, mix 2 tbsp in a bucket of water. liter of granular superphosphate and a spoonful of potassium.
Literate pruning
Literate pruning of an apple tree gives an additional plus to the yield of a plant, not to mention maintaining the shape of the crown. This issue is especially relevant for old trees. Carry out the procedure in the spring before flowering or in the fall, after the crop is harvested. It is worth it to hold and immediately after planting seedlings. To do this, cut the top of the tree with a pruner, leaving young buds in its lower part.
Important! Pruning is carried out only with sharp garden tools. Blunt fluff bark, because of which the cut will heal longer.All branches whose growth is directed inward are subject to pruning, branches of branches growing at an angle. It is also necessary to clean the branches that are in contact with each other or intertwined. Broken, cracked, small branches on the basis of branches or trunk, too, to be removed. So that after pruning the apple tree does not lose its juices, it is necessary to process all sections with a garden pitch.
Preparing for the winter
For the winter, it is advisable to wrap a tree trunk with a rag, reed or spruce branches. This will save him not only from frost, but also from rodents. The first five years, trunks treated with a solution of chalk, and only matured trees can be whitened with a solution of lime. To prepare it, take 100 g of wood glue, 500 g of copper sulfate, 3 kg of freshly sour lime and dissolve it all in a bucket of water.
As for feeding for the winter, in the first year of life, seedlings do not make sense to feed them - they have enough substances introduced during planting. For the winter, the near-trunk circles are mulched with manure, but so that it does not come into contact with the tree trunk. Also, trees should be tucked up to a height of 20 cm. In winter, especially with heavy snowfalls, snow around the tree should be well trampled down.
Harvesting and storage
As already stated up to 100 kg of fruit can be removed from one adult tree. Young trees begin to bear fruit in the 4-5th year after planting. Fruits can be collected at the end of July, but they are fully poured by August. They ripen unevenly.
Harvesting should be extremely cautious, as apples do not tolerate transportation. They can not be shaken off the branches, unless they are recycled. Otherwise, literally in a few days they will become loose and unusable. They must be removed carefully along with the stalk. Make sure that the apples remain wax bloom, which protects them from infections.
But even if the apples are collected according to all the rules, they will not be stored for a long time - maximum three weeks in a cool room or a little longer in the fridge.
Apple Candy is one of the favorite varieties of amateur gardeners. The variety is not suitable for industrial production due to the small shelf life of the fruit, but the harvest is plentiful, and the apples are always sweet. Special care for the plant is not required. It is important to plant it on a sunny and not very wet place, in time to water and feed. The variety is frost-resistant, resistant to pests and diseases. The only thing you have to fight is a scab. The rest of the apple tree gardeners happy harvest and tree care.
