Peach - the culture whimsical and requires greater attention. One of the main conditions for the successful cultivation of the peach orchard is the proper formation of trees.
But any manipulation of the pruner must be performed correctly, timely and be reasonable. All the secrets of "green surgery" - in this material.
Table of contents
Is it possible and why cut the peach tree?
Any garden culture is prunedto increase the period of fruiting and yield. A peach is also cut in order to increase its resistance to adverse climatic conditions.
From the method of forming the crown of the tree directly depends on the hardiness of the plant. For example, a peach formed by a “spindlebush” (“spindle”) would be wonderful to winter in the south - in Cherkessk or Makhachkala, but already in the Krasnodar region, Rostov-on-Don may freeze. Here it is better to grow it in a bowl.
In central Russia, the branches of the peach need to lower even lower and form a bush. And in more severe conditions, it should be laid horizontally at all - in a stanace.
In addition to the formative peach, it is prescribed a regulatory, restorative, rejuvenating and sanitary pruning.
Choosing the right time: spring, summer or autumn?
Peach trimming starts from the 2nd year of life. By this time, the plant is already "open" - it has several side shoots. Future skeletal branches are selected from them.
There is no sense to start pruning before. Of course, pinching the top stimulates the growth of the lateral branches.
However, if you grab too much, the shoots will go at an acute angle to the conductor. To fix such a tree will take extra time.
Peach refers to crops that are pruned need in spring and summer and autumn.
| Spring | Formation of the seed crown. Restorative pruning with the removal of frozen shoots. Anti-aging pruning of old trees. |
| Summer | Removal of dead shoots, unnoticed in spring. Shortening of weak fruitful branches. Thinning "tops" and remove thickening shoots. Sanitary pruning of shoots affected by diseases and pests. Shortening the gains of the current year for their better maturation. |
| Autumn | Sanitary pruning of sick shoots. Removal of branches broken off by the harvest. |
Experienced peachwatchers recommend calculating the remaining branches after autumn pruning. There should be no more than eighty.
The scheme of summer, spring and autumn pruning
In any season it is important to choose the right time for pruning.. Wet weather, rain, dew contribute to the penetration of infection into cuts and cuts. Therefore, the operation should be planned on a dry clear day.
Minimum set of tools and materials for trimming include:
- pruner;
- delimber;
- garden knife;
- garden file;
- copper sulphate;
- garden putty.
Before the operation, the entire instrument must be sanitized with any fungicide or simply boiling water, and then wiped dry.
The scheme of spring pruning peach:
- When forming a "bowl" in a two-year-old seedling, the height of a bole is measured around 50 cm.
- Three skeletal branches located at a large angle to the conductor and directed in different directions are determined. They are shortened by 2 buds so that the upper one looks outwards.
- The conductor is cut over the top side branch. Extra shoots are removed on the ring.
- Older trees inspect overwintered shoots. Broken and frozen are removed.
- To rejuvenate the peach, remove all branches with wood older than 4 years.
Pruning peach in spring:
Scheme of summer pruning peach:
- Inspect the tree for the remaining dead shoots. If these are found, remove them.
- Examine the one-year gains. Crowns growing vertically upwards or deeper are removed.
- The remaining gains pinch.
- Examine the fruitful branches. If some weak and thin tied a large crop, you need to shorten them, and thin the ovaries.
- Patients shoots are removed.
New peach pruning method in summer to make the fruit larger:
Scheme of autumn pruning peach:
- Remove dry, diseased and broken branches.
- Too long and thin shoots that did not have time to mature, shorten by half.
- If radical growth appeared, it is cut out.
If a peach sapling was planted in the fall and poorly survived the winterIn the spring, it can repel lateral shoots from the lower dormant buds on the trunk.
In this case, it is possible to form a bush by cutting off the frozen out central conductor at a height of 4-5 cm above the upper living bud.
How to care after the procedure?
After pruning the peach must be carefully looked after. All wounds need to be treated.. Many peach pickers prefer to use not traditional garden var, but oil paint as a putty.
Sections, smeared with brew, sometimes rot due to moisture. Oil paint seals no worse, and does not cause decay. Also good tool - RunNet paste.
For better drying, healing and disinfection before putty, it is possible to treat the wound with a 3% solution of copper sulphate. It is applied with a clean sponge and left for 1-1.5 hours. After that use garden putty.
How to shape the crown and care for peach:
Cultivation and care
In addition to regular pruning, peach needs watering, feeding and treatments for pests and diseases.
| Spring | Top dressing | 0.5 l fermented infusion of mullein per 10-liter bucket of water. A week later - a liter jar of wood ash. |
| Spraying | If last season the peach was heavily attacked by pests, the tree is sprayed with Calypso. Processing is carried out twice: in dormant buds and after flowering. During flowering, insecticide can damage pollinators. | |
| Watering | With a small amount of melt water - 10 days before flowering. | |
| Summer | Top dressing | Foliar application with the solution of complex fertilizer “Health-Aqua for fruit trees”. |
| Spraying | As required - treatment with insecticides and fungicides. In late August - Plantafol potassium foliar dressing to accelerate the ripening of wood. | |
| Watering | If there is a shortage of natural precipitation, as the soil dries up, it is shed to a depth of 60 cm. 2 weeks before picking up the fruits, watering is stopped. | |
| Crop Rationing | During the beginning of the ripening of the fruit, the ovaries are examined and the ability of the tree to “bear and feed” is evaluated. If there are too many ovaries, thinning should be done. | |
| Autumn | Top dressing | Only phosphate-potassium fertilizers. Nitrogen is excluded. |
| Watering | Required moisture irrigation. Peach care for wintering in dry soil is unacceptable - the root system freezes. | |
| Preparing for the winter | To whiten the shtamb with lime paste “Gardener”. With severe winters with little snow - the creation of additional dry shelters: reed or corn huts, caps from agrospan. |
Mandatory peach care activities also include constant care of the wheel circle: weeding, loosening, mulching with a thick layer of organic matter: chopped bark, spent sawdust, mowed grass, mature compost.
Hay as a mulch is better not to use - rodents like to live in it.
Mulching avoids the need for frequent watering, even in dry summer, preventing evaporation of moisture and the formation of soil crust. Organic mulch in the decomposition will provide the plant with nitrogen and carbon dioxide.
Summer vaccination, budding: how to graft a peach on a plum, apricot, etc.
Another important "green operation" may be a peach inoculation. The need for it appears in cases where:
- It was a harsh winter, the wood died out, but the root is alive;
- the tree was badly broken by winds, snow or a bountiful harvest;
- the variety is self-infertile, pollinator is needed, but there is no place for its planting;
- there is a suitable seedling on the stock and a desire to propagate the beloved variety.
Suitable as peach rootstock bitter almonds, wild apricot, Manchurian peach, wild cherry plum.If there is nothing of this on the plot, you can plant a peach on the plum - these cultures have good compatibility.
Budding is done in the crown of the stock or on the stem of a young seedling according to this scheme:
- An actively growing green shoot is cut from a suitable plant. From it all the leaves are removed, but the stalks are left.
- A good kidney is selected from the middle part of the shoot and a “shield” is cut off - a section of bark with cambium and the kidney itself. The length of the shield is about 2.5-3 cm.
- On the T-rootstock, the bark is incised and bent slightly to the sides. Cambias do not need to touch.
- The flap is inserted into the incision, covered with bark so that the kidney remains outside.
- Winding is performed from the bottom up in a spiral, bypassing the kidney.
You can wind the vaccination site with the opposite (non-adhesive) side of a normal tape or scotch tape.
In 7-10 days as the stem is judged on whether the eye is taking root. If the scape is yellowed and falls off with a finger, the kidney has taken root. If it turns black and rot, the vaccine failed.
In case of success, after 1-2 months you can remove the winding. If the grafting was done in a stem, it will be right to spud the tree for the winter. So it will be possible to protect the kidney from freezing or damage by rodents.
In the spring, the land is otgrebatsya, and the vaccination site is treated with 3% Bordeaux liquid.
Peach budding:
To make the peach feel good and fruitful, caring for him should be comprehensive and regular. This culture does not forgive laziness and neglect, but rewards efforts with wonderful fragrant fruits.