Plum - Selection Of Varieties And Cultivation Features. Planting, Leaving, Forming. Photo

Every fruit has a place in the garden. There is always one for the plum. Its tantalizing aroma and piquant taste will not leave anyone indifferent. The beauty of plum trees is unsurpassed during flowering and fruiting. An autumn plum looks like a spruce decorated for the holiday, with fruits of yellow, blue, pink, purple, wine-red colors hanging on the branches. For its elegance and beauty during flowering and fruiting, plum is appreciated by designers and is often used in landscape design.

Characteristics of varietal groups of home plums

From 2,000 varieties of homemade plums, each gardener can select a favorite and plant in the garden this precious gift of the 4th century BC.

Modern varieties of plums, depending on the external structure, color and quality indicators of the fruit, are divided into 4 groups.

• Hungarians, as a rule, have medium-sized, dark-colored, elongated fruits. They are distinguished by high sugar content of fruits. The pulp is elastic, with a delicate dessert taste. Most varieties are self-fertile, do not require pollinating companions. The varieties tolerate the winter cold of the southern regions well, but are prone to freezing during long frosty periods.
• Renklody is a group of varieties with green fruits of different shades with a round shape of a juicy fruit. The pulp is sweet and so juicy that the fruits are not used for drying, unlike the Hungarians. Basically, the grades are used fresh and for the preparation of compotes and juices. Be careful when breeding plums of this type. They are self-fertile and need pollinators. They are characterized by low winter hardiness. In the middle zone of the European part of Russia, due to weather conditions, they are rarely grown.
• Egg plums with the typical shape of an egg-like fruit. The color of the fruit is yellow in various shades, covered with a thick waxy coating. Recently, varieties with a blue fruit color and other shades have appeared. Fruit pulp is moderately juicy, tender. The varieties are winter hardiness, self-fertile. The varieties are usually tall, making it difficult to maintain, and are not resistant to disease.
• Mirabeli is a group of varieties that differ in comparative small-fruiting (similar to cherry plum). The taste of the fruit is sour and sweet and sour. In private gardening, they are grown less often. Sour varieties are used in winter preparations instead of vinegar.

Since the 20th century, breeders, creating new varieties, have used interspecific crossing (for example: plum with apricot, etc.), which makes it possible to obtain low-growing hybrid crops with increased frost resistance, resistance to summer droughts and high temperatures, with good quality and presentation of fruits … Breeding varieties with new qualities made it possible to promote the culture not only in the territory of central Russia, but also in the northern regions.

Rules for the selection of plum varieties for a summer residence

When buying plum saplings for a summer residence, you must immediately find out the main indicators of the variety from the seller. They should be in an accompanying sales note or in separate catalogs on the counter. You can get acquainted with the varieties in advance via the Internet and then buy the pre-selected one. In order not to be deceived, you cannot buy planting material on the side of highways or on the market. It is best to buy from agricultural firms that grow seedlings for sale.

When buying a seedling, the accompanying note must state:

• variety or hybrid name,
• zoning,
• the need for pollinators,
• maturation group (early, middle, late),
• year of the beginning of fruiting,
• yield,
• frost resistance,
• resistance to diseases and pests (which ones),
• keeping quality,
• separation of the pulp from the bone.

At the dacha, it is enough to have one tree of different ripening groups in order to be provided with these fruits for fresh consumption all summer and with preparations for the winter.

Early varieties of plum

The ripening period of early varieties covers the last decade of July - the first decade of August. They are distinguished by the formation of high yields. Of the new early varieties, Morning, Opal, and collective farm Renklod can be recommended. Very tasty fruit varieties Kooperativnaya, Zarechnaya early, Krasny Shar, Record, Skoroplodnaya and others.

Medium plum varieties

Medium grades are replacing. Their ripening period begins from the second decade of August to the first half of September. Fruits of mid-season varieties are the most fragrant with high taste. In winter preparations, they are used mainly for the preparation of jams and tinctures. High taste and yield are characterized by new varieties developed in recent years: Blue gift, Interesting, Sukhanovskaya. Well-established varieties with good quality indicators Mashenka, memory of Vavilov, Romain, Souvenir of the East and others.

Late plum varieties

The ripening period of late varieties begins at the end of August and lasts until the third decade of September. The varieties are characterized by increased frost resistance and are mainly used for conservation. Of the new varieties, one can recommend Tambov Renklod, in memory of Timiryazev. It should be noted the wide use in private gardens of varieties of plums Bogatyrskaya, Zhiguli, Svetlana, President and others.

Of course, in the article it is impossible to list all varieties (there are more than 2000) and give their characteristics. It is most advisable to get acquainted from the catalog with zoned varieties of different ripening periods, their characteristics and choose a favorite variety. It should be noted that on one plum, you can successfully graft several varieties into skeletal branches and get a whole garden on one tree. The following composition and useful properties of plum fruits will confirm the need to grow this crop in a summer cottage garden.

Plum growing technology

Zoned varieties of plums are most widespread in the European zone. A feature of the plum is a long dormant period, which allows the culture to tolerate temperature changes from warming to return frosts and vice versa without damage. The cool European summer, sometimes with abundant rains, does not prevent the culture from forming high-quality high yields of tasty fruits. At the same time, planting plum seedlings and caring for them has features, non-observance of which leads to early death of the tree and the formation of tasteless fruits.

Environmental requirements

Plum seedlings are best planted in spring. The root system of the plum consists of skeletal branches of the 1-2 order, which mainly play the role of conductors and fibrous, overgrowing the main roots. They perform a suction function and are located in the upper 40 cm soil layer. Plum seedlings planted in April, during a long warm period, manage to develop the root system and adapt to the conditions of the growing area. When planted in autumn, they often freeze or dry out and do not bloom in spring.

Choosing a place for plums

Plum can not be planted in low places with a close occurrence of groundwater. If the water layer is at a damage of 1.4-1.5 m from the soil surface, the plum will die early, although it can bear fruit in one place for more than 20-25 years.

If the site is lowered, the subsoil water is close, and there is no other place, then a bulk mound can be prepared for the drain. Braid an area with a diameter of up to 3 m and a height of up to 1.0 m with willow twigs. Fill a 10-15 cm layer of drainage from pebbles and crushed stone to drain excess water and fill with a mixture of local typical soils of neutral acidity. Soils should be water and air permeable, light in composition. Be sure to mix heavy ones with a lot of humus, horse peat and other ingredients.

On a flat or elevated surface, if the soil is clayey, heavy, it is necessary to fill the planting hole with a mixture of light soil soils. Add leafy soil, humus, high peat, sandy loam soil and a sufficient amount of fertilizer. Such a soil pit must have a diameter of at least 1.0x1.0x1.0. The bottom and sides of the pit should separate the plum sapling from the heavy soil. Over time, the tree will wonderfully take root and will grow and bear fruit for a long time. Otherwise, the whole life of the plum will look depressed, and the fruits will lose their presentation.

To remove acidification of soils, they must be calcified. The lime rate is:

• on sod-podzolic soils 500-800 g sq. m,
• on light soils that have received only mineral nutrition for a long time (mineral fats acidify the soil with perennial application), 300-400 g sq. m,
• on heavy soils (clay and loamy) from 0.8 to 1.0 kg / sq. m area.

Planting plum seedlings

Planting pits, especially in low places or on an artificial hill, are prepared in the fall (see description above). If the place is selected according to the requirements of the culture for the location, then when the snow melts, planting holes are dug at a distance of 2.5-3.0 m. The depth and diameter of the hole must correspond to the root system of the seedling. The dug soil (sometimes only the top layer) is mixed with 1-2 buckets of organic matter, 300-400 g of nitrophoska are added, and mixed well. A support stake is driven into the center of the pit, to which a plum sapling will then be tied. Part of the mixture is poured into a mound into the planting pit. The roots are spread on top of the mound and covered with the rest of the soil mixture. Pour 0.5 buckets of water, add the soil to the edge of the planting pit, compact. It is important that the root collar is 3-5 cm above the soil level. A roller is formed along the perimeter of the landing pit and another 0.5-0.7 buckets of water are poured. After the water leaves, the soil surface is mulched with peat or any organic matter, except for needles or coniferous sawdust. A plum sapling is tied through a figure eight to a support.

Top dressing

Plum seedlings begin to feed after 3 years. Before the beginning of fruiting, a year later, humus or nitrophoska is introduced in the form of a solution - 25-35 g / tree during the budding period. With the onset of fruiting, the plum is fed twice during the growing season. In the spring, at the end of April - beginning of May, a groove is dug along the edge of the crown, where nitrogen fertilizers are introduced, 30-40 g each. The fertilizer is closed by loosening the soil and watered. Watering must be mulched. The second feeding is carried out in September-October. 1-2 grooves are dug through 10-20 cm in diameter of the crown or several pits, where 0.3-0.5 buckets of humus are introduced (depending on the age of the tree), mixed with superphosphate and potassium or with nitrophosphate. Close up of loosening. Pour in water and mulch.

Watering

Stone fruits of horticultural crops are watered no more than 3-4 times during the growing season, but always with sufficient water. Frequent but shallow watering will prevent the tree from forming a decent crop.

For draining, the first watering is carried out before bud break, if the weather is dry and hot. If moisture is sufficient, watering should be noted. Excessive moisture adversely affects the culture.

The second watering is carried out in the phase of the beginning of ovary growth. Plums need high humidity to preserve the ovaries. In dry weather, there is a massive loss of ovaries.

The third watering is carried out 2-3 weeks before harvesting, not earlier. The fruits must be ripe and ready to harvest. Do not water during ripening. The fruit will retain its sour taste.

The last watering is carried out when preparing trees for wintering. It is carried out together with autumn fertilization.

Plum crown formation

For every novice gardener, shaping the crown of a fruit tree or the above-ground mass of a bush is a difficult, but quite doable job. You must be careful and follow the recommendations. Pruning in order to form the crown of the plum should be started immediately from the first year, but do not rush and be careful.

When planting, we do not trim the seedling until March of next year.

1 year - we carry out spring and summer pruning

We perform spring pruning during the awakening of the kidneys (they will begin to swell). From the soil level, we measure the height of the future trunk at 40-45 cm and in this segment we cut off all lateral shoots into a ring. We shorten the central conductor at a height of 1.3-1.5 m to a well-developed kidney. If the side branches are long, shorten them by 1/3.

At the end of July, we perform summer pruning of plums. We cut off all lateral branches growing from the central shoot by 20-25 cm in length. If a branch of the second order appears on the side branch, cut it 15 cm in length. The kidney should point downward. We do not touch the central conductor in the July pruning.

For the 2nd year we also carry out spring and summer pruning

With the spring awakening of the buds, we cut off the regrown central conductor by 2/3 of the total length. To keep the central stem straight, trim the central stem to the bud on the opposite side from last year's trim. Until the summer period, the plum tree continues to grow.

At the end of July, we start forming the side branches. The growth of this year is again cut to 20 cm. The total length of the branch growing from the central trunk should be no more than 40-45 cm. These are branches of the first order. They have branches of the second order, which last year they left a length of 15 cm. This July, cut their growth again by 15 cm. That is, the branches of the second order will have a total length of 30 cm. The extreme bud should be oriented downward. The lower side branches of the first order can be neatly tied in the middle with twine, folded down and tied to the bottom of the trunk. Do not forget to clear the stem from side shoots.

At year 3, we still do two pruning

In the spring, at the beginning of bud swelling, we cut off the central shoot by 1/2 the length of last year's growth and continue pruning it in subsequent years until the total height of the tree reaches 2.5 m in height.

In July, we cut off the lateral shoots, again leaving 20 and 15 cm of the growth of the previous year, respectively. We also shorten the emerging branches of the third order by 13 cm, carefully examine the crown and remove all branches that grow inward completely or partially on the outer bud.

In subsequent years, we focus on the central shoot of the plum. By completely pruning the growth of the previous year, we stop the growth of the tree in height. We cut out all the branches that thicken the crown (curves growing inward, rubbing against each other, too bare, etc.). In July, we cut off the lateral growths so that a wide base remains, and to the top the branches are shortened, forming a generally pyramidal shape. If the upper branches are not greatly shortened, the shape of the crown will resemble a rounded-cupped shape. Do not forget to cut the crown, removing old bare branches and internal thickening ones.

About the beneficial properties of plums

Due to their chemical composition, plums have a beneficial effect on the human body. They are rich in macro- and microelements, including per 100 g of dry weight, they contain more than 200 mg of potassium, 80 mg of copper, from 10 to 20 mg of calcium, sodium, phosphorus, etc. There are many vitamins in the pulp, including “E”, “C "," A ", etc.

Plums contain a lot of malic, oxalic, citric, succinic and other organic acids, which, together with vitamins and microelements, are involved in the development of the cardiovascular and nervous system when carrying an unborn child. Phytocoumarins, dilating blood vessels, prevent the formation of thrombophlebitis, and anti-cyanine doctors refer to as a means that prevents the appearance of cancer cells. For prevention, 5-6 dried fruits a day are sufficient.

The substances contained in plum fruits strengthen the immune system, prevent atherosclerosis, regulate digestion, normalize the work of the heart, stimulate the formation of erythrocytes and promote the elimination of radioactive substances from the body. However, plum fruits have a number of contraindications. It is necessary to limit and sometimes refuse the use of plums in food for gout, rheumatism, diabetes mellitus.