Orchard summer protection and fertilizer. Typical top dressing of fruit plants

Material prepared by: Yuri Zelikovich, Lecturer, Department of Geoecology and Environmental Management

The fact that the picture is not photoshop and not a cool 3Dshka. On those very 6 hundredths it is really possible to plant a garden, not only providing a family with fruit and berries for the winter, but also giving a substantial surplus of goods. How much is raspberry in the market today? Al reklodiki with the cam of a rustic blacksmith of old times? And one of the indispensable conditions for a stably successful fruit and berry culture is the timely proper feeding of trees and shrubs.

In wild ancestors of fruit crops, the frequency of fruiting is pronounced.  In one year, the branches break from the harvest, then 2-3 years of completely barren crops, and then the yield stabilizes until the next surge. Regular fertilizing of trees and shrubs in the orchard allows not only and not so much to smooth out the peaks and failures of productivity. Without it, fruit crops can “recall” their origin and return to the natural biocycle. At the same time, not only does the collection from the tree / bush fall, but also the size decreases, the taste and nutritional value of the fruits suffer, the content of vitamins and biologically active substances in them decreases. An experienced gardener will say in this case: the variety is spoiled by an illiterate culture, referring to a plant of this variety.

However, tree crops are in no hurry to live their whole lives for the season,  as grassy annuals, bulbous and tuberous; physiological processes in fruit and berries proceed more slowly and always with an eye to the future, even if there are no special storage tissues in the plant, therefore, feeding trees and shrubs should be done more moderately and with more precise observance of agricultural technology. It is impossible to overfeed fruit and berry: negative consequences of overfeeding will affect in subsequent years. Symptoms - again, a decrease in collection, worse taste and less useful fruit, up to harmfulness due to an excess of nitrates. What is completely unacceptable for the garden, because it requires a lot of large initial investments than a garden, and you need to wait several years to achieve profitability, at least a year for berry bushes. But then the well-groomed garden will give a much higher income than the garden, requiring less routine labor. The materials in this article are primarily intended for the owners of a small garden or cottage garden, who do not have an excess of time and money for hiring labor.

Basis - Calculation

Garden garden is different, and the proper feeding of fruit trees is carried out taking into account a number of interrelated factors:

• Type and variety of plants.
• The physiological stage of its development.
• The nature of physical development and the method of cultivation (dwarf, normal, luxuriant / tall).
• Type and nature of soil under the plant.
• Local climatic conditions, general in this year.

The formulation, dosage and fertilizer application according to these parameters are summarized in agronomic tables for individual species and varieties or are given in gardening manuals. It is quite difficult for a non-specialist to understand them, therefore, feeding fruit trees and berry bushes by lovers in summer houses and household plots is most often carried out according to standard schemes or proven recipes, see below. If climatic conditions and soil in the garden of the author of the recommendation and its reader are more or less similar, then the garden of the latter will “keep the varieties” and bear fruit relatively stably, but most likely not at the highest possible level in this place. In addition, the “folk” recipes for feeding fruit and berry in Runet are also dark, and it’s not easier to understand what’s in them without experience than in agricultural tables.

The purpose of this publication is, firstly, to provide the reader with information that will help to understand agronomic tables and with their help determine which fertilizers for trees and shrubs of this particular species and variety are needed on this soil under given climatic conditions, when, in what way and in what doses to bring them. Secondly, to help you understand which of the typical schemes / which recipe is best suited for your cottage, what can be done in it, what is needed and what cannot be changed based on existing conditions and possibilities.

Actually, the calculation of fruit and berry fertilizers is generally not complicated. For example, according to the tables for such a variety in certain soil and climatic conditions (for example, the Melba apple tree on chernozem in the Kursk region or she also raises Simirenko on a podzol in the Vologda region) in the standard culture, it turned out that the annual need for potassium of a given physiological tree age (see below) and size is 60 g. Based on soil conditions and availability, we select potash fertilizer and look at the percentage of active substance in the specification for it. Let's say 17% is indicated there. Then this tree needs 60 / 0.17 \u003d 353 g of the selected fertilizer for a year. We round to 350 (it is better to underfeed a little than to overfeed).

Now we will take into account that for those living leisurely wood, the main soil filling with fertilizers should be carried out in the autumn. By default, unless otherwise specified in the cultivation manual for this variety, for the autumn seasoning, depending on the physiological maturity of the plant (see below), we postpone:

1. On light permeable fertile soils - 1/4 of the annual norm.
2. On them, infertile (lean sandy loam, cartilage, etc.) - 1/3 of the annual norm.
3. On severe and moderate fertile - 1/2 annual norm.
4. On the same infertile - 2/3 of the annual norm.

Of the remaining half, we make in the spring when refueling the soil, and the rest is evenly distributed according to seasonal top dressing. It is better for novice gardeners on ordinary garden land to refuel 0.5 annual norms and another 0.25 for spring refueling.

NPK and others

The role of the basic nutrient elements nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium (NPK) in plant life is as follows:

• Nitrogen - helps to build green mass.
• Phosphorus - is necessary for the balance of physiological processes, increases the endurance of plants, their resistance to diseases and pests.
• Potassium - is necessary for root growth, the formation of new shoots, the synthesis of sugars in fruits. It also provides winter hardiness.

The basic elements in some modern manuals include divalent iron and magnesium. Although plants need them in microdoses, without them, chlorophyll formation and photosynthesis are impossible. Copper, zinc, boron, manganese, sulfur, molybdenum, calcium are trace elements; they are necessary for the synthesis of phytohormones and other plant biochemistry. As a rule, if the soil is not completely exhausted, adult plants get enough of it from it or as a natural impurity to basic fertilizers, especially organic ones (see below).

About foliar top dressing

The effect of "first aid" for wood foliar top dressing does not give the main elements. Woody can be fed mainly through leaves only in favorable years, and it is necessary if there are obvious signs of starvation on one of them. Also, in favorable years, it is advisable for woody during flowering and preparation for fruiting (at the stage of ovaries) to conduct boron-zinc-copper extra-root micronutrients (1-2, 3-5 and 30-40 g of active substance per 10 l of water, respectively); for some crops, e.g. grapes, foliar micronutrients at the beginning of fruiting are required. In adverse years, foliar feeding of tree crops should not be carried out.

Together or separately?

They are also ineffective and even harmful for wood dressing with complex mineral fertilizers, excluding autumn and spring soil dressing. The main nutrients for woody crops must be applied individually at intervals of at least 4-5 days. The sequence is phosphorus, potassium, then nitrogen. In favorable years, phosphorus and potassium can be applied together in well and deeply moistened soil: phosphorus migrates very quickly in the soil, potassium, on the contrary, slowly, so that they separate.

Another exception to these rules is seasonal top dressing of juvenile plants (see below). It is possible and even desirable to feed them NPK in the form of a nitrophosphate. South of approx. the Kursk-Lipetsk line in fairly wet years — more concentrated nitroammophos, adhering to the same absolute dosage (in g of active substances per plant or sq. m).

Maturity stages of trees and shrubs

The application technique (see below), the formulation and dosage of fertilizer for fruit crops depend significantly on the degree of physiological maturity of the plants. There are its stages:

1. Sapling - a tree up to 2 years old, a bush within a year after planting. During this time there is a complete rooting of seedlings. Fertilizer refueling the landing pit during planting (see below); other feeding is not carried out;
2. "Teenager" is juvenile, i.e. a young, completely rooted, but not yet flowering plant. In addition to autumn-spring refueling, regular seasonal top dressing with full NPK with trace elements is carried out;
3. Young tree / bush - blooms, bears fruit, but has not yet reached the level of productivity of this variety in the available conditions. Experienced gardeners artificially limit the productivity of young fruit and berries, removing unnecessary ovaries. The soil is seasoned in autumn and spring with full NPK. Seasonal feeding of young trees is carried out in the middle and favorable years annually, see below. In an unfavorable year, seasonal top dressing is excluded;
4. Adult plant - productivity has stabilized. The soil is filled mainly in the fall; to force spring refueling due to autumn is undesirable. Seasonal feeding is carried out no more than once every 2 years in favorable years;
5. Aging - productivity drops. The plant is "sent for a working pension": autumn-spring refills are done while it remains profitable or satisfies the owners' own needs, and seasonal ones are completely excluded. How to continue to be with him - see for yourself, under felling or a well-deserved rest, an element of landscape design.

Note:  one of the main tasks of a fruit and vegetable breeder is to develop a variety that unproductive and costly for the gardener the teenage stage “skips” as quickly as possible. Therefore, it is weakly expressed or completely invisible in many cultivars.

Feeding schedule

We will talk more about what, when, and how to feed fruit and berries. In the meantime, we note general features.

First  - starting from 1-1.5 years (if planted in spring) for shrubs and from 2-2.5 years for trees, autumn-spring seasoning of the soil is done regularly annually.

  Secondseasonal top dressing in favorable years is carried out depending on soil fertility and garden irrigation once, twice or thrice:

• The garden is irrigated on fertile soil - after the appearance of the first leaves and at the beginning of flowering.
• The garden is irrigated, the soil is medium or infertile - after the appearance of the first leaves, at the beginning of flowering and after the appearance of the ovaries.
• The garden is rain-fed (non-irrigated) - after the appearance of the first leaves in favorable years, while there is an excess of moisture in the soil.

Third, in special years, emergency (irregular) feeding is possible. Eg warm, light, frequent short warm rains. Plants laid many ovaries; the crop is planned - you’ll lick your fingers, or the fermenting cadres for cider will burst. But one fruit needs at least a certain number of leaves; e.g. room Pavlovsk lemon - 20. If they are not enough, after the first seasonal feeding, but before flowering, the plants can be given nitrogen. Or vice versa, the year is hot, dry, the garden is irrigated. The crop is supposed to be small but valuable. Then, during the period of fruit formation (ovary of apples with walnuts, plums with beans, cherries with peas), you can also give potassium or, better, wood ash. It doesn’t come out in quantity - take quality, sugar content.

Note:  emergency top dressing of fruit and berry with organic or mineral chemical fertilizers is recommended to be done only with certain experience in gardening. Without it, plants from them either heal or are exhausted. Both will “spoil the variety” for years, if not forever. Ashes can be fed without fear.

Organics or chemistry?

For autumn-spring seasonings with the rate of assimilation of wood nutrition by the rate of migration to the soil and the duration of retention of active substances by it, nitrogen-containing organic fertilizers are best coordinated: manure, compost, humus. In preparing them for use (see below), organics can be supplemented with phosphorus, but potassium is added separately. Seasonal fertilizing, for which potassium and phosphorus is most needed, is made by quickly absorbed mineral fertilizers.

Organics from the autumn used svezhakom - completely ripened in a plastic (slightly wet) form; in the spring - in the form of dried crushed rash. In either case, the preparation of organic fertilizers takes approx. 2 months The initial mass is laid out in the shade at a distance from residential buildings in layers of 15-20 cm. Each layer is poured from the calculation:

•   - 150 g / sq. m
•   - 220 g / sq. m
•   from the tops of garden plants - 200 g / sq. m
• Food compost - 70 g / sq. m
• Humus - 250 g / sq. m

Note:  organic slurry, if necessary, is prepared from rape, but not from svezhak.

It will also be very useful to spray each layer with a 2% solution of potassium humate at a rate of 250 ml / sq. m; potassium in the form of a humate with phosphorus is compatible. The pile is brought to a height of 1-1.3 m, it is covered with soil from above, and turf is covered on the sides. Freshly aged on the rape is dried in a ventilated room; it is impossible to dry in the sun. In the fall, prepared organic matter is brought under the mulch (see below), in the spring under it or in the snow.

Siderata

On a small private plot, the most “lazy” and cheapest, but at the same time the most effective way to completely fill the soil with fruit from the fall is to sow green manure crops throughout the garden. Sow peas, alfalfa, clover. Cereals-nitrogen fixers (rye, oats) are not suitable for the garden: they are photophilous, in the garden they will not develop at full strength and will not accumulate a lot of nutrients. In addition, in hollow internodes of cereal stems, eggs and pupae of pests are successfully wintered.

Sown after harvest. With the onset of cold weather, the ground with decayed tops is dug up or plowed. There is no need to mulch siderat, unless on the eve of a snowy winter you need to sprinkle with a thin, 1-3 fingers, layer of earth.

In the snow, under the mulch or in the pits?

As you know, near-stem fruit circles. But - it’s not so simple: under the mulch slugs, earthworms, and mice thrive. Worms, of course, are only useful, but moles come to the worm. Therefore, it is advisable to give fruit and berry fertilizers under mulch either in the autumn under the cold, or in the order of spring dressing until warm. If the garden is out of the blue, and enough snow has accumulated during the winter, it is better to fertilize fruit and berries in the spring in the snow: the dressing will more evenly and deeply infiltrate the root ball, and melt water will enhance its effect without risking damage to the plants. Organics in the snow make a rash with the appearance of the first thawed patches.

Conditions for fruit and berry fertilizer in the snow are not always created and are not possible everywhere, therefore, spring filling of soil with fertilizers in the garden is most often carried out under mulch. This is the main question: where can I get it, mulch, in the spring, but has it all sang during the winter? Not harmful, not infected and not acidifying soil (see below)? On one of the ways to provide yourself with mulch in the spring, see next. video.

Video: where to get mulch in spring

Another problem is the most affordable wood mulch often acidifies the soil, which is extremely undesirable for the garden. Certainly acidifies its measles, even if it is rubbish from the time of King Antipas. Therefore, before mulching, it is necessary to check the acidity of the soil. A litmus test for chemically non-pure samples often gives incorrect results, but nowadays it is not difficult to rent an electronic pH meter for a day. For methods of determining soil acidity, see the video tutorial:

Video: how to determine soil acidity

Note: for the prevention of acidification of mulched soil, it is calcified every 5-7 years since autumn under the cold with lime or dolomite flour per 1 kg per 1 sq. m. m. If a small garden is not commercial or its marketability is not decisive, then the acidity of the soil in it at the level of "suitable, suitable, not suitable" can be determined by indicator plants, see next. roller.

Video: soil acidity indicator plants

  Seasonal top dressing for a beginner private gardener is best done using the point method. For large commodity gardens it is too laborious, but safe: even gross violations of the dosage of fertilizers do not affect plants and damage to the surface roots by unskilled digging is excluded .. In this case, we need a tool: a smoothly pointed stake the thickness of an adult man’s hand with a transverse handle nailed to it , like a tamper, to make it more convenient to press.
  For point top dressing of fruit and berries after spilling the earth (see below), a contour of the crown projection is marked on it with a peg or mentally. Then, having retreated 0.5 m outward, a hole is punctured with a depth of 30-40 cm through 0.8-1 m. Fertilizer is applied to the wells, evenly distributed over all, wrapped with earth and added to the remaining water. An additional plus point feeding - it stimulates the growth of roots inland, which makes plants more durable and stabilizes the yield of the garden.

Note:  for point top dressing of shrubs, holes for fertilizers are pricked linearly in the row-spacing.

Feed the plants

Fertilization of fruit crops is carried out in the evening; preferably on a warm cloudy day, but not during the rain. Fertilizers are applied to abundantly moist soil. The ground for fertilizers needs to be shed an hour or two before they are applied. Approximate rate of strait in minimally moistened soil (crushed in a fist lump crumbles when unclenched):

• Juvenile trees and shrubs (except hazelnuts) - 1.5 buckets per 1 sq. Km. m barreled circle.
• Young trees and hazelnuts - 2.5 buckets per square meter. m barreled circle.
• Mature trees - 3.5-6 buckets in the same area.

The spill is carried out portionwise, waiting for the complete absorption of the next bay. If, after 10-15 minutes after pouring the next portion, the soil, compressed in a fist, sticks together in a lump of fingerprints, without sticking to them in a continuous layer, then this is a sign that it has been spilled enough and after half an hour or an hour fertilizers should be applied. After also half an hour or an hour, after they are introduced, they are carried out in the same order by adding 1 / 4-1 / 3 of the water to the strait in the same order.

Seedlings

Fertilizing seedlings, as you know, is carried out during planting, and then they are not fed until completely rooted. A method of fertilizing fruit and berry during planting is also known: a pit is filled with a bucket or two organics, then a half-spade dressing is filled with earth, poured with water, planted and watered. With proper planting, from the autumn, the pit is filled with freshwater - it will slowly warm up the roots and warm up the roots and help the plant overwinter. Under the spring planting (which, generally speaking, is undesirable), the pit needs to be filled with a rake: freshly growing fresh in the course of increasing heat can burn the roots. It is useful to add 100-150 g of superphosphate or a half dose of a double to a bucket of rash, but in this case, the dry mixture should be prepared in 2 weeks and let it mature in an open container (not metal!) In air under a canopy.

Note:  when planting a walnut, it is necessary to put a solid granite boulder or a fragment in the landing pit so that the growing core rests on it. Then the first nuts will have to wait 2-3 years, and not 6-8 years.

Typical top dressing of fruit bearing fruit and berry

Pomegranate

This includes pears; in the south - quince and dogwood. The peculiarity of pome seeds is that autumn-spring dressings of the soil under them begin to be carried out after leaving the juvenile phase, after the plants first bloom. The next after the first refueling on ordinary and fertile soil is carried out, skipping a year; then - after 3-4 years, the older, the less often. On infertile soils, the soil is seasoned annually before reaching stable fruiting, then after 2-3 years. The order of fertilizing pome seeds (without autumn green manure) is as follows:

1. In the fall after falling off approx. 70-80% of the foliage is applied in a point-wise manner to 200 g of potassium sulfate per young tree and 300 g each for an adult;
2. A nitrogen-phosphorus mixture is immediately prepared: for 10 kg of fresh organic, 300 g of double superphosphate or 600 g of simple. The mixture rate per tree is 12-15 kg per young, 20-25 kg per adult, depending on soil fertility;
3. Nitrogen-phosphorus mixture is left to ripen under a canopy in a covered dish with a cloth for at least 2 weeks;
4. In the cold or when the plants “fall asleep” for the winter (this year's shoots are coarsened, the buds are wrinkled), the nitrogen-phosphorus mixture is applied under the mulch;
5. If green manure has not been sown since autumn, in spring, snow or under mulch is given fresh organic without phosphorus in the amount of 1/4 of the autumn season;
6. After the leaves unfold, young trees are sedimented with solutions of 30 g per 1 liter of water, or 400 ml of slurry per 1 liter of water, or 150 ml of liquid from fermented chicken manure per 1 liter of water. Solutions are used immediately upon preparation;
7. After flowering, fertilizing is carried out pointwise in the wells with a 5% superphosphate solution per 30 g of dry matter per young tree and twice as much per adult. Double superphosphate is used not only in half amount, but also in half concentration, i.e. the dose of working solution on the tree remains the same;
8. After the formation of the ovaries (they have reached the size of a hazelnut), they are fed with potash: potassium sulfate (preferably), kalimagnesia,. The application rates for an adult tree, respectively, are 20 g, 25 g and 50-70 g, half for a young one. Potash fertilizers are applied with 5% solutions, ash - diluted 10 times with concentrated infusion, see below;
9. In particularly fruitful years (see below), under a white filling of fruits, they give potassium top dressing in the amount of 1/4 of it under the ovary (see previous item);
10. After harvesting, the best way for beginners to prepare trees for winter is to mulch trunks with humus, with the addition of wood ash in a glass on a bucket, 10-15 cm in thickness.

In lean years, phosphorus-potash seasonal feeding is not carried out. If more than half of the maximum possible yield is expected (over 70-75 kg from an adult tree of ordinary crop varieties), urea is produced 1.5 times more and potash 25% more. To get a concentrated infusion of ash, its dry dose is shut with water with thorough stirring and the day is tormented, periodically mixing. Then another day is allowed to stand. Light sediment is ash concentrate; the precipitate is discarded.

Stone fruit

These are plums, cherries, cherries, apricots. The soil under them is refilled in the same way as under the pome seeds, but compared with the latter, seasonal top dressing has a trace. features:

• Spring top dressing "on foliage" is carried out at a rate of 10 g / sq. m circle trunk for adult trees and 7 g / sq. m for young people;
• In favorable (warm and moderately humid) years, after 2-3 weeks they are fed 30 g / sq. Nitrophos. m or nitroammofoskoy 20 g / sq. m;
• 4-5 days after give 5% solution of chloride (preferably) or potassium sulfate. Pomes do not like chlorine ions, but stone fruits are tolerant to it, but potassium chloride is quickly absorbed;
• The first potash top dressing for fruiting (similar to paragraph 8 in the previous list) is carried out when the ovary reaches the size of a pea (cherry, cherry) or bean (plum, apricot);
• Additional potassium top dressing is not carried out regardless of the yield in the current year.

Shrubs

Shrubs “live faster” than trees, so they are given half-way or 1/3 of what is needed for the tree to plant in the pit. Autumn-spring soil refueling begins a year after autumn planting or 1.5 years later (in the fall) after spring. Refueling dose is considered half per 1 square. m of the projection of the crown compared to the same for the tree. For example, an apple tree obscures in the summer at noon 10 square meters. m, and a bush of 1 square. m. Divide the dose of dressing for the apple tree by 20, we get the rate of autumn-spring application under the bush; bushes, they are unpretentious and economical. What is important for shrubs - after the first flowering, autumn soil dressing for cold is canceled; it is replaced by top dressing after harvesting.

The basic composition of the mixture for seasonal top dressing of bushes in the middle lane can be taken the same: on an adult bush 4-5 kg \u200b\u200bof compost, 10-15 g of potassium sulfate and 20-30 g of superphosphate. The mixture is allowed to ripen for 2 weeks; the application schedule is as follows:

1. In the phase of active flowering (first decade of May);
2. In the period of increased growth of fruitful shoots (end of May - beginning of June);
3. During the formation of the ovaries (early July);
4. After the harvest.

However, the methods for seasonal fertilizing of bushes are different depending on the type of crop; for the most popular berry they are as follows:

• Blackcurrant - fertilizer is scattered under the bushes and shallow, 8-10 cm, dig.
•   - fertilizer is applied with tape under the bushes and covered with sand. The option is sawdust mulch, but then once a year after harvesting it is necessary to control the acidity of the soil and, if necessary, liming it.
• Gooseberry - very sick on acidic waterlogged soils, so it is advisable to replace compost 10-15 ammonium nitrate with a bush. The soil with the scattered dry mixture is hoeed no deeper than 6-8 cm. After 2 years, the third is carried out in the autumn from the preventive liming of the soil, half a glass of dolomite flour per 1 sq. M. m. Lime flour is not suitable, because gooseberries need a lot of magnesium.

A final note:  shrubs are more responsive than trees to top dressing on leaves, so in wet years, forcing their productivity with foliar top dressing is quite acceptable and will not harm plants.

Video: basic about fruit tree fertilizer

Like all living things, the orchard needs nutrition. Therefore, fertilizers for fruit trees come to the fore - they are also necessary, like timely watering, regular weeding, plowing and mulching. But before feeding the garden, of course, you need to have an idea of \u200b\u200bhow to fertilize fruit trees in spring and autumn, and in what proportions to feed.

Fertilizers, along with other agricultural practices, have a great influence on the growth and productivity of gardens. Selecting nutrition elements in certain proportions, linking this to the methods of cultivating the soil, you can directionally affect the size of the crop, the quality of the fruit, as well as frost resistance and drought tolerance. With a continuous ratio of individual elements, negative results can be obtained. High efficiency in fertilizing fruit trees in spring and autumn can be achieved by knowing the basics of their use in the garden.

Features of fertilizing under fruit trees

Before feeding fruit trees, first of all, it is necessary to take into account the peculiarities of the soil of the plot (natural supply of nutrients, mechanical composition, environmental reaction, etc.), plant requirements for nutrition conditions, soil maintenance method, age of plantings and other factors. Depending on these conditions, the types and norms of fertilizers applied will change.

Fruit plants are perennial crops, so the effect of fertilizers extends to them not only in the year of application, but also in subsequent years.

Pre-planting soil dressing and the use of fertilizers in previous years have great importance on the effectiveness of fertilizing fruit trees in spring and autumn.

In the first years of life, fruit plants are especially demanding on phosphorus, since it stimulates root growth and provides an increase in the aerial mass of the tree. Deep application of phosphorus-potassium fertilizers contributes to the development of the root system, as if dragging it deeper and thereby increasing drought tolerance and winter hardiness of plants.

Due to the low mobility of the phosphorus-potassium fertilizing of fruit trees and fixing them mainly in the zone of application, it is especially important to fill the soil before planting the garden with high doses of these fertilizers, designed for a significant period of their action.

In growing gardens, the introduction of phosphorus-potassium fertilizers in the zone of distribution of the bulk of the roots is difficult. The soil, especially near trees, is saturated with roots, which should not be damaged.

The introduction of nitrogen fertilizers for fruit trees in connection with their good solubility and mobility in the soil is not particularly difficult.

As a rule, surface screening is used, mechanized or manual, or applied in the form of an aqueous solution.

The main task when using nitrogen fertilizers is to reduce nitrogen losses, since its ammonia form is volatile, and its nitrate form is mobile, especially on light soil and during irrigation. In this regard, all nitrogen fertilizers applied in dry form must be immediately embedded in the soil.

On light soils and during irrigation, you should not use high doses of nitrogen fertilizers, but apply them fractionally and more often than on heavy and without irrigation.

Before feeding fruit trees, remember that in the spring, in the first half of the growing season, nutrients are spent on flowering, the growth of shoots and fruits. At this time, plants need all three basic elements - nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. After the growth of the shoots has ceased since the second half of the summer, nutrients are spent on fruit growth, laying flower buds, and are also stored. At this time, the need for nitrogen nutrition decreases. Excess nitrogen during this period can cause prolonged growth of plants and reduce their winter hardiness.

When deciding how to fertilize fruit trees, remember that the need for plants to feed is highly dependent on their age. In fruit-bearing trees, it is significantly higher than in young trees, which is caused by a large consumption of nutrients for crop formation, as well as features of the development of the root system. If the roots of young trees grow rapidly with the coverage from year to year of new unused soil layers, then with age, the formation of numerous lateral branches in the already covered volume is observed and its more severe depletion occurs.

Choosing what fertilizers to feed fruit trees, do not forget that the use of fertilizing should be closely linked with the fertility of the soil and the supply of nutrients. It is necessary to determine the availability of available forms of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in the soil and only on this basis to decide the timing of fertilizer application, their doses and ratios.

Most soils of the middle zone are of the chernozem type and are characterized by high natural fertility.

Such soils, with good processing and moisture, can annually replace significant quantities of essential nutrients. However, these reserves will quickly be depleted if the proper use of fertilizers does not maintain soil fertility at a high level.

Video feeding fruit trees will help you better understand how to fertilize the garden:

How to feed fruit trees in spring: nitrogen fertilizers

Nitrogen is one of the most essential elements for plants. It is part of proteins, chlorophyll and many other organic substances. The bulk of nitrogen is concentrated in the organic matter of the soil, and primarily in humus.

Nitrogen is available to plants mainly in the form of mineral compounds - ammonium and nitrates, which are formed during the decomposition of organic matter by special microorganisms. Nitrate nitrogen is more accessible due to the fact that most of the ammonia in the soil is in an absorbed state and is nitrified gradually. The nitrification process proceeds most actively with good air access, sufficient soil moisture and a temperature of + 15-20 °.

If the soil in the garden has been loosened since spring, sufficiently moistened, and manure is periodically applied, then with the onset of warm weather, it accumulates enough nitrates for plants. When the activity of microorganisms is suppressed, plants may lack nitrogen even on humus-rich chernozems. Therefore, to obtain high yields only at the expense of natural reserves of nitrogen is difficult.

An acute deficiency of nitrates is observed in the soil of the garden in early spring, when the demand for fruit trees in nitrogen is great, and the nitrification process is weak.

Plants consume especially much nitrogen during the period of enhanced shoot growth and fruit formation. The application of nitrogen fertilizers at this time is very important. A lack or excess of nitrogen in the soil disrupts the supply of phosphorus and potassium to fruit plants. Excess nitrates are more easily tolerated by plants than large amounts of ammonium, especially with a lack of carbohydrates.

When using nitrogen fertilizers, it is necessary to take into account the state of the plants: growth force, leaf color intensity, etc.

The visual signs of nitrogen deficiency are the pale green color of the leaves, a weak growth of shoots under conditions of sufficient moisture, premature falling of leaves, chopping of the fruit, etc.

What fertilizers to feed fruit trees: phosphorus fertilizing

Phosphorus is the second main nutrient in the soil in the form of organic and mineral compounds. Plants feed on phosphorus mineral compounds - on chernozems mainly calcium phosphates, most of which are inaccessible to plants. Mobilization of phosphorus from potential reserves is more difficult than nitrogen. Phosphate top dressing is necessary for plants throughout the growing season. Sufficient supply of phosphorus contributes to the faster emergence of new leaves, better development of the root system, earlier and faster flowering. It has an impact on the processes of formation of fruiting organs and the laying of flower buds for next year's harvest.

Phosphate top dressing is the fertilizer that needs to be applied under fruit trees regularly, since with a lack of phosphorus, the growth of shoots and roots is greatly reduced, flowering and ripening of the fruits is delayed. Improving the nutrition of phosphorus increases the sugar content in plants, increases their winter hardiness. With insufficient phosphorus, nitrogen fertilizers are not used fully. In some cases, large doses of nitrogen with a lack of phosphorus adversely affect the growth and development of plants.

How to feed fruit trees in spring and autumn: potash fertilizers

Potassium takes part in the formation of carbohydrates, promotes the movement of nutrients in plants, increases their winter hardiness and drought tolerance, resistance to pests and diseases.

Potassium in the soil is in mineral form. No organic forms of this element have been detected. Its gross content is several times higher than that of nitrogen and phosphorus. Hence the lack of potassium in the soil is less common. Plants feed on both water-soluble potassium salts and absorbed soil colloidal cations, and can also absorb potassium from minerals: mica, glauconite, biotite, etc. The main source of potassium is absorbed.

When applying potash fertilizers under fruit trees, one must also bear in mind that the demand for potassium in fruit plants is higher than in phosphorus. If we take the removal of phosphorus per unit, then potassium and nitrogen mature apple trees carry 3 times more. An imbalance between the nutrients cannot be allowed, as this leads to functional diseases.

The use of fertilizers for feeding garden trees

When using fertilizers for garden trees, other soil properties must be taken into account: the nature of aeration, the mechanical composition, and the reaction of the environment.

Black soil with a neutral or slightly alkaline reaction responds well to the use of acidic and physiologically acidic fertilizers (superphosphate, ammonium sulfate, etc.).

The effect of the use of fertilizers can be achieved while improving other factors of life. The disadvantage of one of the factors cannot be made up for by improving the other. For example, supplementary nutrition cannot replace a lack of moisture.

Therefore, choosing what to feed the fruit trees, it should be borne in mind that in the peculiar natural conditions with rich soils and an arid climate, fertilizers may not have an effect if sufficiently favorable moistening conditions are not provided. When applying fertilizers, it is necessary to simultaneously improve the water regime of the soil in the garden.

From all of the above, we can conclude: there can be no single fertilizer system in the garden. The following fertilizer recommendations should be considered as exemplary. They must be adapted to the specific conditions of a garden, depending on soil properties, age of plantings, moisture supply conditions, etc. The best fertilizer system is one that justifies itself with a high yield, good growth and condition of trees.

In addition to the basic nutrients - nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium - fruit plants require micronutrients for normal development. Often in the middle lane, their importance in fertilizing the orchard comes first in comparison with the main elements of nutrition.

The lack of trace elements causes deep physiological disorders of the nutrition process and leads to the appearance of functional diseases and a sharp decrease in plant productivity.

Fertilizing fruit trees in the garden in spring and autumn with organic fertilizers

Practical recommendations for the use of fertilizers. Organic fertilizers are of particular importance in the fertilizer system of fruit crops. They enrich the soil with readily available nutrients, improve its physical properties (water and air regimes), as well as supply plants with carbon dioxide. They contain in their composition all the nutrients necessary for fruit plants (macro- and microelements): nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, boron, molybdenum, manganese, iron, zinc, copper, etc.

The crucial importance of organic fertilizers for the garden is that they revitalize the microbiological activity in the soil.

The introduction of manure, in particular, is the most important factor in mobilizing the natural supply of nutrients. With the systematic introduction of manure, clay soils become more moisture- and breathable, sandy soils become cohesive and retain moisture better. Biotic substances contained in manure (vitamins, auxins, etc.) activate life processes in plants, as a result of which more favorable conditions are created for the effective use of mineral fertilizers.

The best in quality is horse and cow dung. Pork manure in terms of nutrient content approaches horse and cow, differing from them in a large number of nitrogenous compounds and sodium chloride. However, it is significantly inferior to them in physical properties, representing a semi-liquid mass, inconvenient for use. Therefore, it is best to use pig manure after composting with straw, sawdust, leaves and other material. It is recommended to bring it in to feed fruit trees in the fall at the rate of 5 - 6 kg per 1 m2. Harmful chloride salts are washed out in this case deep into the soil. Given the exceptional value for the manure garden, it is necessary to periodically apply it from 4 to 8 kg per 1 m2 once every 3 years.

What else can you feed fruit trees in spring and autumn from organic fertilizers? Bird droppings are a complete, fast-acting fertilizer in which nutrients are in a form readily available to plants. In order to reduce nitrogen losses, which in 1.5-2 months can reach 30% of its total content, crude litter should be stored in a dry place mixed with peat crumb, humus - 25-50% or with powdery superphosphate - 6 -10% by weight of litter.

Litter in dry and crushed form or in the form of a solution is used for all crops and on all soils, mainly when feeding plants. When applied dry, it is important to grind it thoroughly and evenly disperse throughout the area. With uneven application, burnout of plants is possible. To feed fruit trees in liquid form, bird droppings are mixed with water in a ratio of 1:15 (15 parts of water per 1 part of fertilizer). The solution should be used immediately after preparation. They bring it into the furrows made on the periphery of the crown, one bucket for 2-3 pogs. m

Sometimes before application insist bird droppings with water to ferment. This technique is impractical, since when it is used, the fertilizer loses more than half of the nitrogen.

Manure is usually not enough for fertilizing fruit and berry crops. Its disadvantage can be largely compensated by the introduction of various composts.

Prefabricated composts are also a valuable organic fertilizer. As compostable material, you can use all garbage containing at least some organic matter: spoiled feed, weedy vegetation (without seeds), tops, sawdust, dry leaves, forest litter, pond silt, yard garbage, kitchen waste, etc. More valuable composts are obtained by mixing peat, good fertile land, as well as slurry, poultry manure, pig manure, superphosphate. Before fertilizing fruit trees in spring and autumn, compost must mature. All materials for future dressing are stacked in a specific place on a compacted platform, in the so-called compost heaps up to 2 m wide, 1.5-1.7 m high. For better moisture absorption, a layer of peat 20-25 cm thick is placed in the heap base, or humus land, or leaves. The garbage, as it accumulates, is laid in a compost heap in layers and moistened with slurry, chicken droppings or clean water, if necessary. Add 1.5-2% of the total mass of superphosphate. You can make 3-4% ash.

The edges of the heap are made slightly higher so that the liquid does not drain, but is absorbed. After watering, piles of peat or earth are poured on top of the heap. Care for the compost heap is shoveling it 2-3 times during the summer and moisturizing when it dries.

Hardly decomposing waste (sawdust, shavings, etc.) is laid in separate piles for a longer period of over-ripening. Compost for feeding garden trees is considered ready to eat when it turns into a uniform, loose mass. Composts can be laid in trenches 1.5 m wide and 0.7-1 m deep. This method is more convenient because the material dries less. Prefabricated composts are close in quality to manure.

Fertilizing fruit trees with mineral fertilizers

To fully meet the needs of fruiting plants for easily digestible nutrients, mineral fertilizers are used in addition to organic ones. Unlike organic ones, they contain more nutrients and are less complex in their chemical composition.

Mineral fertilizers for fruit trees are divided into simple and complex. Simple fertilizers contain only one nutrient; complex fertilizers include two or three main elements.

Simple mineral fertilizers for harvesting fruit trees fertilizers are divided into nitrogen, phosphoric and potash, depending on what kind of nutrition element they contain.

Nitrogen fertilizers.

Ammonium nitrate is a fast-acting fertilizer, recommended for early spring application and top dressing at a concentration of 20 g per bucket of water.

Urea is not immediately absorbed by plants, so it is advisable to use it as the main fertilizer in the spring, and on heavy soils - in the fall. During irrigation, urea is used for top dressing. Valuable fertilizer for foliar top dressing in a concentration of 0.3-0.4% (30-40 g per bucket of water).

Phosphoric fertilizers.

The best of them in local conditions is superphosphate - simple and double. This top dressing of fruit trees in spring and autumn has a lasting effect, therefore it is used as the main fertilizer. On carbonate soils, it is recommended to use it in a mixture with humus, peat, compost. The mixture is prepared 1-2 months before application.

Potash fertilizers.

Potassium sulfate is the best of them, since it does not contain harmful impurities. Potassium chloride contains an admixture of chlorine, in large quantities harmful to fruit. Under the berries, especially strawberries, you can make it only in advance.

Potassium salt. It should not be used for berry crops sensitive to chlorine. All potash fertilizers for fruit trees are used as the main application in the fall, only potassium sulfate can be applied in the spring.

How to feed fruit trees in spring and autumn: complex fertilizers

Complex fertilizers for fruit trees include potassium nitrate, ammophos, diammophos, nitroammophos, nitrofoska, nitroammofoska, etc. All sony are highly soluble in water and are valuable food for fruit crops. They are used as the main fertilizer and top dressing.

Ash wood - a valuable local fertilizer, contains all the nutrients except nitrogen. It is used as potassium phosphorus and micronutrient fertilizers on soils having an acidic or neutral reaction of 50-80 g / m2.

Fertilizers for fruit trees, introduced in the spring, before planting the garden, improve plant growth, accelerate fruiting and increase productivity in the early years. They can be made for digging, deep plowing or in landing pits.

In industrial gardens, application can be continuous or strip (along the lines of future rows of trees). 500-700 kg / ha of superphosphate of simple and potash fertilizers are added under the planting. Semi-rotted manure 60-80 t / ha is introduced under conventional plowing. In the absence of manure, doses of mineral fertilizers are doubled.

Rotted manure and phosphorus-potassium fertilizers are introduced into the planting pits.

Superphosphate is best applied as an organo-mineral mixture. 300 g of simple superphosphate or 150 g of double are taken per bucket of dung-manure. Superphosphate is mixed with moist organic matter two weeks before application.

Under the apple tree, make 2-3 buckets of such a mixture, which is 15-25 kg of manure, 450-900 g of superphosphate. Potash fertilizers are applied 200-300 g each. Under the stone fruits, the dose of fertilizer application is reduced by 2 times. It is not recommended to introduce unripe manure and mineral nitrogen fertilizers into the pit, as they worsen the survival rate of young plants.

With a good preplant planting of the soil in the first 4-5 years or more, trees usually do not need to apply phosphorus-potassium fertilizers. Manure in the 1st year after planting, as a rule, is introduced in the form of mulch in the spring and is closed during digging. In the future, organic fertilizers are recommended to be applied at the 4-5th year before the garden comes into fruition. The introduction of nitrogen fertilizers should start from the 2-3rd year after planting, when the plants take root and get stronger. When introduced in the year of planting, they can cause a burn of young roots and impair plant survival. In a young garden on fertile soil, the need for nitrogen in fruit plants usually arises in the early spring, when the process of natural microbiological formation of nitrates is suppressed.

In this regard, it is necessary to introduce nitrogen fertilizers containing nitrogen in nitrate form (ammonium nitrate in a dose of 15-20 g / m2 - 150-200 kg / ha). The best time for this is after the bulk of the snow has disappeared over the thawed frozen soil, when fertilizers can be sifted in the mornings. Easily soluble nitrogen fertilizers with residual moisture penetrate into the zone of distribution of roots to the beginning of their growth. If it was not possible to introduce them on thawed frozen soil, then they are introduced before the first spring loosening.

How to fertilize adult fruit trees in spring and autumn

In the early years, the effect of fertilizers on tree growth is usually weak, as they approach fruiting, their effect increases more and more. With the entry of the garden into fruiting, the fertilizer system of adult trees consists of autumn (main) application, spring and top dressing. The main thing is the main, when organic fertilizer and mineral phosphorus-potash fertilizers are applied. These fertilizers are not washed out of the soil, therefore they are applied periodically once every 2-3 years for plowing or digging in the amount of: 30-45 g / m2 of superphosphate and 20-25 g / m2 of potassium sulfate or chloride per 1 year. Autumn application of chlorine-containing potash fertilizers promotes leaching of chlorine.

Phosphoric and potassium fertilizers, which are inactive in the soil, should be introduced as deep as possible into the zone of occurrence of the main mass of roots, which contributes to the development of a powerful root system.

In home gardens, deep introduction is carried out into furrows, annular grooves, etc. The best way in this case is focal. The foci should be in the form of holes made along the periphery of the crown to a depth of 25-35 cm. One hole is placed for each half meter.

Effective joint application of mineral fertilizers with organic. The rate of mineral fertilizer is reduced by half. The introduction of superphosphate mixed with organic fertilizers contributes to better absorption of phosphorus.

In industrial gardens, the application of organic and phosphorus-potassium fertilizers is carried out under plowing to a depth of 25-30 cm. Machines for deep fertilizing are also used: a mounted plow-ripper vineyard mounted PRVN-2.5 and a garden-vineyard feeding feeder - PSV-2.

For fruiting fruit trees, top dressing is of great importance. In non-irrigated gardens, they are usually limited to early spring introduction of ammonium nitrate, since in the absence of watering, feeding is ineffective.

The rate of application of this top dressing for fruit trees in the spring is 15 - 20 g per 1 m at the time the garden comes into fruition and 20-25 g per 1 m2 with full fruiting.

In irrigated gardens, there is a risk of leaching mobile nitrogen into the deeper layers, especially on light soils, while fruit-bearing gardens especially require nitrogen fertilizer. Therefore, in a fructifying irrigated garden, in addition to early spring fertilizing, they give one or two top dressings for the growing season. The first feeding is carried out with nitrogen fertilizer (ammonium nitrate) after physiological shedding of the ovary at a dose of 10 g / m2.

Fertilizing fruit trees in spring and autumn: top-dressing in a lean year

In a lean year, they are limited only to basic fertilizer and spring nitrogen, since in this case the consumption of nutrients goes only to increase the vegetative mass and lay flower buds for the next year's crop. It is necessary to restrain the laying of the buds so as not to overload the tree with a crop in a year. This is facilitated by low doses of fertilizers. Mineral fertilizers during feeding can be applied in liquid and dry form. In the first case, the fertilizer should be dissolved in water - 20-30 g per 10 l, in the second - subsequent watering is required.

Good results are obtained by top dressing with local liquid organic fertilizers - slurry, bird droppings.

Feeding is best timed to rain. If the weather is dry, then it is necessary to water the furrows before top dressing. Top dressing can be done simultaneously with watering.

When applying fertilizing, it is necessary, however, to remember that this method of fertilizing is auxiliary and cannot replace the main fertilizer.

Before fertilizing fruit trees with nitrogen fertilizers, especially in young gardens, carefully study the information on the doses and the timing of their application. An excess of nitrogen in the soil cannot be allowed, as it delays vegetative growth, worsens the ripening of shoots, and reduces the winter hardiness of plants. A constant excess of nitrogen, especially with a lack of other elements, leads to the fact that in fruit plants a state of so-called “fatliquoring” can occur, that is, violent growth in the absence of fruiting. It is not possible to immediately cause the fruiting of the "fattening" trees. First of all, it is necessary to weaken nitrogen nutrition and increase phosphorus-potash, reduce watering. In some cases, it is necessary to resort to the use of special techniques: hauling branches, ringing, etc. Stone fruit such as cherries and plums are particularly prone to prolonged growth and overgrowing with excessive nitrogen nutrition. Their winter hardiness is greatly reduced in this case, and the trees often freeze.

Competent and timely fertilizer application is the key to the harmonious development of seedlings. However, many gardeners are poorly informed about when and what fertilizing to bring. This article will help to understand all the intricacies of an important process aimed at increasing the productivity of plant growth.

Proper soil fertilization will create favorable conditions for the existence of crops and will avoid future problems. But it is necessary to fertilize with knowledge of the matter. The uncontrolled introduction of organics or complex dressings can harm. So, how to feed the seedlings?

Young plants primarily need phosphorus, nitrogen and potassium. Usually it is them that are lacking in the soil, which means that this should be compensated. Hydrogen, oxygen, carbon are no less important components of “excellent health”. If the nutritional value of the soil leaves much to be desired, then the seedlings will lack these elements of the periodic table. But calcium, sulfur, magnesium, manganese at the beginning of the path requires a minimum amount.

The need for certain fertilizers depends on the type of crops that you planted. So, pears and apple trees are more in need of organic matter. Cherry and apricot - in minerals.

How to find out what exactly is missing?

If the seedlings are poorly rooted, it is worth taking a closer look at them. With a thorough visual inspection, you will definitely find characteristic signs of a deficiency of one or an element.

Thin weak stems, small pale leaves indicate that the seedlings lack nitrogen. Do the leaves dry at the edges, turn yellow or brown? I need potassium. An acute shortage of magnesium manifests itself in the form of blanching of leaves, which subsequently turn yellow and fall.

Small and almost black foliage, mainly in the lower part of the plant - a signal that should be fed with phosphorus. Intense wilting of leaves and shoots indicates a lack of iron. Most often, raspberries, grapes, apple trees, plums need iron. But when there is not enough copper, the leaves at the tips brighten, become lethargic and soon die off.

Phosphorus and Potassium: What You Need to Know

Experts advise to introduce phosphorus and potassium only in the 4th year after planting. It’s better to do it in the fall, because such complexes contain indigestible substances. An exception is made for fruiting plants - they are fed in the spring.

Many make such fertilizers during fruit setting. And they’re doing it right - it favorably affects the quality and quantity of the crop.

So what fertilizers for seedlings containing potassium and phosphorus should be applied first?

• potassium sulfate  It is used as the main fertilizer for fruit crops. The content of the main active substance is 50%. It is brought mainly in the spring;
• potassium salt. Universal top dressing is suitable for any type of crop. The content of the main substance is 40%. It is brought in the fall;
• superphosphate. Fertilizer in granules. The content of phosphoric acid is up to 20%. It is made at the rate of 35-40 g / m2;
• phosphorite flour. Not only a valuable fertilizer, but also an effective neutralizer of increased soil acidity. The phosphorus content varies from 15 to 35%. It is focused on top dressing of any fruit-trees.

There are special mixtures containing other substances in addition to potassium and phosphorus. For example, nitrophosk and diammofosk include potassium, phosphorus and nitrogen in different ratios.

Nitrogen: when and how to deposit?

  If during planting the soil was fertilized with nitrogen, then the first fertilizing is practiced in the 3rd year after planting. Most of the nitrogen is introduced in the spring, the smaller - in the fall. Calculate as follows: 20 g / m2 (for poor soils) or 10 g / m2 (for fertile). If you plan to add nitrogen, then you should use:

• urea (carbimide). Contains fast-absorbing nitrogen. Young plantings can be fertilized with urea in two ways: by digging the dry mixture into the stem circles or spraying the trunk and leaves with a solution (for this, 0.5 kg of urea is dissolved in a bucket of water);
• ammonium nitrate. Top dressing in granules is well absorbed by seedlings. Nitrate can be used in dry (15 g / m2) and liquid (25 g / bucket of water) forms;
• compost, bird droppings and manure. Designed to feed soil of medium fertility. Contain a small amount of nitrogen. Optimal as an addition to other mineral complexes.

Immature seedlings cannot be fertilized with nitrogen. This will significantly extend the growing season and reduce resistance to frost.

Organics: Rules to Remember

The most useful fertilizer for seedlings is manure. It should be introduced in the 3rd year. Chicken droppings are especially valuable. They fertilize the earth in the spring at the rate of 5 kg / m2. For feeding fruit trees, manure is bred with water (1 kg / bucket of water) and insisted for 4-5 days. In autumn, the dosage of litter is reduced to 0.3 kg / m2. Manure from pets is made exclusively in a rotted state. Fertilized with manure once every 3 years. If the land is very poor, you can once every 2 years.

Another useful organic fertilizer is peat. Improves breathability and soil structure. Oven ash reduces the acidity of the earth. Make it at the rate of 100 g / m2. Mix with other organics or prepare a solution.

Compost deserves special attention. It is introduced in the first year after planting. Increases soil nutrition, enriches it with humus and improves aeration. Contains substances necessary for seedlings to grow.

High-quality compost can successfully replace any mineral mixture. It’s easy to make compost. To do this, dig a trench in the fall and fill it with leaves, grass, sawdust, tops, tea leaves and other waste. Compost pit is covered with earth and safely forgot about it until spring. During the winter, everything that you threw into it will turn into a wonderful fertilizer.

The interval between top dressing is 2 seasons. The best time for composting is September-October. Important: compost is lightly dug into the top layer of the earth or simply laid out near tree trunks.

Do not know what else to feed the seedlings? Ready-made fertilizers — Aquarin, Kemira, Ecofoska, AVA, Uniflor-Rost, Florist, Ferovit, Uniflor — have proven themselves well. The main thing is to carefully read the instructions (the composition of the drugs is different) and observe the dosage.

With the beginning of spring, when all plants wake up after a long winter sleep, fruit trees and shrubs need to be fed. They need nitrogen, which will help the start of vegetative processes, will contribute not only to good ovary, but also the productivity of fruit shrubs.

How and what they need to be fertilized, what are the features of the process, what kind of feeds will favorably affect the harvest - we will consider in detail.

What you need to know about shrubs?

If you have a private house or a summer cottage, then you can not do without fruit bushes. They will not only decorate the landscape on the site, but also present healthy, vitamin-rich berries. Moreover, for their cultivation special skills are not required. The main feature is that they take up little space, are unpretentious, always in fashion. Among them there are such types:

• raspberries,
• currant,
• blackberry,
• gooseberry,
• edible honeysuckle
• barberry,
• chokeberry (aronia),
• viburnum,
• irga
• dogwood,
• sea \u200b\u200bbuckthorn,
• hazelnut,
• hazelnut (hazel),
• actinidia
• figs
• cranberry,
• lemongrass,
• dogrose.

Since berries help with many diseases, they are used not only in raw form, but also dried, frozen, in the form of jam.

Autumn is the best time for planting, as it is easier to prepare the soil, as well as a large selection of material for planting. But if in winter, due to climatic conditions, the soil deeply freezes, then it is better to land in the spring.

In addition, care for berry bushes includes not only watering, as inexperienced gardeners believe. Since the plants are perennial, their root system absorbs nutrients throughout the year. Fertilizers must be applied not only in autumn, but also in spring. They must be both soil and non-root.

We choose top dressing in the spring!

Fertilizer for fruit trees and shrubs is best taken organic. Preference is given to:

• compost
• peat
• humus
• manure.

They enrich the soil with useful substances, contribute to the growth of plants. Mineral fertilizers, which contain nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, are also used to nourish berry bushes.

For fruit bushes, there is a specific feeding schedule:

1. In the first decade of May, when they are actively blooming.
2. May - the first decade of June - a period of increased growth of shoots.
3. The beginning of July, when the berries are tied.
4. Last feeding after autumn harvest.

Fertilize currant bushes

Currants can be planted, focusing on every taste: black, red, white, golden. But if care for it is reduced only to infrequent watering, then every year there will be less and less berries, and after five years they will disappear altogether. If the currant is properly cared for, then the bush can bear fruit in one place for over ten years.

Since currants are ready for fruiting a year after planting, in early spring it is necessary to nourish plants with organic fertilizers.

To begin with, they are introduced with nitrogen in a radical way. To do this, you must carefully dig, and then abundantly pour water around the ground so that feeding does not burn the young roots.

Humus is located around the berry bushes and digs the earth quite deeply in a circle of at least 80 centimeters. In summer, to increase productivity, each bush is fed separately 3–6 kg of compost, 10–15 g of potassium sulfate, 30 g of superphosphate.
  In early October, chicken droppings or humus are introduced under the fruit bushes to nourish the plants with useful trace elements over the winter.

We feed raspberries

To stock up on healing berries until the next season, one should not forget about the benefits of mineral and organic fertilizers for raspberry bushes.

How to improve productivity?

Letters are constantly written to us, in which gardener lovers worry that due to the cold summer this year, a poor harvest of potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, and other vegetables. Last year we published TIPS about this. But unfortunately, many did not heed, but some still applied. Here is a report from our reader, we want to advise biostimulants of plant growth, which will help increase yield to 50-70%.

Read ...

Experienced organic gardeners choose manure for feeding. The overripe is brought in spring or autumn - about 6 kilograms per square meter. Liquid bird droppings or compost from peat, dry leaves, manure will not only saturate the plant with the necessary substances of phosphorus, nitrogen, potassium, but also disinfect the bushes from pests. For raspberry fruit bushes, 9–10 kg per m2 will be needed as a top dressing.

Potassium salt and superphosphate are used for spring dressing. Opponents of mineral fertilizers can use wood ash instead of potash feeds. It contains no chlorine, but contains beneficial substances that help growth and fruiting. Ash can be applied both dissolved in water and dry.

“Chemical” fertilizers are practiced for top dressing both individually and in complex composition. A mixture of phosphorus, nitrogen, potassium and manure promotes not only the growth processes of new shoots, but also lush flowering, as well as good yield.

The appearance of raspberry bushes will tell you what nutrients are missing:

• brown leaves - lack of potassium,
• thin, very weak shoots - you need phosphorus,
• the leaves are yellow, small - nourish with nitrogen,
• huge huge sheets - a lot of nitrogen, there will be few berries.

The main thing is to correct the situation in a timely manner.

Proper nourishment for the “northern grapes”

That's what gooseberries are called. One berry of this shrub contains almost 50 kilocalories. Its composition affects the number of useful vitamins and minerals: iodine, potassium, phosphorus, copper, manganese, iron, organic acids, vitamins A, C, D, E. It is considered a diet berry that not only helps with metabolic processes, but also works against anemia , removing heavy metals and salts from the body.

Gooseberry bushes should not be planted in places with high soil moisture, because in this case they will be attacked by fungal diseases. This will lead to low productivity, rapid death of the plant.

The first two years, young shrubs do not fertilize. They have enough organic fertilizing produced before planting. In the third year in the fall, the soil is fed with manure or humus by digging. In the early spring, urea and ammonium nitrate (15–20 g per m2) are added before budding. Mineral fertilizers are scattered around the bushes, hoeed to a depth of about 8-10 cm.

How to feed gooseberries?

We program the harvest of sea buckthorn

This golden berry is indispensable not only for burns. Its useful properties have long been appreciated in ancient China. In inept hands, she can quickly die. After all, the roots of these fruit shrubs are very close to the surface of the earth. Therefore, you need to dig the soil near the bushes carefully. The best option is to use a chopper for shallow loosening.

Fertilize sea buckthorn should be no more than two years, compost, humus (5-9 kg per m2). It is better to do this in the autumn after the completion of berry picking. Of mineral fertilizers, potassium salt (25 g) and superphosphate (60 g) are preferred.

Experienced gardeners advise twice a year to feed the plant with a mixture of sand and humus (2: 3), plus a couple of glasses of crushed egg shells.

If sea buckthorn grows on sandy soil, then a small top dressing with nitrogen will not interfere with it. Note that for a year per square meter, you can add no more than 20 grams of ammonium nitrate and 15 grams of urea.

Please note that all types of fertilizers for the growth and fruiting of sea buckthorn must be applied before the formation of the fruits.

Features feeding dogwood

This unpretentious plant will almost always give birth abundantly. Beats records for the content of vitamin C, and the bones have antiseptic properties.

It can be formed not only as a bush, but also as a fruit tree. Dogwood comes from the south, therefore, loves the sun, and very moist soil is contraindicated. There is evidence that fruit dogwood shrubs can grow and bear fruit for almost three hundred years.

To fertilize the soil during spring growth, mineral fertilizers containing nitrogen and phosphorus are used. In autumn, bushes are fed with potassium or wood ash. In order for the plant to bear fruit well, compost, humus, and lime are added to the soil. But ammonium sulfate can not feed dogwood.

Barberry Fertilizers

This evergreen shrub is a worthy decoration for the garden. Its value is not only in beauty, but also in beneficial properties. It is believed that the use of barberry can prolong youth. And all because it removes toxins, cleanses the blood, eliminates the body from harmful microbes.

The natural habitat of plants is associated with dry and gentle slopes. Clay soil is fertilized before planting with a mixture of sand and peat, humus or compost in equal parts. If the soil is acidic, then neutralize the soil in the holes with slaked lime (350-400 grams per bush) or 250 grams of wood ash.

Barberry is fed the following spring after planting. The growth of young shoots is stimulated with mineral fertilizers with nitrogen (urea) at the rate of 25 grams per average bucket of water. Such recharge is carried out every four years.

Fertilizers of organic origin (manure, humus) feed the bushes before flowering and after. Prepare it like this:

1. a kilogram of humus is soaked in three liters of water,
2. after three days, filter,
3. diluted infusion (1 liter) with water in a ratio of 1: 3 /

This dose is enough for one fruit bush.

Potassium and superphosphate are introduced in the fall so that the barberry is prepared for the winter period. Do not forget to water the bushes after fertilizing. Then the soil must be mulched with sawdust or peat.

How easy is it to grow barberry?

Helping to bear hazelnuts

This healthy and tasty shrub is the closest relative to hazelnut (hazel). If you decide to grow it yourself, you should be patient.

In most cases, hazelnuts will have to be grown with nuts. The soil should be quite loose, for this you should fertilize the soil with humus.

The plant is transplanted into the hole when it reaches 15-18 centimeters. Before planting, fertilizing ammonium nitrate is done, which promotes growth. The first recharge is carried out at the end of April, the second - in the first decade of June. Prepare four kilograms of manure, 45 grams of superphosphate, 45 grams of ammonium nitrate, 25 grams of potassium sulfate, the mixture is divided in half.

Hazelnuts are fed after heavy watering or rain. Fertilizers need to be scattered evenly on the soil and dig up the soil. In spring and summer they do it finely, in the autumn they dig twice as deep.

Why use non-root types of fertilizers?

In the summer, the foliar fertilizer method is used to nourish fruit plants. In this way, the bushes feed not through the root system, but through the leaves. The fact is that this way nutrients enter the plant faster than through the roots.

Not only organic, but also mineral fertilizers are used. The only caveat is to use very weak solutions so that the salts do not damage the leaves. Therefore, the concentration of superphosphate should be no more than 4%, and urea and potassium chloride or sulfate - about 1%.

Plants are sprayed in the evening or early morning. During the day, the solution will evaporate quickly, so a similar process is possible only in cloudy weather.

Young leaves are treated with a weaker solution. For example, after collecting currant berries, the bushes can be sprayed with a solution of 4 grams of potassium permanganate, 2 grams of boric acid, 8 grams of copper sulphate. They are bred in ten liters of water. It is advisable to feed raspberries in this way after flowering and picking berries. It can be a solution of manganese or zinc, sulphate or ammonium.

Benefits of foliar fertilizers:

• contribute to an increase in flowering branches and the weight of berries,
• the number of carrion and rotting fruit is reduced,
• there are more young shoots
• vegetative processes occur faster.

Important points when feeding

If you decide to approach the process of feeding berry bushes responsibly, pay attention to such details:

1. with abundant watering, the portion of nutrients needs to be increased,
2. before pruning the bushes to increase the number of young shoots, the dose of water should be greater,
3. liquid types of fertilizers are applied around the plant at a distance of about half a meter from the diameter of the crown,
4. when the soil is often fed with ash, mineral fertilizing is not necessary,
5. if organic and mineral substances are fertilized at the same time, then the rate should be reduced by half.

Fruit shrubs, like any plants, need additional nutrition. Fertilizers applied on time, the right dosage and type of fertilizing will have a beneficial effect not only on the growth of bushes, but also on the productivity of perennial plants!

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The growth of trees and shrubs, their fertility depend primarily on their nutrition. It is important that they have a constant supply of such elements: calcium, carbon, potassium, nitrogen, phosphorus, iodine, magnesium, sodium and several other minerals. Periodically, for this purpose, fertilizer of trees is carried out.

Correct fertilizer application requires knowledge of soil characteristics: mechanical composition, environmental reaction, degree of fertility, planting age, etc.

1 Types of fertilizers

Substances that increase the fertility of the earth are classified in various ways. The most common classification is as follows:

• by origin: organic fertilizers and mineral;
• by the method of application: top dressing, pre-sowing, superficial, intrasoil;
• according to the method of feeding: foliar, root top dressing.

Let's consider some of them. Organic include: bird droppings, manure, sawdust, compost, peat. They improve soil structure, water and air regimes. Thanks to them, the earth is enriched with nutrients, humus. This type of fertilizer is more popular because it is natural and easily available.

A common organic matter is manure containing copper, copper, cobalt, molybdenum, manganese. The advantage of bird droppings is a higher nutrient content and economy.

Mineral is required for the soil to replenish it with nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus. At any stage of life, any plant requires the required amount of these elements. In winter, trees need to be fed with potassium, which will prepare the plant for the upcoming frosts. In spring and autumn, during the period of active growth, nitrogen is introduced into the soil, and phosphorus at the germination stage.

1.1 Fertilizing fruit trees

The soil where fruit trees grow, especially those in the fruiting phase, "becomes poorer" over time. Therefore, all gardening specialists replenish its reserves. Fertilizing fruit is carried out in two ways: mineral / organic. Often amateur gardeners have a question: “What is the best way to fertilize fruit trees?” It is most advisable to nourish the plantings with organics, which contain the entire list of necessary substances, improve the condition of the land, its friability, and make the soil accessible to air.

Minerals enrich the plant with nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium. The main suppliers of nitrogen are: ammonium nitrate urea or urea; phosphorus - superphosphate, potassium - potassium salt.  Fertilizers are applied in two doses, in autumn and spring. In spring, fruit trees require more nitrogen compounds, which cause their enhanced growth. The approximate dose is 20-30 g. per 1 square. m of soil, with its significant depletion, the dose increases. And in the fall, under fruit trees, when they are preparing for winter, phosphate elements and substances containing potassium are needed.

It is in the autumn period that more fertilizer is applied. Typically, organic compounds are scattered in an arbitrary layered circle, and then digged onto the floor of a shovel bayonet (20-30 cm deep). Preference is best given to well-rotted manure. The amount of fertilizer depends on the size of the tree. Most often, a bucket is enough, the standard dosage is 1 square meter. m of the near-circle circle of 1-1.5 buckets of manure or compost. A groove must be made along the perimeter of the crown projection, a depth of 30 cm. Half the dose of the autumn norm of nutrients is scattered in a circle around it.

When choosing superphosphate, half a glass is enough. After doing these steps, mix the fertilizer with the soil. Put the rest on top, and again the top layer mixes with the ground. Introducing nutrients in this sequential manner will allow them to evenly distribute without burning the roots of the plant.

In addition to the basic procedures for the nutrition of fruit trees, experts emphasize the effective use of top dressing. These are high-speed substances. These measures are necessary if for some reason you did not fertilize your orchard in the fall. It is necessary to prepare slurry. In a large barrel, manure is placed on a third, filled with water. For several days, while the solution is infused, it should be thoroughly mixed. After the concentrated liquid, dilute with water five times, if you use chicken droppings - in 10. With a solution, pour a hole around the tree.

In addition to feeding organic matter, you can use minerals: ammonium nitrate, nitrogen fertilizers. 1 tbsp. a spoon is bred into a bucket of water and just as well is poured into the trunk circle. At the end, it is advisable to water the plant so that all substances are evenly distributed throughout the root system.

Foliar foliar top dressing is also effective. It is best to take carbamide nitrogen fertilizer. In spring, spray it with a solution of the leaves of the trees (about 30 grams per bucket of water). In August, superphosphate can be used for better budding next year. Somewhere 100-150 gr. a substance containing phosphate is dissolved in a bucket of water, and then sprayed on the external organs of the plant. Spraying is done in cloudy weather or in the evening, when the sun no longer burns.

1.2 How and what to fertilize fruit trees (video)

1.3 Fertilizing coniferous trees

Various conifers are gaining the most popularity for decorating the front facades. Looks more beautiful only giving a noticeable increase, healthy plants that receive constant nourishment. To properly organize the feeding procedures, you need to know what fertilizers for conifers should be used. So, for example, ordinary garden mixes or complex type fertilizers are not suitable for evergreens. Manure is even worse. They are aimed at intensive growth, which in conifers ends with yellowing and even death of some specimens.

In this case, it is better to produce nutrients on their own, and purchase them in specialized stores. When buying this product, you should pay attention to its composition. When choosing fertilizers for conifers, the presence of magnesium is a prerequisite. It is an integral part of the chlorophyll molecule and takes an active part in photosynthesis. According to experts, mineral substances should be used to bait evergreens, as organics - rotted compost, vermicompost, resulting from the processing of worms.

Softwood trees and shrubs are fed twice per season. For the first time, this is done during a period of increased growth, i.e. in May. The second time - at the end of summer. If you fertilize later, the resulting growth will not have time to ripen by the onset of cold weather. In order for the roots to quickly absorb the introduced elements, it is advisable to use liquid types of top dressing. Granules are used to ensure long-term action. The effect of them is observed after a quarter or half a year.

Ready-made liquid fertilizers should be diluted to the required concentration, as indicated in the instructions. The liquid is poured into the wells, previously made around the perimeter of the crown. Then they are sprinkled with earth. Granules are sprinkled evenly over the surface of the trunk circle, using a chopper to mix with the soil when digging. Compost and humus are added in a similar manner.

1.4 Feeding the money tree

Money tree or Crassula - the plant is not whimsical. Its top dressing is not difficult. Fertilizer procedures are performed only after watering. It is recommended to feed in the spring-summer period (April — August). Optimal - once a month. For money tree use additives for:

• succulents;
• cactus plants
• humisol GUMI.

The rest of the time they feed less, the concentration of fertilizer is diluted 1.5-2 times.

2 How to fertilize trees in the autumn?

Fertilizing plants in the fall is a paramount issue, since this period for feeding is the most critical time. Fertilizing with useful compounds is carried out until the end of September. Those who are interested in what fertilizers to apply in the fall should choose minerals. A comprehensive method will show the best effect. Only root feeding is used.

If the soil is sandy or sandy, more fertilizer will be needed. Under the trees, 8-year-olds make 30 kg of humus, under crops of 9 years of age and older - 50 kg. The fertilizer is placed in the soil to a depth of 20 cm. Complex mineral fertilizers are very convenient to use. For a fruit garden are recommended:

• Orchard;
• Universal;
• Kemira.

When using them, carefully follow the instructions on the packaging.