Apple trees and pears
General information
An apple tree is a very plastic plant, undemanding to the growing conditions, so the apple tree managed to spread from the subtropics to the northernmost regions and even climbed to the mountains, where it grows at an altitude of more than 2,5 thousand meters above sea level.
According to the occupied area, apple orchards are in the third place in the world after vineyards and olive groves. Even orange groves take their place only after the apple orchards. According to the Bible, apples were created earlier than we are with you. Of course, now these are not the wild fruits that were known to mankind 5-6 thousand years ago. Thanks to the work of a huge army of breeders, apples have become what we use. They can reach about 1 kg of weight and huge sizes, be the most diverse colors( except blue, blue, violet), have a form from narrow-conical to round and flattened, have different taste qualities and aroma. In addition, apples are useful to everyone without exception because of the high content of pectin substances that help our body to remove the accumulated slag. A variety of macro and microelements, almost all vitamins and organic acids necessary to humans contain the fruits of this beautiful plant. Plant an apple tree! They care for something minimal, and yields are considerable. This is a capricious, grateful plant that will give you health and longevity with the smallest effort on your part. No wonder there is a saying that the eaten apple prolongs life by one hour.
Pears are also known to mankind for thousands of years. In principle, these are long-livers, their average age is about 100 years. There are pears that are 500 and even 1000 years old! Need to say;that if an apple tree has a periodicity in fruiting( one year is empty, another year is dense), then the pear fructifies regularly. In addition, the pear is a cross-pollinated plant. She needs at least one more pear, preferably of a different kind, while the apple tree can grow alone, although she also prefers the company.
Pear is a plant more demanding for light and heat than apple trees, and much less plastic, so its distribution area is much smaller than that of apple trees. Pear is a tall plant, it can reach 25 m in height, and the trunk of such a pear can be clasped only by three men. Timber at the trees is unusually strong and is used in turning production, for making musical instruments, decorative sculpture, ornaments.
Its fruits can reach 2 kg of weight! Pears though tasty and useful, but significantly inferior to apples. In addition, they practically do not contain pectin, but in the fruits of the pear is arbutin, and therefore pears are especially useful for people with diseases of the kidneys and urinary tract. Although in the fruits of the pears polysaccharides contain much less than in apple fruits, they seem sweeter, because they contain less organic acids. Pears and apple trees have much in common, especially in choosing a place for planting, in requirements for growing conditions, for planting methods. They have common pests and diseases, and therefore everything here will be told about the apple trees, as for pears it also fits. Special, pear-specific nuances will simply be further emphasized.
Features of growing
What do apple and pear trees like? Like most plants, the apple tree prefers soil with a neutral, at least a weakly acidic reaction, rich in organic and potassium. This is a potassium plant, do not forget about it! Pear also belongs to the group of potassium lovers, however, it needs a little more phosphorus and less potassium than apple trees. But the apple tree will grow and even bear fruit on clay or peat bogs, on sandy and stony soil, rather scanty. In principle, the plant is hygrophilous enough, the nose is tolerated by small droughts. It suffers quite large frosts, and therefore managed to settle down in rather severe northern latitudes. Apple needs a good place under the sun. She, of course, will be subdued and with penumbra, but in such a damp region as the North-West, where there is not enough light, the apple tree will soon begin to overpower the lichen in the penumbra.
What do not like apple and pear trees? Carbonate or acidic soils, solonchaks. Too arid places apple trees do not fit, not suitable and very hot, humid climate, so the apple tree does not grow in the rainforests. But, most importantly, she does not like the near standing of groundwater. Getting into such a waterlogged layer, the roots of the plant rot, and the tree dies.
Variety Selection for the North-West Region
The best varieties are all the same varieties of folk selection, because for many years they were cultivated in this area.
For the most severe, northeastern, zone of the Leningrad region, as well as for the Valdai Upland and Vologda region, it is possible to recommend summer apple varieties - Papilka's daughter( Papirka new), Mironchik, Yellow sugar, Krugloe Voronina, Solntse- dar. Autumn striped( Streifling), Cinnamon striped, Baltic, Borovinka, Long, Oval Voronin, Bessemyanka Nikolskaya, Gift and small-fruited apple trees are suitable from autumn varieties. Gorno-Altai, Antonovka-china, Ural bulk. You can try to grow a winter variety of apple trees Bashkir handsome.
From pears variety of Ural and Siberian selection - Theme, Olya, Fields, Gourmand, Lunar. True, we must honestly say that the climate of the North-West is not very suitable for them.
For a warmer, south-western zone of the Leningrad region, as well as Pskov and Novgorod regions( with the exception of the Valdai Upland), a large selection of early apple varieties. Of the early varieties of apple trees, once here, the Breadcrumb( Alabaster) and White Pouring were excellent. But these varieties have long been obsolete. They should not be planted. It is better to buy a Papier's Daughter, or Lavrik's Memory, or Wine, you can plant a Suylesle. The mantet is also suitable, but only in the warmest, southern, zone of the Leningrad region and in the Pskov region. Suitable for all areas except the northernmost ones, Arcad Yellow, Sweet, Daughter of Melba, Korobovka, Grushovka of Moscow, Medunitsa, Solntse- dar, Ilenskoye Chernenko, Kitaika is golden and, naturally, everything recommended for the first, most severe, climatic zone. According to the observations of the gardeners of the Leningrad region, Medunitsa and Mantet, we are still freezing, although they are fairly easy to restore. The ancient folk varieties Korobovka and Grushovka are Moscow, although less delicious, but in the North-West region quite problem-free apple trees.
Autumn striped, Cinnamon striped, Tambov, Melba( Lazorevka), Izhora, Bessemyanka Michurina, Baltika, Zhigulevskoye, Seyanets Requests( Riga pigeon), Folk, Desert Isaeva, Desert Petrova, Auxis, Orlovskaya are part of the autumn apple varieties for the North-West.garland. Anis scarlet, Borovinka.
From pears it is easiest to grow early varieties of national selection - Tonkovetka, Dulya Novgorod, Bessemyanka, Bere Lutsa, Severyanka and varieties created by breeders - Pushkinskaya, Chizhovskaya, Memorial. All of them reach biological ripeness in early September. Shelf life does not exceed 2-3 weeks. Later varieties that can be photographed at the end of September and stored for about 3 to 4 weeks: Birch winter, Petrovka, Severyanka, Finnish yellow - varieties of folk selection, as well as varieties bred by breeders-professionals: Leningradskaya, Marble, Efimova Efimova, Bright( Flying), Krasnobokaya, Moskvichka, Moscow, Lada.
All autumn varieties are the main assortment of apple and pear trees for this region.
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Winter varieties ripen, unfortunately, not every year, but only when there is a long warm autumn, without sudden frosts. But nevertheless, such varieties as Cinnamon, Anis Striped, Antonovka vulgar, Starlet, Druzhnoe, Renet Chernenko, Tellisaare, Talve Nuding( Winter Pleasure), Pepin saffron, Ladoga, Lobo, Norma, Yantar, Dolgo, Gorno-Altai, Dobrynia, The Silver Hoof. It should be said, Pepin saffron in us is not possible at all, because it strongly freezes. Although the variety is regionalized for the Leningrad region, it grows without any problems in the southern part of the region, as well as in the Novgorod and Pskov regions. Of late varieties, everyone loves Antonovka, but, alas, the real Antonovka is almost gone, and they sell, as a rule, various clones and hybrids obtained on its basis. I want to warn you: do not want an extra headache - do not plant late varieties. In the Leningrad region, they mature to removable ripeness only occasionally, in especially favorable, long warm autumns, without frost. The current is that these apples will please you once every 5-6 years.
All varieties indicated for more northern areas are naturally suitable for cultivation in more southerly areas. For other regions, the assortment can be significantly expanded both by local varieties and by breeders selected for this area.
Fruit storage. Fruits must be wiped with a cloth soaked in food glycerine or boiled vegetable oil before storing for storage. This will help to avoid loss of moisture in the fruits and prevent them from wrinkling. Only the fruits of medium or middle and late varieties are deposited for storage.
Pears of summer varieties, as well as apples of early varieties, are not stored for more than 2 3 weeks, they must be eaten, and not wiped with a rag.
The main pest of
How to deal with the apple florist? Sometimes gardeners discover this worm, which is in a young ovary - the ovary is hopelessly spoiled;an apple from it will not grow. The duck-bug beetle is of bronze-green color, with a proboscis, like a weevil. Like the weevil, he gnaws the bud and lays an egg in it.
The larva that has emerged from it feeds on the growing ovary and falls along with the fallen ovary to the ground, crawls out of the carrion and leaves for pupation in the upper layer of the soil. It is clear that it is necessary to fight the pest at the moment of detaching the buds, that is, when buds begin to move out of a dense cluster. This struggle is effective only until the beginning of the coloring of the buds in pink. When the buds are completely painted, the larva is already inside, and the ovary is still destroyed.
Than to spray? The fact that the pest is disorienting, that is, an extraneous and strong smell, to bring down the flowerhead in disguise: it seems to be the smell of the breadwinner, and at the same time the other. Do not think that only animals care about their offspring. Insects and even plants also care about their offspring. Therefore, pests will not doom their offspring to starvation, leaving it in a suspicious place. Hence the recommendation: spray your garden at the time of detachment of buds( dates, of course, for each plant different) infusion of needles;tansy, onion husks, citrus peels, weeds and so on. You can use carbofos or "Fufanon", but only before the flowering of any plant in the garden. In addition, you should know that these drugs have a fairly high inhalation toxicity, that is, get into your body with breathing and strongly "put" the liver. So the gauze bandage is mandatory.
It is better to sprinkle apple trees on the unfolding leaves with "Fitoverm".By the way, the drug is compatible with the "Epin-exstra", and with "Zircon"( or with the "Healthy Garden" and with "Ekoberyn").Therefore, if there were a lot of pests in the previous summer, then just add 5-6 drops of the drug in the recommended spring cocktail.
Pear flower is mainly active in the southern regions of Russia.
Female apple tree sawfly immediately after flowering lays an egg in the base of the ovary. The hatching larva bites under the ovary's skin. The false caterpillar of the apple sawfly eats out the flesh of the apple, leaving behind thin passages filled with its black excrement. Unlike the moth caterpillar, the sawfly caterpillar makes numerous inlets in the apple-exits and creeps one apple to another, without sinking to the ground. Like the caterpillar caterpillar, this pest can spoil up to 4 apples alone. In this case, the apple can not fall to the ground and externally has a completely beautiful appearance, except for the insignificant holes of the entrance and exit of the pest. The methods of combating the sawfly are the same as those with the apple cvethopod, and at the same time, that is, at the moment of detaching the buds.
Pear sawfly is found mainly in the south of Russia.
Less common are apple and fruit moths, which, when eating leaves, fold their remains into spider cocoons. They are clearly visible. Early spring spraying with the above cocktail will completely rid you of these unwanted guests. But, if the pest settled in trees, immediately sprinkle them with "Fitoverm"( or "Spark-bio"), dissolving 1 mm of liquid in 3 liters of water.
After the end of flowering( about two weeks later), the moth flocks eggs on young, intensively growing apple tree ovaries, so it's time to repeat the spring cocktail or at least sprinkle the trees with the "Healthy Garden" with "Phyto-farm".She does not touch the pear.
Caterpillar fetuses seeds( which causes the ovaries to fall off), then sinks to the ground on a cobweb( or falls with a carrion), and at night climbs out of the carrion and again climbs on a tree to infiltrate the next ovary. One caterpillar can spoil 6-8 ovaries. Therefore, gather the fallow in the evening and set the hunting belts, if there is only one hole on the dropper( the moth gets and selects one passage).
How to get rid of the moth? The most effective way is systematic spraying of the garden with the homeopathic preparation "Healthy garden".The fact is that the moth flies all summer, beginning in June( two weeks after the end of flowering of the summer apple varieties).There is a common recommendation - to catch males either in ferapon traps, or in jars with kvass or other fermented liquid.
This smell is similar to the smell of a female, and the males "buy" on it. So it is so, but only the males are flying from all around. A hundred will fall into traps, and one hundred and one will impregnate the female. Why call them from everywhere? They, on the contrary, should be discarded from their garden with the help of disorienting odors. The female, taking care of its offspring, will not lay the egg on the ovary of the plant, to the smell of which the suspicious foreign smells are mixed. She will not leave offspring and on the ovaries, in which there are few carbohydrates. That's why you spray the garden, in particular apple trees, with the "Healthy Garden" preparation.
In late autumn, the entire garden should be sprayed again with a concentrated solution of any mineral fertilizer( 700 g of chlorine-free potassium or 700 g of urea or ammophosques and so on for 10 liters of water).
Dishes with apples and pears
Baked apples
This is the simplest sweet dish from apples.
With apples cut off the "cap", take out the core and fill it with granulated sugar."Pull the lid" into place. Put on a baking tray and bake in the oven on low heat until cooked.
Note. Early varieties of apples are unsuitable, as they creep into porridge.
Apples honey
There is no honey in them, they just taste honey.
1 kg of apples, 1 l of water, 1 kg of sugar, 1 lemon, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon.
Peel the apples and grate them on a fine grater. Pour cold water, add sugar and cinnamon. Cook, stirring, on low heat until apples are cooked. Add the juice of one lemon, boil. Remove from heat and pour into cans.cover with tracing paper, tie. Deliciously unusual!
Apples for dessert and fillings for pies
Peel apples from peel and cores, cut into slices or slices. Fold in pieces in a colander and dip into boiling water for 2-3 minutes. Remove the colander and immediately spread the contents into a sterile jar. When the pot is filled on the hangers, pour boiling syrup to the top of the jar and roll up.
For this workpiece it is more convenient to use 3 liter cans. In this case, the vacuum caps "Vaks" are very useful, since you will repeatedly open and close the jar. If you use ordinary lids, then each time you have to re-bank or prepare dessert apples in small jars, which also requires a large number of covers. Open cans with dessert can stay in the fridge for no more than a week.
For the preparation of syrup use the water from under the blanching, adding to each liter of liquid 300 g of sugar. Keep refrigerated.
As a dessert, serve on a plate, topped with sour cream or 30% cream, or used for filling in pies.
Apple jam with lemon or orange
1 kg of apples, 1 glass of sugar, 1 lemon or orange.
Peel apples, cut into slices, pour half of sugar. Cover with a flat plate and put a load on it( for example, a half-liter jar of water).
Grate non-grated lemon peel( peel).
When about half a glass of juice is formed, drain it, add the rest of the sugar, put on fire and bring to a boil, stirring constantly so that sugar does not burn. Pour the apples with boiling syrup, add the zest, squeeze the juice of the lemon, bring to a boil and cook on low heat for 15 minutes.
Spread on cans, close and cool under a blanket.
Store in a cool place.
Apple cheese
3 kg of apples, 500 g of honey, 250 g of sugar, 1 lemon, cloves and nutmeg to taste.
Cut apples into quarters, pour a little water and boil until soft. Wipe the mass through a sieve, add honey and sugar, 3-4 cloves, grate a half of the nutmeg, squeeze the juice of the lemon, mix. In a basin of boiling water, put a bowl of prepared mass and cook, stirring constantly, until thick, until the mass begins to peel off from the bottom and sides of the bowl.
A piece of dense clean cloth to moisten in boiled water, cover it with a sieve, put a basin under it. Put into the sieve apple mass, put on it oppression( for example, a three-liter jar with water on a flat plate), until all the liquid drains. Form a dense mass directly on the canvas to lay on a baking tray and bake on a small fire until a crispy brown.
Transfer the apple cheese to a flat plate. Keep refrigerated.
Squeezed out liquid to use for making jelly or compote.
Apple jelly
1,5 kg of apples, 600 ml of water, 1 kg of sugar, 10 pcs.cloves, half a peeled lemon.
Cut apples without removing the seed chamber. Put them out in a small amount of water until soft. Wipe the mass through a sieve.
The resulting puree to heat, add the juice and pulp halves of lemon, fill it with sugar and cook until completely dissolved on high heat. Spread jelly in hot form on sterile jars. Close tightly with screw caps.
Apple cider vinegar on honey
1 l of apple slurry, 1 l of boiled water, 150 g of honey( in extreme cases, sugar), 20 g of black bread, 10 g of yeast.
Cut apples of any kind in half and grind on a meat grinder along with the core. Add 100 g of honey and everything else, stir and fill with this mass two-thirds of a suitable enameled, without chipping( or stainless) capacity. Put at room temperature for 10 days, stirring daily.
Profile through two layers of gauze without pressing. Filter the filtered juice into a glass or enamel bowl, add the remaining honey and leave at room temperature for another 50-60 days. Obtain the resulting vinegar through two layers of gauze and pour over sterile bottles, cork.
Store in refrigerator. Apply apple cider vinegar and when preserving instead of the usual vinegar, but only it should take twice as much.
Apple vinegar promotes healing of blood vessels, increase in the number of red blood cells, that is, increases hemoglobin, has antiseptic effect. When applied to the skin, it removes pigment spots from the skin. It is useful to apply prophylactically. To do this, take 2-3 teaspoons of vinegar for 1 glass of water and drink it in three meals immediately before eating. When tracheitis or loss of voice, gargle should be rinsed on the sound of "and" with a solution of the same concentration.
The simplest apple billet
4 kg of apples, 7 cups of sugar.
Grate apples on a large grater, pour in sand, bring to a boil, immediately spread out on cans and roll.
Store in a cool place.
Apple jam
slices 1 kg of apples peeled from the core, 1.5 kg of sugar, 2 cups of water.
Fruits cleaned from the core and cut into slices of equal width. Cover the slices with sugar and leave for 12 hours. Part of the resulting syrup to drain, add water and heat to a boil. Put all the lobes of apple into the syrup at the same time with the remains of the syrup, shake. Cook over high heat to evaporate excess water, 10-12 minutes( until the lobules become transparent).
Especially delicious jam is obtained from apples of the sort Cinnamon striped. If apples of other varieties are used, so that the lobules do not boil, they must be soaked for 1 hour in a solution of baking soda( 1 tablespoon per 1 liter of water).Drain the solution, rinse the wedges with water, and then cook, as was said.
Apples with mustard
4 Antonov apple( or other acidic variety), 4 teaspoons dried mustard, 4 tbsp.a spoonful of sugar, 2 teaspoons of salt, 4 peas of sweet pepper, 1/2 cup of water, 1/2 cup of apple cider vinegar.
Baked apples until soft and wipe through a sieve. At this time, boil half a cup of water, dissolve salt and sugar in it and add pepper, remove from heat, pour vinegar and let it brew until apples are ready.
Once the apple puree is ready, heat the solution and dilute it with mustard. Pour the mustard into the apple sauce and stir well. Keep refrigerated. Serve with meat, and fans of spicy seasonings - spread on sandwiches.
Seasoning from apples with vegetables
1 kg of cleaned zucchini( or pumpkin), 250 g of bell pepper, 250 g of carrot, 250 g of onion, 500 g of apples, 300 g of tomato paste, 2 heads of garlic, 2 tbsp.spoons of 9% vinegar, 3-4 tbsp.tablespoons vegetable oil, 1 tbsp.spoon of salt, 11/2 tbsp.spoons of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of ground dill seeds, cilantro, red ground pepper.
Grate carrots on a large grater. Apples, zucchini, onions, peppers to pass through a meat grinder. Add carrot, tomato paste, salt, sugar, stir and simmer for 30-40 minutes, stirring. Remove from heat, cool a little and add chopped garlic, vegetable oil, vinegar, spices. Stir, fold in cans, cover and store in the refrigerator.
Note. The same seasoning can be prepared by replacing zucchini and tomato paste with 1 kg of fresh tomatoes.
In addition, apple slices can be dried and used in the future for compotes. Pears can also be dried as lobules or quarters of fruits.
Pear jam
1 kg of pears, 1.2 kg of sugar.
Minty, ugly, but healthy fruits cut into quarters or halves, remove the core. Pour water so that the water only covers the pears, and boil, stirring, until completely soft. Wipe the mass through a sieve. Add sugar and cook until thick, continuously stirring. To spread out on sterile cans and cork. Store at room temperature.
The procedure can be simplified if the pears are cleaned not only from the seed box, but also from the peel, pour the water as little as possible and immediately pour the sugar.
Pear sauces
1 kg of pears, 1 kg of sugar.
Strong pears peel and adjust slices. Pour a small amount of water into the core and boil it. Strain, add sugar and cook syrup. Pour boiling syrup slices and allow to cool. Bring to a boil, add citric acid( 114 teaspoons to 1 liter of water) and cook over a large fire to boil the syrup. As soon as the pear-lobes become transparent, remove the jam from the fire, cool it, spread it over the jars.
Compote of apples or pears with plums
At the bottom of the cans, peel the peeled and peeled quarters of apples or pears, add as many plums with pits to fill the jar with a quarter of its volume.
Pour boiling syrup, prepared from the calculation of 1 glass of sugar per 3 liters of water. Immediately roll up and leave to cool slowly under the blanket. Store at room temperature.
Apple kvass
Grate 5-6 apples on a large grater, pour in 2.5 liters of boiling water, add 1 glass of sugar. When the mixture has cooled to a warm state, add a fifth of the yeast stick to it. Cover with gauze and put on fermentation for a day. Strain and put in a cool place. If yeast is not at hand, then put a handful of unwashed berries of raisins or fresh raspberries into the wort.
Apple juice
To pass through the juicer apples( or grate and squeeze the juice).Strain and pour into an enamel saucepan. Heat to 60 degrees and immediately pour over sterile bottles. Tightly clog, cover with a blanket. When the juice has cooled down, put it in the refrigerator. The juice should be drunk within 3 months.
Light wine from apples or pears
Prepare 5 l of apple juice or pears. For a more beautiful shade of wine, you can add a glass of raspberry or cherry juice or juice of red mountain ash. Pour 1 kg of sugar and pour 2 liters of water. Stir, add a wine starter or unwashed raisins, cover with a plastic wrap, which should be worn not too tight gum, and put to wander at a temperature of not less than 20 degrees. Yeast can also be used, but the taste of wine deteriorates. After 7-10 days, the wine should be filtered, bottled, put on the fingertips rubber fingertips and left in a cool place until lightening. Clarify the clarified part neatly in sterile bottles, seal and store in a cool place. The strength of this wine does not exceed 7 degrees.
If you want to bring the fortress to 16 degrees, then after filtering immediately add 1 liter of vodka, carefully mix, cover, stand for 5 days and can eat.
Apple Calvados
This is a stronger drink. It can be prepared from pears, too.
Squeeze the juice from the fruit. Filter it. For 1 liter of juice add 2-3 tbsp.spoons of sugar. Heat on low heat to 40 degrees, stirring until sugar dissolves. Add 1 liter of vodka and pour into bottles. Carefully plug and store in a cool place. The strength of this wine is 20 degrees.