Decrease and formation of the crown of apple and pear

Many gardeners are interested in the problem of reducing the crown of an apple tree. Indeed, harvesting from 15-20-year-old apple trees becomes a problem. Therefore, often buy trees on dwarfish rootstocks. But the root system of the dwarf rootstock, firstly, does not possess the winter hardiness necessary for our region, and secondly, it is not able to feed a strong-growing graft, so that the winter hardiness and yield of such trees are not worth the area they occupy. Much better, if a strong-rooted rootstock with a powerful root system is first planted with Paradise( a dwarf graft), and two years later, a vigorous, yielding variety is planted on it. That is, they make an insertion from the dwarf.

But all these wisdoms are useless: the apple tree is a very plastic plant, it allows a haircut, including a decrease in the crown. Simply, starting from the moment when the central conductor reached 2 m height, cut it annually in autumn, leaving no more than 2-3 cm of new growth, and, accordingly, cut all the branches below the conductor, growing upwards. They should be 12-15 cm below the conductor, otherwise they will try to take its place. Do not forget to grease the place of trimming green. It disinfects the wounds, but leaves the living cells of the cambium alive. The wound gradually heals with bark. From the nearest kidney to the cut will go a new escape, which will become a conductor, and you will shorten it again, and so on. If the tree has already outgrown all reasonable limits, then just cut down the top of it in autumn, cut it not just with grease, but also with a liquid garden gauze or oil, natural paint. And the lower branches cut them so that they are below the central truncated trunk by 12-15 cm. I remind you once again: the apple tree is a very plastic plant( which you can not say about the pear), and therefore it easily tolerates pruning, and the apple tree can be pruned with a variety of shapes. Such trees with an artificially created shape of the crown are usually called shaped apple trees.

Problems of frost resistance

How harmful are frosts for plants, and even more so, spring frosts?

Let's first of all get acquainted with the critical temperatures at which the death of individual organs of a tree and a bush occurs.

Culture

	Crohn	Roots	Kidney Growth	Flower buds	buds	flowers	Ovaries
Apple	-35		-10 -40 -35			-4 -2.3 -1.8
Pear	-25	-8	-30	-25	-4	-2,3	-1,2
Cherry	-35	-10	-40	-35	-2	-2,3	-1,2
Plum	-30	-8	-25	-25	-4	-2,3	-1,2
Strawberries	-12	-8	-15	-12	-2	-1	-1
Raspberries	-15	-10	-15	-12	-2	-1	-1
Currant	-40	-15	-40	-35	-5	-3	-2
Gooseberry	-40	-20	-40	-35	-6	-3	-2

It can be seen from the table that the pear is much less winter hardy than the apple tree, but it blossoms a week before the apple tree, and therefore in the Northwest it often manages to fade before the late spring frosts and accordingly are less prone to damageflowers and young ovaries.