Cultivation of seedlings

The apple tree can be propagated by seeds and vegetatively. From seeds of wild and cultivated apple trees, rootstocks are grown for grafting various varieties on them. Seeding of seeds obtained as a result of artificial crossing or free pollination is also used in breeding new apple varieties.

Vegetative reproduction( kidneys, cuttings) is the most common in the practice of horticulture, because it makes it possible to preserve the signs of a cultivated variety grafted on the corresponding rootstocks. Less often, in the breeding of clonal rootstocks, they usually use layers.

Seedlings of Middle Russian varieties( anise, mushrooms, pears of Moscow and, especially, often antonovka common) are used as a strongly grown seed stock, less often apple trees, apple-tree plum( Chinese) and their hybrids. Gardeners can experience stable local seedlings, as well as stock of restrained growth( Budagov's paradise and its hybrids, as well as other dwarfish and semi-dwarfish new forms of rootstocks).

An experienced gardener himself can grow seedlings on his plot. For this purpose, the seeds from the fruits of winter-hardy local zoned large-sized ones( Fig. Preparation of the cuttings for budding: a - young shoot( dashes show the places of cuts);b - shank prepared for budding

Fig. Preparation of the cuttings for budding: a - young shoot( dashes show the places of cuts);b - shanks prepared for budding

of fruit or small-bodied apple-trees, used as rootstocks, from autumn it is best to sow in the ground. Then they will be provided with natural conditions for their germination. But the seeds of winter varieties( in particular antonovki ordinary, anise gray) are removed from the fruit in the middle of winter. In this case, they must undergo presowing processing-stratification. Partially the seeds are stratified in fruits, if a sufficiently low temperature is maintained in the fruit storage. However, in the flesh of the fetus, inhibitors act( inhibiting development), so the seeds taken from the fruit are soaked for two to three days in running water( to get rid of inhibitors) or water is changed daily. Swollen seeds are mixed with a triple by volume amount of a moisture-absorbing substrate( use sand, sawdust, peat, clay, slag), moisturize. You can put the seeds in open polyethylene bags, put in boxes. Every two weeks, the seeds are mixed, if necessary, moisturized.

The temperature is initially maintained from 3 to 5 ° C.As soon as the first shoots appear( after 70 days), the temperature is lowered to 0 or minus 1 ° C( the boxes are buried in the snow or put into the refrigerator) and so contain the seeds until sowing.

The duration of stratification determines the conditions for the formation of seeds( from pollination of the flowers to the removal of fruits, as well as ripening and storage of fruits in the storage tank);it depends on the varietal accessory: for small-fruited varieties( Chinese type) up to 100 days, for large-fruited varieties( up to 130 days).

Depending on the conditions of seed development, their germination also depends, which can be determined by staining the embryos( 3 samples of 100 pieces) for three hours with indigocarmine( concentration 1: 500 or 1: 1000) or by simply germinating the seeds in Petri dishes in an accelerated manner at a temperature from20 to 23 ° C.Calculate the percentage of sprouted( or colored) seeds, learn their germination. The rate of sowing depends on the percentage of germination and variety( it varies from 15 to 40 kg / ha).Seeds are sown to a depth of 3 cm( on light soils - up to 4 cm).The distance between plants in a row is 8 cm, between rows - 10 cm. In spring, sowing can begin very early. Seedlings during the summer several times( depending on their condition) are fed, watered, periodically weed. With good development, the thickness of their sticks reaches 1 cm by the autumn( with a pencil).Then in the same year it is possible to start ocularization( inoculation with a "sleeping" kidney-eye) and through two

Fig. The technique of budding: a - T-shaped sections for the shield;b - removal of the shield;в - insertion and binding of the

flap of the year to grow grafted with the desired varieties of seedlings for planting in the garden.

The budding begins at the end of July and the beginning of August and lasts 20 days, while the bark on the stock is well separated. This is the most common method of reproduction of apple trees.

Along with oculization, there are other inoculations: spring grafting with a cut( for bark, rollover, application, improved copulation, etc.), winter grafting in rootstocks harvested from autumn and remaining in the basement.