Growing an apple tree from a seed (seed) and even a branch is hard work, the process is very long and risky. Apples may not be as tasty and juicy as on the original tree. The quality of the fruits can be found only after the first harvest, about 5-15 years after planting.
Apple tree
To grow a quality apple tree from seed, it is necessary to take planting material of different varieties so that there is a good choice between seedlings.
If everything is done correctly, then the grown tree can bear fruit for 40 years and delight with juicy and tasty fruits. You can also grow a small tree, constantly pinching the top and cutting off the extra branches, you get a stunningly beautiful little apple tree for a bonsai mini-garden.
How to choose a seed for growing?
Properly selected seeds for planting are the first step to growing an apple tree. You can buy them in a specialized store for gardeners or collect from your own garden plot. Seeds should be very dense, mature, with a dark brown and even coloring of the skin so that there is not even the slightest scratch and other damage, so it is necessary to remove them from the fruit very carefully.
Step-by-step instructions for preparing planting material before landing:
- Rinse off the protective top coat, which interferes with rapid germination. To do this, put the seeds in warm water for 10 minutes. It is best to use a wooden spoon so as not to damage the bones.
- Soak the planting material in water at room temperature for four days, leaving it in a warm place. You can pour a stimulator of growth of the root system (sodium humate, Epin) into the container.
- Stratifying seeds is a hardening process. To do this, place the seeds in a substrate with sand and peat (one part of the seeds and three parts of sand and peat). All mix, moisturize. Make sure that the seeds do not touch each other, because if one of them decays, the infection can spread to the other. Peat can be replaced with wood chips. To prevent mold development, crushed activated carbon can be added to the mixture. In it, leave the apple seeds for another 6-7 days. During this time, the bones decently swell, after they need to be placed in the refrigerator for 2 months.
Technology for growing apples from seed
Growing an apple from a stone is not easy:
- To do this, take a large box or container with holes for draining water.
- Drainage is poured into the bottom. The drainage layer may consist of sea and river pebbles, expanded clay, broken brick, and the soil should preferably be black earth, fertile, then all the nutrients and trace elements will be enough for the shoots.
- After they lay out the ground from the place of the planned tree planting.
- For every 8-10 kg of soil, additional fertilizing is poured out, consisting of superphosphate 25 g, ash 250 g and potassium 20 g. After that, the strongest and highest quality sprouts are selected from the hatching seed and placed in a box to a depth of 15 mm, watered abundantly. The container is put up in a place well-lit by the sun, preferably on the south side.
- After the first shoots appear at home, they are planted in more spacious boxes or immediately in open ground.
Planting conditions for seed shoots
The width between rows is about 15 cm, and between planting material 3 cm, depth - 2.5 cm.
The earth needs to be abundant, but carefully watered.
When a pair of leaves is formed on the shoots, they can be planted, and it is advisable to immediately remove weak shoots and wild apple trees. Their differences from varietal ones are that they have small brightly colored leaves and thorns on the stem. In fruit - dark green leaves, slightly lowered down, the edge is curved. There are no thorns and spines on the trunk, the kidneys are placed symmetrically. After planting, the distance between the processes should be 10 cm.
Each subsequent year, the container for seedlings needs to be increased, as the root system grows. It should be watered regularly, avoiding the appearance of a dry crust, without water, the tree will die or stop growing. It is enough to water once a week.
As a top dressing for a young apple tree, potash and phosphorus fertilizers will go, then the leaves will stop growth and the wood will ripen better.
You can not use organic additives, since a bacterial infection can develop from them, or the plant will get a severe burn, it is better to replace such fertilizers with humus. Before top dressing, it is worth loosening the soil and watering it abundantly.
Open transplant
Usually a young apple tree is kept at home for 4 years, if it is impossible to transplant it to the garden plot. Such a transplant is usually performed in April or in the fall, preferably in early September. For comfortable adaptation, you should choose the right place for landing.
Since the apple tree in the early years of growth is actively growing by the root system, the area should be large. It is necessary to take into account the presence of groundwater so that they pass at a depth of at least 1 meter from the surface. The technique of planting in open ground is similar to planting purchased seedlings from a nursery.
When planting shoots in the beds, indent between the seedlings is 25 cm, and between rows - 15 cm. If the shoots are strong, then you can plant them immediately in a permanent place on the garden plot, if there are weak shoots, allow time for germination in the container and only then plant in open ground.
There are three stages to a tree transplant:
- From the container where the seed sprouted into a large box;
- After a year of growth, the plant is transplanted into a larger container;
- Landing at a permanent place on the site. This is done so that the apple tree begins to bring crops earlier.
After each transplant, the tree should be abundantly watered and loosened the earth around the roots.
How to grow an apple tree from a branch with your own hands?
Growing an apple tree from a branch is a bit easier than growing from a seed, but still there are schemes and conditions for growing such a tree. The easiest method is considered to be the stock method - when a varietal branch of an apple tree is grafted onto a fruit tree. Vaccination is carried out in late spring and summer.
Seedlings are obtained in spring: layering (digging), aerial layering or rooting of cuttings.
Layering
If the method of propagation by layering is chosen, then a young apple tree is indicated, which is planted in the fall at an angle, its branches must be in contact with the ground. Selected branches are firmly attached to the ground with brackets in several places. New cuttings sprout from the buds on the stem, in the summer they are spudded, watered and sprinkled with new soil. The method is ideal for areas with a dry climate and rare rainfall.
In autumn, you can already get good seedlings, but they should be cut off from the mother plant only next spring. After separating the grafted shoots, you need to plant them in a permanent place in the garden.
But this method is not suitable for obtaining seedlings from old trees.
Air lay
This is the most effective and easiest method of propagating an apple tree. A good branch for laying guarantees the quality of the future tree. There are no branches on a good shoot; the apple tree should grow on the well-lit side of the garden plot and be absolutely healthy. Suitable side biennial branches in diameter with a simple pencil.
Step-by-step instruction:
- Choose a strong branch, remove all the kidneys from it and make a ring with the removal of bark at the base around the trunk circumference of 2 cm in size. Make several notches, so in dry weather the branch will not be disturbed.
- Spread the incision with a solution to stimulate root formation, for example, Kornevin.
- Warm stockstock with moss, humus, compost, spruce branches.
- Water, but in moderation.
- After putting a plastic bag at a distance the size of a palm just below the cut or a plastic bottle, wrap the barrel completely with old newspapers.
With this pattern, roots form in the fall. Then this part of the shoot must be separated from the apple tree and planted in a container for wintering. In the spring, cuttings are wonderful to root in the open ground.
Cuttings
May-June is suitable for firm rooting and sprouting of shoots. Step-by-step technique:
- First cut the cuttings with leaves about 35 cm (preferably in the morning).
- Cut the middle part with two to three kidneys.
- The lower section is performed immediately under the kidney, and the upper one is slightly higher.
- Place a container with fertile soil and moistened sand on top in a makeshift greenhouse.
- Cuttings to plant in the ground for 2-3 centimeters.
- Cover with foil, at the same time open and ventilate twice a week by spraying the shoots.
If the cuttings are rooted in autumn or winter, then other methods are used:
- Rooting in water.
- At home in a container with fertile earth for any flowers and straw.
- In a dense plastic bag, in which the lower part is cut off, openings are made and filled with soil.
- In potatoes: the shoot is stuck in a vegetable and all together it is dug into the ground, and is closed by a jar on top.
All these processes should begin before the onset of juice in the apple tree, that is, in the winter.
How to root a broken branch?
It is important that the broken branch is mature, at least 1-2 years. The bark should not be damaged. If the branch is long, then it needs to be broken in two or three places. The stalk should come out about 16-20 cm long.
- Attach the place of the scrap to the stick with a band-aid and leave it until spring arrives.
- Remove this home-made dressing in March or April and cut the branch in half at the points of breakage.
- Put the shoots in a dark glass container in melt water with a volume of 2 liters, add activated charcoal and put on the window sill in the room.
- In a month, active growth of the root system will begin, as soon as they grow to 7 cm, they must be planted in open ground in the garden and, preferably, under a greenhouse. Thus, the processes are much faster used to uncomfortable conditions.
- Water abundantly.
Mr. Summer resident explains: Take a broken or cut branch?
It is more efficient to grow a new apple tree from a broken branch with a heel.
This shoot is faster to take root, first an incision is made, and after the branch breaks off at this place. The “heel” or the bottom is cleaned and shortened so that the root formation process goes faster, you can lower the stalk into the solution with a root growth stimulator for several days, so the chance of rapid growth of the root system is much higher.
An apple tree is still a difficult root tree and all of the above methods do not promise a 100% and guaranteed result of the growth of varietal crops, planted from a seed, it may not hatch, and layering may not take root.
But still, with the right choice of propagation method, which is suitable for the appropriate climatic conditions and careful subsequent care of the tree: watering, feeding, shelter for the winter and protection from insects and other pests, you can grow a beautiful fruiting tree.
