Tees is a coniferous tree or shrub, it has a large number of varieties and varieties. This plant is unpretentious in care and is a long-liver. Gardeners are very fond of using yew when creating hedges in home gardens and summer cottages, in parks and squares. It is widely distributed mainly on the European continent and is a long-lived record holder. Description and photo of yew berry will be presented in the article.
General information
Yew berry refers to coniferous species of trees of the yew family. Growing up, it reaches a height of 10 to 20 meters, sometimes up to 28 meters. The growth of the yew is slow, but it has an impressive lifespan - some live up to one and a half or even up to four thousand years. One of the oldest trees in Europe is the Fortingall Yew, found in Scotland, estimated to be between two and five thousand years old.
The tree has a diameter of about one and a half meters and an ovoid-cylindrical dense crown. Very often, yews have multi-peaked crown types. Its bark is reddish-gray in color, with a lamellar or smooth texture. Yew buds are round or oval, light brown in color, witha small number of scales.
The photo of the yew berry shows that the tree trunk is covered with a large number of "sleeping" buds, which give numerous side shoots. The leaves of the needles are 20 to 35 mm long and 2-2.5 mm wide, they have a dark green color with a brilliant tint.
Habitat
Yew berry is widely distributed in Central, Western and Southern Europe, in Northern it reaches the territory of Norway, Sweden and the Åland Islands. It also grows in northern Iran, southwest Asia and northwest Africa. On the territory of Russia and in the countries bordering it, yew forests are well preserved in the Carpathians and the Crimean mountains. It is also distributed in the western part of the North Caucasus (Tisosamshitovaya Grove, Caucasian Reserve).
There are local places where yew grows in Belarus, especially in Belovezhskaya Pushcha. It is also widely represented in the Kaliningrad region of Russia and the western regions of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Yew most often grows in forests, undergrowth and tree stand, on the plains. In the mountains, it can be found at an altitude of up to two thousand meters above sea level.
Fastigiata Robusta
Berry yew has several varieties. One of the most common is the yew Fastigiata Robusta, or European. In Latin, "fastigiata" means "conical", which alludes to the shape of the tree. Let's take a closer look at it.
Berry yew Fastigiata Robusta is an evergreen, large shrub that grows strictly vertically. It has a dense, slender crown shape, whichlooks like a column. Robusta branches are not strongly branched, densely spaced, with a large number of short shoots. Growing up, it reaches a height of four to eight meters, and a width of 0.8 to 1.5 meters.
The structure of the needles is needle-shaped, the arrangement is radial, wide. In shape, it is slightly curved downwards, has a juicy green color. This type of yew prefers to grow in moist soils that are rich in minerals and many nutrients, as well as in calcareous soils. At the same time, he is not very whimsical and feels good in slightly acidic and moderately dry types of soil, but does not tolerate very acidic ones.
Fastigiata berry yew is resistant to pressure on the root system from other plants, wind-resistant and takes root well in an urban environment. Fastigiata Robusta is a long-lived plant and can reach thousands of years of age. This type of yew is ideal for landscaping, creating various architectural forms and hedges.
Summergold variety
Another common variety is Summergold, which translates into Russian as "Golden Summer". Yew berry Summergold is a coniferous, evergreen plant. It grows extremely slowly, like its counterparts of other varieties, ten years after its planting, this yew grows only up to one meter. Its color depends on the season, if in summer it has a golden yellow hue, then in the rest of the time it is greenish brown.
An adult plant can calmly enoughendure the cold, and young ones need to be insulated for the winter. The Summergold yew also handles windy weather well. It is resistant to heat and does not burn from direct sunlight, but it is preferable to plant it in semi-shaded places.
Yew berry of this variety is long-lived, especially when grown in favorable conditions. Its needles reach three centimeters in length and are located quite densely on shoots that have a crescent shape and wide edges.
The root system is very plastic, it is very well suited to slightly moist soils, in which the content of the nutrient medium is significantly higher than in dry ones. However, very wet soil will not suit this yew, as this will lead to rotting of the roots, and calcareous soil is ideal for it.
Yew berry: planting and care
For proper planting of yew, you first need to choose the right soil. It grows and develops quickly in light, moist soil with rich nutrients and a good drainage system. Drainage is very easy to do on your own, for this you need to mix soddy soil, sand and peat in a ratio of 3:2:2.
Do not plant yew in soil with high acidity, it will feel better in a slightly acidic or alkaline environment. And also sandy soil and soil with a high content of heavy metal s alts are contraindicated for him, since the bush will quickly die in it.
Planting yew berry requires compliance with certain conditions. If it is supposedto plant several plants at once in one row, it is necessary to maintain a distance between shrubs from 0.5 to 1 meter. If the size of the site allows you to maintain a larger interval, then the distance is recommended to be increased to 2.5 meters.
Ground landing
When planting in open soil, you need to take into account a number of nuances. These include the following:
- Planting yew bushes in open ground is carried out in early or mid-spring. Before planting, they dig holes with a depth of 60 to 70 cm. If it is planned to create a hedge from shrubs, then in this case a trench is dug no more than half a meter deep.
- It is recommended to add a special soil mixture, the so-called coniferous soil, to the prepared holes (trench). It is rich in soil fungi, which help the root system to better organize the relationship with the new soil and saturate the shrub with trace elements and nitrogen.
- Berry yew cuttings are placed in the holes and sprinkled with earth, while the root collar does not need to be buried. After planting, the soil around the seedlings must be lightly tamped and poured abundantly with water at room temperature.
Care after landing. Watering
In the first year after planting a yew, the shrub needs to be watered quite often. This is due to the fact that at this time the root system is not yet well developed and is unable to consume nutrients and moisture from the soil in the required quantities.
In the following years, one watering per week will suffice, and in the event of a dry period, once every five days. Especially it is necessary to pay attention to young plants. For one shrub you need to use 10 liters of water.
In order for the evaporation of moisture from the surface of the soil to occur more slowly, it is necessary to mulch. To do this, the soil around the trunk must be sprinkled with bark or wood chips, while the layer thickness should be from five to seven centimeters. After mulching, the shrub is watered much less frequently.
Yew berry: fertilizer care
After the first top dressing of a yew during planting, the next time it must be fertilized after one year. At the same time, the amount of the nutrient mixture is reduced by 30%. Adult yews do not require fertilizer, as they have already formed and receive all the substances necessary for growth and development from the soil and moisture.
Young shrubs are recommended to be fed with complex mineral fertilizers. After two years of age, top dressing is completely stopped, since concentrated supplements will not only not be beneficial, but can also cause stunting of the plant.
Young yew after the first wintering is recommended to be fertilized with humus or compost. Immediately before top dressing, the soil must be dug up and then supplemented. Digging is done so that the root system receives mineral and organic substances in full.
Pruning shrubs
Grown up yews are pruned. This is done in several cases. Sanitary pruning removes damaged and dry branches. During this operationthe plant is shortened sufficiently to prevent re-drying. Even after heavy pruning, the shrub recovers very quickly, regardless of the age of the plant.
Decorative pruning, like sanitary pruning, is done in autumn, spring or summer. The branches are reduced by one third of their length. To form the crown of a shrub, garden shears are used, and branches are cut with pruners. A garden knife is used to trim young shoots, and a garden saw is used to remove thick branches. Shaping pruning allows you to give the yew a beautiful look and create any shape. Often, entire sculptural compositions are created from these shrubs.
Reproducing with seeds
In order to grow a yew from seeds, the fruits of the plant must be collected from an adult shrub in late autumn, when they are already fully ripe. After that, they are poured with water at room temperature and allowed to settle for two to three hours. This is done in order to be able to freely separate the outer shell of the seeds. Planting material must be dried and stratified within a year.
Stratification is carried out as follows: yew seeds are placed in a container with pre-calcined and sifted sand, which must be moistened. Instead of sand, you can use a special coconut substrate, which is purchased at a gardening store. Then the container is placed in a refrigerator, the temperature in which does not exceed +4 … +5 ° С. One year later, stratified yew seeds are planted in a greenhouse,after which the landing site is mulched with needles. Provided that all procedures are carried out correctly, about 70% of seedlings will sprout in the spring.
Propagation by cuttings
It is necessary to grow yew using cuttings from the beginning of April to the end of May or from the beginning of September to the third decade of October. The branches of an adult he althy plant are cut and dissolved into cuttings 15 to 20 cm long, three to four shoots are left on each cutting.
Capacities for planting cuttings are filled with a mixture of peat, sand and crushed coniferous bark. The needles are removed from the base of the cuttings, then they are planted in prepared planting containers, which the ambassadors of this transfer to the greenhouse for wintering.
In order for the cuttings to take root well and begin their development, they must be treated with growth stimulants. After the cuttings have grown and gained strength, in the spring they can be planted in open ground, observing the agrotechnical conditions. After five to seven years, full-fledged shrubs or trees will grow, but if the seedlings are overexposed in the greenhouse, the growth process may decrease, delaying by two years.
Yew pests and how to deal with them
The main enemies of the yew are the so-called sucking and needle-eating pests. Sucking insects include:
- Worms.
- Shields.
- False shields.
- Cicadas.
- Aphid.
- Bug.
- Gall mites.
These pests feed on the sap of the bush, which leads to the oppression of the plant and very often to its death. Insects are located on the branches of the yew, sometimes in its tissues and gradually destroy it.
Needle-eating pests include:
- Spruce Needleworm
- Pine Scoop.
- Larvae of centipede mosquitoes.
- Snails.
They directly destroy the needles themselves, blooming buds and the root system.
All these parasites must be de alt with in a timely manner so that they cannot destroy the plants. To do this, you must first remove insects from the trunk and branches with a brush or a blunt knife, and then treat the entire shrub and the soil around it with insecticidal preparations.
Conclusion
From the above description of the yew berry, we can conclude that it is unpretentious in care and very convenient in landscape design. Following the simple recommendations and advice of gardeners on planting and growing, you can end up with a beautiful tree or shrub. It will delight with its beauty all year round for a very long time.
