Sooner or later, old trees appear in any garden plot. The favorite apple tree no longer pleases with a bountiful harvest, but what wonderful and tasty fruits it gave! Not everyone knows how to propagate apple trees, but everyone wants to keep the variety they like in their garden. And even an inexperienced gardener can do it. A little knowledge, patience - and a lot of pleasure from the fruits that grow on a young and strong tree is guaranteed.
Winter: time to break branches
Growing your own seedling is not easy. Many tried to put tree branches in a glass of water and wait for the roots to form. But capricious cuts of favorite fruit varieties stubbornly refuse to breed in captivity. They can (and should) be provoked. After all, self-propagation of apple trees with cuttings promises us considerable benefits - as a result, we get an already known variety and at the same time we can prepare any amount of planting material.
The first step is done in winter, a few months before the start of sap flow. The proposed method can both propagate apple trees and any other fruit trees. It is necessary to choose a good mature youngbranch (one- or two-year-old) and “injure” it - break the core without damaging the bark. To do this, the selected area is gently bent to a slight crunch. On one branch, several such “closed fractures” can be made. This is our future cuttings. The length of each is no more than 20 cm.
The place of the fracture in the bent position is wrapped with electrical tape or plaster. The last stage of winter preparation is fixation. Any stick or piece of wire will work for this. The branch is fixed so that the damaged areas do not straighten out.
Spring: rooting without stimulants
Any methods of propagation of an apple tree (or other trees) are aimed at obtaining high-quality planting material. In our case, the task is to force the plant to independently stimulate the formation of strong seedlings. In the spring, additional nutrients will be sent to the site of damage to the tree to heal the broken areas. In early April, a sufficient number of these elements will already be gathered. You can remove the winding and cut the branch at the broken points.
A cropped dark plastic bottle is filled with rain (or melt) water. It is recommended to dissolve a few tablets of activated charcoal in it and put it on the windowsill. Fill the bottle no more than 10 cm and place 10 cuttings in it. After 3 weeks, they will have a callus, and under the kidneys, which should be in the water, roots will begin to grow. When they increase to 7 cm, you can safely transplant the cuttings for further cultivation in the open.ground. A shady spot and regular watering will help the plants quickly adapt to new conditions. Propagation of an apple tree by cuttings according to the described method, as a rule, gives good results - more than 70% of prepared seedlings take root.
Apple seed: from seed to harvest
Getting a seedling suitable for planting in open ground is available to everyone, you just need to know how. Growing an apple tree from a seed is one of the ways to obtain planting material. Let's clarify right away that this is perhaps the most time-consuming and inefficient way. The quality of the resulting seedlings, as a rule, leaves much to be desired.
- Seed harvesting. It is best to take seeds from varieties that grow in your climate. It is possible to grow a tree from a stone of a foreign variety, but most likely it will not bear fruit.
- Dry the bones on a cloth. When the surface is no longer wet and glossy, the drying process is complete. You can proceed to the next step.
- Dry seeds cover with a damp towel and place in the refrigerator. Thus, conditions close to natural are created - humidity and low temperature. Seeds are hardened and prepared for germination. It is necessary to periodically check the towel - it should not be dry. After a month (or a little more), sprouts begin to appear. It's time to plant future trees in the ground.
- Properly transplanting a tender shoot into a pot is an important point in the process of solving such a problem as growing an apple tree fromseeds. Drainage must be placed at the bottom. The soil mixture can be bought - it is important to remember that the acidity should be neutral. Do not compress the earth strongly so as not to damage the weak sprout. Put in a bright place and water with warm water - a small apple tree will love it.
More than a year will pass until the grown apple tree can be planted in open ground. It is possible that a large and he althy tree will grow out of it, which will delight the owners with a good harvest for many years.
An apple from an apple tree…
There is a simple answer to the question of how to propagate an apple tree. “Green cuttings,” any experienced gardener will answer. You can harvest cuttings almost all summer. During this period, they are still growing. Hence the name - "green cuttings". In the morning, when the maximum amount of moisture accumulates in the branches, young shoots of this year are cut off from the plant. You need to prepare more of them, because not all of them will take root. For further actions, a part of a cut branch with three buds is taken. One cut is made just below the lower kidney, and the second - just above the upper. At the top of the cutting, you need to leave a couple of leaves, and it is recommended to remove all the rest. If the remaining leaves are large, they can be cut off a little without removing them. In this way, the surface for moisture evaporation is reduced.
In a container for planting cuttings, you need to place good garden soil or rotted compost. Another layer of sand is poured on top. It is in it that cuttings best form roots. Landingproduce to a depth of 1-2 cm so that the first kidney is below the surface of the sand. For the proper development of plants, they must be covered with a film, to make a greenhouse. Depending on the weather, watering is done 1-2 times a week. Put in a shady place. After a few weeks, shoots begin to grow from the buds. This means that the cuttings have taken root. You can transplant them to a permanent place in the fall or spring.
Easy and simple: there was one tree - now there are two
Another solution to the problem of "how to propagate apple trees quickly and for free." This wonderful method is called instillation. It is perfect if the tree has low branches. In the place where they can touch the ground (but not closer than 25-30 cm from the edge), the leaves are removed and small transverse grooves are made on the bark. Incisions slow down the outflow of nutrients, lead to swelling and the formation of roots. It is necessary to make a small depression in the ground and fix the prepared branch with a wire bracket. Top with earth. Water 1-2 times a week depending on the weather. In autumn, when the plant takes root, the mother branch must be cut off and the seedling transplanted to a new place.
Resourceful gardener will turn the earth over
And how to propagate apple trees (and not only), if their branches are high and do not reach the ground? Inventive summer residents have long found the answer to this question. If the apple tree does not bend towards the ground, then the earth rises to the branches.
On a young branch, it is necessary to cut the bark with a smalla ring up to 1 cm wide. A hole is made in a plastic bag, and it is put on the plant. It is fixed with tape or rope 10 cm below the cut ring. A small amount of moist garden soil is poured into the open part of the bag - enough to cover the cut. After that, the bag closes tightly in its upper part. As a result, a small greenhouse is obtained on a branch of an apple tree. After a few weeks, young roots will become visible through transparent polyethylene. After that, the top of the branch can be cut in half. And in the fall, the package is removed, the stalk with roots is cut off from the mother branch and transplanted to a new place.
Almost all the methods described in the article (with the exception of growing an apple tree from a seed) have, in addition to simplicity, one more indisputable advantage. The resulting plants will completely repeat all the taste and other qualities of the mother plants. And this means that the harvest of your favorite apples in your garden will not end.
