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Canadian spruce Echiniformis is one of the shortest dwarfs among conifers, and at the same time the oldest variety. History has not preserved the exact date of its appearance, but it is known that the cultivar originated in France before 1855. Obviously, the somatic mutation “witch’s broom”, which arose on the species tree, served as the starting material for creating the variety.
Echiniformis has all the advantages and disadvantages of Canadian spruce trees. She is much easier to care for than most dwarfs. This is due not so much to the greater resistance of the variety to negative factors, but to the shape of the tree itself. It makes many operations unnecessary or impossible.
Description of Canadian spruce Echiniformis
Echiniformis is an old variety of Canadian Spruce (Picea glauca), about which all that is known for sure is that it appeared in the mid-19th century in France, presumably from a “witch’s broom”. A young tree grows in the form of a hemisphere, and when grafted onto a low trunk, it grows like a ball of regular shape.Over time, the crown of the Canadian spruce Echiniformis spreads to the sides and becomes flattened and cushion-shaped. Unless, of course, it is corrected by trimming.
Up to 10 years, the Echiniformis spruce adds 2-4 cm every season and reaches a height of 40 cm with a width of 60 cm. By the age of 30, the size of the tree is about 60 cm, the crown width is 100 cm. With good care, the Echiniformis spruce lives in urban conditions for 50 years .
Thin short shoots are arranged radially, that is, they themselves tend to maintain the shape of a ball. The crown of the Canadian spruce Echiniformis is dense, cones appear on it extremely rarely, the needles 5-7 mm long are quite hard, prickly, green with a gray or bluish tint. The root system is well developed, but does not spread in depth, but in breadth.
The Canadian spruce Echiniformis often produces a reversion - a reverse mutation. Among the short shoots with small needles, branches of regular size appear. They need to be cut out as early as possible to preserve the variety.
Photo of Canadian spruce Echiniformis
Use in landscape design
Echiniformis is an old and fairly common variety of Canadian spruce, widely used in landscape design. It is traditionally planted in rock gardens, rockeries, and other miniature conifers and heathers are considered the best neighbors.
Spruce looks good in flower beds and garden beds framed by ground covers. In order not to block the view, Echiniformis is planted in the foreground in landscape groups and flower beds.
The plant is great for decorating slopes or terraced areas. You can place the Canadian spruce Echiniformis in containers; it looks especially impressive in low flowerpots.
What you cannot do is keep the plant as a houseplant, despite its miniature size.It is allowed to bring it indoors for a few days to decorate the holiday, but no more.
Sometimes you can find recommendations to plant the Canadian spruce Echiniformis as a lawn. Even if one decides to buy enough seedlings to fill a large space, it will not look very attractive. In addition, you cannot walk on such a lawn.
Planting and caring for Echiniformis spruce
The Echiniformis variety is a little easier to care for than other dwarf Canadian spruce trees. But this does not mean that the plant can be ignored.
Preparing seedlings and planting area
For planting Canadian spruce Echiniformis, you can choose a flat or gently sloping area. The variety cannot be planted in lowlands - unlike other cultivars, temporary waterlogging of the area will cause a loss of decorativeness, since the lower branches of the plant lie on the ground. In addition, there is a danger of rotting of the root collar. Echiniformis will feel good on artificial elevations.
Canada spruce will grow in partial shade or full sun. The complete absence of light causes general depression of the plant - it will become weak and more susceptible to infections.
The soil for planting Canadian spruce Echiniformis should be permeable, loose, acidic or slightly acidic. If the soil is not suitable for the crop, you can correct the situation by digging a large planting hole. Standard parameters are a diameter of about 60 cm, a depth of at least 70 cm.
The drainage layer is made 15-20 cm and covered with sand. The planting mixture is made up of turf, leaf soil, high peat, clay, and sand. Up to 150 g of nitroammophoska is added to each planting hole. Then it is covered 2/3 with the prepared substrate and filled with water.
Canadian Echiniformis spruces, grafted onto a standard, mostly come to Russia from abroad; they need to be bought in containers. Domestic nurseries can offer for sale seedlings with a root system covered with burlap or jute. When purchasing, you should check the moisture content of the earthen ball.
Spruce Echiniformis with an open root system can only be purchased in a nursery if it is dug up in the presence of the future owner. The root should be immediately wrapped in a damp cloth, or dipped in a clay mash and wrapped tightly in film.
Close attention should be paid to the needles of Canadian spruce. If it has a color uncharacteristic for the Echiniformis variety or has red tips, you should refuse to purchase it. Such a tree, at best, has damaged root systems or is infected; at worst, it is not viable.
Landing rules
Before planting, the hole must stand for at least two weeks. You can place a container spruce on the site at any time, except for hot months - the tree will not take root well. But it is better to choose spring or autumn for this. If you prepare the hole in advance, in the south, Canadian spruce can be planted all winter. In the northern regions, the operation is often postponed to the spring - by the time the heat arrives, Echiniformis will have time to adapt and sprout new roots.
Landing algorithm:
- First, part of the soil is removed from the hole and watered abundantly.
- The seedling is installed in the center, paying attention to the position of the root collar - it should be at ground level or slightly higher.
- The pit is filled with a mixture prepared in advance. They tamp and water.
- The soil under the Canadian spruce Echiniformis is mulched. In the spring, it is better to use pine bark for this so that the lower branches do not come into contact with the ground.
Watering and fertilizing
After planting, the Canadian spruce Echiniformis is watered frequently so that the soil does not dry out. But waterlogging and constant standing moisture in the root area should not be allowed. Then watering is reduced. It is impossible to forget that this is a varietal tree, and not a species spruce, and to rely on nature, even though in natural conditions the plant is moistened only by rain. During the summer you may need to water your Echiniformis every week.
Air humidity is important for Canadian spruce trees. If your site has automatic watering, to make your life easier, you can turn it on for 5 minutes every day shortly before dawn. This will successfully replace regular sprinkling. When there is no automatic watering, you need to hose down the spruce crown. In the hot summer they do this every day.
The Canadian dwarf spruce Echiniformis should be fertilized with a specialized fertilizer. Conifers, especially those belonging to the Pine family, do not respond very well to universal fertilizing - they do not have all the elements necessary for the culture, and the proportions are not the same.
You need to use specialized fertilizers strictly following the instructions, remembering that it is better to underfeed any plant than to overfeed it. And it’s easy to give a baby like the Canadian spruce Echiniformis more nutrition than it needs.
Foliar feeding is called fast, since any substances are immediately delivered to the vegetative organs through the needles. This is how conifers absorb microelements - they are poorly absorbed through the root. It is best to treat the crown with a solution of a chelate complex, add additional magnesium sulfate to the balloon and alternately an ampoule of zircon or epin.
Mulching and loosening
Under the rooted Canadian spruce Echiniformis, loosening the soil is problematic - the lower branches lie on the ground. It is easy to carry out the operation only under a grafted tree, but this must be done carefully, at a shallow depth and only for the first 2 years after planting.
In the future, loosening is replaced by mulching. In spring, the lower branches of the Canadian spruce Echiniformis are carefully lifted and the soil is covered with pine bark. In autumn it is removed and replaced with acidic peat. At the beginning of the next season, the bark is returned to its place; it is better to buy it in garden centers, where the material is pre-treated against pests and diseases.
Trimming
The crown of the Canadian spruce Echiniformis is beautiful and does not require formative pruning. But the variety is prone to reverse mutation (reversion), when a branch of normal size for the species plant appears on a tiny tree. This needs to be removed as quickly as possible.
If a landscape project still requires crown correction, Echiniformis spruce can be safely cut - it tolerates it well.
Crown cleaning
The Canadian spruce Echiniformis has a dense crown due to very short internodes, because the annual growth is only a few centimeters. Without light, needles and old small branches quickly dry out and disintegrate into dust, and mites often appear there. Even regular sprinkling will not improve the situation.
Before cleaning the Canadian spruce Echiniformis, you need to take care to protect your hands, eyes and nasopharynx. Needles cause skin irritation, and tiny dried particles of dry bark and needles, once on the mucous membrane, can even lead to swelling.
During cleaning, Canadian spruce branches are carefully spread to the sides, and dry needles and easily broken shoots are removed with gloved hands. Then the litter is carefully collected so that nothing remains under the tree. Sometimes this takes longer than the cleaning itself.
The last stage is the treatment of the crown of the Echiniformis spruce and the soil under it with a fungicide. It is better to use a preparation containing copper for this purpose. During cleaning, no matter how carefully it is carried out, some of the branches will be injured. To prevent infection from getting into the wounds, the spruce is literally doused with cuproxate or Bordeaux mixture - the crown should be blue inside and out.
Preparing for winter
The dwarf size of the Canadian spruce Echiniformis means that you don’t have to worry too much about its shelter for the winter, even in Siberia, the Urals and the North-West. If the tree is planted in a windless place, or is protected from the prevailing winter air currents by other plants, the crown will still be under the snow.
The Canadian spruce Echiniformis needs to be protected only for the first year after planting, in regions with cold winters with little snow, or planted in places where snow is blown away. A small tree can be mulched with peat, and the crown can be covered with a cardboard box with holes made for air access. Or wrap the crown with white non-woven material.
In the spring, you should not forget to remove the cover, since damping off of the crown is more dangerous for coniferous crops than its freezing. The needles, somewhat darkened by low temperatures, usually restore turgor and color after several treatments with epin.Weathered branches have to be cut off completely, and a severely damaged Canadian spruce may die.
Sun protection
The Echiniformis variety suffers less from early spring burns than other Canadian spruce trees, especially if the winter was snowy. Damage to conifers at the beginning of the season occurs because the root is not yet able to supply the upper part of the tree with moisture, and the sun's rays contribute to the evaporation of water from the needles and branches.
The crown of the Echiniformis spruce is pressed to the ground surface. Often, simultaneously with the evaporation of moisture from the needles, snow melts, increasing air humidity. But this does not always happen, and to be on the safe side, it is better to cover the spruce tree in the open with a white non-woven fabric or burlap on bright afternoons.
In the future, if you turn on automatic watering every day for 5 minutes, or carry out sprinkling in another way, there should be no problems with the Canadian Spruce Echiniformis. But the tree will respond positively to treatment with epin.
Reproduction
Before starting to propagate the Canadian spruce Echiniformis, gardeners should clearly understand that this is not an easy task even for professionals. And they have specially adapted premises and experience.
In any case, the Canadian spruce Echiniformis can be propagated by cuttings or grafting. Cones rarely appear on a tree; species plants are likely to grow from their seeds. Even if some turn out to be short, they will bear little resemblance to their mother’s form.
It is better for amateurs not to mess with vaccinations, but you can try cuttings.But it’s better not to hope for success anyway. Rooting the shoots is only half the battle. They still need to be brought to planting in a permanent place, and this will take several more years, when any slightest mistake in care will lead to the death of the plant.
Echiniformis spruce cuttings can be taken for rooting all season, but it is easier to do this in the spring. They are cut with a piece of the bark of the older branch. It’s better to take one completely and “disassemble” it into cuttings.
The lower part of the shoot is freed from needles, treated with a stimulant, and planted in sand, perlite or a peat-sand mixture. The substrate and air around the cuttings must be constantly moist. Those branches that have taken root and started to grow are transplanted into more nutritious soil. A permanent place for spruce trees is determined when side shoots appear.
In an old Echiniformis plant, the lower branches lie on the ground, sometimes taking root on their own. The tree practically becomes a colony. But it is difficult to plant such a Canadian spruce; most often, when moving to a new place, both the rooted branches and the mother plant die. If you do this, then at the very beginning of the season in the north, and before winter in the south.
Diseases and pests of spruce Echiniformis
The description and photo of the Echiniformis spruce shows that its crown is dense and literally pressed to the surface of the ground. Therefore, diseases pose the greatest danger to the tree. The variety is often damaged by snow shutter. To keep the spruce healthy, it must be sprayed with copper-containing fungicides at the beginning and end of the season. At the first signs of disease, unscheduled treatment is carried out. Most often, Echiniformis is affected by:
- rot;
- rust;
- necrosis;
- wound cancer.
Among the pests, the spider mite needs to be singled out separately.This small insect often appears inside the crown of the Canadian spruce Echiniformis, if the branches are not moved apart during treatments. The best prevention is sprinkling. If the tick has already appeared, spraying with acaricides is effective. Insecticides destroy other pests:
- spruce sawfly and leaf roller;
- hermes;
- mealybug;
- aphids;
- Nun's caterpillars.
Conclusion
Canadian spruce Echiniformis is one of the shortest varieties. The tree forms a dense crown pressed to the ground, looking beautiful framed by other conifers, heathers, flowers or stones.
