Pear Nika: description of the variety, photos, reviews

Content

1 Characteristic
- 1.1 Advantages and disadvantages
2 Growing rules
- 2.1 Planting a tree
- 2.2 Care
3 Review
4 Conclusion

Before Nika appeared in Russia, only a few varieties of pears were patented that had complex resistance and were able to withstand low temperatures. It is not surprising that Nika’s pear quickly became popular, because this variety has several important advantages. From its “parents” (Talgarskaya Beauty and Daughter of the Dawn), the variety adopted large-fruitedness and productivity, frost resistance and the wonderful taste of ripe pears. Nika is a winter variety, its fruits are well stored, have high nutritional value, and tolerate transportation well.

Description pear varieties Nika, photos and reviews about her can be found in this article. Here we will talk about the advantages and disadvantages of Nika, the rules for growing a tree and the qualities of its fruits.

Characteristic

Soviet scientists developed the Nika variety; this pear is included in the State Register and zoned for the Central Region with black earth soils. Nick's dwarf pear is primarily distinguished by its compact size - the tree grows only three to four meters in height. The appearance of the plant is also unusual - a spherical crown formed by skeletal branches extending from the trunk almost at a right angle.

Full characteristics of the Nika pear:

shoots are of medium thickness, the trunk is covered with brown bark, the leaves are in the shape of a slightly pointed oval, slightly curved;
the surface of the sheet is smooth, without a glossy sheen;
Nika blooms with large white inflorescences;
with age, the crown of a pear tree thins out - this is a characteristic feature of the variety;
the shape of the fruit is regular, pear-shaped;
the mass of fruits of the Nika variety is large - on average, 180 grams;
when unripe, pears are colored green, reddish spots clearly appear on the peel, ripe fruits are yellow;
the peel on the fruit is thin, smooth, there is a small layer of wax;
the pulp of the fruit is creamy, with a delicate texture, very juicy;
the taste qualities of Nika's pear are high: inside it is sweet and sour, without grain, with light notes of nutmeg;
Nika should be harvested in mid-late September;
consumer ripeness of the fruits occurs only in October - pears need to lie down to ripen;
even when ripe, fruits filled with juice do not fall off the branches, therefore, if the weather permits, you can postpone the harvest until October;
The harvest can be stored for three to four months;
storage conditions - dry and dark room or storage with a constant temperature of 0 degrees;
the productivity of the Nika variety is high;
the fruiting phase of the variety begins early - 4-5 years after planting the tree;
The tree has high frost resistance - Nika is able to withstand cold temperatures down to -38 degrees;
Nika is resistant to fungal infections such as scab and entomosporiasis;
This variety of pear is not demanding on soil composition, but does not like heavy waterlogging;
the variety is partially self-sterile, that is, for good and stable harvests, Nika needs pollinating pears that will bloom at the same time;
The purpose of the fruits is universal: fruits make aromatic jams, confitures, they can be used as a filling, made into wine or juice, or made into marmalade.

Advice! It is best to eat Nika pears fresh, because these fruits are extremely healthy. The variety is distinguished by a high content of fruit sugar; the fruit contains vitamins C and P, and several useful acids.

Advantages and disadvantages

Reviews from gardeners about Nika's pear are mostly positive. Owners of orchards note that this variety is problem-free and unpretentious: Nika is very easy to grow, it requires practically no care, and the tree rarely gets sick.

Nick's pear has several advantages:

good frost resistance, which makes it possible not to cover trees in the central part of the country (including in the Moscow region);
ability to regenerate - frostbitten branches quickly recover and begin to bear fruit;
the fruits are stored for a long time and retain excellent presentation until spring;
the tree has a strong immunity to fungal diseases;
the fruits receive high tasting scores (not lower than 4.5 points out of five possible).

Attention! A description of the variety and its advantages will be incomplete without mentioning the compactness of the Nika pear: harvesting from a three-meter tree is very easy and quick.

Like all garden crops, Nika has its own small disadvantages. Gardeners include:

the need for regular crown pruning;
Nicky's need for pollinators.

Of course, against the backdrop of the extreme unpretentiousness and listed advantages of Nick’s pear, all its disadvantages seem insignificant. Due to this, the variety is often grown both in private farms and in large gardens.

Growing rules

The Nika pear variety is one of those that is often preferred by summer residents and beginning gardeners. And planting and caring for this pear does not require special knowledge or special skills.

Planting a tree

First you need to choose good seedlings: trees, no more than one or two years old, with several strong and elastic roots directed in different directions, without signs of disease.

In order for pear seedlings to take root in a new place, holes for them are prepared in advance. If you plan to plant a tree in the spring, then you need to prepare the planting site in the fall. First of all, they dig a hole, the depth and diameter of which is about a meter. Then the top layer from this pit is mixed with organic matter (humus, rotted manure or bird droppings, compost), wood ash and superphosphate are added. This mixture must be left in the hole until the pear is planted, so that all the nutrients have time to dissolve.

Important! The place for planting Nika's pear should be in a well-lit open area. If possible, it is better to give preference to a site located on a hill. You should not plant Nika in the lowlands, because the pear does not like humidity.

If there are no other pears in the garden, you will have to plant another pear with Nika, which has the same flowering time. If this is not done, Nika flowers will be poorly pollinated, which will affect fruit set and the overall yield of the tree.

In spring, seedlings are soaked in water for a couple of hours and planting begins. Place the tree in the center of the hole and carefully straighten its roots. Then gradually sprinkle the roots with dry soil, shaking the pear periodically to compact the soil.

Advice! To prevent the pear tree from tilting and bending in the wind, you can tie the seedling to a support for the first couple of years. A wooden peg or a metal rod or a small diameter pipe is used as a support. The support is installed ten centimeters from the trunk. You can do a stretch, as in the photo below.

After planting, Nick's pear needs to be watered using several buckets of water. After this, it is recommended to mulch the ground with sawdust or other material to prevent the soil and roots from drying out and to protect the seedling from heat and frost.

Attention! If the gardener has the appropriate experience, he can graft Nika’s cuttings into the crown of an adult pear of a different variety. Nika's cutting survival rate is high.

Care

Nick's pear is unpretentious, but the tree still needs minimal care:

Organic mulch made from sawdust or humus protects the roots and lower part of the trunk from freezing in winter and from overheating in summer. The optimal thickness of the mulch layer is 5 cm.
There is no need to fertilize the pear tree in the first few years after planting; it still has enough nutrition from the planting hole. Subsequently, in addition to humus mulch, it is recommended to scatter mineral complex fertilizers near the tree. Don't go overboard with nitrogen.
Pear trees are watered as needed, but watering three times must be done. The first time Nika is watered before the flower buds bloom, the procedure is repeated after 10-14 days. The tree is watered for the last time after harvesting - this is an important stage in the pre-winter preparation of the plant.
Pruning for the Nika variety is extremely important - it is performed annually in the spring. During the pruning process, it is necessary to cut out old and dry shoots and shorten all other branches by 10-15 cm. If you do not rejuvenate the crown in this way, Nika will begin to thin out and “bald”, and its fruits will become smaller.
Before flowering, the tree must be treated for preventive purposes; for this you can use any complex preparation.
In especially cold regions, winter-hardy Nika needs to be slightly insulated.To do this, the lower branches and trunk are wrapped in non-woven material or protected in another way.

Important! A gardener who has chosen the Nika variety for his plot must understand that any winter pears need more warm and sunny days than summer or autumn varieties. Because of this, in northern regions the fruits may be unripe, sour and tasteless.

Review

Igor Viktorovich, Kaluga

Nika was planted as a two-year-old seedling. In the first winter the tree froze a little, and the next spring it did not bloom. But a year later it was completely restored, the pear blossomed and even produced a small harvest. That is, she began to bear fruit already in her fourth year of life. The fruits ripen by the end of September and rarely fall off. Pears are tasty, with juicy fine-grained pulp and a nutmeg flavor. I can store them for only 1.5-2 months, since I don’t have any special storage. Although the description of the variety states resistance to scab, in the last year I noticed small spots on some of Niki’s fruits. Apparently, the variety is gradually losing resistance to this disease, so prevention needs to be carried out.

Conclusion

Nika's pear is perfect for growing in private gardens and large farms. A dwarf tree does not need a lot of space; a low pear tree is easy to harvest, pruning and processing of a compact crown. Nika has a lot of advantages, but, above all, this variety is appreciated for its unpretentiousness and tasty fruits with a long shelf life.

Those who have chosen the Nika variety for their own garden should be prepared for annual pruning. In addition, the tree will need pollinators - without them, the harvest may not be possible.