Columnar fruit trees: photos, varieties

Content

1 Features of dwarf varieties
- 1.1 Advantages and disadvantages
- 1.2 Varieties of dwarf crops
2 Growing rules
- 2.1 Planting a mini garden
- 2.2 Proper care of a miniature garden
3 Conclusion

Modern gardeners are already bored with growing ordinary fruit trees; today there is a fashion for dwarf varieties and types. Gardens consisting of miniature columnar trees are much more interesting and picturesque: low trees with short side shoots directed straight upward, densely strewn with large fruits. Columnar fruits not only look impressive, they produce good-quality, abundant harvests and have many other advantages. At first there were only dwarf varieties of apple trees and pears, selection in recent years has allowed gardeners to see almost any type of fruit: plums, cherries, apricots and others.

A detailed description and photo of columnar fruit trees are given in this article. Here we will talk about all the nuances of dwarf gardening, the pros and cons of such crops, and the rules for growing columnar plants.

Features of dwarf varieties

Externally, the columnar tree, of course, looks quite exotic: a very straight trunk, from which many short side shoots extend at an acute angle. By autumn, apple and pear trees are covered with fruits, and the tree, indeed, strongly resembles a column - its smooth trunk is densely strewn with large fruits.

If you come closer to the columnar apple tree, you can see that it is an ordinary fruit tree. Apples look like regular fruits, and they taste just as juicy and sweet.

Attention! People first started talking about columnar trees in the second half of the last century. And they were brought out completely by accident, when one of the Canadian gardeners noticed a strange branch on his old apple tree: there were no horizontal shoots on it, but the entire branch was strewn with large apples.

Gradually, columnar fruits began to spread throughout the world, gaining more and more popularity every year. Today, many gardeners prefer this particular type of tree, because they have many advantages.

Advantages and disadvantages

The main explanation for the popularity of columnar varieties is their greater profitability: compared to traditional gardens, dwarf gardens benefit not only in terms of yield, but they are much more convenient to care for.

Columnar fruit trees have many advantages:

miniature size of the crown and root system, allowing you to grow different fruits in small areas;
minimum intervals between neighboring trees, allowing about 2,000 columnar fruit trees to be grown on a hectare of land versus 400 traditional ones;
the small height of the tree (up to 2.5 meters) greatly simplifies garden care and harvesting;
columnar varieties do not need extensive pruning - the gardener will only have to maintain the shape of the crown;
early fruiting - the gardener will receive the first full harvest in the second year after planting the seedlings (ordinary varieties bear fruit in 4-5 years at best);
saving on chemicals for treating a columnar garden - for a compact crown you will need very little product.

It turns out that with the same area of the orchard, the yield of columnar trees will be higher. In addition, the farmer’s costs for chemicals, pruning, and fruit picking will be significantly reduced. Another advantage is that the wait for the first harvest will not be long - only 1-2 years.

Important! The most important disadvantage of columnar fruit crops is their short life.

The short lifespan (12-15 years) of such trees is due to their rapid depletion, because with small dimensions, columnar varieties bear fruit on a par with ordinary and tall crops. After a specified period of time, most of the ringlets on the tree die off, resulting in a sharp decrease in yield. The gardener will have to uproot old plants and plant new columnar seedlings.

Varieties of dwarf crops

Columnar trees are used not only for producing fresh fruits and vegetables; they are actively used in their work by landscape designers. Miniature trees with an elongated cylindrical or cone-shaped crown look very original, so they can decorate any exterior.

All columnar plants today are divided into three large groups:

Fruit (or fruit).
Deciduous.
Conifers.

In its turn, columnar fruit varieties are divided into two more types: seeded dwarf trees and grafted dwarfs. Seeds are distinguished by the presence of a special gene responsible for the restrained growth of the plant (dwarf gene). Such fruit trees can be grown from seeds in the usual way.Grafted dwarfs are propagated from mother branches of columnar plants, which are grafted onto the root system of an ordinary related tree.

Advice! For apple trees of grafted dwarf varieties, it is recommended to use low-growing apple trees as a rootstock. But columnar pears are best grown on a rootstock made from serviceberry or quince.

Growing rules

If you simply plant a seedling of a columnar variety and do not care for it, an ordinary fruit tree will grow, which will only have a limited growth point. In order for a real miniature garden to grow, it is necessary to provide it with proper care: planting, watering, pruning, fertilizing.

Planting a mini garden

For planting, it is recommended to choose seedlings of columnar crops that are no more than one year old. Older trees take root less well, often get sick, and begin to bear fruit later.

Like regular varieties, dwarfs can be planted in a permanent place in spring or autumn. Exactly for columnar crops, autumn planting is recommended, this way the trees will have more time to acclimatize and prepare for the upcoming flowering and fruiting.

Attention! It is very important to plant a fruit tree on time: in the fall, the optimal time is September; in the spring, columnar seedlings are planted as soon as the snow melts and the ground thaws, but no later than mid-April.

The place for planting dwarfs is chosen to be sunny, protected from northern winds and drafts. It is advisable to prepare planting holes six months before planting fruit trees. The depth of such a hole should correspond to the size of the root system of the seedling, usually 50 cm is enough. The diameter also corresponds to 50-60 cm. If there are a lot of seedlings, you can prepare trenches for planting them.

When planting dwarfs in the fall, organic fertilizers such as compost, humus, cow manure or bird droppings are added to the hole in the spring. Immediately before planting, only mineral complexes can be used.

The planting of columnar trees itself is carried out in the same way as usual:

A couple of buckets of water are poured into a hole prepared and filled with fertilizers.
When the water is completely absorbed, a seedling is placed at the bottom of the hole. The root neck of the tree should be several centimeters above the ground, and all roots must be straightened.
The soil with which the roots of the seedling are covered must be compacted so that voids do not form in the soil.
After this, the tree is watered again with a bucket of water.
Since the roots of columnar fruit trees are located close to the surface of the earth, it is recommended to mulch the soil around the trunk or sow cereal crops in the circle around the trunk (the grass is subsequently mowed).

Since columnar fruit trees do not have spreading side shoots, they can be planted much closer to other trees than ordinary varieties. The optimal spacing between dwarf trees is 50-60 cm. The minimum distance is 40 cm; columnar varieties are not planted at intervals of more than 120 cm.

Proper care of a miniature garden

In principle, it is necessary to care for a columnar garden in the same way as for ordinary fruit trees. However, there are some subtleties in this matter that a novice gardener should know about.

Once planted, your dwarf garden will need the following:

Removing inflorescences in the year of planting. During the first calendar year after planting, the columnar tree is not allowed to bear fruit, so all flowers that appear during this period are picked off.If this is not done, the roots of the plant will weaken, and all the strength of the seedling will be spent on the formation of fruits, and not on the strengthening and growth of the tree.
In the next 2-3 years, the number of flowers on dwarf trees will have to be normalized - the fragile trunk may not withstand the mass of a bountiful harvest. The inflorescences are cut with pruning shears, leaving only 2 flowers out of 5-7 pieces in a bunch.
Since the roots of dwarf fruit trees are located parallel to the ground and lie shallow, weed weeds in the tree trunk circle is dangerous - you can damage the root system of the tree. Therefore, it is recommended to mulch the ground with straw, sawdust, peat, and husks. Or tinn the soil with cereal crops.
Young seedlings are recommended water regularly the first two to three months after planting. Columnar varieties are then watered as the soil dries out. Excessive watering can lead to rotting of the roots, so you should not get carried away with it.
In the first year after planting, additionally feed the trees no need. Subsequently, it is recommended to apply organic and mineral fertilizers twice a year in the same way as for conventional varieties.
In order for the tree crown to resemble a column, the gardener must prune annually. In the first years after planting, the main emphasis is on shortening the side shoots and directing the tree's growth upward.
Small trees can also get sick or be affected by insect pests. To prevent this, you should carry out preventive spraying garden using chemical or biological preparations, folk remedies.
Fragile young seedlings do not tolerate frost well, so in the first years after planting they are recommended insulate with the onset of cold weather. To do this, you can use a thick layer of organic mulch, spruce spruce branches, agrofibre and any other means of protection.

Advice! The miniature stem of the columnar tree can be easy prey for rodents in winter. To protect the garden, the trunks are wrapped in agrofibre or surrounded with metal mesh.

Conclusion

Here we looked at what columnar fruit trees there are, what is their peculiarity, and how to properly plant and care for a dwarf garden. In principle, even a novice gardener can grow a miniature fruit paradise, because there is nothing complicated in this process. Each summer resident can experiment by planting several columnar crops on his plot: apple, pear, plum or cherry.