Content
Only a well-kept garden looks beautiful. Therefore, gardeners have to monitor their fruit trees every year: pruning, bleaching trunks, treating and spraying crowns. One of the best fertilizers for fruit trees is urea, which is also commonly called urea. Spraying the garden with urea solves several problems at once: the plants receive the necessary microelements and protection from most pests.
This article is devoted to how urea is used for fruit trees, what it consists of, and what benefits it brings to the garden. Here you can also learn about the important features of such fertilizer as urea, how to prepare the garden for processing, and how to spray it correctly.
Characteristics of urea
Spraying fruit trees with urea is considered one of the most effective methods of garden fertilization. Urea is an organic substance, although it looks and is used as a mineral fertilizer. Colorless fertilizer crystals are odorless carbonic acid amides.
Urea is a universal product used not only for plant nutrition, but also for the prevention or destruction of insects. Urea granules contain an extremely high amount of nitrogen - more than 45%. Particles of this fertilizer quickly decompose in the soil under the influence of living bacteria and microorganisms, so they reach the roots in an extremely short time and saturate the plants with useful substances.
Externally, urea is very similar to saltpeter, but unlike it, it does not burn the leaves, so it can be safely used for spraying the crown. The granules dissolve very easily in water, but it is better to use water heated to 70-80 degrees. The resulting solution is perfectly distributed throughout the treated plant and is quickly absorbed by all its parts.
Rules for working with urea
Before spraying fruit trees and shrubs with urea, you should familiarize yourself with the important rules for working with this substance. So, When choosing urea as a fertilizer, a gardener should know the following:
- Urea, in fact, is an organic compound, but it is usually classified as a group of mineral nitrogenous fertilizers.
- Urea fertilizer begins to act immediately, and the treatment has a long-lasting effect.
- As a fertilizer, it is more effective to apply granules directly into the soil; spraying the crown is more appropriate for the purpose of prevention and pest control.
- Urea can be used on any soil; the fertilizer also works well in greenhouses or greenhouses.
- Urea is very effective on soils subject to waterlogging.
- Urea is the safest means for treating the crown in the summer heat - even a too concentrated solution will not burn the leaves.
- One of the properties of urea is a slight slowdown in the growing season - treated plants begin to bloom later, which reduces the risk of damage to the ovaries by return frosts (this quality can be used for early varieties of peaches, plums, cherries or apricots).
- The nitrogenous composition can be used during the period of bud break on fruit trees, which saves plants from many spring insects and early diseases.
- It is strictly forbidden to mix urea with other fertilizers, both mineral and organic.
- In the soil, urea is converted into ammonium carbonate (ammonium carbonate).
Preparing the garden for spraying
The very first treatment of the year should begin with preparing the garden. Early in the spring carry out an audit of the garden and perform some preventive actions:
- prune damaged, dry and frostbitten shoots;
- dig up or loosen the soil around fruit trees;
- check the integrity of the bark on trees and, if necessary, clean dead areas with a wire brush;
- they inspect cracks in the bark and identify accumulations of insects in them - pests must be destroyed before treating the garden with urea;
- collect rake last year's fallen leaves, dry grass and other debris that can become a habitat for larvae and bacteria.
Urea against insects
As already mentioned, urea is a universal remedy that not only saturates the soil with nitrogen, but also helps in the fight against garden pests. Spraying fruit trees with a urea solution is an effective prevention, which is recommended to be carried out in the spring.
It is necessary to start spraying the crown in early spring, as soon as the air temperature rises to 5 degrees. Until the fruit buds have blossomed, the insects are in a state of hibernation, they are inactive and respond well to processing.
Attention! Urea is not able to cope with all pests, but it actively fights against the most common and dangerous of them (aphids, copperhead, apple blossom beetle, weevils).
To spray fruit trees, you need to prepare a solution by diluting about 600 grams of urea in 10 liters of hot water. When calculating the total amount of solution, you need to adhere to the recommendation: for 10 square meters of garden you will need about 2.5 liters of diluted urea.
Treatment of those fruit trees that were very sick or actively affected by insects last season will be especially effective. The following garden diseases are susceptible to urea:
- monilial burn;
- scab;
- purple spot.
A solution of urea is not able to completely destroy the causative agents of these diseases, but it leads to inhibition of bacteria, which lose their ability to reproduce. That is why It is very important to spray as early as possible before infections begin to spread.
The same substance can be sprayed on fallen leaves before winter, for example, when dry leaves are used to shelter plants and their roots from frost.
Urea as a fertilizer for the garden
As a rule, experienced gardeners use urea solution both as a fertilizer and for the prevention of diseases and pests. For spraying it is important to choose suitable time:
- the air temperature should be above +5 degrees;
- ants (predecessors of aphids and other insect pests) crawl around the trunks of fruit trees;
- the garden is cleaned, damaged shoots are pruned, the soil is dug up;
- The day is sunny and windless.
If all conditions are met, you can begin preparing the solution. It is necessary to work with organic matter in a protective suit, mask, goggles and gloves. To spray old trees, it is recommended to use a special sprayer with a long rod nozzle. A stable stepladder will also help the gardener.
Eat Some tips for beginner gardeners:
- If the task is to both fertilize the soil and kill insects, then it is better to mix urea with copper sulfate: 700 grams of granules + 50 grams of copper sulfate + 10 liters of water.
- There is no need to spare the solution - urea is not capable of harming fruit plants.
- The first spraying should be carried out before the buds open, the second treatment should coincide with the flowering of fruit trees, and the third time the garden should be sprayed immediately after the ovaries appear.
- If it rains within 24 hours after spraying, the treatment of the plants will have to be repeated.
- Additionally, you can carry out root treatment of fruit trees with urea.To do this, pour granules under the tree and water the plant generously. Calculation of the amount of fertilizer depends on the type of plant and its age (usually apple trees need about 230 grams of granules, and cherries and plums - no more than 150 grams for each tree).
- If, in addition to urea, some organic fertilizers were used, its dose should be reduced by a third, or even half (depending on the quantity and quality of the organic matter).
Conclusion
Treating fruit trees with urea today is considered one of the most effective and safe methods of pest control and soil fertilization in the garden. The urea solution does not burn the leaves, so it can be used at any stage of the plant growing season. Both a solution and granules of this substance can be used as a nitrogenous fertilizer (in the latter case, the soil should be watered abundantly).
Urea is a universal and affordable product that is great for novice gardeners.
