Autumn care, or how to prepare an apple tree for winter

Everyone prepares for winter differently. People buy warm clothes and get their skis from the attic, animals carry grains into their burrows, and fish dig deeper into the silt. Garden trees also need to be prepared for snow and cold weather. Care of the apple tree requires special attention in this regard. Preparing this fruit tree for winter requires pruning branches, peeling the trunk, and many other activities. You can find many videos and articles on this topic on the Internet. A gardener who is armed with useful knowledge will be able to save trees and future crops.

Branch and trunk care

The first thing to work with when preparing a tree for winter is the branches and trunk. The apple tree must be carefully examined and dry, broken, diseased branches and those that grow inside the crown must be removed.

Attention! You can cut off branches only in clear weather at a temperature not lower than -10 ° C. If you do not follow this rule, then cracks will appear on fresh cuts, which will increase over time and destroy the apple tree.

It is necessary to remove branches in such a way that the cut is as even and smooth as possible. It is unacceptable to leave bark scuffs. After trimming, the damaged areas must be carefully treated with a solution of copper sulfate at the rate of 1 tsp. for 1 liter. clean water. Then the cuts are also processed with garden varnish. These measures help prevent the appearance and reproduction of fungal diseases.

Pruning branches

And, finally, you need to remember about whitewashing the trunk, which protects the tree from rodents and sunburn in winter. You need to process the trunk from the root to the lower branches or slightly higher. The best recipe formula for a whitewash mixture for an apple tree: lime - 3 kg, wood glue - 200 g, copper sulfate - ½ kg, water - 10 liters.

Advice. If the apple variety is not frost-resistant, you can wrap its trunk for the winter with spruce or pine branches, and you can also wrap it with tar paper.

Tilling the soil around the tree

Processing the soil around the apple tree in preparation for winter includes 3 stages: harvesting, digging, mulching.

Cleaning. You need to start this stage by harvesting fallen leaves and volunteers. It is in this mass that pathogenic bacteria and pests hide and multiply. Leaves and rotten apples are best thrown into a compost heap, sprinkled with lime. Then in a year it will be possible to feed the tree with this.
Digging. When the ground under the tree is cleared, you can proceed to digging the soil. In this case, the shovel is immersed parallel to the ground by 20 cm. If the gardener works with a pitchfork, you need to be careful not to damage the root system. You also need to dig up the soil that goes beyond the crown, since there are no roots there, the shovel can be immersed deeper.
Mulching. This procedure can be carried out with compost or manure. It is also recommended to use peat, sawdust, straw, shavings or needles.

Identification and neutralization of pests

Autumn is a great time to identify and neutralize pests that have settled on fruit trees. Most often they can be found under the old bark of the apple tree. You need to bend it and inspect the trunk under it. Insects found there should be destroyed immediately. Too large build-ups of old bark are best removed.

Apple tree trunk processing

For the purpose of treatment and prevention, the autumn apple tree is treated with insecticides. For example, a urea solution can help fight powdery mildew or scab. Laundry soap, soda ash, and copper sulfate are also used. If you have no desire or opportunity to prepare solutions yourself, you can use ready-made fungicides such as Aktara, Karbofos, Horus.

Autumn feeding of apple trees

Organic fertilizers such as compost or humus are applied at the rate of 4-8 kg per 1 m² of soil.
If it is not possible to apply organic fertilizer, you can use a mixture of phosphorus, potassium and nitrogen fertilizers. At the same time, nitrogen is needed in very small quantities, about 10 g. Such dressing will be useful for root growth.
The acidic soils under the apple trees are neutralized with lime, which is applied every 3-4 years. For this they use ground limestone or even old plaster, marl, dolomite flour, chalk.
To make the trees easier to endure severe frosts, they need to be fed with superphosphate, diluted in 30-50 g per 1 liter of water.

Advice. Dense fertilizers must be crushed before applying to the soil. For example, burnt lime is extinguished with water at the rate of 3 liters per 10 kg.

The owners of some household plots prefer to postpone the apple tree care for the spring. But this is the wrong approach, which can significantly damage the tree and reduce the yield. But proper autumn preparation will help the tree to endure the harsh period.