Description and cultivation of felt cherry

Cultivation of felt cherry is not particularly difficult and even an inexperienced gardener can do it. However, in order to get a rich harvest of sweet berries, it is advisable to get acquainted with the description of the intricacies of growing this crop.

Despite its name, the felt cherry has the most distant relation to the common variety. Genetically, it is close to apricot, as well as plum and cherry plum. The natural habitat of the plant affects most of China, the Korean Peninsula, part of India and Mongolia. In 1870 she was brought to the territory of the British Isles, and from there to Europe.

The culture immediately aroused great interest thanks to its impressive list of merits:

• high resistance to frost and drought:
• the bush grows very quickly, gains strength and gives berries early;
• despite the compactness, if properly looked after, one bush gives up to 10-15 kg of berries;
• fruits do not fall after ripening;
• Chinese cherry is small and takes up little space on the site;
• highly decorative culture, especially at the stage of flowering, therefore it can become an excellent decoration of the territory.

Planting such cherries and agricultural technology does not require significant expenditures of manpower and resources. Therefore, the cultivation of a plant on your site is available to any person.

The name "felt" is explained by the typical fine pile that forms a downy. It covers annual shoots, leaves, and sometimes even berries. The first berries ripen at the end of June, fruiting lasts about a month.

The plant cannot be attributed to trees, rather it belongs to shrubs. It is distinguished by the presence of several large skeletal branches and a rather dense crown of a rounded shape. The Chinese cherry almost never grows more than 1.8 m. The branches are lignified, the bark is dense, grayish-brown. Flower buds can be found on both annual and adult stems.

The berry is a drupe. The pulp is quite fleshy, the taste is sweet with a pronounced sourness. The shade varies from pale pink to almost black, the weight of the fruit reaches 5 g.

The species diversity of the Shanghai cherry is great. Plants are self-fertile, self-fertile, and partially self-fertile. This means that some shrubs need cross-pollination with some other sort of felt cherry to produce fruit. Unfortunately, it is difficult to establish such a property when buying, because experienced gardeners, in order to achieve high yields, recommend planting at least 2-3 different species in the same area next to each other.

• Natalie - medium thickened vigorous shrub. The total yield per plant is 6-8 kg. Berries weight 4 g, red color, sweetish taste with sour notes.

• Fabulous - This type of Shanghai cherry is distinguished by a dense crown and dark-scarlet berries. The berry weight is 3-4.5 g, the taste is sweet and sour. The pulp is fibrous, rather juicy. Under comfortable conditions of development, the yield can reach 11-12 kg per plant.

• Princess - cherry with a crown of a moderate degree of thickening, grows up to 1.2-1.5 m.The fruits are crimson, sweet and juicy. Fruits are medium-sized, weighing 3-4 kg. Despite this, the total fruiting per plant reaches 8-12 kg.

• Alice - compact cherry not higher than 1.5 m. The crown is highly thickened. The berries are small, weighing only 3 g, the color is rich burgundy. Juicy, sweet, with pronounced sourness. With proper agricultural technology, the yield can be 8-10 kg.

• Dark girl - a low-growing shrub that grows no higher than 1.2 m. The crown is quite dense. The berries are small, only 2.5 g, the pulp contains almost no fibers. A young plant yields a yield of 5-6 kg per bush; as it grows, the volume of fruiting increases.

• Oceanic virovskaya - bush 1.7 m long. The crown is medium dense. Fruits weigh about 3.5-3.6 g, burgundy color. The taste is sweet with slightly pronounced sourness. With proper agricultural technology, up to 10 kg of berries can be harvested from each bush.

With the cherries familiar to everyone, as well as with cherries, Chinese cherries have an extremely visual similarity in terms of the parameters of berries and their taste properties. Botanically, they are quite distant from each other, therefore, under no external circumstances, they do not pollinate. It also makes no sense to combine them in the vaccine.

The closest relative of this cherry is the Bessya, the North American sand cherry. These cultures can be successfully grafted onto each other. In addition, there are many hybrid varieties bred by crossing these two crops. Breeders have also created plum cherries - complicated hybrids resulting from crossing the Shanghai cherry with diploid plum subspecies.

Shanghai cherries can be combined in grafting with certain varieties of plums. Usually, hybrid varieties of cherry plum and the Sino-Ussuri group are used. But with European varieties of prunes, inter-pollination is impossible, and the compatibility in vaccination is very poor.

Some novice gardeners take felt cherries as a stock for peaches or apricots. In this case, survival is possible. But, as practice shows, not great - much depends on certain varietal characteristics and development conditions.

Before planting felt cherries on your plot, you need to find a suitable place for it. The culture is quite capricious to the substrate, so it will not work to place a seedling on any free piece of land. This plant requires an open place, well lit by the sun; in the shade, the culture does not bear fruit. The soil must be fertile, be sure to drain and loose.

Best of all, Chinese cherry grows and develops in sandy loam and loam with neutral acidity. If the acidity of the substrate is increased at the site for planting, you must first deoxidize the soil. For this, you can use dolomite flour, as well as lime or gypsum.

Planting is performed in early spring, immediately after the snow cover disappears and until the buds swell. In autumn, they can be planted at such a time that the bush has time to take root before the onset of the first frost. Seedlings 1-2 years old are best suited for transplanting. Before moving, it is necessary to carefully examine the roots, remove all dried and diseased fragments.

Here's a step-by-step instruction.

Cherries are planted at a distance of 1.5-2 m.To do this, a planting hole is formed with a depth of 40-50 cm and a diameter of about 60 cm.To prepare a nutritious soil mixture, part of the garden soil is mixed with 10 kg of manure, a phosphorus-containing fertilizer (40-60 g) is introduced , as well as potash (25-35 g). The resulting mixture is spread on the bottom of the sowing hole, leaving room for the rhizome of the young seedling. When filling the roots, you need to make sure that there are no voids with air in the ground.

At the end of the planting work, the land near the young felt cherry seedling is slightly compacted, well watered and covered with mulch. Further care of the crop directly depends on the timing of the planting. In spring, the culture will need watering at least 1 time in 7-10 days; in the fall, additional irrigation will not be required. However, in regions with severe frosts, when the thermometer drops below 30 degrees, it is advisable to additionally cover the ground with spruce branches.

The features of the growth and development of Chinese cherry in different regions differ. Most of the varieties bred in our country were created in the Far East. The climate of this region is famous for its frosty winters, during which there are practically no thaws. Such plants can withstand the most severe cold - this explains their popularity in the Urals, Primorye and nearby regions.

As for agricultural technology in the central part of our country, the felt cherry is quite unpretentious. The most important requirement for the full growth and development of Chinese cherries is the absence of excess water. If the land is waterlogged, the shrub dies very quickly. The irrigation scheme should be moderate, in dry weather no more than once every 10 days. If the weather is rainy, then additional irrigation is not needed at all.

Felt cherries need to be fed twice a season. The first time this should be done immediately after the end of flowering in the spring, and the second - at the end of summer or the first decade of September. For the first feeding, you can take the composition from:

• 3 kg of humus;
• 40 g superphosphate;
• 25 g ammophoska;
• 15 g of potassium sulphide.

The resulting mixture is thoroughly mixed and embedded to the depth of the shovel around the entire circumference of the near-stem zone.

At the very end of August - beginning of September, complex mineral compositions give the greatest effect. It is important that they do not contain nitrogen. This trace element stimulates intensive vegetation, as a result, the plant does not have time to prepare for frosts and dies. It is best to give preference to special preparations labeled "autumn". The dosage is determined by the manufacturer, as a rule, 40 ml is required per plant.

A good solution would be a complex of organic matter with ash. It provides soil deoxidation. In addition, it saturates the soil with useful substances.

Before the sap begins to flow, you can perform anti-aging pruning of Chinese cherries. At this time, it is necessary to cut down all unnecessary branches growing inward. At the exit, there should be 8-10 basic skeletal branches. After that, annual shoots are shortened by about a third so that 60-70 cm remains.

Rejuvenating pruning is performed every 3-5 years, shaping - annually. If you do not pay attention to this, then the shoots rapidly growing on the sides will begin to block the access of light and pollinators to the inside of the crown. In addition, they create an ideal breeding environment for lichens, insect pests and pathogenic fungi.

Spring pruning is carried out before the start of sap flow. In this, the updated bush will be able to direct all its forces to building up green mass, actively flowering and the formation of large fruits. All subsequent pruning provides only sanitary measures, that is, the removal of diseased and dry shoots. At the same time, do not make the pruning too intense, otherwise the Shanghai cherry can lose the lion's share of its characteristics, including frost resistance.

There are three techniques for propagating felt cherries. Any of them is easily accomplished even by inexperienced gardeners.

The most common method to preserve basic parenting characteristics. The plant turns out to be well adapted to the natural and climatic conditions of the growing regions.

The seeds of ripe fruits are thoroughly cleaned and dried without ultraviolet rays. In the first decade of September, seedlings are placed in containers with moistened river sand or sawdust and placed in a dark, cool place. The moisture level should be maintained.

In mid-October, they are planted in open ground in furrows to a depth of 2.5-3 cm, the distance between individual bones is 1-2 cm. The grooves are sprinkled with a mixture of garden soil, humus and sawdust.

With the arrival of spring heat, the sprouted shoots must be thinned out, leaving only the strongest ones and planted on a permanent site next spring. The bushes grown in this way will bear fruit from the third year of development.

This option is relevant when it is necessary to preserve the starting properties of the Shanghai cherry. Shoots of the second, or even better, the third row of branching are suitable for harvesting planting material.

The lower edge is cut obliquely, the upper cut is made even. The size of the cutting should be 18-20 cm so that each has at least 4 internodes.

The shoots prepared in this way must be treated with a solution of Epin or Zircon, and then planted in a wet mixture of peat, garden soil and sand. Green shoots are deepened by 1.5 cm, lignified ones - by 2 cm. Then watering is carried out and the cuttings are covered with agrofibre or film.

During rooting, you need to ensure that the substrate remains moderately moist, and the sun does not dry out the roots. With correctly carried out reproduction, after a month, roots will appear at the petioles.

Reproduction of Shanghai cherry with the help of layering practically does not differ from the same type of reproduction of other shrubby plants. With the arrival of spring, they take the most powerful lower shoot, gently bend it to the ground and fix it slightly. Then sprinkle with garden soil and irrigate. In September, the cuttings are checked - if it is well rooted, then you can separate it from the parent bush and transplant it to a permanent site. If the roots are weak, it is better not to touch it until next spring. Such seedlings begin to produce berries already in the third year.

Most often, the shrub is affected by wild rodents and pests.

• Mice - to prevent damage, use the winter tying of the plant with juniper branches. You can also take cane or raspberries.
• Pocket tick - the straining is carried out with hot water in March, even before bud break. With a large amount of infection, insecticide treatment is carried out.
• Moniliosis or clasterosporium - all damaged shrub fragments are removed and compressed. For prevention, the rest of the plant should be sprayed with solutions containing copper chloroxide or Topaz fungicide.

In conclusion, let's talk about the features of fruiting. In the overwhelming majority of cases, Chinese cherry seedlings quickly take root and bear fruit already in the third or fourth year of planting. In the middle zone of our country, berries ripen in July.

Compared to all other varieties of cherries, the flowering of this culture looks very unusual. In spring, slender trees are literally covered with light pink flowers, and this attracts a large number of pollinating insects to the garden. In the first fruiting season, berries are formed only on newly regrown branches.

The fruits are quite tasty and juicy. The berries of this cherry contain an impressive supply of valuable organic acids, as well as sugars and vitamin C. They contain many bioactive polyphenols. These substances help to strengthen the vascular system.