Favorite - the best apricot for Moscow region

Apricot Favorit was obtained specifically for cultivation in the suburbs. Moscow breeders were faced with the task of obtaining a good, frost-resistant and self-fertile variety with delicious, laid berries. Judging by the reviews of gardeners, to a certain extent, this problem was solved. Favorite is successfully growing in his region and is quite popular.

Description apricot Favorite

The favorite was singled out at the turn of the millennium, in 2000, in Moscow, and in 2004 was included in the State Register for the Central Region. Since then, it has been quite successfully grown and recognized as one of the best for the Moscow Region.

The tree has a moderate growth force, reaches a height of four meters. The crown is translucent, rather rare, well lit and ventilated. The form is sprawling, slightly raised.

Favorite apricot tree has a sparse, well-ventilated crown

It does not require pollinators, because it has high self-fertility, which is an important factor for cold regions. But in the vicinity of such varieties as Monastyrsky, Lel, Tsarsky - productivity will be higher.

The gardener does not have to wait long for the first berries from the Favorite - he will probably try them 3-4 years after planting, which is a good indicator.

The fruits look great - small (average 30 g), bright orange, rounded berry, with a glossy surface and a barely noticeable fluff. The berry is decorated with a large blush on the sunny side. Gorgeous, juicy, but dense and tasty pulp, with a very small bone falling out of the berry when it is broken. Five points - this is a tasting assessment of the taste of the Favorite fruits (at the time of registration of the variety, the rating was lower - 4.5 points).

Berries are well stored and transported. They are good in fresh form, and jams, preserves and compotes from them are simply amazing. Good for drying.

Apricot berries Orange favorite with a bright blush

Yield is not a favorite of the Favorite - one tree produces an average of 20 kg of fruit, which is clearly not enough for a large family. Therefore, you will have to plant several apricot trees to fully satisfy the need for harvesting for the winter.

Late fruit ripening is perhaps the main disadvantage of this variety. In the years when autumn comes early and the summer was rainy, the berries do not have time to ripen and remain greenish on the branches.

Favorite has good winter hardiness of wood and good resistance of flower buds to short return frosts.

Moderately resistant to kleasterosporiosis, slightly affected by aphids (1%).

Apricot planting

If the gardener decides to plant several apricot trees on his plot, then they need to be located at a distance of four meters from each other in a row. In the case when there will be more than one row, then each next should be no closer than five meters from the neighboring one. This arrangement will provide good lighting and airing of crowns, as well as the convenience of caring for trees.

It is good if the trees are placed along the fence, which will protect them from the cold wind. Even better, if this fence is located north or northeast of the young landings. Instead of a fence, there may be thick trees or a wall of a building. Well, if there is nothing like this, then for the first three to four years you will have to protect the trees with specially made shields painted in white in order to reflect sunlight.

Apricot is undemanding in soil composition, its structure is much more important. Apricot grows best on loose, permeable to water and air, soils. Unsuitable for growing damp places, with a close location of groundwater.

Trees are planted in early spring. An experienced gardener will choose such a time for this when the sap flow has not yet arrived, but is about to begin. In this case, a young tree waking up in a new place will immediately begin to root, go to growth, and by winter it will get stronger enough. Such a tree will be much easier to bear the coming frosts.

How to choose the right seedlings

In the fall, when the nurseries begin a massive digging of seedlings for sale, they select the best specimens with well-developed roots and healthy, intact stems.

They prefer seedlings at the age of 1-2 years, such ones take root better and grow faster.

Some inexperienced gardeners believe that it is better to plant older trees, supposedly so they will get the crop earlier. It's a delusion. The older the tree, the more painful it is in the transplant. By its age, it has already grown quite large roots that can not be dug without damage, often significant. In a new place, such a tree is sick for a long time, it is difficult to take root. As a result, his younger counterparts are likely to overtake both in growth and at the beginning of fruiting.

How to preserve seedlings until spring

For a quiet winter sleep, young seedlings need to provide two conditions:

• Wet environment for roots. To do this, they are first immersed in a solution of clay and mullein - the so-called talker. Then placed in bags or boxes with wet sand or sawdust.
• Temperature conditions from 0 ° C to +5 ° C. You can put seedlings in the basement or dug in the ground. In the latter case, you should take care of good insulation.
• The seedlings should be at rest until the moment of planting. They should wake up already in a new place.
  

  After digging a seedling, it will need to be covered from frost

How to properly prepare the landing pit

Pits for planting should be prepared in advance, no later than 2-3 weeks before planting. And since it will be difficult to do this in the spring, for obvious reasons (snow, frozen ground), pits are prepared in the fall.

The size of the pit should be sufficient to accommodate the root system of the plant and the desired amount of nutrient mixture. Usually it is enough to dig a hole with a diameter of 70-80 cm and the same depth. In this case, the fertile part of the soil from its upper part must be set aside separately.

Then proceed to the tab in the pit of the nutrient mixture. It consists of equal parts of soil deposited during digging pits, sand and organic matter (humus, compost, grassroots peat). And also you need to add mineral fertilizers - 300 g of superphosphate and 1-2 kg of wood ash. It is advisable to cover the pit until spring to avoid leaching of nutrients.

How to plant young trees

In the spring, seedlings are taken out of storage places, examined, make sure that they have tolerated wintering well (the bark is smooth, shiny, healthy sections, light green) and begin to plant.

A young tree is lowered into a hole on a previously prepared mound of the nutrient mixture, straightened roots and covered with earth, tampering layer by layer. At the same time, they make sure that the root neck is slightly deepened (3-5 cm), and the grafting site is located at least 5 cm above the ground. A near-stem circle is formed and watered abundantly to ensure a good fit of the earth to the roots and to eliminate the voids that inevitably form when filling.

When planting apricot, the pit is filled with earth by tamping layer by layer

Now it remains only to cut the seedling to a height of 60-80 cm, which is the first stage in the formation of the future crown of the Favorite.

Features of cultivation and subtleties of care

The rules of cultivation and care for Favorit apricot are simple and it is better to follow them. In this case, under favorable weather conditions, the gardener can guarantee a good harvest.

Watering

Everyone knows that any plant requires watering. Here are just the irrigation rules for different plants are different. Apricot Favorite refers to drought-resistant crops, reacts poorly to water stagnation, dampness. Therefore, it is watered only 3-4 times per season, but abundantly. After watering, the soil should be moist to a depth of 30-35 cm.

Watering schedule:

1. During flowering or after its end.
2. In early summer, when there is an active growth of young shoots and berries.
3. After the harvest.
4. Pre-winter watering in late autumn.

It is especially important to observe this schedule for young trees with an underdeveloped root system. At the age of 7-8 years, the value of watering for a tree becomes not too critical and can be reduced, especially in the rainy season.

Top dressing

When the tree uses up a significant part of the nutrients planted during planting, they begin to additionally fertilize. As a rule, this is started after the harvest of the first fruit.

Now the tree will need organic fertilizers, which are planted in the soil when digging tree trunks in spring or autumn. This will need to be done once every 3-4 years in the amount of 5 kg of humus or compost per 1 m² trunk circle.

Mineral fertilizers are applied annually. Nitrogen - in the spring, potash - in the early summer, phosphorus - in the fall.

Table: types of mineral fertilizers, their dosage for apricot Favorite

An overdose of fertilizers for apricot is more harmful than their lack.

Trimming

Some inexperienced gardeners sometimes miss this important component of annual tree care, and this should not be done. The science of crop behavior is complicated only at first glance. Having carefully studied the types of scraps and the rules for their implementation, understanding how the crown should be formed correctly, the gardener will later easily and competently perform these works.

Formative

For the apricot Favorit, as for a fairly tall tree, a three-tier crown formation, which is called a sparse-tier, is suitable. The order of its implementation is as follows:

1. After the young sapling has survived its first winter, before the sap flow begins, you need to cut all the branches “into the ring”, except for two or three, which will be left to form the first tier. The lower of them should be at a distance of 30-40 cm from the ground. All others, including the branches of subsequent tiers, should be at a distance from each other of 25-35 cm. The central conductor and the skeletal branches left should be shortened by 30-40%.
2. With an interval of 1-2 years, according to the same scheme, first the second and then the third tiers are formed. The only difference is that now they also shorten the branches of the second order, which begin to grow from skeletal. And also in the last year, the conductor is completely cut out over the base of the upper branch. This is done to limit the growth of the tree.
3. In subsequent years, it is necessary to ensure that none of the skeletal branches takes on the role of the central conductor and does not continue the growth of the tree in height. For this, the branches of each tier should be of the same length and not have superiority over the neighboring ones.
   

   Apricot Favorit is given a sparse-tier crown shape

Sanitary

This is the simplest type of pruning, known even to the inexperienced and novice gardener. Without knowing any rules, a person intuitively understands that it is desirable to remove dry branches. Sick and broken, too. To clarify, this procedure is usually carried out in the fall, when the garden is prepared for winter and early spring, if frostbitten or broken branches are added during the winter.

Regulatory

Designed to adjust crown density. If, growing inward, the shoots overshadow the crown, they are thinned out. This operation is usually carried out simultaneously with sanitary pruning. It is worth noting that due to the inherent Favorite, the sparse structure of the crown, this type of trimming is rarely used for it. And also in the summer, cut off the tips of young, annual twigs by 10-15 cm. This is called "chasing," the purpose of which is to encourage the growth of additional shoots. Next year they will give additional fruiting.

Anti-aging

When an old tree reduces the yield, fruiting passes to the ends of the branches, you can extend the fruiting period by rejuvenation.

First of all, you need to expose all skeletal branches inside the crown. In a year, a large number of young shoots will appear on them. Tops growing up are cut out, and many flower buds should form on the remaining annual shoots.

And you can also conduct a more serious operation - replace two - three skeletal branches with new ones. To do this, they are cut, leaving a part 30-40 cm long. By next year, several young shoots will grow on them, which cut all but one on each branch - the strongest and located on the outside of the parent branch. They will be a continuation of the cut old branches.

After a few years, in the same way, it will be possible to replace another 2-3 branches.

Avoiding Crop Errors

Any pruning, although it serves to benefit the tree, if improperly performed, can cause damage, sometimes significant. Therefore, before starting an operation to cut any branches, the gardener must study the basic rules.

• Do not approach the tree with a blunt instrument. Knives, hacksaws, secateurs, delimbers, should always be sharpened sharply. Only in this case, the slices will be clean, smooth. and will be easy to heal.
• To prevent infection, the instrument must be disinfected before use. For this purpose, alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, 1% solution of copper sulfate are suitable. Do not use gasoline, kerosene and other petroleum products for disinfection.
• Do not leave knots when pruning. When they dry, become saturated with moisture, they will become a refuge for pathogens of various diseases, especially fungi, which over time can affect healthy wood, possibly forming a hollow.
• Thick, heavy branches need to be cut in parts.
• All sections with a diameter of more than one centimeter are treated with garden var. When purchasing it, you need to ensure that the composition does not contain oil products (kerosene, gasoline, paraffin, petrolatum, etc.). A good garden var can only be prepared on the basis of natural ingredients - lanolin, beeswax, etc.

Diseases and Pests

Of course, you need to know the main pests and signs of disease. But it is more important to know and take preventative measures.

Prevention

A garden in which preventive and sanitary measures are carried out on time, diseases and pests are bypassed. The gardener needs to know what kind of work these activities consist of and when to carry them out.

Autumn

Time to put things in order in the garden, collect fallen leaves, cut dry and diseased branches, and light a big fire, in the burnt, hot ash of which it is so good to bake potatoes. When the ash cools down, it must be collected and stored, because it is a valuable mineral fertilizer.

After that, you need to dilute the slaked lime in the water, add 1% copper sulfate and whiten the mushrooms and skeletal branches of trees. The garden begins to look beautiful, but the goal is not only (and not so much) in this - such whitewashing will protect the bark of the tree from winter sunburns, and early in the spring will stop insects who want to climb the tree’s crown to satisfy their hunger by eating swollen buds, only blooming flowers, the first succulent leaves and ovaries.

Lime whitewash will protect apricot bark from sunburn

Then you need to pick up a shovel and dig up the trunks, disturbing at the same time, bugs, ticks and other harmful insects already plunged into a winter dream, so that they would be destroyed by night frost.

Now it is time to take the sprayer and treat the crowns, trunks and branches of the trees, as well as the soil of the tree trunks, with 3% solution of copper sulfate (you can take a 5% solution of iron sulfate or Bordeaux mixture). This simple operation will disinfect bark and soil, neutralize spores of fungi and insects.

Next, you need to shelter young trees from frost in the huts and wrap the trunks of older adults with roofing material so that the hares do not bite them.

Winter

Several times during the winter you need to visit the garden to just admire the snowy trees, fancifully covered with hoarfrost, and at the same time check their condition. It will be nice if the shelters of young apricots, as well as the storage location of the dug seedlings (if any) are additionally covered with a layer of snow about 60 cm.

Spring

In early spring, you need to scoop up the snow from the tree trunks, remove the shelters, and treat the trees with potent preparations from fungi, ticks and other insects. To do this, you can use the long-tested:

• DNOC, a complex preparation, prevents the appearance of all known fungal diseases and pests, it can be used once every three years.
• Nitrafen is also a complex drug, it can be used once a year.
• Copper sulfate 3% solution.
• Bordeaux mixture 5% solution.
• After flowering, you can proceed to periodic treatments with systemic fungicides (antifungal drugs) and insecticides (insecticides). They must be used at the intervals specified in the instructions (usually 2-3 weeks), especially after rains. At the end of fruit ripening, only preparations with a short waiting period can be used. For example, Horus (used no less than 7 days before eating berries) or Quadris, the waiting period is 3-5 days.

Inspect the bark of trees. If cracks are found that can occur during frosts with frequent changes in temperature, they must be thoroughly cleaned, disinfected with 1% solution of copper sulfate and covered with garden varnish.

Diseases and Pests

It is unlikely that the gardener will have to deal with them if he conscientiously carried out maintenance work. But just in case, you need to know what diseased plants and pests look like, what are the main signs of their manifestation.

Kleasterosporiosis (perforated spotting)

Fungal disease. It affects the leaves, fruits and shoots of plants. Usually, the first signs are found in the spring, with the appearance of small (1-2 mm) red-brown spots on the leaves, which quickly, in 1-2 weeks, grow to sizes of 5-10 mm. From the inside, the spots dry out and get enough sleep, forming holes. After that, the leaves turn yellow, dry and fall. With a massive defeat, the so-called popularly, summer leaf fall occurs. Similar, red-brown spots and tubercles appear on the affected fruits, in neglected cases turning into a continuous scab. Treatment with fungicides according to the instructions.

Moniliosis (monilial burn)

The spores of the fungus are usually introduced, during flowering, by the bees. Following the infected flower, young shoots and leaves are affected. They twist like a burn and sag. To prevent further penetration of the fungus, the affected shoots need to be cut, capturing 20-30 cm of healthy wood, perhaps even remove the branch completely.

In the summer, the fungus infects the fruits with gray rot and wrinkled and blackened. Such fruits must be removed. The diseased plant is treated with fungicides.

Cytosporosis

It affects the bark of a tree through damage to it. The fungus, penetrating under the bark, causes its swelling, the formation of tubercles and wrinkles. The affected area of ​​the bark dries out and becomes covered with cracks, through which the gum begins to stand out. Also, leaves, flowers, ovaries that hang on the tree without falling dry on the affected tree. Treatment is reduced to the removal of the affected branches completely and treatment with fungicides. Prevention is the usual one described above.

Photo Gallery: Major Apricot Diseases

Weevil beetle

Winters in cracks in the bark of a tree, in the upper layers of the soil. With the onset of spring, it rises to the crown and begins to eat buds, buds, ovaries, leaves. At this time, beetles can be collected manually. To do this, use fabric that is spread under a tree and shake sleeping insects on it. Since beetles are in this state only at low temperatures (up to + 5 ° C), then with the onset of warm days this opportunity will be missed. And also it is necessary to carry out treatment with insecticides, for example, Decis.

Aphid

It is usually carried on a tree by ants. It settles primarily on the inner side of the leaves, then on young shoots. Belongs to the class of sucking. When the soft flesh of the leaves is eaten, they curl, which reduces the effectiveness of spraying with insecticides (Decis, Fufanon). Therefore, before processing, it is desirable to cut off all twisted leaves.

Khrushchev

These are the larvae of various beetles, including weevils (he has them small, from 4 to 6 mm), May (20-25 mm) and others. Creep out in early June from eggs laid in the soil. They feed on apricot roots, which can cause significant damage. In order to fight with khrushchah, it is necessary to treat the soil with Diazonin. It acts for three weeks, does not accumulate in the soil and does not fall into the fruit.

Photo Gallery: Apricot Favorite Pests

Grade Reviews

I share observations on the winter hardiness of some apricot varieties that are prevalent in the Moscow region. In 2012, seedlings of Favorit and Aquarius varieties were purchased on the market and planted on the site. In the winter of 2012/13, they suffered well: the Favorite was slightly frozen, and Aquarius was not frozen at all. The winter of 2013/14 dealt a heavy blow to these two varieties: almost the entire crown freezed out of the Favorite, and part of it fell out of the Aquarius. In summer, the trees partially managed to restore the crown, but their winter hardiness is doubtful.

Gartner

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My Favorite in the south of the Moscow region grew up with a luxurious tree, the growths were especially rapid in the summer of 2010 and this summer, 120-150 cm on average. The tree was in bloom in spring, but only one fruit (tasty) ripened in the summer, and in early September it broke it with a strong wind almost near the ground, there remained a stump of 20-30 centimeters. Upon closer inspection, the wood in the center of the trunk was noticeably frozen.

aprel

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The Moscow Region is the same 4 climatic zone, but there the winter leaves 20 days later and arrives 20 days earlier, so the same apricot Favorit does not ripen sometimes. Varieties for the suburbs are known, as are the names of those who derive them - Tsarsky, Favorit and others. The Favorite instilled this year, despite its low weight, 5.0 tasted good according to some data, and 4.5 according to others.

peappl

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Favorite among other advantages, stands out among other frost-resistant varieties, excellent taste of berries. For this property, residents of the Moscow Region forgive him for insufficient productivity and the fact that in some years his berries do not have time to ripen before the fall. The variety with confidence can be recommended for cultivation, among others, earlier, which will insure in the bad season.