How to Grow Roxane Apricot

The apricot tree has long ceased to be a wonder in the gardens of not only the southern, but also the central part of Russia. But recently, larger varieties have appeared, such as Roxanne. For this tree to live on your site, you will have to pay it a little more attention. This is especially true for its protection against diseases and preparation for winter.

Roxanne variety description

Apricot Roxana (Prunus Armeniaca Roxana) is a medium-sized (up to 3.5 m) tree, bearing fruit in the 3-4th year after planting a one-year-old seedling.

Roxana blooms a little later than others: in the southernmost regions of Russia - closer to the end of April, in the more northern - to the beginning of May. This feature increases his chances of escape from frequent spring frosts.

The variety is self-fertile, ripening in the early and mid-early dates - by the end of July and early August. Fruits in large fruits, the smallest of which grow up to 60 g, medium grow up to 70 g, and in the most favorable conditions grow up to 80 g or more. This crop produces oval, slightly elongated, pale orange fruits with a transition to red tones. The pulp is light orange, dense and aromatic, sweet, but with a slight acidity.

The density of the fruits makes it possible to store them longer than soft varieties. This quality helps to use the crop not only for home consumption, but also for transportation and sale.

According to reviews of familiar gardeners from the Belgorod region, the remarkable Roxane variety has its own characteristics, because of which it is not yet very widespread. This is not the best frost resistance - up to -24 ... -25 ° C and a small amount of yield from one tree - in practice it is possible to collect 4-5 kg. However, the quality of the resulting fruit is worth growing.

Apricot Roxanne bears fruit in large orange fruits, in the process of ripening, a red blush begins to appear on them

The creators of the Roxane apricot variety

Varieties of Roxanne The registry of breeding achievements of the Russian Federation does not contain. And this is not surprising: it was obtained relatively recently - in 2008 at the Research Institute of Fruits and Vegetables Malatya, which is located in the eastern part of Turkey. Roksana (Kayısı Roxanne) belongs to the group of Afghan apricots. It is placed in a special register - the National List of Varieties.

The Research Institute recommends a new variety for cultivation in transitional and temperate climates of all continents. According to Turkish breeders, the apricot Roksana is ideal for the production of fruit juices.

Roxana cultivation

Planting apricot should be carried out in spring, in early April. In most domestic regions, heat is already approaching at this time. It is dangerous to miss time: if the temperature starts to rise quickly, the buds begin to wake up on the seedling, and the chances of its survival significantly decrease.

The location for the location of the Roxane variety apricot is best chosen as open as possible for the sun, but closed for cold winds. The optimal soil for this plant should be light, breathable and fertile. The soil reaction is slightly alkaline.

It is important to note that the crown of an apricot of this variety does not grow far, so the distance from other trees or fences can be no more than 3 m. In the place specified for the apricot, a pit about 65x65x65 cm in size with an obligatory layer of expanded clay drainage or small pebbles.

The bottom layer of the landing pit should be drainage, fused pebbles and broken bricks can serve as material for it

For drainage you need to fill a hill of soil. In the land with humus should be present:

• 500 g of superphosphate;
• 2 kg of ash;
• 100 g of potassium salt;
• 200 g of ammonium nitrate;
• 1 kg of lime.

An alternative to industrial fertilizers is a humus bucket and 2 cups of wood ash.

Step-by-step instructions for planting Roxane cultivar:

1. In the evening, place the seedling in a warm solution of any biostimulant. You can add manganese there too - this will help disinfect the roots. It is important that the concentration of this drug is not too high - the manganese solution should not be darker than pink.
2. Form a hill out of the ground in a pit. On top, you can pour another small layer (1-2 cm) of humus. It will help young roots to get a little stronger before they begin to contact the fertilizer.
3. Set the support for the seedling, stepping a little from the middle, and place the apricot in the middle of the earthen hill. The roots are evenly distributed to the sides of the trunk and covered in small portions of soil.
   

   It is important to try on the prepared seedling first to the size of the planting pit.
4. After filling the landing pit with soil, the root neck should be about 4 cm above its level. So that water does not flow during irrigation, you need to build around the irrigation circle from the ground. The earth should be well compacted by hand and spilled with water with a temperature not lower than + 22 ... + 25 °. It is recommended to use at least 2 buckets of water per 1 pit. On top you need to place a layer of mulch from chopped grass, straw or sawdust up to 3-4 cm.
   

   After a seedling is planted, the soil around it is surely watered and compacted by hand

5. Fix the tree by tying it with soft material to the support. You can trim all branches by 1/3 - this is necessary to preserve his strength. If the sun shines too bright on this day, you can protect the seedling with white agrofibre.

When planting apricot Roxane cultivars, it is important to take into account the natural feature of its location in the soil. The fact is that in the wild it grows on rocky soils, often even on steep slopes of mountains. This variety does not require the thickest soil layer, but stones must be located below the roots. Only such a “layer cake” will make it possible to drain excess water.

Care Features

Getting a good crop of Roxane apricot is impossible without proper agricultural technology. Caring for a young tree includes:

• watering;
• top dressing;
• surface treatment of the trunk circle;
• pruning excess shoots;
• protection against pests and diseases;
• Apricot preparation for winter.

Watering

Despite the fact that apricots love moisture, their roots negatively relate to constant waterlogging of the soil. Roksana variety tolerates heat and drought easily, therefore, if the gardener has a choice: to water, for example, before leaving the garden dry soil or not to water, it would be wiser to leave the apricot without watering. However, a long drought (more than a month) will lead to shredding of fruits.

The number of buckets of water for irrigation may vary:

• on a seedling up to 1.5 m high - 2 buckets;
• on an adult tree - from 5 buckets, if the temperature does not exceed + 30 ° С, to 8, when the drought has been standing for a long time.

Typically, watering intervals are determined by temperature. But there is a proven way to understand exactly when you need to drink water to land. For this purpose, dig a hole deep in the knee and take a sample of the substrate. If it is possible to form a lump in the fist from the soil taken from the bottom of the pit, you don’t need to water it and it’s even dangerous - the roots can rot due to excess moisture.

Some apricot lovers from our gardening use irrigation systems based on the drip supply of water to the roots for irrigation. But most gardeners consciously abandoned this method, because they believe that the apricot Roxanne, born in hot and deserted areas, is inherently not adapted to constantly incoming moisture. And the ideal irrigation regime for this plant is abundant irrigation, followed by complete drying of the soil.

The apricot root system needs sparse and plentiful watering so that water can stand on the surface after them

Watering should be completely stopped about a month before the apricots ripen. Otherwise, the fruits will begin to pour and crack, juice will flow out of them, which will necessarily lead to rapid decay. To avoid this, you need to calculate the timing. Apricot Roksana in the southernmost regions of Russia begins to ripen by the end of July, in the more northern - in early August. So, the last watering of southerners falls on the last decade of June, and apricots of the middle strip - on the first days of July.

Necessary feeding

If the soil in the planting pit contains all the necessary nutrients, this stock will last for 1-2 seasons. Apricot Roxane in the wild does not grow on the richest soils, so adding fertilizers most often begins only in the third year.

As soon as the soil thaws and warms up, nitrogen should be added to it. If top dressing will be applied as a solution, the dosage should be 10-15 g per bucket of water for one tree.

After a month, any fertilizer containing phosphorus and potassium in the composition should come to replace nitrogen fertilizers, for example: 2 tbsp. l double granular superphosphate and 1 tbsp. l potassium in a bucket of water and at least 300 g of ash.

Photo gallery: composition for summer top dressing

Barrel Circle Processing

The earth around the trunk of a young tree needs not only constant weeding, but also loosening. The procedure is especially necessary the day after watering, because otherwise the soil may become covered with a continuous crust, which will prevent the passage of air to the roots. When caring for the apricots of the Afghan group after loosening, it is useful to cover the near-stem circle with mulch from any dried grass, which is enough in the gardens.

The trunk circle of the trunk of a young tree should be mulched after each watering and cultivation

Trimming excess shoots

Some gardeners, when the apricot reaches a height of about 1.8 m, cut off the central conductor - this technique will increase the sun exposure of fruits in the future and simplify the care and harvest, as it does not require a very high staircase.

But the peculiarity of the Roxane variety is that the crown itself does not grow too widely. And if pruning during planting is justified by the desire to help its adaptation, then pruning a grown tree is no longer necessary. Its crown is formed by itself, and trimming will require only dry or curved branches.

Apricot preparation for winter

If you grow a thermophilic apricot Roxane variety in the middle lane, it will need to be protected from frost.

Dry autumn, before leaving for the winter, you will need to saturate the soil with moisture. Up to 3 buckets of water are consumed per 1 young tree, 6-8 buckets per adult.

In the autumn shallow digging under the fruiting apricot it will be useful to make:

• not less than a bucket of humus or grass compost;
• 2 tbsp. l potassium sulfate;
• a handful of superphosphate.

In the first 2-3 autumn, a young Roxanne apricot tree is mulched for the winter. But when it becomes an adult and begins to bear fruit, the need for this procedure will no longer be. Moreover, it can harm the plant - the roots covered with mulch will not want to go deep into the ground and will not prepare for freezing of the upper soil layer.

Closer to winter, the tree trunk is whitened with a mixture of clay, mullein and lime. The recipe for effective whitewashing based on 10 l of water:

• 2.0-2.5 kg of slaked lime;
• 250-300 g of copper sulfate;
• 1 kg of oily clay;
• 1-2 shovels of cow manure (optional).

Many gardeners add wood ash to the mix.

The consistency of the whitewash solution should resemble thick sour cream and lie flat on the surface of the barrel

Such whitewashing should be generous, that is, the solution should penetrate into all large and small cracks in the cortex. Only then this technique will serve as a barrier to frost and various rodents.

In addition, covering material is used to warm the apricot.

It is generally accepted that several layers of kapron, or other covering material, which cuts the barrel from damage but allows air to pass through, can serve as protection. However, the experience of our gardening suggests the opposite. The fact is that the apricot is afraid of mashing. And such winter wrapping in nylon can greatly damage the tree during thaws. Experience has shown that ordinary painting, even with acrylic garden paint, copes with the task of pushing rodents away from the bark. But for protection from the drying wind it is safer to use bags made of synthetics. For fidelity over the bags, many use ordinary roofing. The experience of gardeners shows that closer to spring from the trunk, it is imperative to scoop up all the snow. It is not difficult to do this, thus apricots are reliably protected from heating. After all, it is precisely the matting that is the greatest danger to such tender apricot varieties like Roxanne.

Video: features of planting and care for apricot

Apricot Disease

The most common apricot diseases are fungal. Roksana variety as a resident of a drier climate can be affected by them during prolonged spring or summer rains. High humidity provokes diseases such as:

• kleasterosporiosis;
• verticillosis;
• moniliosis and many others.

To protect against them, you will need to follow the rules of prevention and spray trees with fungicides.

Most of all, Roxane's apricot can be harmed by moniliosis, or a monilial burn. The disease spreads in unusual conditions for the southern variety, when the cold stands for a long time and it rains. The most dangerous period for the infection of apricot with moniliosis is the time of its flowering. The tree dries quickly. If infection occurs later, the fruit will die from rot.

Fungal disease moniliosis (monilial burn) on apricots affects leaves and fruits

How to fight

Apricot Roxane is considered disease resistant. But the plant must be periodically carefully inspected. In order not to create favorable conditions for the appearance of diseases, it is important to observe their prevention:

• carry out preventive treatment with 3% Bordeaux liquid before blooming and 1% after;
• constantly monitor the condition of the trunk and the trunk circle.

If the tree still shows signs of the disease, the branches and fruits must be removed. After this, apricot should be treated with drugs:

• Topsin-M;
• Gates;
• Topaz.

Work must be carried out strictly according to the specified instructions. To better cover the tissues with a solution, gardeners add crushed and melted laundry soap into it.

A few years ago, our apricot tree was infected with moniliosis. Looking ahead, I want to say that he was saved. And it happened that way. All decayed fruits had to be collected and taken away to the fire. The leaves were withered, so they were also collected and burned. But the branches were examined, there were no signs of the disease on them, therefore they were sprayed with copper sulfate and did not cut. 650 g were treated with urea the next spring, plus 50 g of copper sulfate was added to a bucket of water, 3% Bordeaux liquid on April 2, then two weeks before flowering and after it was sprayed with Horus. The most difficult thing was to catch the time when there were no flowers yet, and the temperature was no less than + 8 ... + 10 ° С, so that the wet tree would dry out and not be covered with ice from night cooling. That's all: the apricot recovered. For the second season, we specially examine those branches that were saved then - no signs of the disease!

Photo gallery: Apricot preparations

Apricot Pests

The most dangerous insects for apricot Roxane cultivars are aphids and codling moths.

Aphid

Tiny insects are most often activated from the end of May to the end of June.They start on the underside of apricot leaves and gradually draw nutrient fluid out of them. The leaves quickly curl up, dry out, and after that the shoots left without leaves begin to die.

Aphid appears on the bottom of the leaves and feeds on their juice

How to save a tree

Roxane's apricot can be saved, like other varieties, by common folk remedies - infusions:

• garlic husks;
• onion husks;
• chopped potato tops.

The most effective chemicals for wood processing:

• Inta Vir;
• Bi-58;
• Neoron Accord;
• Tabazole;
• Fatrin;
• Tsunami;
• Imidor
• Sharpei.

Before spraying, you need to moisten the plant - so it will prepare for the effects of drugs. This can be done with water from the hose, directing it from the bottom to the leaves.

Plants with a strong, pest-repelling aroma are also planted next to the tree:

• saffron;
• basil;
• peppermint etc.
  

  To scare away pests, you can plant basil next to the apricot

Photo Gallery: Chemicals Against Aphids

Moth

The caterpillar, which appears closer to the end of summer, can cause serious damage to the delicate Roxane variety. During the ripening period, she eats fruit, then, having gained strength, hibernates in the ground under a tree, as well as under its bark at the bottom of the trunk.

Moth can kill all the fruits, it eats seeds and pulp immediately after the formation of the ovary

How to deal with a pest

Proven way to defeat the codling moth:

• 0.2% Chlorophos solution;
• 0.5% solution of Entobacterin.

You can use the drugs only after studying the instructions on the package - they can be produced in different forms and concentrations. Processing is carried out 2 times, with a break per week.

A solution for wood processing is prepared from Chlorophos

But if fruits have already begun to ripen on apricot, such preparations should not be used. Leave this job for autumn and spring prevention.

Grade Reviews

I saw Roxanne's apricots from acquaintances near the Mines. They specially planted him behind the wall - to protect him from the north winds. Short, growing for several years. They say that tasty, but then the apricots were immature, although already large. The only drawback - few pieces on a tree - eat everything in a couple of weeks right from the branches.

Lyudmila Gerasimova

//vk.com/rastenijdoma

My grandmother grows this variety, he loves the sun and a hot climate, it really is large, juicy, the taste resembles a peach, the color is not very bright. Even overripe apricots have an elastic egg-like shape, bear fruit in a year, and bloom every year, the tree has a large dense flowering)).

Daria Prokopyeva

//vk.com/rastenijdoma

For some reason, Roxane’s apricot variety is rarely grown, probably they are afraid that it will freeze. My sister in the Rostov region has grown one tree, probably already about 5 years old. It bears fruit for the second year - apricots are large, almost with a chicken egg. They lie in the refrigerator much longer than other varieties, very light. You can sell, carry, they say, but they are few in the tree, they themselves eat everything (.

lyudmi

//lyudmi.livejournal.com/65758.html#t221662

Despite the fact that large apricot of the new Roksana variety is not often found in our areas, its fame among gardeners is growing rapidly. Indeed, in order to grow these wonderful fruits, it is enough to follow all the rules developed by experienced apricot lovers.