Good afternoon, my reader. Garden cranberries require certain planting rules. If you can find a site suitable for this culture and provide it with high-quality care, then after 2-3 years you can harvest a good harvest of fragrant large berries.
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Varieties of cranberries
Cranberry belongs to frost-resistant perennials, forming shrubs with roots that penetrate the soil up to 10-15 cm. Leathery leaves are colored dark green. Miniature pinkish buds form inflorescences in the form of a brush on vertical processes. On horizontal shoots, berries are not formed.
A large-fruited crop from the USA and a marsh cranberry variety are offered for cultivation. In both species, the height of the vertical fruiting stems is approximately 20 cm. The length of horizontal shoots in marsh cranberries reaches 0.4 m, and in large-fruited cranberries - 2 m.
In Russian conditions with an unstable climate, a cold-resistant cranberry that does not require shelter for the winter adapts better. It blooms in late spring. Berries (weighing about 1.5 g) can be harvested in the second decade of September.
The large-fruited variety (with a berry weight of about 2.5 g) blooms closer to mid-June, so late-ripening varieties can be cultivated only in the southern territories. For the northern regions, you can pick up early maturing varieties.
Reproduction methods
Garden cranberries are mainly propagated by cuttings. You can purchase several bushes and cut cuttings 10-12 cm long from both vertical and horizontal stems.
Deepen the cuttings, leaving about 4 cm above the surface, into a mixture of sifted sand and crushed high-moor peat (1: 2). After rooting, they are moved to a permanent place.
Site selection
For cranberries, a loose soil with a high acidity index (pH 4.0-5.5) is required. When watering, it is also necessary to ensure the acidic reaction of the water (pH 4.0-5.0). If these conditions are not met, then signs of chlorosis become noticeable on the leaves. The plant gradually stops developing.
Sandy loam or peaty soil without excessive waterlogging, causing root rot, is suitable. The place should be well lit and not have sharp elevation changes.
Planting cranberries
The site for the spring planting of cranberries must be carefully dug up in August-September. A bed is laid out on the soil surface, maintaining its minimum size of 1.4x4.0 m.
Since this berry culture requires a special substrate, the upper soil layer 20-25 cm deep is removed and ground peat is placed in the pit. You can replace it with a mixture of fallen coniferous needles, sawdust, well-rotted forest floor. Take the components in equal proportions. Add some sand for looseness.
Prepare acidified water by dissolving 2 tsp in 6 liters of liquid. l. oxalic crystalline (or citric) acid. You can dilute half a cup of apple cider vinegar (9%) in a ten liter bucket. Water the soil by adding potassium sulfate to the garden - 7.5 g and twice the amount of ammonium sulfate.
Landing holes are made. Their dimensions should be twice the volume of an earthen clod of a cranberry seedling. A layer of fine crushed stone or pebbles about 10 cm high is poured, then a small amount of soil wet mixture is added and a seedling is installed. Its root collar should be at the same level as when grown in a container. The voids are filled with a substrate. Planting is watered, slightly compacted. Then mulching is carried out with a layer of 4-5 cm using coarse sand.
Cranberry care
For two weeks after planting, cranberries require daily watering. Then moistening is carried out less often, not allowing the soil to dry out. In hot dry weather, daily sprinkling is required. If the summer is set to be rainy, then watering is correlated with the amount of precipitation, preventing waterlogging of the soil, which leads to the death of plants.
Young plants before the beginning of fruiting during the growing season are fed 4-5 times with ready-made mineral complex, using, for example, "Kristalon" or "Solution" (it is required to dilute 20 g of the selected facilities). This volume is consumed per square meter.
You can replace the finished fertilizers with a mixture of double superphosphate and potassium sulfate (5 g each) with the addition of urea (2 g). Boric acid and copper sulfate, as well as 6-8 crystals of potassium permanganate, are additionally introduced at the tip of a teaspoon. Dilute the prepared mixture in 10 liters of settled water. Organics and fertilizers containing chlorine are not applied under the cranberries.
When cranberry bushes reach three years old, they need to be watered with acidified water, which is prepared with the same concentration as when planting.
In plants less than three years old, damaged, rotten or underdeveloped shoots are pruned as necessary. In adult bushes, after harvest or in early spring, it is necessary to additionally trim the horizontal shoots that rise above the vertical branches.
With an interval of 5 years, it is recommended to rejuvenate the cranberry plantings. In late autumn, before the first snow, when the ground is already freezing, it is necessary to pour a peat-sand mixture onto the berry, maintaining a thickness of 30 mm. Such an operation allows the soil to improve its health, and also promotes the development of additional roots.
Every autumn they practice water-charging watering of berry plantings. After that, the trunks are covered with a layer of peat. For a safe wintering, young plants are covered with non-woven material, coniferous spruce branches or burlap.
Cranberries are usually harvested in the autumn. Late-ripening varieties can be left under the snow for the winter. Such fruits are harvested in spring. For storage, the berries are frozen.
Do you plant garden cranberries on the site?
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