Apricot was previously considered a purely southern tree, but now it willingly grows in central Russia. Let's figure out whether it is worth growing an apricot from a stone and what a gardener should pay attention to.
Stone propagation for apricots
The stone apricot begins to bear fruit 5-6 years from the moment of planting the stone. However, there is a small catch:
- Is the variety from which the seed was taken suitable for the specific growing area?
- Is it possible to get a garden apricot - or will a vent, a wild and tart-tasting apricot grow from the stone? Despite the fact that wild apricot varieties are genetically not so far from garden varieties, and the taste may be as good as common garden varieties - it is still better to grow prepared crops than wild.
Therefore, in order to grow an apricot from a stone, you need to take the following measures:
- Use zoned varieties. This means that for planting, you need to take the seeds of those apricots that grow no more than 100 km from the point where you plan to plant them.
- Use vaccinations. After the seedling is in growth, instead of its natural branches, you can use the graft of the desired cultivars, which will give a good and tasty harvest.
IMPORTANT: For rootstocks, zoned cultivars must be used - otherwise the stalk will die without giving a crop. And the difference between a perch and a cultivated apricot is still small - and, unlike apples or pears, apricot wilds will give an edible and tasty harvest, and not sour and slightly edible fruits.
Planting seeds is carried out as follows:
- if you plan to plant in the ground, the bone is buried in the fall;
- if the seedling is grown in a pot, then the seed is planted in the spring.
The seeds are chosen from fruits that are ripe or even overripe. Even if the fruit itself is cracked and slightly rotten, and you cannot eat it, this does not mean that you cannot plant a seed on a seedling. The main thing is that it is easily separated from the pulp. The easiest way to select fruits whose seeds are ripe for planting is as follows: what falls on your head is ripe. Everything removed from a branch and ripened on the windowsill is not suitable for planting.
How to prepare a seed for planting
To get a seed for planting, you must first eat the apricot fruit. After that, if the bone is intact, does not have punctures, painful spots and deformities, you must proceed as follows:
- Rinse the bone in running clean water. Tap water with chlorine and ozone is not suitable - you need to use either spring or well water, or let the water settle and pass through a filter.
- Soak the bone. It should stay in water for 7 to 10 days, and the liquid should be changed daily.
- Disinfect. The stone is washed for 20 minutes in a solution of potassium permanganate.
- Carry out stratification. The bone is placed in wet sand or wet sawdust and placed in a refrigerator for 3 months (not in a freezer!). At this stage, weak seedlings will die, and healthy ones will be ready to plant in open ground.
Landing
It is best to sow the seed directly into the ground. However, if this is not possible, then the bone is placed in a one and a half liter pot at the beginning of March and there it is grown until it is planted on the site. The main thing when choosing a container is the ability to provide drainage with the removal of excess moisture from the roots of the seedling.
The pot is covered with polyethylene, but regularly opened a little, giving the planting an opportunity to ventilate. It is necessary to water the seedling in the daytime when the soil dries out. Then, when the first sprout appears, the pot is kept in the light for at least 12 hours, actively feeding it with potash fertilizers or at least just wood ash.
When the seedling grows to 35 cm, it is transplanted into the ground. Vaccinations are done in the spring: autumn grafts do not overwinter. Landing is carried out by transshipment, that is, with a clod of earth.
Vaccination is carried out in the second year of the seedling's life.
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