Rules for watering apple trees: how to water after planting, during flowering, fruiting and in winter

Many gardeners believe that there is no need to bother watering the orchard. They say that a fruit-bearing tree already has quite strong roots and a lush crown, so that it can independently obtain a sufficient amount of water from the soil and air masses. But such a statement is wrong. Such neglect of third-party watering significantly affects the quantity of fruits and their quality. For example, apple crops often suffer from a lack of water. If you want to pick large and juicy apples from apple trees every season, then read the rules for watering these crops.

Optimal watering frequency

First of all, when watering a garden, a responsible gardener should pay attention to how deeply the soil is moistened.
In order to make sure that the procedure was performed correctly, take a stick 15 cm or more long with a ribbed surface. Press this stick into the soil and check what is the optimal volume of irrigation liquid for each specific area. The length of the stick that will be covered with dirt will show how deeply the water penetrates when watering. There is also a standard watering regime for seed orchards:

• The first time water is added 15 days after the tree blooms;
• The second time irrigation is carried out when the active growth of young apples begins;
• the third time you need to add liquid, when buds appear on the shoots formed in the current season;
• the fourth portion of water will be required by the trees after harvesting from summer varieties of fruit trees or when winter varieties ripen;
• and the last time you need to irrigate the plantings is after the leaves fall.

It is impossible to add water during active flowering or immediately after its completion, since excess moisture can adversely affect the number of fruits set and lead to the formation of mold or rot.

If your garden is located in the steppe zone or the spring was too dry, then the lack of moisture in the soil will lead to a meager harvest in the fall.

During the hot and dry summer period, apple trees may need additional moisture. So add two or three extra pumps of water.

When to water apple tree plantings in the summer:

1. You need to add water once or twice at the end of June or during July.
2. You can water the trees once when their fruits begin to swell and are just beginning to color.

Popular varieties

Some of the most popular summer types include White filling, Melba, Grushovka Moskovskaya, and Candy.

White filling bears fruit in early July. The apples are round, greenish, and when fully ripe they become almost white. The pulp is grainy, with moderate sourness. Overripe fruits lose their taste. The variety is frost-resistant and begins to bloom in the 5th year.

Popular varieties

Melba bears fruit in late summer. The apples are large, slightly elongated, yellowish in color, and may be covered with a reddish striped blush. The pulp is light, with a slight candy aroma. Characterized by early fruiting from the 4th year.

Grushovka Moscow is a long-known variety. The fruits are medium-sized, slightly flattened, pale green, decorated with a spotted blush. The loose pulp has a distinct sourness. However, the fruits are practically not stored; they must be used within 3-4 weeks. A distinctive feature of the variety is its good keeping quality in winter.

The name Candy speaks for itself. The apples are sweet, yellow, with a crimson blush, tender, with light flesh. The fruits have poor keeping quality and also do not tolerate transportation well. The tree itself is unpretentious, resistant to diseases and tolerates sub-zero temperatures well.

Autumn varieties are ideal for canning. The most common apple trees are McIntosh, Streifling, Cinnamon Striped, Zhigulevskoe.

Mackintosh is distinguished by a special color - a red background with dark purple stripes. The fruits look attractive for commercial use. The flesh is lined with red veins. However, low frost resistance imposes restrictions on cultivation.

Mac

Streifling are large yellow-green apples with characteristic brown stripes. Juicy, whitish-yellow inside, sweet and sour in taste. The variety is well adapted to winter, but fruiting begins at 8-9 years of age.

Cinnamon striped is a long-known variety. The classic color of the fruit is red stripes on a green background. The flesh may also have red streaks. The special faint aroma of cinnamon gave rise to the name of the variety. Recommended for cultivation in the central European part of Russia, due to its excellent winter hardiness. However, the apple tree will produce its first harvest only 8-9 years after planting.

The Zhigulevskoye variety is widely known. The red-yellow fruits have creamy flesh with large grains. It begins to produce a harvest every year from the 5th year. The variety is weakly resistant to the cold season.

Winter apples are characterized by good preservation of fruits. Popular winter varieties: Antonovka, Jonathan, Golden Delicious, Welsey, Sinap Orlovsky.

The classic, long-known apple variety Antonovka is familiar with its unique aroma. The yellowish-golden fruits have a slight sourness. The tree itself is strong, unpretentious, and can easily withstand even severe frosts. It begins to bear fruit in the 7th year.

Antonovka

Jonathan has a high yield, but is very demanding in terms of care and soil composition. The pulp of the fruit is creamy, very juicy, with an excellent dessert taste. Apples store well until spring.

Golden Delicious ripens in September. The fruits are medium sized, slightly elongated. The skin is golden yellow with specks. Dense, juicy apples with cream-colored flesh. During storage, the taste becomes more delicate.

The average Welsey fruits are noticeably flattened. Yellow apples are covered with red stripes. The white pulp has a sour taste. An annual change in aroma is noted. From the 4th-5th year, seedlings produce a bountiful harvest, being well resistant to diseases.

Sinap Orlovsky, ripening in September, is well stored until May. Large apples, yellowish-green with a subtle blush, have a sour taste. The trees bear fruit annually from the 4th-5th year.

Sinap Orlovsky

Is it necessary to add water to apple tree seedlings after planting?

The first irrigation of the plantings must be done on the same day on which you complete the planting process.
If there are difficulties with sufficient moisture, then you can wait a little, but watering still needs to be done within 25–30 hours after planting the seedlings. If you planted plants in the spring, and it turned out to be damp and dirty, then reduce the volume of water added to a minimum (no more than 7 liters per seedling when planting).

In the first summer of active growth of the tree, it needs to be watered 3–5 more times. The exact amount of watering is difficult to calculate, since it is related to the composition of the soil in each specific area, as well as how the soil was prepared for planting (whether the planting hole was prepared in advance, the soil was loosened, fertilized, etc.). Also, do not forget about the features of the area:

1. If apple trees grow in areas that rarely experience prolonged periods of heat, then irrigation is carried out three times.
2. If the site is dominated by sandy soils, the area is constantly blown by winds, and the summer period is usually dry and very hot, then five waterings during the summer season will not be enough. In such conditions, it is necessary to carry out a second irrigation 25 days after the first, if there was enough rain, and after two weeks if the spring period was dry.
3. The fifth time water is applied to the seedlings in August, if the days are too hot and clear.

At times, dry autumn often prevails in steppe regions. If this happens, then you need to water the plantings, and then remove all unripe ends of the shoots.

During abnormal heat, annual apple trees need to be watered at least once every ten days until the heat goes away. Watering is carried out in a ring ditch, the depth of which reaches 15 cm (it is located a meter from the trunk of the fruit tree).

The volume of applied liquid should be 7–15 liters for loamy and chernozem soils and 17–20 liters for sandy substrates.

Types of fertilizers and features of their application

For normal development and abundant fruiting, a tree needs a large complex of micro- and macroelements.

The most important substances for plants are:

• phosphorus – promotes the development and strengthening of the root system, as well as an increase in the number of flowers and ovaries;
• nitrogen – stimulates the growth and development of green mass of shoots and leaves;
• potassium – increases productivity, immunity and winter hardiness.

Fertilizers containing these substances can be of organic or inorganic nature:

Many gardeners use compost for organic feeding, preparing it from all kinds of plant waste.
Spring feeding of apple trees should include the annual norm of nitrogen and 2/3 of the norm of potassium and phosphorus. Later, in the summer, the application of nitrogen leads to excessive growth of green mass to the detriment of yield, and also worsens the frost resistance of the tree. In addition, the amount of nitrates in fruits increases.

Potassium chloride and phosphorus agents are more suitable for the summer-autumn period; in the spring, their use in large quantities is undesirable, as it can cause illness.

Ready-made complex fertilizers include the main elements in various proportions

The choice of spring feeding also depends on the type of soil:

• For sandy and sandy loam soils, the addition of nitrogen or complex nitrogen-containing compounds is mandatory. Humus, mullein and compost will be useful;
• Nitrogen is added moderately to loam and clay soil, mainly alternating phosphorus and potassium agents. Compost and mullein help loosen such soil;
• Chernozem is rich in nitrogen, so its additional application can be avoided or reduced to a minimum. This type of soil is mulched for loosening with sawdust, sand or peat (the latter is used sparingly so as not to acidify the soil);
• It is advisable to enrich calcareous soil primarily with potash and organic matter.

Bone or dolomite meal is also added to acidified soil for “alkalinization,” and this is best done in the spring. They can be purchased ready-made and used as needed.

Norms

If you use purchased mineral concentrates, follow the dosages indicated by the manufacturer on the package.

For organic products, the norm is 3-8 kg of fertilizer per 1 m2 of tree trunk, adjusted for the age of the tree and soil type. Liquid formulations are applied at the rate of 3-4 buckets per tree.

How to water apple trees in a drip system

The most common method of watering dwarf and palmetto apple trees in gardens. It works great because it moistens the soil directly under the root system of each tree:

1. When watering using the drip method, you should use only filtered water to avoid clogging the droppers with various debris or the appearance of sediment.
2. The speed of liquid flow during such irrigation can be adjusted depending on needs: you can organize slow penetration of water into the substrate or completely open the line to quickly saturate the plantings with moisture.
3. The liquid (which is deepened into the ground) comes from the feeder tank under low pressure, then goes through the main pipe, along the hose and goes directly into the dropper.
4. Irrigation hoses are usually installed in new gardens at a distance of 50–95 cm from the trunks. A distance of 2 meters is maintained between rows of sleeves.
5. Since trees require more and more water as they grow, and their root system becomes more extensive, every 5–8 years a new hose is stretched from the other side, at the end of which a second dripper is installed and 50 cm from the base of the tree.

Principles of irrigating apple trees at different times of the year

The irrigation regime for apple trees changes depending on the established season in the yard.

Spring irrigation: nuances

In most regions, spring is accompanied by heavy rains, so additional watering will be harmful even for apple trees.
But if the garden is located in a region where the weather is dry and hot for most of the warm seasons, then you need to water before the trees begin to bloom. It is best to irrigate the plantings when the buds begin to separate from the inflorescences. If the heat sets in at the moment when flowers begin to bloom on the trees and the soil is dry, then closer to dusk you need to water the entire garden along the furrows or pour at least 5 buckets onto each adult tree.

The most unacceptable methods of watering are sprinkling and irrigating over the ground with a hose.

Do I need to water apple trees during active flowering? This question is usually asked by beginners in gardening. If the soil under the apple tree is moist enough, it is prohibited to add additional liquid during this period. However, if the air is too dry and there is not enough moving water in the root system area, you need to water the plantings.

Summer watering

At this time, it is especially important to monitor the degree of soil moisture in the garden. This is especially true for those who grow apple trees in hot and dry regions:

1. Irrigation plays a big role in the first half of the summer season immediately after the ovaries fall (this is approximately the middle or second half of June). At this time, the first part of the liquid is added.
2. The plantings are watered a second time after about 14–20 days. However, if the weather is dry outside and the sun is hot every day, then the frequency of irrigation needs to be increased (but without changing the volume of liquid applied).

Usually, if the summer is not so hot in August (for example, in the regions of the middle zone), then the apple trees are not watered at this time, so as not to give them the opportunity to begin secondary growth of branches that may die in winter.

It is permissible to add liquid in August only if there is abnormal heat outside. In this case, you need to water the plants in the holes or furrows.

Autumn irrigation

It is not worth pouring water excessively in the autumn, especially if the plantings are already significantly moistened by frequent rains.
You need to be especially careful about irrigation in September, when the weather is warm outside. Excessive moisture can lead to the tree entering a phase of active vegetative growth, and its shoots will not have time to accumulate a sufficient amount of sugars, which in a frosty winter will lead to freezing and death of all plantings.

Common mistakes

Despite the apparent simplicity of such agrotechnical technique as watering, many summer residents still make mistakes.

1. Watering too often. Trees in the garden should be watered abundantly, but not often. Surface watering is useless. You're just wasting water.
2. Carrying out the procedure after rain. If the spring turns out to be rainy, then there is no need to add water. This will only cause stagnation of moisture at the roots and the development of various diseases.
3. Wrong watering location. Those roots that absorb moisture and nutrients are located at a distance from the trunk, almost along the edge of the crown. Therefore, it makes no sense to water directly under the trunk.
4. Irrigation during the day in hot weather. This is a waste of water. The moisture evaporates and a crust forms on the soil surface.
5. Using tap water. In order not to shock the plants, it is better to let the water sit in barrels so that it warms up to at least the ambient temperature.

Principles of watering apple tree plantings in hot weather

Prolonged heat is dangerous even for the strongest fruit trees, and especially for apple trees.
So if the region experiences abnormally hot weather, then you need to take care of additional irrigation of the plantings. Typically, watering fruit plantings is divided into two parts:

• the first half is poured into the furrows until absorption stops;
• the second part should be poured over the shoots or in a layer 1.5 meters from the ground, this will help nourish the entire area of ​​the substrate, enveloped by the roots.

It is best to irrigate at sunset. If there are not many plants and there are no watering systems, then the volume of liquid for each apple tree will be as follows:

• for trees up to 35 years old - 40 liters of water;
• for trees over 35 years old - 45–50 liters of water.

In the early morning, the procedure must be repeated, adding the same volumes of liquid to each planting. In this case, you need to pour water into a hole under the crown, the depth of which is 25 cm.

The effect of lack and excess of water on trees

Water is part of absolutely all plant cells and tissues. Thanks to it, beneficial substances can move from the root to the leaves and back. Therefore, in order for a tree to bear fruit and develop, it requires moisture. Its main source for a tree is soil moisture, but in the hot season it may not be enough. This is when the gardener should water them.

Watering fruit trees is especially important during their growing season. In summer, trees lose a lot of moisture. Moisture deficiency leads to wilting and complete fall of the ovary, disrupting the process of fruit formation. If it is not replenished in time, the tree can die.

Additional watering is extremely necessary for young shoots, whose root system is not yet sufficiently developed and cannot fully attract and retain water from the soil.

If there is too much water in the ground, oxygen begins to be displaced from it, which is quickly replaced by carbon dioxide. This can negatively affect the frost resistance of the tree; its roots can rot and die. Therefore, when choosing a place to plant a fruit tree, it is necessary to avoid those areas where there are signs of waterlogging. It is also worth considering the level of groundwater. This indicator may differ for different cultures:

How to determine the need to water trees in the garden Source hi-garden.ru

• pear – 180-200 cm;
• apple tree – 150 cm;
• apricot – 100-120 cm;
• bushes – 100 cm.

Is it allowed to water apple tree plantings with various preparations?

Many gardeners, in pursuit of a rich harvest, decide to water their plantings with third-party preparations, for example, copper or iron sulfate, organic fertilizers and other compounds. But such experiments do not always end successfully.

Use of iron sulfate

On the Internet and in specialized literature you can find a lot of advice from “academics” who recommend watering apple tree plantings with iron sulfate.
This is done ostensibly for the purpose of preventing or treating chlorosis. You need to dissolve a handful of iron sulfate in a bucket of water and pour this mixture over the area after the apple tree has shed all its leaves. Such “specialists” recommend carrying out the procedure once every three years. However, you should not blindly believe such advisers. Iron is a highly mobile metal, so before spring it will have time to combine so that the apple tree roots will no longer be able to absorb it. But an inexperienced gardener can easily upset the nutritional balance in the root zone with such an experiment. There is no point in fighting chlorosis in this way.

Irrigation with copper sulfate

Here the situation is approximately the same as with iron sulfate.
Fruit trees cannot be watered with this mixture, since an excess of copper can activate mutations and degeneration of various parts of the fruit (in particular, apples). Deformations can be very different: from the formation of inedible areas in apples to shoot cancer. Copper starvation should be treated only with special supplements, which are a 0.1% solution of aqueous copper sulfite. The leaves of crops are sprayed with it from May to July.

Is it allowed to water apple trees with water from a well?

In principle, watering fruit crops (including apple trees) with water from a stream, well or garden well is permitted.
The main thing is to know the exact volume of liquid that each tree needs. However, you need to carefully monitor the water temperature. If it is close to the freezing point, then such water cannot be applied to the plants. If the water temperature is +4...+6 degrees, then this, of course, is not particularly good, but it is better to water the plantings with such water than to leave them, for example, in a drought, completely without moisture. Just do not water branches and trunks with such liquid. Only pour water into soil grooves and ditches between 10 pm and 7 am.

Is it possible to use water from a septic tank?

Any viruses, harmful microorganisms, bacteria and worms in standard septic tanks do not die without special preparations or thorough steaming of the mass.
So, watering fruits or hands with water from such reservoirs leads to unpleasant consequences. It is allowed to introduce the liquid fraction only between the rows of plantings in the trench in the autumn before the snow falls. This is one of the fertilizer options.

Adding organic matter (chicken manure)

Watering with a solution of chicken manure is allowed, but you need to act with extreme caution. Too concentrated organic fertilizer can easily burn trees. In order to prevent burns from occurring, you need to dissolve one bucket of litter in 10–15 buckets of cold water, mix the mixture and let it sit for 24–48 hours. Then such fertilizer can be applied to the tree trunk circle in a bucket, but only under the fruit-bearing tree. For young plantings, you can add a third of a bucket.

Soap solution

It is allowed to apply a solution of fatty soap under planting.
Mixtures of ordinary soap remnants, liquid soap residues and other products contain large amounts of parabens and other harmful compounds. Essentially, these are simple slops. So such mixtures can be dangerous for living creatures in the soil. Not only harmful bacteria will die, but also various beetles and worms that benefit the plantings.

Uses of manganese

It is allowed to add only a weak solution of manganese to the soil in order to prevent the appearance of pests and diseases and disinfect the soil.
Sometimes this mixture is used to kill earthworms that threaten the health of apple tree roots. However, in large quantities and in high concentrations, such a product can destroy many useful substances in the substrate, so such a composition is not used when watering apple trees.

Is it possible to make yeast mixtures?

There are no mixtures prepared from a dry composition or mass from a pack.
Such formulations can only be effective in the presence of sugars (the sweeter the better). Where can you find sweet soil on the site? That is why gardeners most often introduce fermented sediments from wine, kvass, and beer into the soil, which are diluted with water. For open substrate this is useless. The maximum where such a procedure can work is in greenhouses or greenhouses, as well as containers, and then only in the format of tray yeast sediments.

Watering with boiling water

Do you want to kill your apple trees? Then watering with boiling water is the best solution. Not a single living tree or bush can survive the application of liquid whose temperature is 50 degrees or more. So you shouldn’t experiment with your apple tree plantings.

Qualitative and quantitative indicators of apple fruits

All indicators (Table 4) in the variant for the four apple tree varieties studied were higher than in the control.

Apple tree variety Elstar

During the season, in the experimental version, water-soluble fertilizers were applied through a drip irrigation system, according to soil and leaf diagnostics, as well as based on the removal of nutrients with the crop. Fertilizers: ammonium nitrate, calcium nitrate, potassium nitrate, Master 13-40-13, magnesium nitrate, Hydromix (concentrated complex of chelated microelements)

Parameters of drip lines: diameter 16 mm, distance between droppers 2 m, flow from one dropper 2.2 l/h, wall thickness 40 mills. Filter washing is automatic. Tensiometers are used to monitor soil moisture. The devices are installed at a depth of 0.3 m and 0.6 m.

Apple tree variety Interprice

The garden used an integrated apple tree protection system against diseases and pests. The cost of pesticides per 1 hectare of fruit-bearing apple orchard is 24,000 rubles.

Thus, per 1 hectare of garden with drip irrigation costs are higher due to the use of fertilizers and the cost of the drip irrigation system.

Every year, for 1 hectare of irrigated fruit-bearing garden, in comparison with 1 hectare of garden without drip irrigation, an additional 25,000 rubles are spent, including: 15,000 rubles. (fertilizers), 5,000 rub. (depreciation of drip irrigation, based on an operating period of at least 12 years), 5,000 rubles. (electricity, wages for the operator of the drip irrigation station).

The average selling price of 1 kg of winter-ripening apples was 16 rubles. The total costs for 1 hectare of fruit-bearing garden without drip irrigation amounted to 94,000 rubles. The total costs for 1 hectare of fruit-bearing garden with a drip irrigation system amounted to 119,000 rubles.

The results on the economic efficiency of apple production for the studied varieties are shown in Table 5.