How to care for cherries in spring and autumn: detailed instructions

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Yakov Pavlovich

Professor, Head of the Department of Vegetable Growing

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Growing cherries is not a difficult task, but for those who want to get a good harvest, it is necessary to know and fulfill certain conditions. High-quality care for cherries should include pruning, fertilizing, timely watering and protection from diseases. Following these rules will allow you to annually obtain a generous harvest of ripe, juicy cherries from the tree for canning, baking and fresh consumption.

Growing time, work calendar

It is quite difficult to summarize all the necessary measures for caring for cherry trees into a simple scheme, since many of them, for example, feeding or treating pests, need to be arranged individually. Some gardeners treat trees for pests once in the spring and once in the fall, others require up to 4-5 treatments per season.

Calendar of main works: table

Treatments against pests and diseases should be tailored individually. For some diseases, more frequent, time-controlled treatments may be required, for example, against scab, the soil is treated before the beginning of spring, at the very beginning of bud break, after flowering and after harvesting.

How correct the care is can be seen by the yield and annual growth - at least 30–40 cm per season. Too large increases are also not favorable - this means that the plant is overfed with nitrogenous fertilizers, will begin to bear fruit late, and will not have time to properly prepare for winter.

Of course, the timing varies depending on the region. You should focus not so much on dates, but on certain natural events: the beginning of sap flow, the beginning of stable frosts, weather conditions. At their own discretion and depending on conditions, the following types of work are performed:

1. Loosening the soil around trees.
2. Weeding.
3. Inspection for diseases, collection of pests, unscheduled treatments.
4. Watering.

Whitewashing the cherry trunk before sap flow begins

Cherry pests

• Cherry moth . Damages the kidneys during their swelling.
• Cherry slimy sawfly larvae . Leaves are damaged.
• Cherry aphid . Damages young leaves and shoots.
• Caterpillars of the ringed silkworm, hawthorn and lacewing . They gnaw young buds and leaves.
• Cherry weevil . Damages flowers and fruit pulp.

When pests appear, trees need to be sprayed with insecticides. The choice of drugs is huge and recently the following trend has been persistently observed. The active ingredient may be the same, but the names of the drug may be different. This happens because each new company tries to register its products as unique. For example: cypermethrin is a broad-spectrum insecticide and is the main substance of such brands as Inta-Vir, Tsifoks, Mustang, Arrivo, Alpha-Cypermethrin and others.

Cherry propagation - basic methods

Cherry successfully reproduces in all possible ways, both vegetative and seed. Of course, during seed propagation, not all of its varieties inherit varietal characteristics, but this does not mean that the method is less popular. It is actively used for growing felt cherries, which successfully repeat the characteristics of mother plants, for growing rootstocks or trees that are highly resistant to difficult local conditions.

Propagation of cherries by cuttings in spring

Cuttings are taken both green - in the summer, and lignified - after leaf fall and before the buds awaken.

Propagation of cherries by lignified cuttings

Cuttings are harvested in late autumn or winter. They are taken only from healthy trees. Diameter - no less than 4 mm. They are stored in the refrigerator until spring. How to root?

1. It is important that the roots begin to develop before the buds. Otherwise the cutting will die. Therefore, you need to place the cutting itself in a cool place, and the roots in a warm place.
2. Renew the cut at the bottom of the cutting, make vertical cuts along the bark, 3–4 cm long.
3. If there are too many of them on the cutting, remove the lower buds.
4. Treat the site where future roots appear with a stimulator (Kornevin, Epin) according to the instructions.
5. Plant the cuttings in boxes, with the expectation that each cutting should have 10–15 cm of area.
6. The soil is made of sawdust and earth in a ratio of 3 to 1. The mixture should be loose and breathable. You can pre-plant each cuttings in separate bags, and then in a common box, so that later it will be easier to replant them.
7. The cuttings are placed vertically, so that the cuts are hidden by 1 cm.
8. The box itself is placed in a cool, bright room.
9. To heat the soil, different devices are used, the simplest being ordinary incandescent lamps located in a container with holes, on which the box is placed.
10. After 10 days, roots will begin to appear.
11. Replanting young plants in the fall.

Propagation of cherries by green cuttings

Cuttings are prepared until mid-summer. Choose strong green branches on the south side. Cut at an angle. The cuttings are soaked in water, the tops with leaves are cut off. Cuttings with several leaves remain. They are planted in a box filled with a breathable mixture. In winter, the boxes are dug in, and in the spring, the rooted cuttings are transplanted to a permanent place. The planting rules are the same as for young seedlings.

Plants obtained from green cuttings begin to bear fruit a year after planting in a permanent place.

Cherry propagation by shoots

Growing cherries from root shoots is one of the easiest ways. In early spring, a root cutting is separated from the mother tree and buried at an angle of 45 degrees. As soon as fresh shoots appear, it is transplanted to a permanent place.

Cherry root growth around a tree at the age of 25 years

Vegetative propagation of cherries: grafting

One of the best methods for rare, large-fruited varieties and late varieties. When grown from seeds, such varieties do not inherit varietal characteristics; it is too long to wait for harvests from one-year-old seedlings. Cherries are grafted using budding, copulation, splitting and bark methods. Wild cherries, sweet cherries and plums are used as rootstocks. The best rootstocks for cherries are wild bird cherry antipka, clonal rootstocks Rubin, OVP-2, P-7, VTs-13 and compact VSL-2.

Growing cherries from pits

Growing cherries from pits allows you to obtain strong plants adapted to the conditions of the region. This method is good for felt cherries and individual varieties. Seeds, like all stone fruit crops that experience a long period of dormancy, need stratification. The best way: remove the pulp from the pits taken from fresh cherries, let them dry, mix with sand, and place in the general compartment of the refrigerator for 5 months. In spring (April-March) sow in pots. As soon as the soil warms up, plant the young seedlings in a permanent place. If conditions allow, you can stratify the seeds in natural conditions: in this case, they are sown in the fall.

Prevention of cherry tree diseases

Proper care of cherries helps to avoid diseases and pests. All diseases are better prevented. In the fall, after the first frosts, the cherries and trench primer are sprayed with a 5-6% urea solution to destroy pathogens. Concentrated urea solution harms insect pests, microbes and fungi.

Cherry diseases

And before spraying, remove all diseased, dried, broken branches, fallen leaves and cracks on the tree (instead of urea, use fungicidal and antimicrobial agents as an option - Zineb, Skor, Nitrafen, Flatan, Topsin M, copper chloride, Bordeaux mixture, etc.) .

Important! Coccomycosis and moniliosis are severe fungal infections of cherries. Their disease prevention is one of the main tasks of gardeners.

Among the insects that affect cherries are: cherry weevil, aphids, and ringworm. The drugs Inta Vir, Iskra, and Aktara are used against them.

Nuances of caring for cherries in different growing regions

Cherry is not the most capricious plant; it grows and bears fruit well in Ukraine and Belarus. In the Urals, Western and Eastern Siberia, and the Far East, it is better to choose varieties adapted to the conditions of these particular regions. In the middle zone, the crop grows well and blooms, but you have to work hard to get harvests.

Proper care begins with choosing a variety for your region:

1. Moscow region and more northern regions, for example, Tver region: Turgenevskaya, Morozovka, Kharitonovskaya, Dessertnaya Morozova, Zhukovskaya, Griot Moskovsky, felt Natalie.
2. Large-fruited felt cherry for the Far East: Alice, Red Fairy, Princess, Natalie.
3. Steppe cherries for Siberia: Ob, Metelitsa, Krasa Altai, Maksimovskaya, Altai swallow and other varieties of Altai selection.
4. For Siberia, late-flowering varieties should be chosen. But keep in mind that there are very few varieties of common cherries for these regions; in 2022, there is only one variety in the State Register - Gradskaya, zoned for the Urals. You should look for species cherries, hybrids, or grow cherries by grafting onto frost-resistant rootstocks.

The most important points of care depending on the region:

1. In cold areas, it is important to properly cover the cherries for the winter - in some varieties the wood itself freezes, in some the flower buds die. The branches of bush cherries are bent so that the snow completely hides them. For standard forms, the trunk is wrapped. They are thinking about protection from rodents and damping off.
2. There are reviews that any attempts to grow cherries in a garden in Sibria or in the Urals will end in failure. The problem can be solved in several ways: growing seedlings from seeds, selecting and purchasing the right varieties from local nurseries, and proper soil preparation. Soil preparation is too often not given due attention, but this is a systemic point of care - mistakes will not be noticeable immediately, but will definitely have an impact.
3. In the central zone, cherries suffer greatly from moniliosis. Regular treatments are a must for care.

Protecting the cherry trunk from damage by rodents

Watering and its frequency

The need for water in summer is high, and therefore cherries need to be watered regularly.
They break up the soil around the base of the trunk, making a small depression with clear boundaries, due to which moisture will be retained. Its amount depends on the age of the tree and the dryness of the soil. Rules for planting strawberries and spring care for a bountiful harvest and large berries

For example, after planting in open ground, a seedling will need a couple of buckets of water, and an adult tree will need 10 times more per watering.

Expert opinion

Elena Pchelkina

Gardening Expert

Drying out the soil around the cherry trunk can have serious consequences for fruiting and increases the risk of infections.

Features of caring for different types of cherries

Among more than a hundred species of cherries that exist in nature, as a rule, only two are grown in gardens: common cherry and felt cherry. The second one is called dwarf. There are other compact types of cherries: ferruginous (up to 1.5 m), warty (from 0.5 m to 1 m), gray (up to 1.5 m), Kuril (up to 1.5 m), steppe (from 20 cm up to 1.5 m), sandy (up to 1.5 m), but they are rare and are quite specific. They, together with felt, are even classified into a separate genus - microcherries. They are closer to plums and do not cross with ordinary cherries, but are tolerant to many related stone fruits: plums, apricots, peaches. Today, based on these cherries, many varieties have been bred, both miniature and medium-sized, with different qualities. For example, one of the zoned varieties of steppe cherries is Early Steppe. The bush is really low-growing, with a raised spherical crown, very winter-hardy, with small and tart berries. As for sand cherries, today only 6 varieties are registered in the Russian Federation and all of them were admitted to the register only in 2018.

Note. Speculation by savvy sellers on gardeners’ desire to have miniature but productive plants in their gardens has not spared cherries. Most varieties that are sold under the name “dwarf” and “miniature cherries” are not included in the State Register, their origin is unclear, and their actual characteristics are unknown to anyone.

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Let's touch on the main points of caring for species cherries:

1. Steppe cherry. Bush-like, there are standard forms. The most frost-resistant. The harvest is even in cold places; in the winter it is enough to bend the branches so that the snow covers them well. As a rule, it is self-sterile, so several varieties are planted nearby. It produces a lot of root shoots, which can be used for propagation. Propagates well from green cuttings.
2. Sand cherry. Our homeland is North America, so we feel at home in our country. Unpretentious, grows quickly, loves open sunny places, hygroscopic permeable soils. It is not demanding on soil nutrition. Tolerates frost and drought well.
3. Ferruginous cherry. It is also called Russian sakura. The Alba Plena and Rosea Plena varieties are truly spectacular. Originally from Korea, China, the southern parts of Primorsky Krai. It is light-loving, the fruits are edible, winter-hardy, but in severe frosts non-woody shoots can be damaged. It can grow in many regions of Russia, but, of course, in the conditions of the Urals or Siberia with sharp continental winters it will require careful shelter for the winter. Young plants are planted as soon as the threat of frost has passed.
4. Gray cherry. Unpretentious, very drought-resistant, but loves warmth and is severely damaged by frost. Therefore, they plant it in warm regions of Russia. Popular in Turkey and Transcaucasia.
5. Kuril cherry. Originally from Sakhalin and the northern regions of Japan. Very decorative in spring and autumn, when the leaves turn bright red. It grows very slowly. Needs protection from the wind, is quite winter-hardy, but loves warmth. Plant in well-lit areas with well-drained soil.
6. Warty cherry. It grows in the wild in Tajikistan, Altai, and the Pamirs. Truly a miniature mountain shrub. The requirements are the same as for most cherries: a bright sunny place, hygroscopic soil, no stagnant moisture. Very rare in culture.

Ferruginous cherry blossoms

How to grow dwarf cherries

Growing begins with choosing a variety. If you don’t want to take risks, then it’s better to opt for felt cherry. She comes from China, so she is often called Chinese. The plant has already proven itself well in Russia: it is winter-hardy, easily propagated from seeds, bears fruit abundantly, and is very impressive during flowering. Today there are a lot of varieties, from early ripening to late ripening, there are exotic ones, for example, the Belaya variety with cream berries.

The most important characteristics of felt cherry:

1. Genetically, the common cherry and the felt cherry are far from each other and do not interbreed.
2. The harvest ripens from late June to late July.
3. It blooms at the end of May, long and abundantly, for 2 weeks. Flowers tolerate frosts down to -3°C.
4. It begins to bear fruit early: plants from green cuttings in the 3rd year, grafted plants in the 2nd year, and from seeds in the 4th year.
5. During drought, the fruits may become smaller, but they are not prone to shedding.
6. The fruits ripen in 10 days and can hang on the tree for a long time.
7. Productivity per bush is 5.5–14 kg. With good care, records are possible - up to 20 kg per bush.
8. Tolerates frosts well. At temperatures below -40°C, its skeletal branches may freeze. Therefore, for the winter, the bushes are bent, pinned, and wrapped in burlap, so that during the first snowfalls they can be completely covered with snow. Frozen branches are cut out in the spring.
9. The plant reproduces well by self-sowing.

Felt cherry during flowering

Growing dwarf Chinese (felt) cherries is not very different from the general rules for cherries:

1. Plants obtained by seed or vegetative methods are planted in well-lit areas. In the shade, cherries become very elongated and bear fruit worse.
2. The distance between seedlings is 1.5–2 m, the crown closes by 8–10 years.
3. The soil is light, loam or sandy loam, well drained. Acidic, salty, heavy soil, high groundwater, clay soil, lowland, peat - all these types of soil are unsuitable for cultivation. The plant can be planted in them, it will even grow, but you should not expect good harvests and high-quality plantings, and in 2-3 years the cherry will most likely die.
4. When planting and preparing the soil, climatic conditions are also taken into account. If the region is fairly dry, loam will also work. Where summers can be cold and damp, sandy loam is better.
5. It is not demanding on soil fertility and can grow in poor soils. The only thing it can’t stand is stagnant moisture. The active roots of the felt cherry lie shallow - up to 30–35 cm; care should be taken about the physical qualities of the soil. It should allow moisture and air to pass through well.
6. Does not like acidic soils. Before planting and beyond, it makes sense to check the acidity of the soil using litmus paper. The required acidity level is 6.7–7.1 pH.

Felt (Chinese) cherry fruits ripen

Chinese cherry tree care

Care is also not much different from caring for ordinary cherries. The most important points to consider:

1. Felt cherry is characterized by very active growth. The plant quickly begins to bear fruit and, accordingly, also ages quickly. Maintenance will require intensive and regular anti-aging pruning. It is carried out as soon as the crown growth has stopped, or every 4–5 years.
2. In the year of planting, 1/3 or 1/4 of the length of the main branches is cut off.
3. An adult bush leaves no more than 12 strong shoots. Felt cherry is prone to thickening.
4. Annual branches are pruned only if they are too long - over 60 cm, in which case 1/3 of their length is cut off.
5. After the plant has flowered, the following is added per 1 m of planting: 5–7 kg of organic matter, 70 g of phosphorus, 30 g of nitrogen, 20 g of potassium.
6. Liming is carried out once every 5 years. They dig up the soil, adding to each square. m. 200–300 g of slaked lime.
7. Propagated by seeds, green cuttings, grafting, budding or cuttings. Felt cherries are very rarely propagated by layering or lignified cuttings. The choice of propagation method depends on the region. When there is standing spring water and a high risk of the trunk becoming warm, it is better to plant grafted plants. Young cherries grown from green cuttings are sensitive to excess moisture.
8. Seedlings of plum, apricot, or clonal rootstock VVA-1 can serve as a rootstock.

Trimming

• 
  Young trees .
  When planting, pruning forms the crown. On the seedling, 3 branches are left on the lower tier, 2 on the second, 1 branch on the first. The formation of tree-like cherry varieties lasts 4-5 years; 6-8 large skeletal branches are left on the crown.

• Fruit bearing. Pruning is carried out before the buds open: thin out to improve lighting, remove diseased, weak, broken, dried branches and branches directed inward to the crown.
  The root shoots of grafted trees are cut out. To do this, rake out the soil and cut off the root shoots as low as possible. The cut areas are covered with garden varnish.

  Bush cherries are characterized by strong branching of the crown and growth of root shoots. Over 4-5 years, the bush is left with 8-12 strong main branches, the rest are removed, because they absorb a lot of nutrients.

  To rejuvenate the bush, select several of the strongest and healthiest root shoots. A new crown is formed from them, and the old one is gradually cut out.

• Old trees . Dead areas of bark are cleaned from the trunk, dry and diseased branches are removed, whitened, and rejuvenating pruning is carried out. Basal growth shortens the viability of the tree, so all unnecessary shoots are cut out.

Video about proper pruning of cherries:

Even more important information about the rules for pruning this fruit tree can be found here.

Pruning and getting rid of overgrowth

Pruning cherry trees is a controversial issue. There is an opinion that cherry trees are too sensitive to this; it is better to prune them only at a young age. There is another thing: supposedly there is no need to prune a tree if it is well covered with flowers. However, thinning cherries is necessary if you want to get not just beautiful flowering, but also maximum yield. On the other hand, for a beginner, the pruning procedure itself, especially if we are talking about an old tree, is quite complicated. Today there are even mobile specialists who, for a fee, will carry out competent pruning of mature cherries.

The main rules for pruning fruit crops

Pruning rules depend on the type of cherry: bushy or tree-like. The first bears fruit mainly on annual growths; in tree-like ones, fruits are formed, in addition to annual growths, also on bouquet branches. Flower buds are located on annual branches from the outer part of the crown. Cherries begin to bear fruit early, on annual branches, which are a continuation of the skeletal ones. As the tree ages, by 15–20 years, annual growth weakens greatly, skeletal branches become bare, and productivity decreases. On annual growths longer than 40–50 cm, flower and growth buds are formed; on shorter ones, flower buds are formed only on the sides, and growth buds are formed on the top. After harvesting, such branches remain bare.

Formative pruning of cherries: basic rules

How to thin out cherries in spring

Key points for pruning bush or tree cherries:

1. Before pruning, you should understand how the annual shoot of a bush works. It has both flower and growth buds, collected 2–3 per node. The older the bush, the fewer growth buds. During a short annual growth of 20 cm, growth buds are located only at the top.
2. In trees, flower buds are located differently: on bouquet branches that bear fruit and live for several years.
3. The optimal length of annual growth for bush cherries is 30–40 cm.
4. If the growth is longer than 50 cm, there is overfeeding with nitrogenous fertilizers or freezing of the buds. Growth that is too long means a reduced number of flower buds.
5. The branches at the bottom of the crown are cut off to those branches that are directed upward.
6. If the growth length is less than 20 cm, even more intensive anti-aging pruning is required. Remove all unhealthy branches, those that do not have branches and growths.
7. If the pruning is primary, be sure to do moderate pruning so that the tree does not immediately lose too much mass at once.
8. Stumps are not left behind when pruning.

Rules for cutting for ring and transfer

How to get rid of cherry trees on your property

Cherries - depending on the variety and type, of course - form quite a lot of side shoots. This growth is regularly removed: for the purpose of reproduction, and so that it does not take away the vitality of the main tree. This is done simply - the shoots are cut off at the root. It is important to do this so that a new plant does not start growing from the new growth point in a few weeks. And this is more than likely if the shoots are simply torn off or cut off above ground level.

To get rid of the shoots efficiently, each shoot is carefully dug up, reaching the large roots of the main tree. The shoots are cut from the root, the wound is treated with garden varnish.

Cherry root shoots are removed from the growth point of the main roots

There is an option to get rid of overgrowth using a weed killer - Roundup, Secateurs, Hurricane. Unnecessary shoots are treated as weeds. But not all gardeners like the use of chemicals.

To avoid the spread of shoots throughout the area, the root system of the cherries is fenced off. They use linoleum, slate, old 200 liter barrels (they are cut into rings), but the garden system should be thought through and prepared before planting the seedling.

Rules and methods

It’s worth immediately taking into account that feeding “into the hole” is not carried out in the first 24 months after rooting of the plant. Fertilizers will have to be applied by irrigating the crown and trunk, or by watering the crop at the root. Watering should go strictly to the tree trunk circle. Fertilizers are applied only after intensive watering, and not before it. Dry chemicals are buried with a rake or pitchfork, and a shovel cannot be used for this purpose.

You can spray cherries with various solutions no earlier than 2 years after planting. The trunk, foliage and root circle are thoroughly moistened during this procedure.

Sprayers of a special design are used for irrigation. If you need to quickly saturate the soil with useful components and not overfeed the plants, using green manure is an excellent option. They will be especially useful in case of nitrogen deficiency.

How to get rid of cherries in the garden forever

What to do if you need to remove an old, diseased tree or bush, and so that in the future the root shoots do not interfere with other plants? Removal of the root system raises special questions - after all, individual roots can reach a length of 3–5 meters. To imagine the size of the roots, use the size of the crown as a guide. If the height of the cherry is 2 meters, then the roots are approximately the same length. Step-by-step instructions for uprooting a cherry tree:

1. They order a tractor.
2. The tree is cut down, leaving the trunk at a height of 1–1.5 meters.
3. Large roots are carefully dug up. This is necessary to make it easier to pull out the plant with all its roots.
4. Tie the tree to the tractor using a strong cable.
5. They pull out a tree.

This method is quite effective. Only small roots remain in the ground, which cannot survive on their own. The area can be cultivated for future plantings.

Manual root removal is not effective and will require a lot of time and effort.

There are also recipes with salt:

1. Remove the crown from the tree.
2. Dig up the tree, cut off large and medium-sized visible roots.
3. While rocking the trunk, cut off the roots that are closer to its center.
4. After as many roots as possible have been cut, cut the trunk as low as possible.
5. Sprinkle the stump with salt and wrap it in cellophane.
6. Leave it for a year.
7. In a year the stump will rot.

A significant disadvantage of this method: soil salinization is not beneficial for plants.

How to remove cherry roots without uprooting

Without uprooting, there is only one way to destroy the stumps and roots of old or unnecessary plants: chemically. Wood residues are burned with a strong oxidizing agent - saltpeter. It allows you to destroy even deep roots. The procedure is simple: many holes are drilled in a stump or the remains of a tree in early autumn or late summer. Potassium or sodium nitrate is poured into the resulting holes, watered with water to better soak it in, wrapped in film, and bandaged.

Holes are drilled around the perimeter of the stump to place ammonium nitrate.

For a medium-sized tree with a trunk 15 cm in diameter you need 2 kg of saltpeter.

The stump treated in this way is not touched until next summer. During this period, all the roots and the stump itself, under the influence of the substance, will dry out. Wait until the tree dries completely after the rains. Now it is enough to make a fire near the stump. When it burns completely, the soil is dug up. That's all - the place is completely free, you don't have to worry about the appearance of cherry roots.

Instead of ammonium nitrate, you can use urea. The sequence of actions is the same.

Despite its effectiveness, the method has disadvantages. Nitrate is a good fertilizer, but during the period of action on the stump the soil becomes oversaturated with it, which can be harmful for many fruit or tuber crops.

Follow safety precautions when working with chemicals!

Chemical stump removal - video

Of course, when starting a cherry orchard or planting individual trees, it is worth studying the most important issues much more deeply: competent pruning technology, the nuances of choosing a variety for your region, protecting cherries from diseases, which is especially relevant for the Middle Zone in recent years. All this, together with proper care in spring and autumn, will allow you to obtain abundant harvests.

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Landing rules

The main stage in growing cherries is planting seedlings. Seedlings are selected in accordance with the growing region, of good quality, with a developed root system. A 2-year-old tree has a trunk 60-95 cm high, 2-2.5 cm in diameter, and at least 8 shoots 10-25 cm long.

It is better to purchase them in the fall, when nurseries sell grown trees. In the spring, everything left over from the fall is sold. Storage conditions in winter may have been violated, and the seedling will be weak.

Advice . To transport the seedlings, prepare a “chatterbox” - a mixture of clay, soil, and water in equal parts. Dip the roots into the mixture, roll in sawdust to retain moisture and wrap tightly with polyethylene.

Rules:

1. 
   Cherries do not tolerate transplantation well, it is important to immediately choose a suitable place for it. This will affect growth and yield.

2. Planting in warm heated soil.
3. Illuminated sunny place (cherries cannot tolerate shade, fruiting will be late and weak).
4. The place is protected from the north wind.
5. Groundwater is no closer than 1.3 meters.
6. The distance between trees is at least 3 meters, for low-growing varieties - 2-2.5 meters
7. Neutral sandy soil. Loamy soil requires drainage.
8. On acidic soils, cherries do not develop well. Before planting, acidity is determined and, if necessary, lime or dolomite flour is added.
9. Neutral soil with a pH of 6.7-7.1 is suitable for cherries. An indicator less than 7 is acidic soil, more than 7 is alkaline.

Acidity is checked in several ways:

• Litmus test strips are easy to use and are available at gardening stores.
• A pH meter is a device for performing accurate analysis.
• Using soda. Mix a little soil with water to make a paste. Add baking soda. On acidic soil, bubbling and hissing will begin.
• Using vinegar. Take soil from a depth of 20 cm and pour vinegar over it. If bubbles and hissing appear, the soil is alkaline; if nothing happens, the soil is acidic.
• Through the weeds. On acidic soils, plants predominate: clover, coltsfoot, plantain, wheatgrass, horsetail, creeping buttercup, nettle, mosses.

To reduce acidity in the fall, add slaked lime or dolomite flour under digging to a depth of 20 cm.

In the spring, 1-1.5 kg of ash per 1 m2 is added for digging . This fertilizer deoxidizes well and loosens the soil. You can use complex preparations with magnesium, calcium, zinc, copper. They are applied to a depth of 20 cm, the quantity is determined according to the instructions on the packages.

Useful tips on how to properly plant cherries can be found in this video:

All the subtleties and nuances of planting cherries are described in detail in another publication.

Procedures before flower formation

How to care for cherries in spring:

• trim old branches;
• whiten the trunks from pests;
• feed.

The spring period for cherries should begin with pruning the branches. The best time for this is the beginning of April. First of all, you need to trim old, broken branches, then those that rub against each other or have an irregular shape. The upper branches are trimmed so that the light evenly illuminates all parts of the tree.

Every spring, tree trunks should be whitened with lime or chalk mortar. This helps protect cherries from burns, pests and temperature changes.

It is important that at the time of whitewashing there is dry weather outside, which will not prevent the solution from drying

Cherries in spring need feeding more than at any other time of the year. This is due to the fact that due to the rapid development and weakening after winter, the tree itself does not have time to develop, so organic and mineral fertilizers are used.

In spring, you can feed cherries with the following solution: 1 bucket of water, 10 g of urea, 25 g of superphosphate and 15 g of potassium chloride. This feeding is also suitable during flowering. This will help prevent premature fall of the ovaries.

After 2 weeks, the cherries can be fed with a solution of 1 bucket of mullein, 5 buckets of water and 1 liter of ash. The solution must be left to brew for 5 days. This mixture is enough to feed 2 cherry trees. After the procedure, you need to water the plant with 20 liters of water.

It is necessary to care for a tree not only in the spring; procedures should be carried out in July and the end of October.

Spring pruning of cherries

Prevention of diseases and pests

All kinds of pests love currants. She often suffers from various diseases. These are mainly fungal diseases:

• anthracnose;
• brown spot;
• septoria;
• glass rust;
• powdery mildew.

The bush must be inspected regularly to identify symptoms of infection. To protect currants from leaf rollers, glass butterflies, and bedbugs, it is necessary to use insecticides. The following drugs are suitable for this purpose:

• "Aktellik";
• "Aktara";
• "Bazudin";
• "Microcin" and a number of others.

Fungicides will help combat fungal diseases. Use for processing:

• "Fundazol";
• "Topaz";
• "Maksim";
• "Vectra";
• "Vitaros";
• "Diskor".

After the harvest is harvested, you can not be afraid to use chemicals, since they will no longer cause harm. During fruiting, it is better to choose folk remedies and biological products that do not accumulate in the fruits.

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Preparing cherries for winter

If your region experiences cold winters, you should prepare the trees in your garden for them. The trunks of young cherries aged from 2 to 4 years should be wrapped in burlap or newspapers and tied with spruce branches, and the base should be tightly wrapped with plastic mesh so that it is not damaged by rodents.

The trunks of mature trees are coated with lime, which will repel rodents in winter and protect the bark from the harmful winter sun. Iron sulfate must be added to the lime solution for application to the trunks and bases of skeletal branches. Lime is applied in two or three layers and done this closer to winter, so that the autumn rains do not nullify your efforts.

If you mulched the root area of ​​the cherry with compost, sawdust or humus, then this will be enough for the plant to comfortably survive the winter. Especially if you cover the tree trunk circle with snow as soon as it falls.

How to deal with diseases of fruit-bearing trees?

Preventative measures against stone fruit diseases should be started well before fruiting. However, these events are held all year round at different times in their own way. In the summer, cherries can catch coccomycosis, as a result of which the leaves are affected, they turn yellow and fall off in June.

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They rid the tree of it using Bordeaux mixture, make a 1 percent solution and spray the crown. If necessary, repeat the action after three weeks. Experienced gardeners define the summer task as follows: preserve foliage so that the plant has the strength to survive the winter.

Stone fruits develop anthracnose in the summer, and cherries are no exception. A fungal disease of cherry fruits leads to the destruction of the crop.

The strange thing is that the first signs go unnoticed, the berries cannot be saved, so then we only talk about treating the tree with the drug “Poliram” through spraying.

Top dressing

There is no clear opinion among gardeners about the timing of fertilizer application.

Some gardeners believe that it is better to feed a fruit tree immediately after harvesting, approximately in August - September. Others confidently state that this procedure is best carried out after the foliage has been completely reset.

In fact, you can apply fertilizers both after harvesting and after the foliage has completely dropped.

It is only important to take into account that the apple tree absorbs the applied fertilizers for up to three weeks. The maximum benefit from fertilizing will be if the tree has time to absorb nutrients before the onset of frost.

It is important to monitor the weather forecast and focus on the climatic features of the region where you live in order to understand when to expect the first frosts

Fertilizing is carried out after digging the trunk circle. In the autumn, the apple tree needs organic fertilizers. You can take up to two buckets of rotted manure or compost per tree.

Superphosphate and potassium chloride are used as an additive to organic matter.

It is important to avoid adding nitrogen-containing additives, as they can provoke the growth of young shoots. They are not able to withstand frost, and their death in winter will be inevitable

Fertilizers should only be applied to moist soil. In this case, they will quickly reach the root system. If the soil is dry, water it before adding organic matter.