Almond tree: growing
The almond tree beckons not only with its fruits, but also with white-pink flowers that completely cover its branches, delighting with their beauty and aroma. It is unpretentious to care for, but often freezes due to its inability to cold. But you can still enjoy tasty and healthy fruits, you just need to choose the right variety.
Almond tree growing rules
Almonds can be a tree or shrub that can be used for decorative purposes or for picking stone fruits, depending on the variety.
Almonds during flowering resemble Japanese sakura
To grow this kind of sakura on the site, you need to follow some rules, regardless of the fact that the tree is considered unpretentious.
- The soil should be rocky, sandy and well-drained. If it is clayey, you need to lime and improve air permeability.
- Provide sufficient sunlight. The time spent in the shade should be kept to a minimum.
- It is advisable to place it on the south side, but so that the fence or buildings are blocked from the north winds.
- The planting site should not be near water bodies, and there should be no stagnation of moisture in the soil, otherwise the root will quickly die.
You can grow it:
- from the bone;
- planting a grafted seedling;
- rooting cuttings and layering.
The first method is considered the most laborious and time consuming, and the second option is the simplest one. To obtain fruits, you need to plant several varieties at a distance of 3 meters from each other for pollination, otherwise there will be no harvest.
A one-year-old almond sits as follows.
- Dig a hole about 60 cm deep and about the diameter of the root.
- Fill up the drainage – broken brick, crushed stone, sand.
- Next, a layer of fertilizer – superphosphate, lime, humus.
- Place a large stick in the center of the hole – it will be a support for a young seedling.
- When planting, you need to make sure that the roots do not bend up.
After planting, you need to weed the place around the stem, since its cultivation implies caring for it and, accordingly, weeding the basal vegetation.
If the almonds are properly cared for, then with their extraordinary flowering they will delight from the 4th year of life.
Almond tree: frost-resistant varieties
Since fruit almonds are very fond of heat and sun and are not resistant to frost, it was almost impossible to grow them. But they have already bred frost-resistant varieties that can survive not very cold winters.
- “Nikitinsky” is a shrub that grows up to 5 meters. Blooms in mid-April. In order for it to bear fruit, you need to plant another variety that blooms during the same period. High yield with large fruits.
- “Primorskiy” is a tree reaching 3,5 m in height. It resembles a fan in shape. It blooms in mid-April, and the fruits ripen only in November. It is also high yielding. It is better to plant “Aleinik” and “Dessertny” varieties nearby.
- “Dessert” is a tree with a dense spherical crown. It grows up to 4,5 m. It blooms in April. Bears fruit every year. For pollination it is planted with varieties “Primorsky” and “Spicy”.
- The petiolate almond is a shrub that grows up to 2,5 m. Flowering later. The fruits are not large, but abundant. It tolerates frost well.
Growing an almond tree is not difficult, but you need to choose the right variety, starting from the planting region and the purposes for which it is purchased. Either this is a decoration of the site, or harvesting.