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There are not many varieties of apples that, having a good taste of fruits, would be stored until the end of spring, practically without losing their consumer qualities. One of them is the Bogatyr.
The history of the appearance of the variety
In 1926, the Ukrainian breeder Sergei Fedorovich Chernenko was invited to work in a nursery led by Ivan Vladimirovich Michurin. There he began work on filling in the “Apple Calendar of S.F. Chernenko”, designed to become a set of apple varieties that allow you to consume healthy fruits throughout the year.
One of the first in the “calendar” was the late winter variety Bogatyr. The following were chosen as its parents: Antonovka, from which the new variety received winter hardiness and unpretentiousness, and Renet Landsberg, which gave it a good taste and large fruit size. The variety turned out to be successful, spread widely and still lives. To increase its winter hardiness, the daughter of Sergei Fedorovich, who also became a breeder, crossed Bogatyr with Red Kitayka. The result was a wonderful variety of Memory Budagovsky, which in many ways surpassed its parent.
Why do gardeners love this old variety of apple trees so much? To understand this, we will compile a detailed description of the Bogatyr apple variety, reviews of which are most often positive, and look at the photo.
Variety description
The apple tree of the Bogatyr variety is distinguished by its great growth force and reaches a height of 4,5 m if it is grafted onto a seed stock. The crown is up to 6 m wide. The tree is powerful with strong branches, the lower branches are located almost parallel to the ground. If you graft the Bogatyr apple tree onto a dwarf stock, the size of the tree will be much smaller, but the crown will still be sprawling.
Shoots are red-brown. Large leaves are dark green, leathery with a crenate margin, slightly curved at the ends.
The flowering of this variety of apple trees takes place at a later date. The flowers are smaller than medium in size, almost flat, their color is white-pink.
The Bogatyr apple tree enters fruiting 6 years after grafting, specimens grown on dwarf rootstocks – a little earlier. Usually 3-4-year-old shoots bear fruit, but sometimes there are apples on 2-year-old wood. The main fruits are concentrated on the kolchatka.
In the central apple, the stalk is long, while in the lateral ones it is thick and short, has a thickening at the point of attachment to the fruit.
The yield of the Bogatyr apple tree is not only constant, without periodicity, but also high. Already from a 10-year-old tree, up to 60 kg of apples can be removed, and 17-year-olds will give up to 80 kg of fruit. But this is not the limit. Experienced gardeners with good care remove up to 120 kg of apples from an adult tree.
The Bogatyr apples shown in the photo deserve a detailed description.
The size of the fruit is impressive and fully justifies the name of the variety. Even the average weight of apples ranges from 150 to 200 g. The largest specimens grow up to 400 g.
The shape of the apples is typical of the Kalvili. They are flat-round, have a wide base and top, ribbing is clearly visible on them. Rustiness occupies not only the entire funnel, but often goes beyond it.
Fruits are light green in color when ripe and turn yellow during storage. In some years, Bogatyr apples are decorated with a red integumentary blush, usually on the side that is more illuminated by the sun.
The taste of apples is pleasant sweet and sour, a good combination of acid and sugars makes it harmonious. Apple – crispy with fairly juicy snow-white pulp. This indicator to a large extent depends on compliance with the timing of picking apples, which needs to be discussed separately.
Usually, late winter apples are harvested at the very end of September, but without allowing them to freeze. For the Bogatyr variety, it is very important that the fruits reach full removable maturity. Apples that have not gained juice during storage become wrinkled and lose their taste. Such fruits will not be able to lie for the entire prescribed period, and in the Bogatyr variety it lasts until the end of May, and sometimes even until June.
You should not try them before – they will be tough and tasteless.
The winter hardiness of this variety is estimated at the average level, therefore Bogatyr realizes the highest potential for yield and quality of fruits when grown in the Central Black Earth region, although it is zoned in the North-West and in the Central region. The apple tree of this variety is affected by scab to a small extent.
Composition of apples
Bogatyr apples are low in calories – only 43 kcal / 100g. They contain a lot of pectin substances, contain P active substances – about 135 mg and vitamin C – about 13 mg for every 100 g of pulp, which is a lot for a winter variety of apples.
The maximum benefit and quality of the fruit can only be achieved with proper care and planting.
Choosing a place and landing dates
If an apple tree is grown on a seed stock, it needs room to grow. Taking into account the spreading crown, the distance between adjacent trees should not be less than 6 m. The roots of the apple tree penetrate deeply into the soil and are therefore sensitive to high humidity in the lower soil layers, which means that groundwater should not be high. Water should not accumulate at the landing site in the spring during the melting of snow. The Bogatyr apple tree is very plastic and can adapt to any growing conditions, but it will be best when planted in fertile loam in a sunny place.
The timing of planting an apple tree largely depends on the region of cultivation. In the south, autumn is long and the time between the end of the growing season and the onset of frost will be enough for the seedling to take root. In the middle lane and in the North-West, spring planting is preferable.
Seedling and planting hole preparation
Prepare the hole at least two weeks in advance for autumn planting and from autumn for spring planting. The soil in the hole should be compacted so that there are no air bubbles left in the soil in which the roots of the seedling cannot develop. For the same purpose, you will need to slightly shake the apple tree seedling when planting, covering its roots with earth. It is very important that by the time of spring planting, fertilizers can already be well absorbed by plants. Some of them, especially phosphorus ones, dissolve slowly. Therefore, it is better to prepare the nutrient soil for backfilling the pit in advance.
The depth and diameter of the pit on loam is 0,8 m. Sandy loamy soils are poorer, so the hole should be dug more. If the soil is completely clayey, an apple tree cannot be planted on a seed stock. It is possible to plant a graft on a dwarf rootstock, but in a mound.
If an apple tree seedling with open roots is purchased, its root system must be placed in a container of water a day before planting. After that, inspect the roots, cut off the damaged ones. To disinfect the sections, they must be covered with crushed coal. It is very good to dip the roots of an apple tree in a clay mash, to which a root stimulator is added.
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An apple seedling with open roots is placed on a mound of fertile soil that has been poured in advance from the top layer of soil mixed with humus. It is watered with a bucket of water, covered with the same soil, in the upper layer of which phosphate and potash fertilizers are laid – 150 g per seedling. They form a “saucer”, making a side of the earth, where another bucket of water is poured. The soil is covered with mulch.
A young seedling of the Bogatyr apple tree needs weekly watering, at least for the first 2 months. Then it can be done less frequently. In the first growing season, a young apple tree does not need top dressing. But it is necessary to protect it from rodents in the fall.
Bogatyr apples are able to provide the consumption of these healthy fruits throughout the winter. Productivity and unpretentiousness, a fairly early entry into fruiting allow this apple tree to take its rightful place in every garden.
