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It is impossible to imagine any garden without an apple tree. Summer varieties are especially valuable, which allow you to enjoy healthy fruits after a long break. After storage, apples of winter varieties lose not only useful substances, but also taste. Whether it’s a summer apple just plucked from a branch! Strong and fragrant, it just begs to be tasted as soon as possible.
In the middle lane, there are no problems with the choice of summer varieties of apples. Their range is large. All of them easily survive not too frosty winters. And what about gardeners who live where in winter and minus 50 is not uncommon? There are few varieties of apple trees that can withstand such a frost, so each is valuable.
But it is not enough to withstand extremely low temperatures. Great danger lies in wait for the trees at the end of winter, when the daytime sun slowly awakens the apple trees, and the night frost can severely damage them. Therefore, the ability to endure low temperatures without loss must be accompanied by a full range of winter hardiness in all respects.
Apple tree winter hardiness parameters
They are made up of the following components:
- resistance to frosts of the early winter period – in November and early December. If at this time the plant has not been completely prepared for winter and has not received proper hardening, frost even at -25 degrees is quite capable of destroying it;
- maximum hardening – the ability to resist extreme sub-zero temperatures in the middle of winter;
- the ability to survive frost during thaws, and also not suffer from sunburn;
- resistance to severe frosts that came after the thaw.
Only an apple variety that is stable in all respects can be considered completely winter-hardy. It will grow successfully in areas of risky farming, and will suit where it is extreme.
We present you one of these varieties – Silver Hoof, its full description and characteristics. Reviews about this apple variety are mostly positive, and the photo shows the high quality of the fruit.
Description and characteristics
The Silver Hoof apple tree is the result of repeated crossings of large-fruited apple trees and the Siberian berry apple tree, known for its record winter hardiness. Having crossed the apple trees Snezhinka and Raduga, the breeder L.A. Kotov, brought out a new promising variety at the Yekaterinburg experimental station – Silver Hoof.
It entered the State Register of Breeding Achievements in 1988. Regions for its cultivation:
- West Siberian;
- Volga-Vyatka;
- Ural.
In the latter region, there are entire gardens in which it is the leading variety. Tests have shown that the Silver Hoof is quite suitable for landing in the Non-Chernozem zone of Our Country.
Features of the variety:
- the growth force of the tree is average, the height of an adult tree is about 3 m, the crown is compact, rounded;
- the skeletal branches of this apple tree have a light bark with a yellowish tint, they form an angle close to 90 degrees with the trunk;
- young shoots have a reddish color;
- the leaves have a short petiole, almost rounded in shape with slightly curved edges, slightly pubescent, their color is light green;
- the following generative organs participate in the fruiting of the silver hoof apple tree: last year’s growths, spears and ringlets;
- The flowers of this apple tree are of a boiled white color and are medium to large in size and cupped.
- the first time apples of the Silver Hoof variety can be tasted 3 or 4 years after grafting in the nursery, but the final taste of apples appears after 2 years, at the same time the apple tree begins to produce a stable harvest;
- fruiting is annual, but only if there is a pollinator nearby, since the Silver Hoof apple tree is self-fertile, up to 160 kg of fruit can be collected from one adult tree – this is a lot, given the average crown size. As a pollinator, it is best to plant Anis Sverdlovsk;
Particular attention is given to the fruits.
- In the regions for which the Silver Hoof variety is zoned, the first apples ripen from mid-August, where it is warmer – much earlier.
- Their weight is average or slightly below average by generally accepted standards – about 90 g.
- The main color of the apples is cream, they are covered with an attractive red-orange blush, which occupies most of the fruit, the subcutaneous points are practically invisible.
- The apple is very juicy, has a bright rich taste with sweetness and acidity and fine-grained flesh.
- Silverhoof apples contain up to 13 mg of vitamin C and up to 112 mg of vitamin P, which makes them very useful. If you leave an apple on a branch until fully ripe, it begins to shine through, as it becomes translucent and very beautiful.
- The shelf life of Silver Hoof apples is considerable for a summer variety – up to 1,5 months. They are used fresh, as raw materials for preparations, they give a lot of juice and can be dried, since their dry matter content is 13%. The fruits can be successfully transported without damaging them.
Presenting the description and characteristics of the Silver Hoof apple variety, you need to dwell on its resistance to diseases: the tree suffers from scab to an average degree, as well as fruit rot, so its cultivation will require attention and effort from the gardener, but they more than pay off with a good harvest of tasty, healthy and beautiful apples. To get it, you need to properly plant an apple tree and take good care of it.
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Before you start it, you need to choose a quality seedling. Apple seedlings with a closed root system take root best of all, but only if grown in a container for no more than 2 years.
The tree simply won’t grow to the right size for the variety.
Sometimes unscrupulous sellers place an apple seedling in a container just before it is sold. As a rule, the root system of the tree is severely injured in this case, it simply may not take root. What signs indicate this:
- The earth on the surface is uncompacted, loose.
- The apple tree seedling itself is easy to pull out of the pot, just pull a little on the stem.
It is better to refuse to buy such a seedling. The Silver Hoof apple tree should be bought from a reputable nursery. In an apple tree seedling with an open root system, you need to pay attention to the following points:
- in addition to a developed tap root, it must have suction roots, i.e., a formed fibrous root system;
- the presence of dried or rotten roots is unacceptable. You can easily check this – when you remove the top layer with your fingernail, the bottom one should be white;
- the bark of an apple tree should not be dry;
- a one-year-old apple tree seedling does not have side branches, a two-year-old – with a bole height of about 40 cm, should have at least three side branches.
How is the Silver Hoof apple tree planted? If several seedlings of this variety are planted, the distance between the trees can be provided for 4×4 m, since its crown is compact. When choosing a site, the illumination is taken into account – full throughout the day, as well as the groundwater level – no closer than 2 m. The optimal soil for planting an apple tree of any variety, not excluding the Silver Hoof, is loamy or sandy loamy with a high content of humus. Sandy soil can be improved by adding clay and peat, but planting an apple tree in clay soil is undesirable.
The planting hole must be prepared at least 2 weeks before the acquisition of a young Silver Hoof apple tree. It is enough to dig it with a diameter of 60 cm and the same depth. The top layer of soil up to 20 cm thick is laid separately. The algorithm for planting an apple tree will be as follows:
- cover the landing pit halfway or 2/3 with fertile soil mixed with ash – a half-liter jar per pit. This must be done in advance so that the soil has time to settle;
- pour an earthen mound;
- straighten the roots of the seedling;
- sprinkled with a pre-prepared topsoil mixed with humus;
- There should be no voids in the soil, so the seedling needs to be shaken a little to compact the soil.
If the Silver Hoof apple tree is planted in the fall, the soil in the near-trunk circle is sprinkled with fertilizer after the snow cover has established.
- finally fall asleep the roots of the seedling of the apple tree so that the root neck is at the level of the soil;
- they trample down the earth in the trunk circle;
- watering is carried out – 2-3 buckets of water per pit, forming for this a side around the trunk circle;
- when planting, they put a peg on the south side of the apple tree trunk.
Care after landing
The trunk circle needs to be mulched, it should be watered once a week, do it in the spring for 2 months, and in the fall – until frost. In the future, caring for the Silver Hoof apple tree consists of watering in dry weather, 3-4 top dressings during the growing season, annual crown formation and treatments for diseases and pests.
Details of caring for young apple trees can be found in the video:
