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Lunar calendar for summer residents from 8 to 14 March
What can and cannot be done – in our horoscope for gardeners.
The snow has not yet melted outside, but the summer cottage season has already started. After all, there are so many things ahead: you need to select the seeds and buy the missing ones, sow seedlings, check the inventory. And our lunar calendar will tell you what is better to do on each specific day, so that the result of your labors will truly delight you.
March 8. Waning Moon in Capricorn
An ideal day to soak seeds for germination. Transplantation of domestic plants is favorable.
9th of March. Waning Moon in Aquarius
Unfavorable period for sowing. Water, spray the seedlings.
10th of March. Waning Moon in Aquarius
A good day for pruning, crown formation, whitewashing of trunks. It is useful to prepare potting mixes for seedlings.
11th of March. Waning Moon in Aquarius
Revise the seeds and renew stocks as necessary. Sowing, planting and transplanting are unfavorable on this day.
March 12. Waning Moon in Pisces
It is worth doing a formative and rejuvenating pruning. Planting plants is not worth it. Apply top dressing.
March 13. New moon. Moon in Pisces
Any work with plants is not recommended, especially planting and transplanting. Whitewash the trunks, buy fertilizers.
March 14th. Growing Moon in Pisces
Soak tomato, pepper and flower seeds for seedlings. Whiten tree trunks. Prepare potting mixes.
How to prune trees correctly
For this, now is the time – it is better to prune in March, before the start of sap flow. This is especially important if the yield has dropped and the fruits have become small.
candidate of agricultural sciences, agricultural technician
Summer residents often neglect pruning, but in vain. On old branches there is no more than 10% of the yield of the whole tree, the overwhelming mass of fruits appears on young ones. Without annual maintenance of the crown of the tree, the growths weaken, they become smaller.
Perfect cut
Clean sharp instruments are used for the procedure. Small branches are cut with a knife or pruning shears, thick ones are cut with a hacksaw. It is important not to pick up the bark. To do this, a thick branch is first sawed from below, and then completely separated from above. Do not rush to remove the branch at once, experts do it in two steps. At first roughly, “on a stump”, leaving part of the branch. And only then remove the remainder to the bottom. This is the so-called “ring cut”. You cannot leave stumps, they are a gateway for infections. Be sure to treat the cuts with pitch or oil paint.
Rejuvenating pruning
Surely there are old, neglected trees on the site, there are few fruits on them, and even those are small and not too tasty. Take a closer look at the crown: there are probably a lot of tops in it. This is the name for vertical shoots on branches that have stopped growing. The appearance of a large number of tops is a sign that the tree is outdated and needs rejuvenating treatments. It is difficult to rectify the situation in one year, it will take 2-3 years.
The correction begins with the removal of one skeletal branch, which thickens the crown most. For the tree, this is not only a relief, but also a decent stress. Therefore, the next 1-2 large branches will have to be removed only the next year. Cut off all tops, branches growing inside the crown, and shoots rubbing against each other into a ring. Process the sections. With good care, rejuvenated trees will give a full harvest in a couple of years, and you will notice an increase in fruit size already this year.
First haircut
Inexperienced gardeners do not touch their trees until they reach a decent size, but in vain. Pruning is useful every year after planting to form a beautiful and easy to maintain crown. General rules: choose the 3-4 strongest main branches, extending from the trunk at an obtuse angle and evenly spaced around the circumference of the trunk. If the angle between the branch and the trunk is sharp, it is better to bend the branch and fix it.
Why should the angle be obtuse? The strength of the wood depends on it: the larger the angle, the more firmly the branch is fastened to the trunk. In the future, such a tree will not break under stress, it will withstand gusty winds well and keep a rich harvest.
Selected strong branches are shortened so that lateral shoots go. The lower and weak branches are pruned less, and the upper and strong branches more, so that the ends are approximately at the same level. The remaining minor branches are shortened by 10–15 cm, at first they serve to thicken the trunk, and later fruit shoots are formed on them.
The vertical branch, due to which the tree goes up, is also shortened during the first pruning so that it is only 30–40 cm higher than the rest.
Dense crown
Actively fruiting trees also need to thin out the branches. The intertwining, rubbing and growing shoots inside the crown are removed, as well as tops. The older the tree and the weaker the growth, the more the branches are shortened.
It’s important
Leaves and fruits can also become smaller in the absence of nutrients. In addition to pruning, annually apply complex fertilizers to a near-trunk circle with a diameter equal to the crown. The increments will increase, and the leaves and fruits will become larger.