Contents
Plum Blue Egg has become a favorite fruit crop of gardeners due to its resistance to adverse climatic conditions and the excellent taste of the fruit. In care, the variety is unpretentious, and yields rich plum yields.
History of variety breeding
The Blue plum, bred in 1986, was distributed in Our Country, Ukraine, and Belarus in just a few years. breeders V. S. Simonov, H. K. Enikeev and S. N. Satarova bred a new variety by crossing the old Skorospelka and Renklod Ullens.
Description Plum Egg Blue
Plum Egg is adapted to the temperature regime of a temperate climate. It grows in the central strip of Our Country, the Baltic states, Ukraine.
The tree reaches a height of 6 meters or more. The crown is dense, dome-shaped. Blue plum blossoms with large white flowers with oval petals. Color appears only on young annual shoots. Plum Egg – a long-lived plant, life span – up to 30 years.
The leaves are elongated, dark green, with small notches.
The fruits are dense, round, dark blue; there is a whitish coating on the surface. The shape is ovoid. The aroma is pronounced, plum. Weight ranges from 30 to 35 g.
The pulp is bright yellow, sweet, rather soft, and releases a lot of juice. Contains a high percentage of sugar, no sour taste. Reviews about the taste of the fruits of the plum Egg are positive.
Blue plum is not distinguished by its fertility: 12 kg of fruit from one tree. The first harvest of the Blue Egg plum will give 5 years after planting.
Blue Egg Plum does not require pollinators, as it is self-fertile. It tolerates frosty winters well at temperatures below 30 degrees Celsius. Egg plum tolerates drought more difficult – additional watering and irrigation is required.
Plum blossoms in early May; in mid-August, you can start harvesting. Egg Blue Plum is used only in private gardens – the variety does not attract farmers. Growing plum Egg Blue will not make it difficult even for beginner gardeners.
Description of the plum variety Egg Yellow
The tree grows up to 5 m or more, with a rare rounded crown and massive branches.
- Shoots are massive, green, smooth.
- The leaf is carved, dark green, in autumn – with yellow spots.
- The fruits are large, weighing up to 50 g, oblong ovoid. The peel is dense, bright yellow in color, veins are visible under it.
- Plum Egg is prone to rot during periods of heavy rainfall. The bone is easily affected by fungal diseases.
- Plum pulp Egg has a juicy, with a pronounced sour taste. Plum egg yellow does not have good taste.
Characteristics of a variety
Characteristics of the Egg Blue plum variety: the fruits are sweet, juicy, about 12 kg of crop can be harvested per season. Begins to bear fruit 5 years after planting.
Egg Blue Plum does not require pollinators, as it is self-fertile. Plum Blue tolerates severe frosts well. Temperatures below 30 degrees Celsius are not terrible for young kidneys.
drought resistance frost resistance
For gardeners, the undoubted advantage of the Blue plum is its resistance to frost and drought.
- Frost resistance. Plum Egg is able to withstand frosts down to -30 ° C. But wrapping the trunk for the winter is still worth it.
- Drought resistance. Plum Blue tolerates heat well and goes without watering for a long time. Prolonged lack of moisture can affect yields. When watering, make sure that the water at the root does not stagnate. Also, Egg is watered after leaf fall before the onset of frost.
Plum pollinators
Plum Blue Egg pollinated by bees. During the flowering period, there are frosts, and the bees do not always have time to fly out. Gardeners know that the more different varieties grow side by side, the higher the yield will give a plum. Only self-pollinating trees should not be planted nearby. It is necessary to alternate self-fertile with self-fertile. Young trees of different varieties are planted at a distance of 10 m from each other.
For the Blue Egg, the following pollinators are suitable:
- plum Eurasia 21;
- plum plum;
- Plum Renklod Tambov.
These plums bloom in early May. Fruiting – at the end of August – beginning of September.
Yield and fruiting
Blue plum (Smolinka) does not have a high yield. From 10 to 12 kg of crop can be harvested per season from one tree. Plum Egg Yellow has a high yield. In September, up to 40 kg of fruits are harvested from one tree.
Blue plum bears fruit at the end of summer. Depending on weather conditions, the harvest period may fall in early autumn.
Scope of berries
Plum Egg Blue is well suited for freezing, canning, drying. Preserves and jams, alcoholic drinks, juices, fruit drinks, compotes are produced from it. Housewives prepare such delicacies from fruits as marmalade, marshmallow, jam.
Disease and pest resistance
Blue is resistant to diseases. Quite often, aphids and codling moth start up in fruits and leaves, and the crown is affected by kleasterospirosis or fruit rot.
For prevention in the spring, the crown is treated with fungicides and the affected areas are pruned.
Advantages and disadvantages of the variety
Home plum Egg Blue grows on most of the European continent. Gardeners fell in love with her for such qualities:
- frost resistance;
- drought tolerance;
- self-fertility
Disadvantages:
- lack of immunity to garden pests and diseases;
- perishable fruits;
- low yield.
Features of landing
Seedlings should be planted in spring. Suitable sandy soils with a high content of humus. Groundwater – no closer than 1,5 m to the surface of the earth.
Experienced gardeners place seedlings under the cover of a garden house. So in winter, the Blue plum will be protected from drafts and blowing snow.
Recommended dates
Egg seedlings are planted in March, before the buds swell on the shoots. Choose a warm and dry day for planting. Planting is possible in autumn, in September – early October, before the onset of cold weather.
Choosing the right place
For planting Blue, a warm, lit place without drafts is suitable. Plum Egg takes root in the south, southwest, in the eastern part of the site. It is good to choose a place in the neighborhood with other varieties. So it is possible to increase the yield of self-fertile plums.
What crops can and cannot be planted nearby
- Plum Blue Egg does not tolerate neighborhood with an apple tree, pear, blackcurrant, raspberry.
- It is good to plant a maple nearby. Neighborhood with him increases productivity.
- The Blue Egg Plum grows well next to the Elderberry. This shrub prevents the appearance of aphids.
- It is impossible to plant representatives of the selection (Egg plum, Memory of Timiryazev, Kuban comet) with southern Manchurian species, such as Chinese and Amur plums.
Selection and preparation of planting material
- Choice. Plum Egg Blue can grow from a stone, a cutting and a seedling. Growing shoots from seed and cuttings is an exciting but undesirable activity. A cultivated plant is unlikely to succeed. It is better to choose a healthy, strong seedling in the nursery. The tree should be with a developed root system and strong branches.
- Preparation. The seedling is left in a dark, damp place to avoid drying out the roots. Avoid exposure to drafts. Before planting, egg seedlings are dug into shallow pits for the entire length of the root. The soil should be loose, the voids between the roots are carefully filled.
Landing algorithm
- Dig a shallow hole based on the length of the root neck.
- A peg is hammered in the center of the hole, which will become a temporary support for the tree.
- Lower the seedling into the hole carefully, without harming the root.
- Dip in loose earth. At the same time, the root neck remains 3-5 cm above the soil level.
- After that, abundant watering and fertilizer with humus are necessary.
Plum Aftercare
A grown tree must be thinned out periodically. Plum Blue Egg has a lush crown – the branches are cut once a year.
Trimming
Pruning is carried out in the spring, at the end of March, after frost, before the formation of buds near the plum, by thinning and shortening methods.
A heavily overgrown crown is thinned out by removing old branches and last year’s shoots.
Plum pruning is carried out with special garden tools, the cut point is processed with garden pitch.
You can learn in detail about how to properly cut a Blue plum, from this video:
Preparation for winter
When preparing young seedlings for wintering, it is necessary to think about warming the plum trunk. A sheet of old slate is fitted in front of the tree to protect it from drafts. After a sufficient amount of snow falls, it is periodically thrown over a makeshift fence.
If the winter turned out to be snowless, the Blue plum trunk is insulated with spruce branches or sawdust.
Learn more about how to prepare a plum for winter in the video:
Top dressing and watering
If the autumn turned out to be dry, the plum must be watered several times before the onset of frost. Particular attention is paid to the stagnation of water in the hole. The soil around the trunk should dry out completely before the next watering.
Feeding seedlings is carried out several times a year. The first time in the spring, after planting, once in the summer and once again in the fall, before the cold snap. Top dressing is carried out by watering with humus diluted in water or fertilizers containing potassium and magnesium. In the spring, Egg fertilizing is done with nitrogen-containing fertilizers.
Protection against rodents
In autumn, in order to protect the trunk of the Egg Plum from rodents, it is wrapped with protective materials: spruce branches, raspberry and juniper branches. Such a barrier will protect not only from voles, but also from debate during the winter thaw.
A protective layer is applied around the trunk close to the soil and tied with a cloth or rope. You can wrap a layer of coniferous insulation on top with burlap or roofing material.
Diseases and pests, methods of control and prevention
Klyasterospirosis – a serious disease, the main pest of Egg plum. The disease is manifested by the appearance of red spots on the surface of the leaves. Over time, they turn into holes. A feature of klesterospirosis is that it quickly spreads throughout the garden. Fungicides will help to cope with it. They need to be changed periodically.
Plodojorka – Another pest of this variety. Caterpillars eat up the ovaries, like to feast on ripe fruits, reducing yields. In this case, the old bark is scraped off and the trunk is treated with chemistry.
aphid settles on young leaves in the spring. Plum Egg is processed from pests 1,5 months before fruiting.
fruit rot appears on immature fruits. It is a gray loose coating on the surface. Distributed in regions with a humid climate.
In order to prevent diseases, the affected shoots are cut off, the affected carrion is removed and burned in time. Places of cuts are treated with copper sulphate. Fungal diseases are removed by spraying with a 1% solution of Bordeaux mixture.
From pests, spraying with fungicidal preparations before flowering helps.
Conclusion
Plum Blue is an unpretentious plant common in our latitudes. The Blue Egg Plum will bear fruit for many years and will give more than one crop if regular feeding, pruning and protection from pests are carried out.