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Timely and competent application of fertilizers for fruit trees in the summer will guarantee a rich harvest in the future. The quality of fruiting directly depends on the degree of obtaining by the soil in which the trees grow, necessary for their good growth and development of the elements. In the summer, when apples are pouring juice, it’s time to fertilize the land on the site. The main thing is to know exactly what and how to do it.
Why do you need top dressing in summer?
In order to obtain a high-quality and numerous harvest of tasty and nutritious fruits, gardeners carry out top dressing of apple trees in the summer. If in spring the apple trees need to be fed during the period of intensive flowering, for which 5 buckets of humus are brought into the soil under the fruit-bearing tree within a radius of about a meter, then in the summer the tree enters the period of fruit formation. With the onset of the second half of July, the third top dressing should be carried out – after two spring ones.
In order for your favorite fruits to get enough minerals for normal ripening and grow tasty, you need summer top dressing of apple trees. All fruit trees entering the fruiting period suffer from a lack of minerals. If you carry out sufficient watering of the tree, then you should not forget about the “food” for it, which is the fertilizers applied to the soil. Starting from the second half of summer, when the growth of the shoots stops, and nutrients will only be supplied for the formation of fruits, flower buds are being laid and useful elements enter the trunk, branches and roots, phosphorus-potassium supplementation is required for apple trees.
In household and collective gardening, the recommended doses of fertilizers are applied to the soil, which are designed for land with an average level of fertility. The lack of nutrients in the soil adversely affects the condition of the tree, and as a result, you risk getting small and not too sweet fruits.
Video “How and how to properly fertilize fruit trees”
How to fertilize
In June, the apple tree needs to be saturated through the leaves; for this purpose, the crown is sprayed with potash and nitrogen fertilizers. Recommended preparations should be distributed evenly over the surface of the foliage – so that they are not only on the top, but also on the bottom of the leaf. You need to make top dressing after the flowering period, choosing for this early morning or late evening. Otherwise, spraying with preparations may not be effective – they will evaporate under the influence of sunlight. It is advised to apply fertilizer in this way in several approaches.
Add nitrogen substances, after a couple of weeks, feed the apple trees with preparations that include phosphorus and potassium. When choosing the root method of fertilizing, a solution is first prepared from 200 liters of water, where 1 kg of nitrophoska and 20 grams of dry sodium humate are added. The consumption of such fertilizer for each fruit tree is 3 buckets. There are other options for top dressing – you can stop at the introduction of an aqueous solution of mullein or chicken manure into the soil in the second half of July. For 200 liters of water, mullein or litter is bred in the amount of half a bucket.
How to feed
After the end of the flowering time of fruit trees, when you decide to fertilize apple trees, use the classic fertilizer application scheme. They need to be distributed over the site, keeping a distance of half a meter from the stem of the culture. So the nutrients in a short time will enter the root system of the tree. Do not forget to moisten the ground around the apple tree with a bucket of water beforehand. After preparing the soil, start applying the prepared water-based fertilizer. Water the soil again. Trace elements, if you carry out all the manipulations correctly, will definitely get into the root system of the plant and provide it with the substances necessary for full growth.
Foliar fertilization of fruit trees is also effective, as is the introduction of drugs into the soil. Since the bark and leaves of plants have the ability to absorb the nutrients necessary for the health of the tree. Fertilizer by spraying is called additional – the second necessary after the root. But experienced gardeners and specialists insist on its benefits and the need for it during the period of intensive fruiting. For spraying fruit trees, mineral fertilizers are offered, which contain a lot of manganese, boron, copper, magnesium.
If you are worried that after spraying chemicals will get on the surface of the fetus and think that their use will harm your health, you can use grandmother’s methods. Dissolve a mug of powdered ash in a bucket of warm water, strain the resulting solution. It is ready for tree spraying. It is impossible to carry out such a procedure when about three weeks are left before the start of the harvest.
Video “Foliar feeding of fruit crops”
Foliar top dressing is a very unusual, but at the same time effective way to increase the fertility of trees.