Plum Ozark Premier: variety description and pollinators, planting and care with photo

One of the promising varieties is the Ozark Premier plum, which has extremely positive reviews among gardening enthusiasts. The fruit crop is grown almost everywhere, it has a sufficient degree of endurance to adverse environmental factors. In order to harvest a bountiful harvest of the Ozark Premier plum, you need to become more familiar with its strengths and weaknesses, as well as the rules for planting and caring.

History of selection

Plum Ozark Premier is a hybrid form developed by Burbank and Metley. Missouri became the birthplace of the fruit crop. The American variety has absorbed only the best qualities from its parents.

Variety traits and features

This fruit variety attracts the attention of gardeners with its unpretentiousness in growing conditions and care.

External tree description

Plum Ozark Premier is positioned as a vigorous plant with a spreading crown, which has a cup-shaped shape and a high degree of foliage. The wood is distinguished by a dark brown color, a rough surface, there are shallow cracks. The erect lateral processes have a light brown bark, no pubescence.

The leaf apparatus has a glossy surface, ovoid shape and rich dark green color.

White flowers grow in small sizes, are formed on fruit branches in bunches. The Ozark Premier plum is also called the Ozark Premier. This early hybrid blooms in mid-May, and the fruit is eaten in the last days of July. The first harvest can already be harvested 3 years after being determined for a permanent place.

Fetal Features

The light green fruits of the Ozark Premier plum have an oval shape, the color becomes dark red with a dotted blush when it reaches consumer maturity. On the dense skin there is a wax coating and a clearly visible seam. The mass of large fruits is 110 grams. The pulp of the Ozark Premier plum has a sweet and sour taste, cream color, the stone does not separate very well, and has a pronounced aroma.

Plum Ozark Premier bears fruit abundantly and constantly. From one plant, whose age is from 9 years old, it is possible to harvest up to 60 kilograms of fruits.

Features

Among other hybrids, the Ozark plum variety is distinguished by a whole set of distinctive features that determine the demand among gardening enthusiasts.

Drought and frost resistant

When growing Ozark Premier plum, it is not recommended to allow either an excess of moisture in the soil or its lack.Although the plant has a sufficient level of resistance to drought, it is worth doing 3 irrigation procedures per season. Resistance to sub-zero temperatures is also at a high level, but it is better to wrap young trees additionally.

What diseases are dangerous for culture

The following common ailments can endanger not only the future crop, but also the plant itself.

Clusterosporiasis

The disease manifests itself on the plum Ozark Premier in the form of brown foci with a dark border on the surface of the bark. Through holes appear on the leaf plates, and on the unaffected part - a white coating. The fighting methods are:

• removal of infected parts of the crown;
• treatment of the wound surface with garden pitch;
• spraying the tree with a solution of Bordeaux mixture 1% or a working fluid based on copper oxychloride (40 grams of product per 10 liters of water).

Rust

You can identify an ailment by the following signs:

• formation of rapidly spreading raised spots of red color on the outer side of the leaf;
• oppressed state of the tree;
• premature fall of leaf plates.

Begin to take measures against rust at the first symptoms. The Ozark plum is treated with a working solution based on copper oxychloride, prepared at the rate of 40 g of the drug per 5 liters of water. The liquid consumption per garden planting is 3 liters of solution. At the end of the harvest, it is recommended to make another treatment with copper sulfate or copper sulfate.

Fruit rot

Obvious symptoms of this disease are:

• foci of brown color on fruits, which rapidly increase in size in conditions of heat and high humidity;
• presence of spore pads on gray plums.

The insidiousness of the disease lies in the rapid spread of spores, which are easily carried by gusts of wind. You can save the Ozark Premier plum by removing infected fruits and treating them with a Bordeaux mixture.

Sooty fungus

Recognize the disease by black bloom on the leaf mass and side branches. It blocks the access of oxygen and light to the cells of the garden planting, completely disrupting the process of photosynthesis. The source of the disease is high humidity and stagnant water in the soil.

To get rid of the disease, you must first eliminate the causes of soot fungus. Spraying of the crown is carried out with a working solution based on crushed laundry soap (150 grams), copper sulfate (5 grams) and water (10 liters).

Pollinator varieties

Because Ozark Premier is a self-fertile plant, it needs additional pollination. Best of all, varieties such as Shiro, Santa Rosa, Satsuma, Starking Delicious, Friar are suitable for these purposes.

Flowering and fruiting of the Ozark plum

The hybrid refers to early ripening plants, the fruit ripening period is early - at the end of July. Under favorable growing conditions, the productivity of the Ozark plum only increases every year.

Harvest and use of crops

Plum Ozark Premier is not in vain classified as a commercial variety, its fruits have a high degree of transportability and keeping quality. Harvest can also be used for the preparation of various desserts, jams, compotes, and also consumed fresh. Commodity and taste qualities of fruits at a high level.

How to grow a tree on the plot

The Ozark Premier plum has an intensive growth and development rate, which implies a proper approach to planting and care.In order for a tree to have increased immunity to major diseases and pests, and also to give a bountiful harvest, it is necessary to plant seedlings at the right time and follow the basic rules of agricultural technology.

Optimal landing time

It is recommended to plant the Ozark Premier plum in the spring, preparing a place for planting in the fall. But it is possible to determine the seedlings for a permanent place in the fall, pulling out and fertilizing the pit two weeks before the day of planting.

Choosing a seat

It is desirable to choose a site for planting seedlings in clearings well lit and protected from through winds. In order to avoid problems with fruit crops in the future, it is not worth preparing a place for planting Ozark plum in wetlands, and places with a close occurrence of groundwater are also not suitable.

Preparation of soil and seedlings

For the Ozark Premier plum, it is preferable to choose areas with light and well-drained soil. The plant will not grow and bear fruit on acidified soil.

To normalize the level of acidity, you must use slaked lime, crushed chalk or dolomite flour.

The highest yields were seen on well fertilized soils. In autumn, during the preparatory work, rotted manure (3 kilograms), wood ash (100 grams), and potassium s alt (40 grams) should be added to the pit. All components are designed for 1 kilogram of garden soil. If planting is done in the spring, then rotted manure (5 kilograms), wood ash (400 grams) and potassium s alt (80 grams) are used to increase the nutritional value of the soil by 1 square meter.

Fitting technology

It is best to choose annual or biennial plants with a closed root system to create an orchard. The size of the pit directly depends on the size of the underground part of the seedling, it is optimal to dig a pit, the depth and width of which is 60 centimeters.To tie a plum, a wooden peg is placed in the center of the pit, after which a young tree is placed, its roots are straightened and sprinkled with fertile soil. The main thing is to leave the root neck of the Ozark plum 5 centimeters above ground level.

The soil around the seedling is compacted, abundantly moistened, using 10 liters of water per plant. To preserve moisture, the soil is mulched with peat or rotted sawdust.

Caring for culture

Proper care of the Ozark Premier plum is the key to a rich and tasty harvest.

Fertilizer and watering

The fruit crop gratefully responds to the introduction of nutrient compounds, they are added to the soil in the third year after planting. In the process of spring and autumn digging, the plum should be fed with organic matter (compost, mature manure). Mineral complexes for plum Ozark are used three times per season: before flowering, 14 days after its completion and at the stage of fruit pouring.

Irrigation is carried out regularly, during the entire growing season of plums. In early spring, at the flowering stage and 2 weeks after it, 5 buckets of water are used per planting. But at the stage of pouring fruits, the rate should be increased to 7 buckets of water. A month before the arrival of frost, up to 15 buckets of water are poured under each tree, and mulch is laid on top.

Pruning stone fruit

Given the active growth of the vegetative mass in the first years after planting, the Ozark Premier plum needs annual pruning. All incapacitated shoots, branches that have already gone beyond the formed crown are subject to removal. The cut also applies to the center conductor, it is shortened to 1.5 meters.

Loosening and caring for the trunk circle

To improve the moisture and air permeability of the soil, the soil is regularly loosened. Manipulation is performed a couple of days after irrigation.It is possible to avoid the development of various ailments and the invasion of parasites by removing weeds from the near-stem circle.

Diseases and their control

To protect garden plantings from dangerous diseases, it is necessary to treat with Bordeaux liquid or a working solution based on copper sulphate, which is diluted according to the manufacturer's instructions. The first procedure is carried out in early spring before bud break, the second - 2 weeks before the flowering phase, the third - after the leaves fall.

Preparing for winter

In addition to water-charging irrigation, before the onset of cold weather, the soil in the near-stem circle should be mulched. The trunk of the Ozark plum needs to be whitewashed and wrapped with paper, burlap. Such simple actions will protect the tree from severe frosts.

Plum Ozark Premier is an excellent option for an unpretentious and high-yielding plant. Even novice gardeners can grow it, the main thing is to adhere to the planting algorithm and basic care recommendations.

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