Shrub cherries: description of varieties, planting and care, advantages and disadvantages

In dry areas with low winter temperatures, the choice of suitable horticultural crops is limited. Unpretentious and easy to care for shrub cherry is an alternative to ordinary tree. It grows well on poor alkaline soils, easily tolerates hot summers without abundant watering and is not sensitive to severe frosts.

Varieties and their characteristics

Shrub varieties are usually called varieties bred from wild steppe cherries, which are widespread in Western Siberia, Kazakhstan, the European part of our country.

The common features of all varieties bred from wild bush cherries are:

• short stature, bush height usually does not exceed 1.5-2 m;
• fruits are medium or small, sour;
• crown spherical;
• abundant growth;
• high resistance during dry periods and frosty winters.

Crossing the unpretentious steppe "inhabitant" with other productive representatives made it possible to obtain good resistant varieties.

Deserves attention Subbotinskaya cherry with its bright scarlet fruits with a pleasant sweet and sour taste. It is unpretentious in care, rarely grows above 2-2.5 m in height, independently forms a neat spherical crown. It requires the mandatory presence of pollinating trees on the site, the yield is high (5-9 kg).

Another interesting "descendant" of our steppe "inhabitant" was the Altaiskaya Krupnaya cherry variety. Low bushes are distinguished by good productivity (5-9 kg) and unpretentiousness. Large flattened drupes are pleasant in taste and versatile in use. In the description of the variety, they warn that in especially frosty winters, freezing of flower buds and a decrease in yield are possible.

If you need a particularly frost-resistant and unpretentious variety, Early Steppe cherry will do. Small dark red fruits are good in canning and juice production. In the presence of pollinators, it gives decent annual yields (up to 3-4 kg per bush).

Features of planting and care

The planting of a cherry shrub garden is best done on a gentle slope, where there is no risk of spring stagnation of melt water. Choose an open sunny place, sufficient area for the growth of overgrowth. Planting and caring for bush cherries are not very difficult, but contain several important points.

Important! In a nearby area, it is advisable to plant other varieties of cherries (pollinators) with similar flowering periods, this will increase the yield by 2-3 times.

Soil preparation

Steppe cherry is less demanding on soils than tree cherry, but responds well to the application of organic and mineral fertilizers during planting.

The root system of the shrub lies close to the surface, so it is enough to prepare a fertile layer of 30-40 cm. complex mineral top dressing (150 g/m²) of superphosphate. Sowing green manure with subsequent digging at the budding phase will help improve the structure of the soil and fill it with organic matter.

Council. It is better to dig holes for seedlings in advance, at least a month before planting.

Landing

It is important to start planting seedlings in the fall, three to four weeks before the first frost, or in the spring, before the start of sap flow:

1. The pit is filled in 3-4 days with fertile soil with the addition of organic and mineral components (humus 4-5 kg, potassium s alt 50 g, superphosphate 150 g, ammonium sulfate 50 g).
2. He althy, with a developed fibrous root, young bushes have a root collar a couple of centimeters above ground level.
3. The earth is compacted around the seedlings with their feet. After watering, the soil settles, and the neck should be at ground level.

One of the reasons for the increased frost resistance of steppe cherries is the ability to hold snow between bushes and undergrowth. It makes sense to have seedlings close to each other (1.5-2 x 2 m). Planting is mulched with a thick layer of dry grass or peat.

Fertilizer

With proper soil preparation in the first year, additional top dressing is not necessary. For the next 2-3 years, one spring nitrogen fertilization (urea 20 g/m²) is sufficient for digging. Further, the bushes enter the fruiting period and require a more serious application of nutrients: in the fall - humus for digging (8-10 kg/m²), in the spring - superphosphate 50 g/m ², potassium chloride 10-20 g/m^{2, urea 25 g, post-embedded.}

Irrigation

Although the bush cherry is considered not very demanding on soil moisture, it gratefully responds to timely watering with an increased yield and juiciness of drupes. 2-3 times watering per season is considered sufficient: after flowering, during fruiting, at the end of summer. After each watering, shallow loosening is recommended after 2-3 days.

Cutting

Shrub cherries are characterized by independent formation of a rounded crown. Therefore, pruning is mainly aimed at reducing thickening and rejuvenation. Fruiting usually occurs on last year's growth, so only the extra branches growing inside the crown are removed.

Rejuvenation of cherry bushes is carried out after growth attenuation, cutting off skeletal branches in places where branching stops.

Since the steppe "inhabitant" is characterized by a large number of shoots, thinning should be carried out in a timely manner. The life of one bush without reducing fruiting is about 8-10 years. To rejuvenate the landing, strong and he althy layers are left, gradually replacing the old ones with them.

Advantages and disadvantages of spray cherries

Benefits:

• increased frost resistance and drought resistance;
• low soil fertility requirements;
• early-ripening, fast-growing;
• decorative appearance during flowering;
• dense growth allows you to regularly rejuvenate the planting;
• fruiting occurs already in the 3-4th year;
• disease resistant.

Flaws:

• sour fruits, often tart, often small;
• fruits only in an open sunny place;
• numerous shoots require frequent thinning;
• small life of one bush.

Planting bushy cherries will not bring much trouble to the gardener. The main thing is that the site is sunny and open. Even with minimal care, an annual harvest of juicy cherries will justify the cost.

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