Apple Tree Desired

There is hardly a garden in Russia where an apple tree does not grow. A favorite and affordable fruit, perfectly adapted to the difficult climatic conditions of the main part of our country. An apple is a source of vitamins and a lot of nutrients; you can not only eat it fresh, but also prepare it for future use in many different ways. One of these varieties is the Zhelannoe apple tree.

Work on the breeding of new varieties of apple trees did not stop in our country, even in the most difficult years. In 1999, after a state test in the center of Russia, the Zhelannoye variety was admitted to zoning. Breeders E. N. Sedov, Z. M. Serova and N. G. Krasova, who work at the All-Russian Research Institute for Breeding Fruit Crops, located near Orel, have created an interesting apple variety that bears fruit at the end of summer.

The apple tree is vigorous, up to 4 m high, forming a rounded crown, branches grow rarely and almost horizontally to the ground. The ends of young shoots grow upward. The bark on the trunk and main branches is gray, not rough. Fresh shoots are red-brown, pubescent, with few knees, rounded. Small cone-shaped buds with pubescence, pressed to the shoots. The flowers are light pink, shaped like a saucer, flat, large in size, with a slightly purple bloom. A large, rounded leaf, smooth, rests on a strong petiole, lowered at the base.

The Zhelannoye variety begins to bear fruit from 5-7 years. Flowering begins at the end of May.

Advantages of the variety:

• excellent marketability;

• wonderful taste and juiciness of fruits;

• sufficient frost resistance;

• transportable apples;

• high resistance to scab damage.

Disadvantage - the height of the tree makes harvesting difficult. This can be avoided by growing Zhelannoe on dwarf and semi-dwarf rootstocks (for example, Kid Budagovsky), this helps to save space on the land and simplifies the collection of fruits.

The variety is good both for intensive commercial cultivation and for private small farms and summer cottages.

The variety is declared as a late summer variety - the fruits ripen at the end of August, the collection continues until the second decade of September. These terms are relevant for the Central Black Earth Region and vary in different localities and climatic conditions.

The variety is high-yielding, fast-growing and fast-growing. Most gardeners' reviews confirm this. The average yield for intensive commercial cultivation is 207 c / ha.

Apples weighing 150-190 g, slightly flattened, with a thin, smooth peel with a slight waxy bloom. At the beginning of the formation of fruits, their color is yellowish-green, as they ripen, the color changes to yellow. There may be a red blush or burgundy streaks covering the entire apple. Gray dots under the skin are present on all fruits, there are many of them, and they are clearly visible. Sweet and sour pulp, tender, juicy, with a weak aroma, fine-grained. The color changes from white to pale cream at a ripe apple. The exterior of the apples is estimated at 4.6 points, the dessert taste - 4.4 points. The fruits indicate the presence of:

• sugars - 10.8%;

• titratable acids - 0.61%;

• ascorbic acid - 3.7 mg / 100 g;

• P-active substances - 380 mg / 100 g;

• pectins - 13.6%.

Apples are good. Desirable fresh for consumption, they can be dried, squeezed juice, boiled compotes, jelly, wines and cider. They make excellent jam, marmalade and jam.

The variety is tall, therefore, when planting, it is necessary to provide the tree with the necessary area for growth. If the size of the plot does not allow growing the usual variety, you can stop at a dwarf rootstock, which is quicker and takes up less space.

It is important to know at what depth the groundwater lies at the site - they should be no closer than 3 m. A sunny site with fertile, well-drained soil is chosen. It can be sandy loam or loam with a slightly acidic or neutral reaction.

Landing pits are prepared in advance, landing pattern:

• the interval between seedlings in a row is 4-4.5 m (2-2.5 m on dwarf or semi-dwarf rootstocks);

• between rows - 5-6 m.

The pits are filled with a mixture of fertile soil and organic matter (rotted manure, humus), a 1-1.5 m peg is immediately driven in to tie up a young tree. After filling the hole and carefully compacting the soil around the trunk, make sure that the root collar remains above the soil surface. It is unacceptable to deepen it. After planting, the seedling is watered abundantly, during the whole season they provide regular watering and loosen the near-trunk circle in a timely manner.

For the desired apple tree, only sanitary pruning is required, branches grow rarely and do not thicken the crown.

The variety tolerates frosts quite well: in terms of winter hardiness, it is comparable to Antonovka. Only at temperatures below –36 ° C, minor damage was observed, estimated by experts at 1.1 points.

The young promising variety Zhelannoye, created by Russian agricultural scientists, has already found fans. Thanks to him, apples will become even more affordable, and yields will be more abundant.