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Actinide is becoming increasingly popular in garden storesoi, the cultivation and care of which is very simple, and the result is pleasant. From the bush you can collect at least 20 kg of tasty fruits, depending on age. What is it? In order not to be verbose, let's say that one of the varieties of this plant is kiwi. So what should be the care of a miracle relative for a big harvest?
Actinidia at a glance
Actinidia is an ornamental and medicinal shrub vine that produces a bountiful harvest every year. Homeland plants - China. In the Primorsky Territory of the Far East, one can often find wild actinidia, on the basis of which many winter-hardy varieties have been developed that can grow and bear fruit in our conditions. Most often, the plant occurs to us not in the form of a bush, but in the form of fruits, which include kiwi.
Due to the variegatedness of the actinidia, it is often planted in the garden for vertical gardening of verandas, houses, gazebos, pergolas, fences, and trellis. Especially beautiful plant in the period of blooming of many buds( in early June).In August-September, large fruits with a mass of 13-18 g appear in their place.
You can eat fruits both fresh, and make jam, fruit compote, marmalade, marshmallow, or add them to baked goods. Dried and dried fruits taste something like raisins.
Preparation for planting
The cultivation and care of actinidia requires a series of manipulations on which the proper development of the plant depends. Due to the vulnerability of the root system, those seedlings from which it is covered buy.
Actinidia should not be left with a bare root system in the heat or wind.
Buy should seedlings of three years of age and more. Moreover, it should be both male specimens and female in a ratio of 1-2: 5, respectively, since actinidia is a dioecious plant and inter-pollination is possible only between plants of its own species.
The floor of the plant is determined by the structure of the flowers in the first flowering. A male specimen has buds with many stamens, but they lack a pistil. In addition, the flowers are inflorescences of 6 or more buds. Male plants are characterized by a dark green color of the upper side of the foliage, which during the summer acquires a white color with pubescence, and then rose-red.
The female plant has both stamens and a pistil, but the former do not participate in pollination at all. Pollen flowers are obtained by the wind, bees and bumblebees. Unlike the male plant, the buds are solitary. As for the foliage coloring, female bushes change it to brownish by autumn.
Buds are laid in the axils of the leaves on the branches of the current year. Duration of flowering is 10 days, after which on the site of the buds on the female plants ovaries are formed, from which fruits of a light orange or yellow-green shade develop.
Choosing a location
Actinidia is a climbing plant, so it is often planted along the walls of the house, hedges, gazebos and other buildings. In addition, this arrangement protects the plant in winter, and it rarely freezes.
In the natural environment, actinidia prefer “openwork” partial shade of sparse forests, so when growing plants in a garden, it is advisable to choose a place with identical conditions and protect from direct sunlight.
Actinidia does not like places where water stagnates for a long time, so it is not recommended to plant it under a drain and in tree trunks.
Proper fit.
Actinidia care in the spring means proper fit. To soil the plant is undemanding. In its natural environment, it grows in the soil with a low content of phosphorus and nitrogen. Alkaline and clay soils are not suitable at all. Preferred acidic, slightly acidic, at worst neutral. This explains the impossibility of using lime as a fertilizer. It is preferable to plant the plants in the springtime, but it is possible in the autumn time 2-3 weeks before frosts.
Autumn planting is carried out only for plants of the 2nd or 3rd age.
For planting, dig holes 60 * 60 cm, putting 10-15 cm of drainage in them( pebbles, expanded clay, crushed stone).In each hole add rich soil, mixing 2-3 tbsp.wood ash, 10 kg of humus and 0.15 kg of superphosphate.
It is strictly forbidden to make lime or manure!
As soon as the land has settled, they begin planting plants, having previously poured into the hole a hill of land that does not contain fertilizer, on which the seedling is placed. Between the bushes there should be a distance of 1.5-2.5 m. After planting, the seedlings are watered( about 2-3 buckets per unit), lightly crush the ground so that the root collar is flush with the ground. Top mulch with peat, sawdust, compost, pine bark.
Vertical support of the plant
After planting, it is immediately necessary to install supports for actinidia( frames, trellis) - two-meter concrete or wooden, between which a wire is stretched in 3-4 rows. Orient support frame from east to west. The plants are placed on the south side, forming on a support in the form of a crest or fan.
Actinidia Care
Care includes watering, fertilizing, mulching and pruning. To moisten the plant should be well sprayed in the morning and evening. Especially it is necessary to carry out the procedure in the heat.
The cultivation and care of actinidia during a long drought is as follows. In order not to lose the plant leaves, it is watered every week in the amount of 6-8 buckets of water per unit. Otherwise, after dropping the foliage, the plant cannot grow a new one and will freeze in the winter.
They often perform pristol loosening, simultaneously weeding, but not very deep, in order not to damage the root system.
Actinidia is important to obtain fertilizer, because it increases its frost resistance, stimulates the growth of young shoots and contributes to an increase in yield. The question of how to feed the actinidia in the spring is solved quickly.
In early spring, phosphate, nitrogen and potassium fertilizers are applied in the ratio of 20:35:20 g per 1 m².When the fruits begin to set, they perform the second “feeding”, making similar fertilizers, but in a ratio of 10-12 / 15-20 / 10-12 g per 1 m².The last feeding is carried out in mid-September, when the harvest will be harvested, using a mixture of phosphorus and potassium, 20 g each. Fertilizer should be evenly distributed over the soil, and after digging to a depth of 10-12 cm and watering each bush abundantly.
Pruning
To prevent thickening of the crown, pruning is carried out.
The procedure is performed only for actinidia who have reached 3-4 years of age.
Manipulations are carried out throughout the summer, after which the branches are placed on a support for actinidia in the right direction. Also doing a pinching that stops the growth of the branches.
For rejuvenation of 8-10-year-old plants, pruning of old skeletal branches is carried out, leaving only lumps of 30–40 cm from the lianas. Otherwise, the plant will die.
With the onset of autumn, young 2-3 year old vines are removed from supports and covered with peat, dry foliage, and spruce leaves, at least 20 cm long, having previously placed poison for rodents so that they do not dig their nests. Adult actinidia do not need to cover.
Reproduction
If you are engaged in growing plants, then sooner or later you will be interested in how to propagate actinidia. The breeding process is quite simple, so the grower can independently grow both male and female specimens. In this case, the gender and characteristics of the variety are inherited from the parent to the child( except for using the seed method).
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arc cutting method. At the end of spring sap flow and blooming of young foliage, the longest and most well-developed growth shoots are selected, tilted down to the top and attached to the ground, sprinkling the pinching site with a 10-15 cm soil layer. Slide should be watered and grinded with sawdust or humus.
In the fall or spring of next year, the layering and the mother bush are separated, and the baby is transplanted to a permanent location.
Cutting
Gardeners are often interested in how to propagate Actinidia by cuttings in the spring. This is done in two ways.
Cutting with green shoots
With the onset of June, choose several strong annuals of 0.5-1 m in length, cut off in the morning and immediately put in a jar of water to prevent wilting. Each twig is divided into fragments of 10–15 cm and planted into the ground( slightly acid or neutral), in which humus and river sand are preliminarily introduced in a ratio of 1: 2, as well as a mineral complex fertilizer that does not contain chlorine( 100 g is enough for 1 m²).
Planting is carried out at an angle of 60º, keeping a distance of 5 cm between cuttings and 10 cm between rows. At the same time, the average bud on the branch should be located at ground level. Around the cutting soil tamped, watered, and laid on top of a two-layer gauze, which is removed after 2 weeks.
Before the onset of winter, the cuttings are hidden under the fallen leaves, and in the spring, until the foliage has blossomed, they are transplanted to a permanent place of growth.
The method of lignified cuttings
According to this method, actinidia is propagated as follows. Lignified cuttings are cut in late autumn, tied in bunches and stored until spring vertically arranged in a box filled with sand at 1-5 ºC maximum. Planting is carried out in a greenhouse and watered every two days. Caring like green cuttings.
Seed method
After crushing the most ripe whole fruit, and then washing, the obtained seeds are dried on paper in the shade. Then in the first decade of December they are soaked for 4 days, the gulf of 2 cm of water is stratified and sown to 0.5 cm deep in containers filled with a mixture of turf soil and river sand.
Shoots should be sprayed and covered from direct sunlight. After the appearance of 3-4 leaves, the youngsters are transplanted into a greenhouse. Flowering occurs on reaching 3-5 years of age, after which the seedlings are transplanted to a permanent place in the ground.
Diseases and pests
Plants are quite resistant to diseases and are rarely attacked by pests. If during the cultivation of actinidia follow the rules of care, the bushes become almost invulnerable.
Of diseases, a plant can be affected by phylsticctosis, fruit rot, powdery mildew, mold of green or gray type, fungal diseases causing spots on foliage. When problems appear, the diseased parts of the plant are removed. As prophylactic purposes, the plants are treated with Bordeaux liquids( 1%) immediately after the appearance of buds. Repeat the procedure is repeated after 2 weeks. To combat the powdery mildew, double treatment( with a 10-day break) of baking soda( 0.5% solution) is carried out.
Of insects, leaf beetles and their larvae, which eat the buds, foliage and fruits, as well as the golden-eyed, caterpillars of the chickpea moth, the bark beetle, bring great harm to the plant. Relief brings spring and autumn tillage and the whole plant Bordeaux liquid that kills wintering or wintering pests and their larvae.
Oddly enough, pests include and. .. cats. After the snow melts, the animals dig up the roots, thereby damaging them, and also eat up the young shoots. Therefore, once the plants have been planted, they must be protected with a wire fence, deepening it 10 cm into the ground and making a kind of cover so that the cats cannot penetrate to the tree through the top.
Proper care for actinidia will help grow a healthy shrub, which will later be generously rewarded with a great harvest of tasty fruits.
