Row crops and horticultural crops are grown using crop rotation. The removal of nutrients varies, depending on the crop, it is easier to replenish fertility. Gardens are divided into decades. Every year, each tree takes out the same nutrients, depleting the fertile layer. The task of the gardener is to provide trees and shrubs with a balanced diet in the right form, in sufficient quantity.

Features of fertilizing garden plants

Replenishing nutrients is not easy. The roots spread in breadth further than the crown, the upper nutrient layer is filled with them, it will not be possible to dig deep. Therefore, the tree receives the main nutrition with liquid top dressing in the spring, for digging in the fall.

Substances that determine the development, fruiting and winter hardiness of crops is NPK — complex consisting of elements:

1. 
   N (nitrogen)obtained from organic fertilizers and mineral salts. The largest amount of nitrogen in urea is up to 46%. It is introduced into the soil in spring to accelerate the development of the ground part.

2. 
   P (phosphorus), is taken into account as the active substance in the form of P2O5, the packaging always contains a percentage of the active substance, since salts of different chemical composition are used. It balances the action of nitrogen and stimulates the root system and fruit formation.

3. 
   K (potassium), the active ingredient is K2O. Salts can be different, sulfates, chlorides, nitrates — and the active substance is one. Supports immunity, frost resistance, participates in the transport of substances from the roots up.

The NPK complex is complemented by elements that the roots extract from the soil or additionally introduced through the sheets. They are needed in physiological processes at the cellular level, affect immunity and fruit formation. The elements are boron and iron. magnesium, copper, zinc, silicon, manganese, molybdenum. These components are found in complete fertilizers, in ash, and are produced in complexes of several components for foliar top dressing.

Fertilizers are classified into classes:

1. organic;

2. mineral and organomineral (with the addition of humates);

3. bacterial;

4. growth stimulants.

Organic fertilizers are considered local — they are products of processing of feed by birds and domestic animals. Mature fossils in the form of peat or sapropel. Fresh dry and succulent vegetable residues, and products from cellulose, wool and cotton. It is organic matter that creates the structure of the soil and saturates it with humates — accelerators of the transformation of minerals into a form accessible to plants. All other ingredients saturate the soil with the necessary elements, and ensure their effectiveness. Overfeeding a plant, like a person, gives disastrous results. Therefore, fertilization rates have been developed for seasons and months. They must be adhered to.

How to properly fertilize fruit trees

Fruit trees of pome and stone fruit species are demanding on fertility, soil structure and acidity. When planting, the soil around the future tree is fertilized, food is brought into the planting hole, which is enough for 3-5 years. The tree is considered young up to 8 years.

The dose of top dressing depends on the age and condition of the tree. The criterion for proper care is the annual growth of branches of 36-44 cm.

In the spring, during the beginning of the growing season, plants need nitrogen. Compost planted in the fall in a dug-up circle, spring treatment of trunks with urea, patching fertilizer around the crown perimeter — all methods are good for a quick set of green mass.

During the budding period, the tree needs phosphorus and potassium. Top dressing in the spring provides a future harvest of pome and stone fruit crops. The addition of 50 g of superphosphate, 25 g of potassium sulfate, and a glass of ash is enough.

In the summer, you can correct the need for missing elements by feeding the leaves with solutions of low concentration. So you can add trace elements, stimulants, make up for the lack of nutrition. Mist spraying is carried out in cloudy weather or at night, so as not to burn the leaves with focused sunlight.

To ensure winter hardiness, increase immunity should be the introduction of potassium and phosphorus from August. Organic matter in the form of compost, humus, insulates the roots in winter and allows mineral nitrogen to accumulate in the ground by spring. The nutrient layer should be under the insulating mulch, but applied no earlier than 2 weeks before the onset of frost.

The compost is laid, stepping back from the trunk of a young tree by 40 cm, from an adult by 80-100 cm. It is in this zone that the main roots are located. Mineral fertilizers are also applied to the working area by digging an annular trench. Fertilizers evenly scattered along the contour are covered with earth. It is necessary to apply mineral fertilizers after autumn moisture-charging irrigation, when more than 200 liters of water go to one tree.

We will consider only one scheme of how to feed fruit trees in summer, proposed by Nikolai Vladimirovich Khromov, Candidate of Agricultural Sciences and supplemented by preparing trees for winter, starting in August.

The scheme is not a dogma — it is a calendar of mandatory work. Unfavorable weather conditions, poor pouring or slow crown development can make adjustments. Then you should perform foliar top dressing on the leaves, use complexes of microfertilizers or stimulants. It all depends on the condition of the garden.

How to properly feed fruit bushes

Berry bushes are tall (irga, mountain ash), medium-sized (currant, gooseberry), stunted (strawberry, lingonberry). Requirements for acidity, structure and soil fertility vary.

General patterns:

1. In the spring, during awakening, plants need nitrogen supplements.

2. Fresh manure can only be used as infusions.

3. Liquid infusions of mullein should be diluted 1:6, bird guano 1:1 and 100 g of concentrate per bucket of water.

4. The compositions of dressings depend on the needs of plants and the phase of development.

5. Organic, mineral, green teas are used alternately.

6. Organics are incompatible with simultaneous liming, superphosphate and nitrogen must be diluted over time.

7. Mineral fertilizers are used, guided by the manufacturer’s instructions and the characteristics of the plant.

Complex fertilizers provide a more balanced diet, they are produced for different crops.

In summer cottages, fruit pits are prepared for shrubs with dressing for 3-5 years in advance. A bucket of compost is added under the currant, a matchbox of ammonium nitrate and potassium chloride, 300 g of superphosphate, a glass of ash. 2/3 of the fertilizer is applied to the bottom of the pit, 1/3 is mixed with fertile soil. The hole is filled with 2-3 buckets of water. The pit is covered with 5-6 cm mulch. Every year since autumn, 4 kg of fresh manure is added to an adult bush with a mash, 20-30 g of urea from spring. Before flowering, they are fed with superphosphate (30-50 g), KCl (15-20 g)

Sea buckthorn needs light, calcareous soils, poor in nitrogen; it itself forms nodule nitrogen-fixing bacteria. The plant needs enhanced phosphorus-potassium nutrition introduced in autumn for plowing every 2-3 years. At the same time, phosphorus is required by a third more than potassium.

Raspberries love calcareous soils, well seasoned with humus initially. The main top dressing is needed once a season, with alternating mineral and organic fertilizers, for digging between rows. Start top dressing in the third year after planting. A handful of ash and a tablespoon of superphosphate are added per square meter for digging. The next year, compost is covered with a layer of 10 cm. In the spring, they are lightly fed with urea, and soluble phosphorus-potassium fertilizers are used during the fruiting period.

Redcurrant requires three times, gooseberries two times top dressing. Vineyards are fed 5 times per season.

Blueberries are acidophytic, and instead of sucking hairs on the fungal mycelium roots, the symbiosis is called «mycorrhiza». She needs very acidic soil and top dressing is carried out with special fertilizers: Vertik universal with an NPK ratio of 12:8:14 or azophoska 16:16:16.

It is necessary to introduce the composition with incorporation into the soil:

1. before swelling of the kidneys 50 g / bush;

2. during the budding period 30 g / bush;

3. after flowering 20 g/bush.

General recommendations are not enough, before planting a new plant, you need to get acquainted with agricultural technology.

It is generally accepted that all top dressing should be done after watering, on moist soil. For foliar treatments, choose a cloudy day, or work after sunset and before sunrise.

Signs of starvation or overfeeding

An attentive gardener will determine by leaves and growth what a tree or bush needs, and overfeeding is also possible.

Signs indicating the need for adjustment:

The table shows that sometimes underfeeding the garden is better than giving an excess dose of fertilizer.

Types of fertilizers and application criteria

In different sources, the doses of fertilizers per trunk or per square meter may vary. The data is indicative, but the application depends on the age of the tree, the volume of the crown. From the yield — the more fruits were removed, the greater the removal of nutrition and reduced immunity — recovery is needed.

On heavy soils, the removal of nutrients is slower; on light soils, the active substances are washed out and introduced fractionally.

A fast growing tree requires more nutrition, and berry bushes need to be fertilized in small doses every 2 weeks.

Nitrogen top dressing is considered the main spring, potash helps the tree acquire winter hardiness, phosphate accelerates fruit formation, growth and strengthens the root system.

In an acidic environment, already poorly soluble phosphates turn into insoluble compounds with aluminum and iron, in an alkaline environment — with calcium. Favorable environment for pH 5-7 units.

A sufficient amount of potassium and phosphorus improves the taste of fruits, sugar content, and shelf life. An excess of nitrogen acts in the opposite direction, and even creates nitrite complexes harmful to humans in fruits.

The introduction of humates, biological stimulants, effective microorganisms into the soil accelerates the transformation of mineral fertilizers into a form available to plants.

Conclusion

The fruit garden pleases with a harvest if it receives top dressing at the right time and in the right amount. They should be introduced, guided by the age and type of plant. Taking into account the biological characteristics, climatic conditions and needs of the tree is a necessary part of the gardener’s work. Studying the effect of fertilizers will achieve better results. We wish you well in your garden.