Plum blossoms are a mesmerizing moment. When the plant growth period begins, it is necessary to evaluate how well the soil in which your trees grow is fertilized. After all, the quantity and quality of the harvest that can be harvested will directly depend on this.
One of the most popular types of fertilizer can be considered feeding in the form of nutrients for the root system with leaves, which ensures high-quality growth and ripening of fruits. It is better to use it together with a pesticide - this reduces application costs to a minimum.
Plum needs much more nitrogen than other trees, and about two times less boron than cherry or pear. Also, approximately twice as much calcium and potassium are required, and less magnesium and iron.
Liquid fertilizer is sprayed not so much on the roots, but primarily on the leaves and fruits. For easy absorption of liquid by the crown, it should be cut through in the summer before spraying. It is best to carry out this operation at high humidity (from 60 percent) and a temperature of 10 - 20 degrees, but not higher than 25. Otherwise, the desired result will not be achieved.
To determine the health of the tree, it is important to pay attention to the appearance of the flowers and leaves, and then the fruits.
Timing for applying fertilizers to the soil
Plum is relatively easy to care for, but if you don’t prune the tree in time and don’t feed it, you may not get a good harvest. Plum feeding is done not only to improve the yield, but also to increase the tree’s resistance to weather conditions, diseases and the environment.
The tree does not need fertilizer, and if it is fertilized, the plum will begin to form side shoots earlier, which will simply freeze out when the temperature drops in winter and the whole year the tree will be weakened, it will begin to hurt and, of course, there will be no fruit.
Note: After spring planting of a seedling of any variety of plum tree, fertilizing is not performed in the first year.
In the second year, you can already start using nitrogen fertilizer. Dilute two tablespoons of urea in ten liters of water and spray plum trees twice a month: at the beginning and end of June. For one seedling you will need 25-35 liters of liquid.
For plums from three years old and older, which are already bearing fruit, three-stage feeding is used:
- Before flowering begins, you need to dig up the soil around the tree, loosen it, moisten it well and water it with a urea solution with the addition of potassium sulfate. One tree will need 25-35 liters of mixture.
- During the ripening of the fruits, the second stage of fertilizing plum trees is carried out. Use a mixture of urea and nitrophoska to prepare the solution. Two tablespoons per ten liters of water. One tree will need 25-35 liters of liquid.
- After the fruits ripen and the harvest is completed, the third stage of fertilizing the plum tree is carried out. A mixture of potassium sulfate and superphosphate is prepared at the rate of two to three tablespoons of each per ten liters of water. This mixture is poured over the plum. Consumption per plant – 25-40 liters.
Note: To increase productivity and grow a healthy tree, you need to feed it annually during fruiting with manure, humus, charcoal and chalk. This mixture will help regulate the acidity of the soil and saturate it with nitrogen.
The root mixture for feeding the tree is mixed with loosened soil and watered with water. You can sprinkle the soil on top with wood grass; it will absorb excess moisture from the ground.
Types of fertilizing:
- Root. In the second and third years after rooting of the plum tree, fertilizing with nitrogen root fertilizers begins in early spring in March and in summer in early June. Liquid and organic mixtures are poured into special grooves in pre-loosened soil;
- Foliar. In the second year after the tree has rooted, the plum is sprayed with a solution of urea or urea. During the summer, only foliar and nitrogen fertilizing is done.
Signs of micronutrient deficiency, solutions
Cherry plum, peach, plum and nectarine have almost the same need for microelements. All these plants love moisture, liquid and dry fertilizers, well-drained soil and well-lit areas.
To fertilize, a group of these fruit trees needs a lot of nitrogen, calcium, potassium and much less iron, boron and magnesium.
Determining that a tree is sick is not difficult. You need to pay attention to the leaves, bark and fruits of the plum. The lack of macroelements is noticeable on old leaves, and the lack of microelements is noticeable on new leaves. If the tree grows slowly, the leaves turn yellow, and the fruits become stained or crack while still unripe, you need to urgently save the plant.
To eliminate the lack of micro and macroelements in the soil, you need to feed the tree on time. The health of the plant, the quality of the fruit, their transportability and shelf life depend on the quality and quantity of fertilizer.
Important Batteries:
- foliar soil fertilizer. Accelerates the growth and development of the tree;
- calcium is one of the most important nutritional elements. The quality of the fruit depends on it: the more calcium in the soil, the better harvest you will get in the end. The fruits will be the same size, juicy, not cracked;
- Boron is also an important element in the fertilizer package. It is responsible for the process of pollination and fertilization of the plant;
- potassium is responsible for the absorption and evaporation of liquid. The content of vitamins in fruits, juiciness and appearance depend on it;
- nitrogen is responsible for plant growth, protein synthesis and regeneration.
We invite you to watch a video on how to care for fruit trees:
Gardeners consider the plum to be an unpretentious tree. It grows well in heavy and moist soils, but does not like acidic ones. Therefore, when planting a seedling, experienced gardeners recommend adding dolomite flour, or wood ash, or chalk to the planting hole. However, this is not the end of fertilizing plums, but only just beginning, because without fertilizing there will be no good harvest of plums. In addition, fertilizing improves the tree’s resistance to any negative influences.
Plum feeding
In the first year after spring planting, young plum trees are not fed. Fertilizing with nitrogen is especially undesirable, since the root system of the seedling is weak and nitrogen absorption can begin in the fall. Instead of preparing for winter, the tree will begin to produce new green shoots and enter the winter weakened with immature shoots that will inevitably freeze in the frost.
Starting from the second year, nitrogen can be used for fertilizing. Foliar fertilizing with nitrogen, which is carried out twice: in the first and third ten days of June, has a very good effect on young trees. To do this, take 20 g of urea per 10 liters of water and spray the plum with the resulting solution.
For good fruiting, plum trees need organic fertilizers. During the autumn digging of plums, 10 kg of manure per 1 sq.m. is added to the tree trunk circle. To the manure you can add 200 g of wood ash, 60 g of superphosphate, and 20 g of urea and potassium salt. The autumn application of organic matter under young trees improves the ripening of shoots and provides sufficient nutrition for the next growing season.
In addition, once every three years, the soil under the plum tree is limed by adding slaked lime, ground limestone, dolomite, and chalk at the rate of 300 g per 1 sq. m. m. On heavy soils their quantity is increased to 500 g.
Feeding plums in spring
Before the start of fruiting, the plum is fed every spring, adding 20 g of urea per 1 sq. m. during spring digging. m. Next, the plum is fed in May. For 10 liters of water, take 3 tablespoons of humate or 20 g of potassium sulfate and superphosphate. For each tree, 35 liters of this solution are used. The next feeding is done in mid-August, using the same composition.
After fruiting begins, the amount of organic matter doubles, while the amount of mineral fertilizers during feeding remains the same. In this case, organic matter is used both in spring and autumn, urea in spring, and phosphorus and potassium in summer and autumn.
Feeding plums before and after flowering
When the plant enters the active fruiting phase, experienced gardeners feed the plum in three stages. Before flowering, the soil in the tree trunk circle is well loosened and moistened, after which the plum is fed at the rate of 2 tablespoons of potassium sulfate and urea per 10 liters of water. Consumption - 35 liters per tree. The second feeding is carried out at the stage of fruit filling: 2 tablespoons of urea and 3 tablespoons of nitrophoska per 10 liters of water. Consumption - 25 liters per tree. The third feeding is carried out at the end of fruiting, watering the tree with a solution in which 2 tablespoons of potassium sulfate and 3 tablespoons of superphosphate are taken per 10 liters of water. Consumption - 40 liters of water per tree.
Plums usually produce good harvests within a year. Experts advise that in a year when there is no harvest, abandon the application of fertilizers in the fall, and in the next season limit yourself to only summer fertilizing, since excess nutrients will lead to an increase in the vegetative mass of the tree to the detriment of the future harvest.
All fruit trees need a lot of nutrients, and plums are no exception. Growing sweet, fleshy fruits is an extremely expensive process. Therefore, if you are counting on a large harvest, then you should definitely think about how to feed your plum tree in the fall. Beginning gardeners sometimes have doubts about the advisability of such a procedure. In their opinion, this is not such a capricious tree to pay so much attention to it. But in this case, don’t complain if the plums are small or the tree simply drops the entire ovary.
Maintaining balance
It is logical to assume that the plant needs a full range of nutrients. If you overfeed one element and underfeed another, then all the work is in vain. Therefore, you need to monitor fruit trees throughout the summer season. The plant constantly needs mineral and organic fertilizers, but it is quite possible that right now it is lacking one thing.
Signs of Deficiency
If there is not enough phosphorus, the leaves acquire a grayish tint. The tree generally grows well, but the fruits look rather pathetic. If you notice such changes, then you already know how to feed your plum tree in the fall. How can you understand from its appearance what a tree needs most urgently:
- Magnesium deficiency can be identified by the brown edging of the leaves.
- Potassium deficiency leads to slower shoot growth.
- In the absence of nitrogen, premature falling of leaves and ovaries is observed.
If you carefully examine your plantings, you will be able to understand by certain signs how to feed your plum tree in the fall. But this does not exclude the need to apply complex fertilizer.
Feeding during planting
A tender seedling needs a lot of nutrients in order to quickly grow a root system and become a full-fledged tree. The gardener must know how to feed the plum tree in the fall, that is, how to fill the planting hole. You will need a bucket of organic matter, this can be compost or humus. To improve the soil, it is recommended to add a bucket of peat. As a source of essential substances, take 300 g of superphosphate and 500 g of wood ash. The last point is very important, because the culture loves a slightly alkaline environment.
Regular application of fertilizers
The amount of nutrients that was added during planting is quite enough for the tree to take root well and begin to grow. In the next two years, nothing additional will be required. Therefore, next time the question of how to feed the plum tree in the fall will arise only in two years. At this time the seedling is already large, but still quite weak. In order for it to overwinter well and please you with fruits next year, it must receive a dose of urea. How to feed a young plum tree in the fall? For these purposes, urea is ideal at a rate of 20 g per m2, applied as a solution to the soil.
Third year of life
The young tree begins to bloom, on which it spends its energy. Therefore, it is important to provide him with additional nutrition. From the third year, it is recommended to start applying fertilizer three times a year. The first time this procedure is performed is at the very beginning of the season, upon awakening from winter sleep. Urea is perfect for these purposes. You need to add two tablespoons of urea to the bucket. The second time you need to support its defenses during the formation of fruits. A bucket of water will require three tablespoons.
Feeding plums in the fall involves adding a complex of nutrients. In mid-September, a solution of superphosphate and potassium sulfate is used. You should add 2 tablespoons of fertilizer per bucket. One tree requires an average of two to three buckets of solution.
Caring for an adult tree
Just at this time it enters the time of fruiting. That is why fertilizing in spring and autumn becomes very important. Plum is very responsive to such procedures. Every year you will now need to perform the following manipulations:
- The soil around the trunk needs to be dug up to a depth of 20-30 cm.
- In the spring, you definitely need to add organic matter. It could be an infusion of manure. Per m2 you will need 10-15 kg of organic fertilizer. Rotted manure can be combined with peat and urea, superphosphate and wood ash.
- In summer, there begins a period of active growth of the plant itself, as well as the formation of fruits. At this time, it is especially important to pay attention to the introduction of nitrogen and limestone, which helps normalize the acidity of the soil.
- With the onset of September, the tree is dormant. Now it becomes relevant to fertilize from wood ash and sand, which is applied to the soil previously dug around the trunk.
These measures allow not only to ensure regular tree care, but also to prevent the occurrence of phytodiseases and damage by rodents. In the future, this will ensure a large harvest of large plums next season.
Complex drugs
A good tree usually produces a lot of ripe and tasty plums. But this is an extremely energy-consuming process, so now the plant requires real care. An excellent choice would be the “Berry” complex fertilizer. It is diluted in proportions of 300 g per 10 liters of water. It can be added to the soil at the stage of flowering and ovary formation.
After this, when the fruits are filled, the complex fertilizer “Berry Giant” works very well. In fact, this is an analogue of a mixture of urea and nitrophoska. But during the ripening of fruits, chemicals are not used. From organic matter, it is preferable to use a solution of chicken manure. For 1 part there are 20 parts of water.
Feeding with folk remedies
How to feed a plum tree in the fall if there are no professional preparations at hand? At this time, it experiences an acute deficiency of minerals, since the tree is depleted during the summer season. Prepare a mash of bread. It is used to increase the likelihood of fruit set. You will need to fill a third of the bucket with bread crusts and add water. Collect eggshells and it will also be very useful. Add half a shovel of wood ash to the bread. If it is not there, then you can take chicken droppings. Leave to ferment for a week. Now dilute the concentrate 1:10 with water. You need to pour the shells and tea leaves into the root circle, and then pour over the mash. Lightly mulch the top.
Foliar feeding
If you are looking for how to feed plums in the fall, after harvesting, then pay attention to this effective method. Potassium sulfate and superphosphate can be added by spraying. Use two tablespoons per bucket of water. But keep in mind that this must be done before the leaves fall. That is, this method is no longer suitable for late-ripening varieties, since sap flow in the trunk practically stops by mid-September. But the roots grow all year round, so fertilizer will be applied directly to
And one moment. Beginning gardeners do not always follow the fertilizer application schedule, considering it unnecessary. In fact, consistency is a very important component of a good harvest. Starting in spring, make a plan for what you will water with. You must also take into account the impact of substances introduced into the soil. In the fall, feeding plums with fertilizers is designed to increase its resistance to frost and promote the formation of fruit buds. The future harvest will be formed from them. Since the tree itself is already in a dormant state, it does not need nitrogen. It stimulates the growth of branches and leaves, which is not a priority right now.
Proper watering and hardening
With the onset of autumn, gardeners stop watering fruit plants, believing that they no longer need water. This is wrong, since autumn watering helps to harden the plum. The optimal period is the third ten days of September. At this time, the watering rate increases. Each tree will require 18-24 buckets of water. If autumn is very rainy, it is recommended to avoid watering, since excess moisture leads to insufficient ripening of the wood. This greatly affects winter hardiness. During the rainy season, you need to make drainage grooves or cover the tree trunk circle with a thick film.
Forms a crown
Pruning and fertilizing plum trees in the fall is done in order to get excellent results next year. For the proper development of a tree, it is necessary to form its crown. The crown should be medium-thick, the height of the tree no more than 2.5 meters. After reaching this size, the central conductor must be bent and tied to the lower branch. The branches growing inside the crown are cut into a ring, removing all the shoots that form an acute angle. Annual shoots longer than 70 cm are shortened by 1/3. Everything else is left as is. Too much pruning can prevent the tree from producing a good harvest because too few fruit buds will be set.
Instead of a conclusion
Plum - in general, the plant is not too fancy, but every gardener should know the basics of caring for it. You can limit yourself to adding compost when planting, but be prepared for the fact that there will be much less fruit than you would like. In addition, a tree weakened during the summer season may not survive the winter well, as a result of which a significant part of the fruit branches will have to be cut off. In this case, it will be possible to get a good harvest only next year, when the branches grow back.
Proper and timely feeding of plums will ensure healthy and long fruiting. Experienced gardeners know how to feed a plum tree so that it is also able to resist diseases and pest attacks.
Alkaline chernozem or humus-rich loamy soils are suitable for growing plums. As a rule, before planting, the soil is carefully prepared, correcting its structure and acidity level if necessary. Ash, peat, compost, even sand are added to very heavy clay soil. Acidic soil is seasoned with lime and dolomite flour.
The planting hole itself is enriched with organic and mineral fertilizers so that for the first 3 years of its life the seedling practically does not need fertilizing.
Plums most of all need the following microelements: nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, and somewhat less calcium and iron. The next year after planting, you can add a little nitrogen. This is usually done by spraying the crown of the tree or mulching the tree trunk with organic matter. Only at 4-5 years of life do young trees begin to be fed with small amounts of fertilizers several times: in the spring and early summer, nitrogen fertilizers predominate, in the fall - potassium-phosphorus fertilizers.
When the tree begins to bear fruit, the amount of fertilizer is increased. Usual timing for feeding an adult tree:
- spring - before flowering begins;
- June - when the fruits are full;
- in the summer after harvest or at the very beginning of autumn.
Dry substances are laid out on the surface of the earth for digging, 10-20 cm away from the trunk. To add liquid substances, holes or grooves are dug along the perimeter of the crown, even going slightly beyond its boundaries.
Fresh manure cannot be applied under the plum; rotted manure (as well as wood ash) must be applied after 2-3 years. Sowing green manure has a good effect. The trunk circle and row spacing can be occupied by sowing rye, mustard, phacelia and vetch, so that you can dig up their greens later in the summer.
The amount and frequency of fertilizing directly depend on the condition of the soil: fertile soil requires less than depleted soil. The state of the tree's leaves will indicate the lack of one or another element. For example, with a lack of nitrogen, the leaves turn pale and acquire yellow spots, and if the tree lacks magnesium, the leaves acquire a brown border and the veins become the same color. A lack of potassium causes the leaves to turn brown and curl.
Video “How and with what to fertilize fruit trees”
In this video, an expert will tell you how and with what to properly fertilize plums and other fruit trees.
Chemical fertilizers
Organic fertilizers include rotted manure, compost, chopped grass and leaves, sawdust, and peat. Of the minerals, urea, potassium chloride, potassium magnesium, phosphates and superphosphates are usually used. Gardeners who do not want to bother with mixing individual components buy ready-made mixtures for fruit trees (for example, “Berry” or “Giant Berry”).
Fertilizing plums in the spring for the first 1-2 years is most often limited to spraying with a urea solution. To prepare it, 20 g of urea is dissolved in 5 liters of water. After 1-2 flowerings, the trees can be sprayed with a solution of nitrophoska (30 g of substance and 10 l of water).
To help young trees survive the winter and guarantee the next harvest, by the end of summer they are watered abundantly (up to 20 liters) with potassium sulfate and superphosphate, dissolved in a bucket of water. You can add 70 g of wood ash to this fertilizer.
Otherwise, you should feed an adult plum during fruiting. Before flowering begins, carefully loosen, water the ground under the tree, then pour up to 2 buckets of a solution prepared from 30 g of urea and potassium sulfate dissolved in 10 liters of water into the prepared grooves.
The time of fruit ripening is the second mandatory stage of feeding. One tree should receive up to 30 liters of nitroammophoska and urea solution (40 g and 30 g, respectively, dissolve 10 liters of water).
After harvesting, up to 20 liters of fertilizer prepared from 30 g of potassium sulfate and 40 g of superphosphate (per 10 liters of water) is poured under each tree.
In the fall, when digging up the garden, dry substances are usually added: potassium magnesia and something containing phosphorus.
Folk remedies
How to feed a plum in the spring, and whether it is necessary to do this if it grows on fertile soil - this is a question that novice gardeners often ask. If the annual growth of branches is less than 40 cm, then the tree clearly does not have enough nutrition. There are folk methods and means for this, proven by generations.
In early spring, you need to help the tree grow, for which a solution of fermented mullein (1 liter of mullein per 10 liters of warm water) or chicken droppings (1 kg of droppings per 12-15 liters of water) are perfect. Such fertilizing is applied before flowering, after moistening the soil around the tree trunk.
Feeding an adult plum after flowering can be done several times during the summer with a solution of nitrate. To do this, 25 g of saltpeter is diluted with 10 liters of water, and then this liquid is poured directly under the roots.
A well-known recipe is feeding with yeast: 20 g of yeast is stirred in 1 liter of water, allowed to brew, and just before use, another 10 liters of water are diluted.
Egg shells deoxidize the soil well and enrich it with calcium and other substances. You just need to grind it thoroughly before adding it.
Some gardeners pour up to 1 liter of the following nutrient mixture under the tree: bread crusts that have been steeped for a week (3/4 of the bucket are topped with water) with the addition of whey are diluted with 3 buckets of water.
It is good to mulch the tree with compost and rotted sawdust.
Feeding a fruit tree correctly means giving it the missing elements so that it has enough strength to grow and bear fruit. The main thing is not to overdo it, otherwise you can harm the tree.