If you have a desire to combine the beautiful with the useful and decorate your plot with some fruit tree, then the Rudolf apple tree is a good choice.
- Description and features
- Application
- How to choose seedlings when buying
- Planting seedlings of ornamental apple
- Location selection
- Optimal timing
- Step-by-step process
- Features of care and cultivation agrotechnics
- Soil care
- Feedings
- Cropping and crown formation
- Preparing for the winter
Description and features
"Rudolph" - strong-growing autumn hybrid ornamental apple tree. Characteristic features - high trunk, pyramidal crown, with reddish, toothed, oval leaves on the reverse side. A tree grows to six meters.
The flowers are simple, but due to the magnificent flowering in May, the beauty of "Rudolph" is not inferior to the famous Japanese cherry trees. The fruits are small, ruddy, ripen by mid-September and remain on the branches for a long time, they are good for making home-made cider, but you can eat like that.
Application
"Rudolph" is good as a fruiting tree, while also a real find for decorating the garden, summer cottage, house plot. It can be a separately growing highlight (landscape technique "soliter") or form alleys. Suitable for neighborhood with bushes and flower beds. Also, due to the straight and high trunk, the Rudolph apple tree looks great on a trunk. 
How to choose seedlings when buying
It is best to buy seedlings in a specialized nursery with a good reputation, so the risk of getting a sick tree is reduced. Choosing a sapling, pay attention to the branches of the crown - there should be no more than three for a two-year plant. There are no branches at all. It is not recommended to buy older plants - they take root much worse.
Also significant indicators are the roots and stem. It is necessary to carefully inspect the apple tree for the absence of growths and damage. The roots should be slightly wet, elastic, while not breaking away from the trunk.
When the apple trees you like are selected, bought and delivered home, it's time to place them on the site.Planting seedlings of ornamental apple
Planting seedlings is a responsible, though not complicated process. Usually, a tree spends its whole life in the place in which it is rooted, so you need to plant it where the place for it is most successful both in terms of suitable conditions and in terms of aesthetics of garden design.
Location selection
First you need to choose a place where it will grow, while remembering that the plant loves the light, but does not tolerate drafts and high humidity. The soil for this apple is needed well-drained and fertile. Ideal in this regard, loose black soil.
Optimal timing
The best time to plant an apple "Rudolph" - end of September. If you do not have time, do not despair, the main thing is not to delay further than the middle of October.Spring "Rudolph" plant undesirable.
Step-by-step process
Planting is as follows:
- Preparing the soil - we dig a round hole with a diameter of about a meter, a depth of half a meter. Remove the removed layer of soil - it is useful at the end.
- The bottom of the pit need to dig. A mixture of soil and fertilizers is placed inside (ash, humus and some superphosphate will be suitable as top dressing).
- In the center we establish a densely dug pole - it will support our apple tree. The pole should protrude about half a meter above the ground.
- Add more soil (a third of the initial volume of the pit).
- We distribute sapling roots for better reinforcement in the ground.
- Next, we cover the previously deferred top layer.
- After burying, the tree should be slightly shaken, and then compact the ground around the trunk. Watering should be immediately after planting and then every week. 35 liters of water at times is enough.
If several seedlings are planned for planting, then an alley or a decorative group can be formed from them. It is important to remember that the crown of an apple tree can reach six meters in diameter. Based on this, the distance between the trees is calculated.You will also need to form the crowns and thin out the branches, avoiding their interweaving.
Features of care and cultivation agrotechnics
After landing, the work does not end. An apple tree, like any plant (except for weeds that grow beautifully and without effort from the gardener), requires attention throughout life.
Soil care
It is necessary to mulch the soil near the roots of the tree - loosen it with a chopper and add fertilizer (compost, bird droppings, manure will do). Top closed with grass or straw (layer thickness of about five centimeters).
This will attract earthworms, which will maintain the looseness of the soil and save you from unnecessary weeding efforts. Watering does not stop, but the amount of water varies depending on weather conditions - if the summer is dry, you can pour it under an apple tree and 2-3 buckets twice a week.
Feedings
Top dressing will not be superfluous, but you should not overdo it - just a few glasses of ash will suffice.Pour them around the trunk shortly before the planned watering. The remaining nutrients the tree will receive from mulch. But in a more adult tree should be added to the ration of humus or solutions of purchased fertilizers.
Cropping and crown formation
Formation of the crown is necessary to improve fruiting The first two years on the tree is to remove the flowers so that all his strength went to growth. Works with the crown are carried out annually - in spring and autumn.
The first pruning is best done in early spring. From the apple it is necessary to remove the frozen ends of the branches, excessively thickening the crown, and broken branches. Trimming is done with shears or saws. The edges of the crop need to be sanitized and treated with garden pitch.
Preparing for the winter
Up to five years, the trunk of a young apple tree is treated with a solution of chalk, after five years - with a solution of lime. Also, before the onset of cold weather trees need to pile up and mulch with manure, but not too close to the roots.
If hare, rats or other rodents have access to your site, the trunks of young trees in winter need additional protection. Tie them with pine feet or reeds.
Growing a fruit tree is a long process, but the effort involved is more than repaid. Adhering to simple guidelines for care, it is easy to ensure that the apple tree "Rudolph" will delight you with its beauty, flowers and fruits.
