Characteristics and features of the cultivation of the apple variety Pobeda
The apple-tree variety Victory is one of the oldest and most popular varieties of culture that is found in many private and industrial gardens of Russia and neighboring countries. The explanation of such a high popularity lies in a large number of plant advantages, and both the apple tree and its fruits have positive qualities. What is remarkable about this variety and what you should know about the features of its cultivation - read on.
Variety breeding history
An apple tree with the famous name Victory was obtained by breeding in 1927, and the author of this variety is considered Russian scientist-breeder S.F. Chernenko (in his honor the plant is often called Victory Chernenko). The known cultivars Antonovka vulgaris and Pepin Londonsky became the parent culture forms, thanks to which the new apple tree has good frost resistance and is characterized by regular abundant fruiting.
Did you know? Today, baked apples are used exclusively in cooking, but in the time of Ancient Russia they served as an excellent way to reduce pain in burns: the pulp was simply applied to the affected area and left for some time.
In the first half of the 20th century, trials of Pobeda trees were tested in the Tula, Oryol, Kursk and Voronezh regions, as well as in some regions of Ukraine and Belarus. Today they are successfully grown in the Central Black Earth region and in the suburbs, and even apple trees feel good in the southern regions of the Russian Federation. Non-chernozem territories are unsuitable for cultivating the Pobeda apple trees; therefore, when planting in such places, trees will have to be provided with increased care.
Description and characteristic
Not all characteristics of a particular variety are liked by gardeners, so before planting the Victory apple tree on your site, you should learn more about the features of its appearance, the taste properties of the fruits and the nuances of growing on the site.
We recommend that you familiarize yourself with the winter varieties of apple trees:
Read also articles on this topic:
Description of the tree and fruits
Victory apple trees are characterized by accelerated growth rates, therefore by the age of 16-18 they can reach 5 meters in height. In this case, the crown often grows up to 7 meters wide and has a rounded shape in young plants. In the future, after several years of active fruiting, the shape of the crown changes to hemispherical, and the shoots themselves are not so densely arranged - multiple gaps are clearly visible. In relation to the stem part, all branches are located at a slight angle, but their connection with the shoots is very strong.
The surface of the saturated green sheet plate is slightly concave or even twisted, with slightly raised edges. In the lower part, it is pubescent and not so bright, and sometimes even more whitish. The leaves are attached to the shoots with the help of short petioles located at an obtuse angle to them. In mid-summer, ripening fruits are already clearly visible on the trees. They are all about the same size and have a slight ribbing in the upper part.
Important! The maximum taste and marketability of the picked fruits are revealed only in late November or early October. It is during this period that they move to the stage of the so-called “consumer maturity”.
The color of the apples is yellow (without blush), the matte peel is of medium thickness, dense and smooth. Under the peel you can see a large number of rounded inclusions of white. The greatest number of them falls on the area near the calyx, but here they are a little smaller than in other places. The pulp of apples Victory is very juicy, white, but with a slight cream tint. The structure of the meaty part is friable and remains the same throughout the entire storage period of the harvested crop, although the fruits are most valued for the sweet and sour dessert taste.
Pollination
Variety Pobeda is partially self-fertile, which means that it is possible to harvest delicious fruits without growing pollinating varieties on the same site. However, their presence will help not only to improve the abundance of fruiting, but also to improve the quality of each individual apple, therefore, if possible, it is advisable to plant in the garden also apple trees of the varieties Grushovka Moskovskaya, Medunitsa, Quinti and White filling.
Important! The distance between adjacent trees should be at least 4-6 m, and, choosing the scheme of their planting, make sure that all trees receive a sufficient amount of sunlight.
Productivity and ripening period of apples
The abundance of fruiting directly depends on the age of the planted tree: young apple trees (up to the age of six) do not produce apples at all, at ten years a plant can produce about 100 kg of fruit, at 12–15 years, the total yield increases to 104–110 kg, and from Twenty-year-old tree usually remove up to 200 kg of apples. There are cases when gardeners received 264 kg of fruit from one apple-tree of the Victory variety. Apples reach ripe maturity in late September or early October, since the variety belongs to late winter.
Winter hardiness
The frost resistance of the described apple trees is not very high, but still many gardeners believe that it is above average. This means that the trees will grow and bear fruit well in the southern territories and in the regions of the middle zone of the Russian Federation, but when cultivated in the northern regions of the country, plants will need good winter shelter. In addition, they are not capable of rapid regeneration of damaged tissues, so frozen shoots will be restored for a long time, if at all able to survive the winter.
Pros and cons of the variety
- The benefits of growing these apple trees include:
- large-fruited crop with high commercial qualities;
- dessert taste of fruits and the possibility of their universal use;
- high productivity;
- good scab resistance.
- As for the weaknesses of the variety, the following will be most noticeable:
- large tree sizes (not in all private areas there is a place for it);
- a tendency to shed fruit during ripening;
- a relatively short shelf life of the harvested crop;
- susceptibility of apples to fruit rot and a tendency to burn monilial;
- late onset of fruiting (not earlier than 6–8 years after planting a seedling).
Features of planting varieties
Proper planting of apple tree seedlings is the key to the further successful development of a young plant, so it is so important to correctly calculate the appropriate timing of the procedure and choose a good place for the apple tree.
Learn how to make an apple tree blossom and bear fruit.
Favorable conditions for growing
The best time to plant a Pobeda apple tree is mid-spring, when the earth is completely thawing, but the buds are not yet blooming. Autumn planting is possible only in the southern regions of the Russian Federation, but not earlier than a month before the expected frosts. With reduced air temperature and the soil itself, seedlings will not be able to take root in a new place and will die during the first frosts.
How to choose a quality planting material
To plant the Victory apple tree on your site, you will need a high-quality and well-developed one- or two-year-old seedling. At this age, the young plant should be aligned in length and tall enough, with a straight and thick stem and slightly pronounced articulation. The diameter of the tree at the base of the stem should be 2–2.5 cm, and in the area under the crown not less than 1.5–1.7 cm.
Did you know? Apple seeds contain a deadly substance called cyanide, but you cannot die from one apple you eat, because for a strong toxic effect on the body you will have to eat at least 200 seeds, chewing each of them carefully.
Landing stages
For the spring planting of an apple tree, a plot for a sapling is prepared since the fall, removing all weeds, fertilizing and leveling the soil. The landing pits themselves can be dug 2-3 weeks before the immediate planting of the selected seedling, calculating their size based on the size of the root system of the young tree. On average, a hole is 50-60 cm wide and about 45 cm deep per apple tree, although these values can be changed depending on individual characteristics.
All further actions are performed in the following sequence:
- The soil removed from the pit must be divided into two parts (surface substrate and soil from lowland layers) and mixed with pre-prepared fertilizers - compost (3 kg), superphosphate (1 kg), potassium chloride (0.5 kg), lime (1 kg). The last component is added only if we are talking about too acidic substrate.
- The bottom of the planting hole should be well loosened and laid on top of the drainage layer of broken brick or expanded clay, and then half-fill the pit with earth, alternating fertile soil from the upper layers and the prepared nutrient mixture.
- As a result of the above actions, a knoll should form, in the center of which it is necessary to drive a wooden support stake 1.5–2 m high.
- Further, in the center of the pit, the selected Victory apple seedling is also placed, carefully spreading its roots and dosing them with soil (between the individual roots of the plant there should not be voids filled with air).
Video: instructions for planting an apple tree
Features of tree care
After-planting care for the Pobeda variety apple tree provides for the implementation of standard watering, top dressing, pruning and pest control measures. However, each action must be performed in strict accordance with the needs of the tree of the described variety.
Watering and fertilizer
In the growing season, immediately after planting young apple trees, their watering should be regular and plentiful, up to six times per season. Adult trees (on average after the age of five) are watered a little less often - 3-4 times during the growing season, taking into account pre-winter watering. For each adult plant, at least 2 buckets of irrigation fluid must be consumed.
Video: feeding apple trees
Cropping and shaping the crown
Most often, when growing an apple tree of the Victory variety, gardeners perform sanitary pruning of its shoots, with the advent of spring, removing all frozen, dried and broken branches. In addition, in early March, it is worth removing lichens from the bark and whitening the trunk. Before active fruiting of the tree, lateral non-bearing shoots are sometimes removed so that the plant can direct all its forces to the formation of a quality crop.
Pest and Disease Control
Variety Pobeda has increased resistance to such a popular problem as scab, but this does not mean that with high humidity it will not affect trees. As soon as you notice a brown coating on the leaf plates, and the surface of the ripened fruit is covered with gray-black spots and begins to crack, it's time to buy suitable fungicidal preparations and begin processing the culture.
Read also how to get rid of rotting apples.
Sometimes signs of moniliosis (fruit rot) appear on the apple trees of this variety, but usually this happens only at the end of the summer season, when fawn spots appear on almost ripened fruits, which very soon capture the entire surface of the apple. As a result, the fruits soften and subsequently become unfit for consumption. As in the previous case, the HOM preparation will help to get rid of the problem: the first time the plants are sprayed during the appearance of young foliage, and the second - at the end of the flowering of the tree. Preparation of the working solution involves pre-mixing the drug with water at the dosage indicated on the label.
Important! When using chemical preparations, the last treatment can be carried out no later than 2-3 weeks before the expected harvest of apples.
Of the chemical insecticidal preparations, Decis Profi or Calypso will be the most popular from pests of the apple tree, although Karbofos and Bordeaux mixture are considered equally effective, the norms of use of which are also indicated on the package.
Harvesting and storage of crops
Pobeda apples are not harvested until the end of September or the beginning of October, choosing only a clear, fine and relatively warm day for fruit harvesting . 3 months before, it is advisable to stop the abundant application of liquid and nitrogen-containing fertilizers, otherwise the ripped apples will not be able to be stored for a long time.
In general, the variety Pobeda can be called quite positive due to the fact that ripened apples have good taste characteristics. Уход за деревьями не потребует от вас чрезмерных усилий, поэтому этот вариант вполне можно рассматривать как один из самых подходящих для частного участка.
