Variety of apple trees Bogatyr: characteristics and features of cultivation

One of the most worthy winter varieties of apple trees is Bogatyr, which is able to please gardeners with stable crops of large, juicy, aesthetically attractive and extremely fragrant fruits. What is more remarkable is the described variety and what are the features of its agricultural technology - further in the text.

History and region of cultivation

Variety Bogatyr refers to crops characterized by late ripening, the crop of which is harvested in the second decade of September. It was bred by geneticists and breeders of the All-Russian Research Institute named after Michurin in the mid-twenties of the last century.

Important! The variety was specially created as winter, which is why the fruit picks the best taste and aroma closer to winter, in the process of preservation.

The genetic basis for the new variety was Antonovka and Renet Landsberg, from which Bogatyr received excellent winter hardiness, strong immunity, and excellent commercial and taste qualities of fruits.

The described cultivar is recommended for cultivation in regions with a temperate and warm climate. Despite good frost resistance, it is not recommended to grow the culture in the Urals, in the Siberian region or in the Far East.

Description and characteristics of the variety

The bogatyr is a winter early-growing variety of apple trees, the fruiting of which begins already from the 4th – 5th year of plant growth. Apple trees are distinguished by good resistance to frost, average resistance to scab and fungal ailments, excellent keeping quality of fruits.

External description of the tree

The tree of the Bogatyr cultivar is rather tall, strong-growing, capable of reaching a height of 4.5–5 m. The crop crown is sprawling, but at the same time rare, it differs in a round or conical shape.

Not too high thickening of the crown contributes to uniform lighting and, as a result, uniform growth of fruits. The main skeletal shoots of a plant of medium thickness, brown color, are located perpendicular to the trunk.

The green mass of the tree is presented in the form of numerous saturated green, rather thick leaves of medium size, ellipse shape, with jagged edges. In spring, the culture is covered with small pink and white flowers that have a faint, subtle floral aroma.

Apple description

The bogatyr belongs to early-growing varieties, the intensive fruiting of which occurs in the sixth year of growth. The fruits of the apple tree are rather large, weighing 150-200 g, round in shape with a wide base, clearly pronounced ribbing and slight sloping to the cup.

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Some specimens can grow up to 300-350 g. In the phase of removable maturity, they have a saturated green-yellow color, during storage they become completely yellow with a red “barrel”. The peel of the fruit is dense, not prone to cracking, very smooth.

The pulp is white in color, crunchy, fine-grained, with an average juice content, characterized by a delicate sweet-sour taste and a pleasant aroma. It contains 10% sugar, 12% solids, about 13% ascorbic acid and has a low calorie content of 39–42 kcal, which allows the use of fruits in diet food.

Bogatyr apples with regular consumption can bring extreme benefits to humans. They saturate the body with vital vitamins and minerals, have a positive effect on the digestive system, improve metabolism and metabolic processes, prevent the development of anemia, and restore vitality after heavy mental and physical stress.

The timing of flowering and fruiting

Apple tree Bogatyr blooms quite late in the second half of May. At the same time, flowers of a white-pink color are amicably formed on a tree. The plant belongs to sap-pollinating, therefore, for fruiting it does not need pollinating plants.

Moreover, the tree can be an excellent pollen donor for other garden crops. Many gardeners practice pollinating an apple tree with pollen from Antonovka, Bessemyanka Michurinskaya, which contributes to the formation of more ovaries.

Active fruiting in a crop begins in the 6th year of its growth. At the same time, the yield is quite high: from one tree aged 5–7 years, you can get up to 30 kg of fruits, about 8–9 years old - about 60 kg of apples, and over 10 years old - over 80 kg. The maximum yield of the crop was recorded at around 130 kg per plant.

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Grade Protective Abilities

The variety is characterized by moderate frost resistance and medium immunity. The culture has good resistance to scab. Most often, she suffers from powdery mildew - a fungal ailment that affects almost all parts of the plant: flowers, ovaries, shoots, leaves, fruits.

The plant is intended for cultivation in temperate and warm regions, since it does not have sufficient frost resistance. Due to the “fear” of low temperatures, they are not advised to grow the culture in the northern regions, in particular, in the Urals, Siberia or the Far East.

Positive qualities and possible disadvantages of the variety

Domestic gardeners prefer the cultivation of the Bogatyr variety due to its many positive qualities.

  • Among them are:
  • simplicity in cultivation and unpretentiousness in leaving;
  • excellent yields even without pollinators;
  • high taste and marketability of the fruit;
  • excellent storage, transportability and long shelf life of fruits - up to 8–9 months;
  • good scab immunity.

  • Along with numerous advantages, the variety has several disadvantages:
  • average frost resistance;
  • insufficient fruit color;
  • exposure to many ailments and parasites.

There are three subspecies of the described varieties of apple trees: semi-dwarf, dwarf and columnar. The first two subspecies, as a rule, are used for growing on private farms, the last - in industrial gardening. Learn also how to make an apple tree blossom and bear fruit.

Agricultural technology planting young apple trees

The agricultural technology of planting young seedlings of Bogatyr is standard and will not cause great difficulties even for beginner gardeners.

When to plant

It is possible to plant a plant in spring, when the earth completely thaws and the risks of night frosts returning disappear, or in the fall - a few weeks before the expected cold weather.

When spring planting, it is recommended that in the fall, carefully prepare the site and enrich the land with organic or mineral fertilizers. When carrying out planting in the fall, a pit for a seedling must be dug up in a month.

How to choose seedlings for planting

High-quality and healthy planting material is a guarantee of the further successful development of the culture and its stable, worthy fruiting. For planting, experts advise choosing an annual seedling. Older plants will take root poorly and bear fruit much later. The purchase of material is best done in nurseries or in specialized stores.

In this case, you should pay attention to:

  1. Root. The root processes of the seedling should be strong, sufficiently elastic, without the presence of rot, dryness or damaged areas.
  2. Bark. The bark of a healthy seedling is characterized by an elastic, elastic, uniform structure, without signs of dryness and roughness. The wood under the bark should be juicy and have a green tint. Beige-brown wood color indicates a low quality of planting material.

If the seedling has a “bare” root system, then when planting it in the ground, it is necessary to remove most of the leaves on the bark.

How to choose and prepare a place for landing

For planting, you should choose a spacious, well-lit area, protected from drafts and cold winds. It is advisable to choose a place on a small hill, with a groundwater table of at least 2–2.5 m.

The variety demonstrates maximum yield indicators when grown on loamy or chernozem soils. When planting crops on clay soils, enrich the soil with a mixture of compost, sand and peat. Important! In order for the tree to grow evenly and not be damaged under the influence of winds, it is recommended to tie it to wooden pegs in the first month after planting. When the apple tree takes root well, the pegs can be removed.

The technology of planting a seedling is reduced to the following steps:

  1. Dig a hole measuring 70-100 cm.
  2. A drainage layer of expanded clay, broken brick or pebbles up to 6–8 cm high is lined at the bottom of the recess.
  3. On top of the drainage layer, fertile soil is poured, which is prepared from garden soil, vermicompost or humus.
  4. The seedling is placed in a hole and sprinkled with soil in such a way that the vaccination site is 5-8 cm above the surface.
  5. The soil around the plant is carefully tamped with hands, abundantly watered with settled cold water in the amount of 2-3 buckets.
  6. After the moisture is completely absorbed, the soil around the trunk circle is mulched with hay, sawdust or grass.

When planting several seedlings, it is necessary to maintain a distance between them of about 5 m.

Further tree care

Further care of the tree includes a number of traditional measures necessary for its normal development and fruiting, in particular, watering, top dressing, pruning, weeding weeds.

Soil care

For the apple tree to be able to fully develop, it needs a light, breathable soil, which can be achieved through regular cultivation.

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A similar procedure, which experts advise to carry out before each hydration of the plant, allows you to:

  • create comfortable conditions for seedling growth;
  • enrich the soil with oxygen and nutrients;
  • activate the growth of the root system.

When carrying out loosening, it is necessary to go deeper into the soil so as not to damage the root processes that are located close to the surface. It is equally important to keep the near-stem circle clean. Strong growth of weeds should not be allowed, as they take away nutrients and moisture from the plant, thereby reducing the growth rate of the crop.

Weeding of plant parasites should be carried out regularly, focusing on the state of the soil. To reduce the growth of weeds, to preserve moisture in the soil, a simple procedure will help - mulching the soil with hay, straw or mowed grass.

Feeding and watering

The apple-tree of the Bogatyr cultivar does not impose special requirements for watering. However, experienced gardeners agree that in the first year of growth, seedlings should be regularly moistened - at least once a week, using 25-30 liters of water per tree.

Important! Later feeding is carried out in order to increase the winter-hardy qualities of the plant and strengthen its immune system, which makes it possible to perfectly survive even very cold winters.

Adult plants are allowed to water every two weeks. A sufficient volume of moisture should be provided to the culture at certain periods of vegetation: before budding, in the phase of pouring and ripening of fruits, after harvesting.

They feed the plant 3-4 times a season using mineral products or organics. The first portion of fertilizers is applied immediately after wintering. Urea or humus is excellent for nutrition. In the flowering phase of the apple tree, you also need to take care of its additional recharge.

In this case, a mixture of water, bird droppings, superphosphate, urea and manure is used as fertilizer. For late top dressing in autumn, it is recommended to use a composition of compost and potassium chloride or superphosphate mixtures with wood ash.

Crown Formation Rules

Care for the Hero includes mandatory procedures - pruning shoots and forming a crown. The first circumcision should be carried out immediately after planting a seedling - all branches are shortened by 1/3 of the length.

Such pruning will contribute to the normal formation of the crown with the further growth of the culture. In older plants, old, dry, too elongated, damaged, broken or diseased branches must be removed.

You also need to trim the shoots, the growth of which is directed deep into the crown. In the course of further annual pruning, all shoots should be shortened by no more than ¼ of the length. Large trunks experts advise to remove completely, without leaving side stumps.

All sections after the procedure must be treated with garden varieties or crushed charcoal. Pruning should be done in early spring before the buds begin to bloom on the tree, or in the fall, a few weeks before the expected frost.

Also read what you need to do with the tops that appeared on the apple tree and how to trim them correctly.

Protection from the cold and preparing for winter

The described variety is ideal for cultivation in the middle zone of the Russian Federation and the Moscow region. Adult trees, when growing in the described areas, do not need special shelter for the winter - just wrap the trunk of the plant with natural insulation material.

But the young seedlings of the first few years should be carefully protected from possible frosts. To do this, in autumn, the soil around the near-stem circle must be well loosened, watered abundantly and mulched with a layer of sawdust, peat or hay.

The trunk of the seedling should be wrapped in burlap or with a special insulation that allows air to pass through and retain heat. In winter, when enough snow falls, a snowdrift about 1 m high can be formed around the apple tree.

In addition, care must be taken to protect trees of any age from rodents. To do this, experts advise installing grids around the tree.

Read also about effective ways to protect apple trees in the winter from hares, mice and other rodents.

Disease and Pest Prevention

The apple-tree Bogatyr has good immunity to scab, but under adverse climate conditions and violations of the basic rules for caring for it, it can often suffer from powdery mildew, which affects almost all parts of the plant: flowers, shoots, leaves.

You can recognize a fungal disease by the formation of white grains on a plant similar to flour.

If powdery mildew occurs, all affected parts of the plant should be trimmed and completely destroyed by burning. Next, the tree should be sprayed with a 10% solution of calcium chloride.

After a week, it is recommended that the treatment be repeated using a less concentrated solution. An effective measure for the prevention of diseases and parasites is whitewashing with a solution of lime of a tree trunk and skeletal branches, which is carried out in early autumn.

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In addition, to prevent the development of diseases and pests allows:

  • timely loosening of soil and weeding of weeds;
  • compliance with irrigation and top dressing standards;
  • timely cleaning of the soil in the autumn from the remains of vegetation;
  • preventive spraying of wood with Bordeaux liquid and copper sulfate solution;
  • processing plants with fungicides and insecticides.

Insecticides such as Cumulus, Inta-Vir, Fury, and Karbofos have high effectiveness in pest control.

The apple-tree Bogatyr is considered one of the most popular and sought-after winter varieties. And this is not surprising, because the culture shows high yield parameters, it is distinguished by its excellent keeping quality and presentation of the fruit, and it is absolutely not demanding in care, which makes it possible to cultivate it not only in private households, but also on an industrial scale.

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